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The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has said there was no alternative to good governance in Nigeria, stressing that the people must have the right to freely choose their leaders.
Adebayo stated this while speaking with journalists in Abuja on the state of the nation.
Speaking on the theme: “Nation, poverty, insecurity and the role of the media in sustaining democracy,” Adebayo said a good government was one that the people themselves adjudged to be good, noting that the right to choose belonged to the citizens.
“There is no alternative to having good government in Nigeria. And one of the definitions of good government that we must all agree on is that a good government is a government that the people say it is a good government.
“If the people say the government is good, the government is good, because it is their right to choose the government for themselves,” he said.
The SDP candidate said, “if the vote of the people is truly their own, unpurchased and uncoerced, it reflects their level of consciousness and they will learn from their choices.”
Adebayo said while the media might not want to take sides in ideological differences, it must take a stance in defence of democracy.
According to him, Nigerians had a right to choose their leaders in a multi-party democracy that is free, fair and meaningful.
Adebayo noted that while Nigerians collectively agreed on the need for an independent electoral umpire that delivers free, fair and credible elections, the media also had a responsibility not to undermine democracy through commercialised coverage.
“INEC can only injure democracy on election day. But the media can starve democracy to death even if INEC does its work,” he said.
Adebayo likened the situation to the World War II, where the BBC could not claim to be a commercial enterprise and decided to work for Germany, adding that the Nigerian media could afford to promote undemocratic interests for profit.
“Nigerian media cannot say, well, we want to make money, we are going to report for terrorists. The same way media cannot say, well, this is election season, let us make all our money. If democracy dies, the press will have no place, because the media only thrives in a democratic society,” he said.
He explained that democracy is important not only because it allows citizens to choose their leaders, but because it protects them from government overreach and gives them the opportunity to correct mistakes through the ballot.
“Outside the primary duties we give to government, democracy saves us from government. It makes it possible that if government makes a mistake, or like in the case of APC, if government becomes a mistake, the people can still lead a normal life and at the end of the day come together to correct that mistake,” Adebayo said.
He called for collaboration between political parties and the media to sustain democracy, noting that the SDP had a potent history of defending democratic ideals.
Adebayo recalled that the SDP won the 1993 presidential election which was annulled by the military, leading to the dissolution of the National Assembly, removal of governors, detention of party members and death of its presidential candidate, Chief MKO Abiola, his wife and many others.
“We as SDP have made up our mind that we are committed to democracy. When it favours us, when it does not favour us, we are committed to democracy,” he said.
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