Nigeria on the way to steady democratic progress --Tinubu....Congratulates President, govs and legislators

By Emmanuel Oladesu (The Nation)

ACTION Congress of Nigeria (ACN) national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has congratulated Nigerians on the occasion of the 12 years of uninterrupted civil rule, saying that the country has made a steady progress towards democratic practice.
He hailed the resilience, commitment, determination and patriotism of citizens, remarking that they were substantially responsible for the progress made in this political dispensation.
Tinubu, former governor of Lagos State, felicitated with President Goodluck Jonathan, newly elected governors and state and federal legislators who won at the recent general elections, praying to God to endow them with the wisdom to utilize their sacred mandates to pursue the greatest good for the greatest number of the citizens of our beloved country.
The ACN national leader observed in a statement yesterday that elections were "reasonably fair, free and credible", adding that there was a improvement on the 2003 and 2007 polls.
Tinubu said: "I congratulate the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, for the widely acknowledged success of the exercise. However, the INEC Chairman must not waste any time in beginning to address some internal systemic weaknesses exploited by some unscrupulous political actors to manipulate the elections in some areas.
"It is of critical importance for all those Chief Executives taking their oaths of office to realize that this is another opportunity to utilize democracy as a vehicle for aggressively combating poverty and promoting rapid socio-economic development of the country. This is the best way to endear democracy to the generality of Nigerians and ensure that it becomes irreversible as a system of government in the polity.
"Even as we continually strengthen the institutions of democracy in the country, it is also imperative that all stakeholders in the political process adopt attitudes and exhibit behaviour capable of sustaining stable democratic governance. We must, for instance, learn to accept the result of a free and fair election even when it does not favor us as it is only then that we can deserve the joy of electoral victory when we win.
"All those who feel aggrieved at the outcome of the polls can take solace in the fact that the judiciary has consistently demonstrated the courage to redress electoral injustices and restore stolen mandates. This is another cardinal feature of Nigeria’s democratic consolidation and a source of confidence that the self-correcting mechanisms of Nigeria’s constitutional process are functioning effectively. I enjoin all Nigerians to look to the future with hope, confidence and gratitude to God Almighty that democracy is making steady progress in Africa’s most populous country."