Democracy Day: Ekweremadu assures on electoral reforms

By Abdulrahman A. Abdulrauf

Deputy President of the Senate and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, Ike Ekweremadu, has assured Nigerians that the ongoing electoral reform by the National Assembly would yield an improved electoral system.
He gave the assurance in a Democracy Day message to Nigerians.
Ekweremadu, who described the country’s 15 years of unbroken democratic rule as “historic and unprecedented,” said the ongoing electoral reforms would soon be concluded to further consolidate the country’s democracy and prepare the nation adequately for the 2015 general election.

He said: “Fifteen years of unbroken democratic rule is something to be proud of, especially for a country with our kind of history. Only a few could have given Nigeria any such chance about two decades ago, but here we are waxing stronger as a democratic nation.
“We also have every reason to be proud of what we were able to achieve in the 2011 general elections following the widely applauded electoral reforms. Although we still have several electoral challenges, the important thing is that the 2011 experience was a great leap forward given where we were coming from as a nation. I want to reassure fellow Nigerians of the commitment of the Senate to addressing observed electoral lapses and this will happen very soon to set the stage for the 2015 general elections.”

He identified unemployment and insecurity as the nation’s greatest challenges today, noting that the federal government had taken commendable steps in addressing both challenges.
He said the country would surely overcome the Boko Haram and other security challenges, but called for social welfare for the unemployed.
“What governments around the world do is to inject money into social welfare, and we must also learn to create special funds and tax the employed to ensure that those who have no jobs are able to meet their basic needs at least; that way, both the employed and unemployed would have relative peace.”