An Umuahia-based human rights lawyer, Chief ACB Agbazuere, has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to tackle insecurity and address other developmental needs of the country before thinking of presenting himself for re-election in 2015.

Agbazuere who was addressing a cross section of Abia State students from various tertiary institutions in Umuahia, also warned youths in the country against allowing themselves to be used to rig elections, contending that rigging was the best avenue to enthrone ineffective leaders.

Speaking against the backdrop of media reports that 2015 campaign poster of President Jonathan has flooded Abuja, Nigeria’s political capital, Agbazuere called on the President to strive to perform in his present tenure such that it should be Nigerian that should yearn for his return.

For now, the dynamic labour leader said that the President has not addressed pressing national issues, including the Boko Haram insurgence and numerous infrastructural decay across the land.

“Today we are all in PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan wants to come back in 2015 when he has not been able to stop Boko Haram elements from killing Ndigbo and other southerners in the northern part of the country,” Agbazuere said.

Continuing, he said: “As an activist, I don’t care about party. I care about what is right. A good party should also advise a party member who is not doing well. The President should wake up. Boko Haram, as an insurgent, is no longer being addressed and he is putting posters to come back and continue after being president for more than five years. Shouldn’t that be enough?

“May be by the end of this year, the President may become better and then he may now become good for re-election. So what we are saying is that if we are conscious about what we are doing, let it be Nigerians that will now say come back.”

Agbazuere charged Nigerians, particularly the youths, to resist being used as willing tools to perpetuate poll rigging in the country, pointing out that if the they do, they should be blamed for the emergence of any bad ruler.

“When you are called to rig elections and you accept to rig the elections because of pittance, you have taken your own. What you now get as price is bad leadership. You have no longer any reason to complain. You must not give us a charlatan through rigging,” he said.

“So I charge all of you, all Abians and Nigerians and all men of good conscience to rise and wake up from their slumber. Just like what happened in Benin City during the re-election of Governor Adams Oshiomhole, people should wake up and defend their votes. Even if you die in the process, you die as a hero, as a martyr and you will not die if everybody is into it, if everybody says no,” Agbazuere added.

The human rights activist also called for an end to money politics as it is taking its toll on the polity, stressing that those who present themselves for elections should be assessed based on their intelligence, competence and antecedents.

•Photo: Chief Agbazuere.

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