By Oluwatope Lawanson
Mrs Khadijah Okunnu-Lamidi, former presidential aspirant of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 elections,
has charged government on protecting the voices and dignity of all citizens to enjoy dividends of democracy.
Okunnu-Lamidi made the call in a statement titled: “Nigeria In Transition” on Monday in Lagos to mark the Democracy Day.
She said that a united Nigeria remained the only solution, one with a workable, operateable model of promise.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that former President Muhammadu Buhari on June 6, 2018, declared June 12 as Nigeria’s democracy day instead of May 29 in honour of late Chief M.K.O Abiola.
Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election died in detention for an alleged treason.
The declaration followed many years of agitations by civil society groups that Abiola must be immortalized.
According to Buhari, the change was to remind all Nigerians of one free election after which the presumed winner along with Nigerians were denied their rights and their choices.
Okunnu-Lamidi said June 12 marked the continuity of the people’s individual and collective sovereignty as a state for the purposes of legal and constitutional privileges of the office of the citizen.
She noted that democracy remained a privilege and the people’s rights to defending freedom, championing opportunity and the expression of liberties with dignity.
She said: “l commend all leaders of fore who brought us out from political terrains resembling gestapo regimes and managed to offer us alternative freedom otherwise bought with blood and the lives of our fellow people.”
Speaking on the journey since restoration to democracy and commemorating the day; Okunnu-Lamidi, expressed the importance of electoral participation.
She charged government on fair and even handed policies where everyone had a stake.
“We must amongst ourselves craft corresponding opportunities as well as community moral monitors.
“The walk to democracy is hard and never done. All great nations are built with intentionality and a collective psychological contract for peace,” she said.
Okunnu-Lamidi who is also a social impact entrepreneur and Founder, Slice Media Group, urged the Federal Government and all leaders across the country, to keep the citizens safe and to make policies for the economy to grow in the years ahead.
“It will be a dangerous mistake for you/us to abandon our responsibilities.
“Women’s issues are everyone’s issues therefore, we must fight to inspire, educate and empower women to become active participants in the political process.
“To buffer value from harnessed capacity, we must coordinate our actions to address economic insecurity, specifically youth unemployment, and underemployment, gender inequality, child labor, cybersecurity, pension fraud.
“Traditional institutional management, food exports, housing plans, empowered local governments, maritime laws, power regulation timeline and debt capitalization, taxation and forex roadmaps.
“The security frameworks, interventions and welfare of youth foot soldiers are all paramount for a better nation, ” Okunnu-Lamidi explained.
She implored Nigerians not to forget the “Errand” of a burning desire and determination for improved welfare of the people.
According to her, it is always a great time in history to galvanize a national thinking, where we strive toward a less individualistic larger society..
“A promise of a safe Nigeria,
a promise of hope and future to our children and a government that does not steal from us.
“There is need for an open and vibrant civic space in which we all can advocate our rights without discrimination, ” Okunnu-Lamidi said. (NAN)
