By TUNDE JOSHUA
Ahead of the 2023 general election, Nigerians have been charged to take their destinies in their hands by voting for the right set of leaders who are capable of changing the nation’s present narratives.
National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam, expressed optimism that Nigerians can change the nation’s trajectory of bad leadership and underdevelopment during the 2023 general elections by voting rightly Gabam in a statement said it was not only too bad to have bad leadership but worse to have docile citizenry who could not utilize their civic rights of voting to decide leaders of their choice.
He said “as Nigerians who desire a national retrieval and restoration of the lost glory, we must use our thumbs to rescue ourselves by voting in responsible and committed, and patriotic people into positions of authority in the next general elections.”
The party’s chairman specifically tasked Nigerians to ask the right questions from the current administration and its major players who are jostling to be brought back to power, about what more they could offer the country, after being a part and parcel of what brought her to the present situation.
“Shall we reinforce failure of the status quo with a new mandate, and expect any positive improvement in achieving sustainable development? The answer to this critical question from Nigerians, old and young, across the country is a resounding, NO!
“We pray our reflections as a nation about how low we have sunk as a nation will stir positive actions in all of us, and will make us come to the realization and consciousness that we cannot keep doing the same thing over and over again, and expect a different result. “New results demand new approaches, new strategies, new people, new orientation, new thinking, and new processes.
All the foregoing is what the SDP brings to the table towards national development as the only credible alternative to getting the country out of its current socio-economic woes. “Going forward therefore, the party calls on all of us to be bold enough to walk a new and uncharted path, one that may not even be unfamiliar to us. Why? Because the path we thought we knew, has brought us nothing but failure and pain.
“The power to change the current negative condition of the country for good is in the thumbs of the Nigerian electorate. Going by the prevailing sense of pervading disaffection occasioned by the obvious dashed hopes and expectations, the Nigerian people have resolved to use the power of their votes in 2023 to change the unsavory state of the nation for good by going the way of a refreshing hope that the SDP offers.”
While calling on the Buhari administration to intensify efforts aimed at rescuing Nigerians held hostage by terrorists and kidnappers in various parts of the country, Gabam asked Nigerians to continually pray for victims of violence and other horrendous criminal acts, especially hapless citizens held in captivity by Boko Haram and those also held as hostages by bandits, and kidnappers in forests across the country.
He said: “We are witnesses to the carnage brought about by violence, banditry and acts of criminality induced by political shenanigans and desperation for power which have turned our country to a killing field and an anarchic society.
We are witnesses to how social disorder is fast, degrading us as a people and a country. “Hence, we must realize that we cannot afford further degradation and slide.
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We must recognize that the hard work of returning peace and stability to our besieged communities and countryside must be borne by every Nigerian compatriot, home and abroad. “In this regard, it becomes imperative for us to renew our pledges and commitment to peaceful and harmonious co-existence and preserve our diversity.
As a people, we must all recommit to doing what is right in our neighbourhoods and communities, and we must pledge to uphold what is right even if we may not immediately gain from it. “This is the simple and fastest way of achieving our quest of building a good Nigerian society, and spreading the social harmony, peace and justice that we all long for.”
