Politicians Should Stop Seeing Opponents As Enemies – Onaiyekan
Dr. John Cardinal Onaiyekan, who said this yesterday in Abuja when the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, paid him a courtesy visit, said politicians should allow politics to be practised in a sensible and rational way to ensure the survival of the country they are all aspiring to rule.
He reminded them that they are all interested in the peace and stability of the country because they are using different political platforms “and it is only the matter of which one is better and it is not the question of enemies but difference competing views and the different competing strategies for arriving at the same objective of a better Nigeria.”
Speaking further, the cleric said, “Democracy, as we know it, is not the only way for ruling people, but in this day and age, it is considered the best way. Even those who still hang on to monarchy, like the British and others, they manage to practise some democracy through political parties.
“This democracy must be defended at all costs because if it is not defended and we end up having a bastard form of democracy, it is worse than the worst forms of dictatorship, which is why I often say that a rigged election is worse than military coup. We can and we should do everything possible to ensure we have democracy in this country.”
Earlier in his speech, Oyegun told the cardinal that he decided to begin his official visit to Cardinal Onaiyekan because of his respect for him as his spiritual father.
He noted that the biggest problem the country was going through, which his party hoped to correct, was the injuries the ruling PDP government had inflicted on young Nigerians which he said was getting to a stage where “they don’t know how to differentiate between right and wrong.”
“My appeal to you, your Eminence is, in a society that is so broken like ours, to always say the truth to the people in government and all of us.”
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