Nigerians Yet To Learn From The Past, Says CBCN President On Off-Cycle Polls.
The spate of lawlessness and abuse of processes as characterised in Saturday’s off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states, brutalisation of the President of Nigerian Labour Council (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, and the hardship imposed on innocent citizens have been described as ample evidence that Nigerians have learnt nothing from our past history.
President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Most Rev Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, stated this yesterday in a homily he delivered during his pastoral visit to Christ the King Parish, Umuoba, Uratta, Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State.
He saids: “I have never ceased to ask whoever cares to listen, if we have learnt anything at all since 1999 when we started the current political engineering.
“Just yesterday (Saturday), I asked a few people if they were going to cast their votes during the off-cycle gubernatorial election and a number of them said they would not. They hinged their reason on the outcome of the February 13 polls and the judicial decisions.
“The Police, Army, State Security Services, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other security outfits, came into the state in their numbers. Helicopters kept surveillance from the air. “They were supposed to ensure that there was no violence in the state. This gave us a measure of hope, which sadly failed again. If the commentaries that followed the poll are anything to be reckoned with, then, we have not learnt anything in Nigeria.
“Voting during all elections remains a civic responsibility. People should be allowed to vote freely, without intimidation, coercion, killing or maiming.
“We have had this democratic engineering for 35 years, but what have we achieved? We should be free to determine who should rule or represent us at whatever level.
“While public office-holders should know that power is transitory, our youths should resist the temptation of offering themselves as cannon fodders or thugs.”
On the recent brutalisation of the NLC president, Ugorji said it was condemnable. “It is condemnable to so beat up, manhandle or brutalise the NLC president, as has been variously reported in the media.
“A more civilised way of handling whatever alleged sin, the NLC president may have committed, would have been to allow the laws of the land to take its full course. Resorting to self-help was not the best option.
“It is equally condemnable for Labour to inflict hardship on hapless, innocent masses, which they are supposed to protect. There has not been public power supply to the ordinary citizens since the NLC president was assaulted and brutalised.
“Public power supply and flights to and from Imo State has been cut off. The NLC should have mercy on the people. The common man did not do anything to warrant the terror inflicted on them. “NLC should allow the masses to breathe and survive the hard times. People are not supposed to suffer for the sins of others.
“God immensely blessed Ndigbo with abundant human and material resources. Why we inflict undue hardship on ourselves beats the imagination of patriotic individuals. “Government and the leadership of NLC should quickly sort out their differences in the interest of the innocent masses.”
