VICE PRESIDENT OSINBAJO HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF DEMOCRACY

The Vice President in his address at the 72nd post humous birthday of the former Oyo state governor highlights the importance of democracy

VICE PRESIDENT OSINBAJO HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF DEMOCRACY
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Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that democracy remains the best system of establishing governments because it guarantees respect for the fundamental rights of individuals to choose their leaders.

Prof. Osinbajo stated this on Thursday in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, where he chaired a roundtable discussion, which was held in honour of the late governor of the State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, and in commemoration of his posthumous 72nd birthday.

Speaking on the theme of the Roundtable, Election Security and Good Governance in Nigeria, the VP noted that democracy as a “system of governance guarantees the accountability of the elected to the electorate. As the electorate determine in every electoral cycle by their free choice whether the mandate given was properly utilized.”

Referencing the timeless quote by the late US President Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address in 1863, Prof. Osinbajo submitted that “man has not yet developed a fairer and more just system of establishing governments than that the government be a government of the people by the people for the people.”

“This right of choice of leaders as given by democracy is not just a fundamental civil and political right, but it also separates man from animals for whom might confers the right to leadership,” he added.

According to him “the major issue, therefore, is how to ensure that the right of free choice is not defeated or corrupted. Once that right of free choice is violated, the basis of democracy and its product, good governance, is undermined.”

“I am sure some of the conversation today will look at this fundamental point, how can we protect the vote, how do we ensure that every vote counts; how do we protect the government of the people, by the people, and for the people; and ensure, as Lincoln famously prayed at Gettysburg, that it does not perish from the earth?”


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