2015 Poll Has Consolidated Democracy –Oshiomhole

The Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has described the outcome of the 2015 general elections as a consolidation of democratic governance in the country.

Oshiomhole, who said this when he played host to the leadership of the state Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, said that he was satisfied that Nigeria could be counted as a nation which had recorded a successful change in government through the ballot box.

The governor said, “I believe that across the country, democracy has now been formally consolidated because the real test of democracy lies in government changing, of government being elected in office, of being voted out of office, courtesy of the ballot not the gun.

“Today we are happy that Nigeria has joined those states that can now say it is possible that a government has been replaced by ordinary people equipped and armed only with their Permanent Voter Card. So, as a Nigerian, I am very proud of this country; for all those who struggled and also died in the struggle for democracy, we can now say finally we are here.”

He, however, said that in spite of the successful conduct of the elections, more work needed to be done in the South-East and the South-South geo-political zones to address cases of electoral irregularities, such as godfatherism and “miracle votes,” in the interest of the country.

Oshiomhole added, “But of course, there are still couple of things to be done to completely clean up the electoral process, so that those part of the country where you still have the miracle votes, where the ancestors come out to vote in the South-East and part of the South-South, those are areas we need to clean up, so that overall, Nigeria will begin to grow.”

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