Immediate past national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Oyegun has ruled out the military staging a come back in politics under any circumstances, affirming that democracy has come to stay in Nigeria.
Chief Oyegun who was speaking on Wednesday night in Abuja after watching the documentary entitled, “Sweats of Freedom, struggles for Nigeria’s democracy,” said his confidence was because the struggle to against military intervention to enthrone democracy brought the country where it is today.
“I’m confident about that because the fight was against incessant military intervention in Nigerian politics and the struggles of all those involved including those who gave their lives, brought us where we are today. I do not see a situation where the military under any circumstances will come back “
The first governor of Edo state in the military diarchy of Ibrahim Babangida, stated that under Nigeria’s democracy, several mistakes were being made but stated that rather than warrant the military take over once again, the politicians would learn from their mistakes.
He stated that the Nigerian people now appreciated the power of their votes, haven realised that they were the employers of those occupying elective positions.
Using the last general election as an example, Oyegun said the power of the people was deployed and people in some places voted in the president and at the same time voted out their governors even though they belonged to the same party.
“We are already making serious mistakes and I think the narrator, towards the end of the documentary, alluded to that. We are making mistakes; we are bound to make mistakes. Unfortunately, I think we are making extremely serious and avoidable mistakes. But we learn from them.
“The people of this country have started to appreciate the power they have- the power of voting. I want to assure you that even in the last election it displayed. You can see that in the same area, people would vote for the president but threw out their governor.
“So the voting public is a lot more sensible and sensitive today and they have started to realise that yes we are the employers of all politicians -whether you are president, whether you are governor or whether you are local government chairman.
“Therein lies the hope of democracy in this country- the power of the vote. So if we are going to fight any struggle today, it will hinge on the power of the vote that will make sure that we build an electoral system that to a great extent possible, make it difficult for human interference, for human beings at one stage or the order to be able to change the results, so that as any unit result is declared it will be on board all over the country so that anybody who can do some arithmetic can begin to know who is where, as far as the electoral process is concerned.
He said the documentary has taken peoples consciousness to the sacrifices that were made to bring the country to where it is today as well as strengthening the resolve to ensure that it does not pass through the path of the military days again and ensuring that the ordinary people determines who rules them.
Also speaking, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige, described the documentary as work in progress noting that there was need to still speak to some of the major actors in the struggle to attain democracy.
“It just needs some more things to be added and it will become a complete job- the NADECO people abroad, some of them are still around, chief Ralph Obioha, he’s around, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, he’s around and a host of others,” he said.
Ngige said the producer needed to contact both Babangida and the then National Electoral Commission (NEC) Humphrey Nwosu for more explanations in the roles they played during the June 12, 1993 elections.
Ace broadcaster and producer, Vin Martins Obiora Ilo, said he was motivated to do the docunentary because a lot of young ones had taken democracy for granted without the understanding that there was a time in history when soldiers governed the country.
According to him, “some people don’t know why we are where we are in democracy. They have taken it for granted without knowing that some people sacrificed their lives. That is the need to continue to spread the story,” he said. The documentary sponsored by Ford Foundation mirrored the history of Nigeria from independence to various military interventions in governance as well as the of June 12, 1993 elections, its annulment as well as those who sacrificed their lives for course of democracy.
