December 9, 2014 – President Goodluck Jonathan today called on politicians and statesmen to mind their utterances, stressing that many have abused their rights in the democratic dispensation.
According to him, democracy is not about nagging and quarrelling like motor park workers.
The President made the remarks while speaking the inauguration of the Kukah Centre, founded by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese Rev. Fr. Mathew Kukah.
Jonathan said democracy should be deepened via robust debates, stimulation of innovative ideas and healthy engagements by all actors.
“I think we are over defining our democracy today by quarreling as if democracy is about competitors quarreling just like motor park workers,” he said and called on politicians not to see democracy as just about winning or losing elections.
He said the Kukah Centre has been pivotal to the social economic transformation of leading countries of the world and likened the Kukah Center to the Brooklyn Institute in America, which he said pioneered fact-based studies of government policies, using science as a key to analysis.
“I’m personally convinced that the centre could not have finer mentor than the revered gentleman of long patriotic standing, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah,” the President said.