Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt
The former representative of Rivers South-East Senatorial District in National Assembly, Senator Magnus Abe has commended the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, for his bold step in declaring his presidential ambition for 2023.
This as the former senator has noted the need for solution to the challenges facing the internal democracy in political parties in the country.
Speaking during a chat with journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday, Abe described Tinubu as eminently qualified for the presidential position he plans to contest for come 2023 general election.
He said: “Nigerians should listen to him (Tinubu), as they listen to other candidates who indicate interest to run 2023 presidential election, it is a sign that All Progressive Congress can forge the direction for the country and sustain many achievements of President Buhari.
“The President has changed templates of things in this country in terms of economy and if given time to mature Nigerians will reap the benefits from some of his policies and I think that Bola Tinubu will sustain those benefits and add more,” Abe said.
Reacting to questions on refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to veto the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, Abe stated that Nigerians are not satisfied with the present situation on the direct and indirect primaries which has remained the major problem in different political parties in the country.
He explained: “Direct primaries or indirect, I think the most question we need to answer is, are we satisfied with the present state of our internal democracy in our political parties and the answer is no, even the President have said so,
“Everybody has said so because we all know that the present system does not give the people the ability to be able to influence things even within their parties and we know that without that we cannot deepen our democracy because democracy is a work in progress.
“Members of the National Assembly, which is also the progress of democracy have seen that they are also powerless in their constituency because those with the party structure hand pick whoever they like even when they know that it will collapse which we have seen most times.
“As Nigerians since we have identified this as a major problem what do we do about this, the National Assembly have proposed this bill and if it will not work what else can we bring on the table because saying that we remain where we are. I don’t think that any Nigeria want that,”he said.
He stressed that President Buhari had severally stated his commitment in deepening the nation’s democracy, “So I don’t believe that vetoing this bill could have been easy decision for the President but if we say this one is not the solution, the question now arises to all of us, which is the way, because the present democracy is working more for the politicians not the citizens”.
He, however, urged Nigerians to proffer solution to deepen democracy for the benefits of all, not just politicians.
