Ahead of 2015 general elections, ace diplomat and former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, yesterday warned politicians against sectionalising the Presidency, lamenting that such action did portend grave consequences for the country which is battling criminality and violence on many sides. Anyaoku also cautioned politicians against politicising the current security challenges facing the nation saying such politicisation “conduces to the activities of the Boko Haram Islamic sect.”
He said:
“The leaders of all our political parties and ethno-cultural groups in the various parts of the country should, in the interest of national security, rally round to support the federal government’s measures to deal with the atrocities being perpetrated by the terrorists group”.
Anyaoku spoke in Abuja while delivering a lecture entitled: “Nigerian Public Service in the age of open Government: Giving voice to the people” during the 2013 Public Service Day, organised by the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
“I am concerned about the worrisome statements being made about our 2015 elections by a number of our high profile citizens. I call on our politicians and opinion makers to stop and think of the implications for the country’s stability of the battle lines for the elections being drawn on sectional and ethnic basis.
“We hear declarations from notable nationals that the Presidency in 2015, must come from a specific area of the country, and we also hear at the same time from similarly notable nationals that a different area must have its full two terms of eight years.
“In our ethnically and religiously diverse country that is still to cohere fully into one nation, the potential consequences of the failure by either side to win the Presidency in 2015 are grounds for my worry.”
