By BEN AGANDE
ABUJA— President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, disclosed that the Federal Government owed N185 billion in judgment debts due to decisions taken by government officials that were not thoroughly thought  and were challenged in court by aggrieved parties.

He spoke at a symposium as part of activities marking this year’s Democracy Day celebration where the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, enjoined political leaders in the country to focus more on how to tackle the destructive challenges facing the nation  like oil theft, insecurity, lack of employment opportunities rather than dissipating their attention on 2015 election.

President Jonathan said Nigeria had cause to celebrate 13 years of stable democracy, emphasising that the worst democratic government was better than a dictatorial government because “we have a tenure and democratic government gives a little more elastic for people to criticise government, that is why people believe that the worse democratic government is better than a dictatorial dispensation.”

He said rather than hold government accountable to the rule of law, Nigerians expect their leaders to use executive fiat on certain issues, which he said cannot work in a democratic set up.

The chairman of the occasion Anyaoku,  appealed to politicians and  media  to focus less attention on the debate for the 2015 election.

He stated: “I have only two messages in my brief Chairman’s remarks. The first is to urge our politicians, and here I must also add our media too, to spare the nation the distraction of engaging now in public debate on the 2015 elections. This is only the first of a four-year political dispensation. We must not allow preoccupation with the 2015 elections to confirm the view that our politicians are only interested in self-aggrandisement, with the result that our national politics is bereft of active ideas on how to uplift the country and improve the quality of life of our citizens.

“The main focus of our public debates at this time should be how to tackle the massively destructive challenges facing the nation. Our democracy, like democracy in many other countries, has over the last year faced serious challenges. We, the government, the corporate sector, the civil organisations and the citizenry-must in all our activities be driven by the commitment and desire to work for the good of the majority of our citizens. It is only  this way that we can be confident of continuing to celebrate in years to come, our democracy day in a united and indivisible country,” he said.

President, Guild of Editors, Mr. Gbenga Adefaye, who spoke on behalf of the media, commended the administration for expanding the scope of democracy by identifying with the media, noting that this had  demonstrated a  realisation by government  that  the media are  major pillar for democratic development.

He, however,  charged the government to pay more attention on security, employment generation and development of key infrastructure, particularly power.

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru  Jega, said while the country had made progress in the conduct of free, fair and credible elections with the 2011 general elections, the lack of internal democracy in the political parties still constitute one of the major challenges of the commission, while the prosecution of electoral offences was another key area that should be looked into with the creation of Special Electoral Offences Tribunal.