By NAOMI SHARANG

The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) on Wednesday, urged the Federal Government to address emerging concerns over the country’s democracy.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting of the forum was held at PANDEF’s liaison office in Abuja behind closed doors.

NAN also reports that a communiqué was, however, issued by Oba Oladipo Olaitan, Dr. Pogu Bitrus and Godknows Igali after the meeting.

Olaitan, who read the communique, said that the forum condemned, in the strongest terms, the emerging tendency among the political class to railroad the country towards single-party control of key democratic structures at the federal and sub-national levels.

The forum also condemned the violent confrontation that erupted on Tuesday at the national headquarters of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja, following the clash by two factions of the party.

Describing the incident as a “barbaric show-of-shame,” SMBLF said that the fracas had further eroded public confidence in the opposition and weakened the checks and balances required for a functioning democracy.

“A democracy without a strong and viable opposition becomes vulnerable to abuse and authoritarianism,” it said.

Security agencies were also singled out for harsh criticism, with the forum accusing the Nigeria Police Force of increasingly taking sides in political disputes.

“The use of law enforcement for political intimidation poses a direct threat to Nigeria’s democratic evolution.

“This brazen deployment of security forces for partisan battles must stop immediately,” it stated.

The forum also expressed worries over what it described as the “emerging non-chalance” of Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC), under its new Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan.

“The commission must take timely actions to redirect these dangerous trends, ahead of the 2027 general elections,” it said.

The forum decried what it called the worsening security situation across the country, citing the killing of Brig.-Gen. Uba and his colleagues in Borno, the abduction of school girls in Maga, Kebbi, and multiple attacks in Kaduna, Kwara and Kogi states

It demanded an urgent federal programme for the rehabilitation and resettlement of displaced Middle Belt communities, insisting that the victims must be returned to their ancestral lands without further delay.

The forum urged the government to accelerate negotiations with the striking resident doctors and engage more constructively with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to avoid further disruption in the education sector. (NAN, but headline rejigged)