Former Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja and Plateau
State governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP),
Gen. Jeremiah Useni (rtd) has said June 12 presidential election was
more credible that the 2019 presidential polls.
He noted that the adoption of June 12 as Democracy Day was long overdue, adding that it wasn’t an APC affair.
Useni stated this on Friday after hearing on his governorship petition at the tribunal sitting in Jos, Plateau State.
“To
me, the June 12 election was more credible than the 2019 presidential
election. We should have being celebrating June 12 long time ago as our
democracy day.I am in PDP and I don’t want people to take June 12 as an
APC affair, everybody knows what happened.”
Gen. Useni noted that
he was one of the class associates of Chief MKO Abiola whom he defended
in several quarters when argument on if he (Abiola) became president,
he was going to pay himself all the debt that government was owing him.
“Abiola
was my good friend; I defended him in one of our meeting when some
people said if they gave him the presidency, he would first take all the
money the Federal government was owing him, and I said why not? It was
government that gave him the contracts and why was he not paid? If he
paid himself, there would be nothing wrong with that.”
Useni said
it was better to have deprived Chief MKO Abiola from contesting the
June 12 presidential election than annulling it, saying the situation
drew the country backward.
“some of us were not happy when the
election was cancelled. Why did they allow him to contest the election
if he was not ineligible? Why was he allowed to contest in the first
place if proper screening was not done,” he asked.
He described
democracy as a good system of governance but lamented that some of the
actors in the democratic practice are very bad.
Useni noted that
civilian administrators should take the courage of creating state and
local government areas in the country to make democracy closer to the
grassroots.