Politics
Jonathan, Buhari Sign Peace Pact On 2015 Polls, Look As GEJ & GMB Share Warm Embrace
In a bid to avoid violence ahead of the 2015 general elections, President Goodluck Jonathan and General Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja signed a political accord urging supporters to shun attacks.
Jonathan who is the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Buhari, the presidential flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) met in Abuja at an all political stakeholders national workshop on violence-free elections in 2015 to sign the undertaking.
Jonathan in his statements urged Politicians to desist from making utterances that will heat up the polity. “We must avoid provocative statements, we must avoid threatening ourselves”. He also accused Religious leaders of instigating their followers in the past to be confrontational. The President added that indirect provocative statements by religious leaders causes violence and pleaded with the Nigerian media and the various institutions to conduct themselves to ..
“The struggle to rule is not the struggle to conquer, whenever you win an election you are the leader of the nation”. Jonnathan said. He pleaded that the politics of violence must stop to protect the nation.. He promised to strengthen the security agencies and asked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission to make sure every nigerian has an opportunity to vote to avoid violence.
“We must come up with programs and policies that confirm with our laws to ensure we would not have these problems again” Jonathan noted.
Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Affairs Senator Ben Obi at the Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel and Towers Abuja, had said, “The workshop seeks to commit all Presidential Candidates and their respective political parties to a political accord that will be signed during the workshop on non–violence in the 2015 elections.
“As a post-workshop follow-up, an All Political Stakeholders Committee on violence-free election constituted to observe and monitor compliance to the agreement that will be signed at the workshop”.
The workshop was declared open by President Jonathan and attended by all the presidential candidates in the 2015 general elections, including All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, Kofi Annan who chaired the vent amongst others.
Event chaired by former Secretary- General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Dr. Kofi Annan is a follow-up of the All-political Parties and Stakeholders’ Summit in Abuja convened by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) on June 12, 2014.
High point of the event was the warm embrace of the major contenders ahead of the elections … Goodluck Jonathan and Mohammadu Buhari [Pictured] above..
