2023 Governors Polls: ‘Nigerians, not the courts, should choose their leaders’
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Nigerians should be responsible for selecting leaders through a democratic process and not through the judicial system.
He made the statement on Saturday, March 18 after casting his ballot in the gubernatorial and state assembly elections.
He and his wife, Patience, voted in Otuoke, in the Ogbia Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.
“I believe Nigerians have decided that they have to choose their leaders,” he told reporters. “Any country whose ballot papers cannot select its leaders, that country is doomed.”
“So we have to form a system where the ballots have to decide who leads us, either at the level of the president, the governors, and at the level of parliamentarians; not the courts. Ballots should select leaders.
Jonathan praised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but condemned the burning of election materials by thugs in four wards of Ogbia LGA Constituency 2.
“In terms of general election security, it’s quiet here but I’m concerned because within my local government I’ve learned that the state 2 constituency has crises and material was burned,” he said.
“The police must make sure to arrest everyone involved. If they feel challenged, they should go to the governor and involve the military.
“Everyone involved in this act must be arrested and prosecuted and we are all watching. If the police do not do this we will be terribly disappointed. No one should mess up our electoral system.
“The country is moving and some criminals can’t back us down. The world is watching Nigeria.
