Nigerians have been urged to protect the nation’s democracy at all cost, doing all they can to ensure that the values upon which a government of free people has been established, is not lost in the country.
President Bola Tinubu said this on Monday, during his first Democracy Day Speech as president.
He urged Nigerians never to take democracy for granted.
“We must forever jealously guard and protect it like a precious jewel. For, a people can never truly appreciate the freedoms and rights democracy guarantees them until they lose it” the president stressed.
Tinubu commended the unrelenting pro-democracy fight demonstrated against the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election that culminated into the eventual return to democracy in 1999.
The president likened the fight for democracy to the battle against colonial rule by the country’s founding fathers that resulted in the attainment of Nigeria’s independence in 1960. He also described the 24-year-old return of democratic governance in 1999 as Nigeria’s “second independence” following the defiance of civil society against the “unjust annulment of the country’s freest and fairest presidential election held on June 12, 1993, which was won by late Chief M.K.O Abiola.
While urging Nigerians to jealously defend the democracy they fought so hard to obtain, Tinubu said his administration would do everything possible to protect Nigeria’s democratic rule, adding that his government will be faithful to truth, equity, and justice.
The new president further assured that his government will exercise its authority and mandate to govern with fairness, respect for the rule of law, and commitment to always uphold the dignity of all our people.
