The Peoples Democratic Party has charged political leaders in the country to respect the views of the people who elected them into office, saying that being in power should not be by force.
The opposition party was reacting to the recent political development in Africa, following the resignation of South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and Ethiopia’s Hailemariam Desalegn as president and prime minister, respectively.
Speaking to our correspondent, PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said leaders at all levels of governance should aspire to fulfil their electoral promises made to the people.
Ologbondiyan added that it was ideal for leaders to have conscience and moral rectitude to be responsive to the electorates’ yearning and be ready to step aside if they could not meet their expectations.
Retaining power shouldn’t be a do-or-die affair
He said that a nation with a conscientious leadership would accommodate the demands of the people who put the leaders in power.
He said, “The nation that has conscientious leadership will always uphold the demands of the people.
“If people who elect you into office see that you cannot live up to the responsibility for which they voted you into power, it is natural for you as a human being, if you are conscientious, to have a rethink and dance to the tune of the people. Retaining power shouldn’t be by force.”
The PDP publicity secretary, however, expressed delight in the principle of democratic government, noting that any leader that failed to live up to expectations could be voted out after his four-year term.
The PDP spokesman said, “And the beauty of democracy is that it is time bound. Even if the leader refuses to step aside, after your tenure, the people will vote you out. So, that is why every leader in whatever capacity you are voted into, must aspire to fulfill the desires and demands of the people who have elected.
“Stepping aside is a function of conscience. If you have been elected into an office like, for instance, for four years, and you have done two years or more and the people found you wanting, that you have not met their expectations and they ask you to leave, it is the function of your own conscience and your moral rectitude to take a bow. But if at the end of your four-year term, you are voted out, we expect the leader to honourably vacate the office.”
Speaking on the opposition party’s chances in 2019, Ologbondiyan said, “For 2019, PDP will win the election; it is clear. The people are tired of the APC; they are very disappointed in their government.”
He, however, charged the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a free and credible poll.
“The whole work is on INEC. We expect the commission to conduct a free and fair, credible exercise. And we are at the moment scrutinising to see if the commission has the capacity to conduct a credible poll,” he said.
