BENUE 2011: GUBER ASPIRANT CALLS FOR PEACEFUL POLLS

Making the plea in Abuja while speaking to journalists, the guber aspirant, Mr. Maxwell Ahule, who has been building his campaign on mass mobilization and enlightenment of the people, said peaceful and orderly elections holds the key to the future development of Nigeria's democracy.

He said: 'Come 2011, every citizen of Nigeria should make a vow not to allow himself to be used to scuttle the peaceful conduct of the elections. Nigeria has built a bad image for itself as a country where elections are never free or fair. This is a stigma we can all remove by proving to the world, come 2011, that we are capable of holding elections that would become the envy of the world in terms of conduct and popular representation.'

Mr. Ahule blamed the slow development of Nigeria's democracy and the failure of the country to so far produce credible leaders since the advent of democracy in 1999 on the irresponsibility of the elites and the political class who should have been patriotic role models as is the case in other advanced democracies in the world.

'Our politicians should be reminded that there is no do-or-die in politics. Politics is a game of numbers and the candidate who has been able to sell himself most to the highest number of people should have no fear of being elected. It is time our political parties begin to do away with the politics of imposition and electoral fraud. Once the political class gets its acts together, conducting credible elections shouldn't be a problem in Nigeria,' he said.