Buhari set to open National Political Summit

To deepen Nigeria’s democracy and improve on the gains of the 2015 general elections leading politicians in the country will hold a three-day meeting in January.

Entitled National Political Summit and organized by a group under the aegis, Save Democracy Group of Africa, SDG- Africa, the gathering will be declared open by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Expected to be an assemblage of politicians in Nigeria, the summit, which will be held between January 24 to 26, will, among others, discuss issues relating to the nation’s political environment, especially on how to consolidate on the success recorded during the 2015 presidential election, just as it would be a follow-up to yesterday’s official unveiling of the annual national political summit.

The maiden summit is being put together by former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ibrahim Mantu; former Speaker, House of Representatives, Ghali Umar Na’ Abba; former Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Joy Emodi; Iyom Josephine Anenih; Dr. John Dara; former military governor of Akwa Ibom State, Idongesit Nkanga; Senator Dino Melaye, All Progressives Congress, APC, Kogi West; member, House of Representatives, Sani Zoro; former Commissioner of Police, Federal Capital Territory, Lawrence Alobi; Chairman, Labour Party, Abdulkadir Salami; Buba Galadima, Tom Adaba, Alhaji Isa Salami; Senator Adefemi Kila, and 2015 presidential candidate of Action Alliance, AA, Anifowose Kelani, among others.

In his address of welcome, yesterday, at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, the Director- General, Save Democracy Group Africa, Dr. Ifedi Okwenna said: “The Annual National Political Summit is a flagship event of the Save Democracy Group Africa in collaboration with some international development partners, corporate organizations and the Nigerian political parties. The decision to institute the summit was consequent on the landmark successes of the 2015 general elections, generally accepted to have against all predictions brought peace and stability to our polity and elevated our prestige and international recognition and acceptance among democratic nations.

‘’Consolidating on the gains of this success, we reasoned, will help us curb the many ills of our politics which include the lack of internal democracy, absence of ideological framework, lack of party discipline and inability of participants to develop positive political culture.

“We equally noticed that, the continuous call for political dialogue at any turn of event in Nigeria shows that some issues in our democracy and in our body politic are far from being settled.

“It therefore behoves on us as a nation to continuously dialogue and to build on our past experiences to create a better nation. The political engineering of our nation should be continu- ous and all democrats should be on board.’’