By Chimaobi Nwaiwu

NNEWI—FORMER national chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, and Senator representing Anambra Central Senatorial Zone, Chief Victor Umeh has called on the national chairmen of political parties in Nigeria to conduct themselves in a manner that will promote peace and tranquility, democracy and respect for rule of law, instead of making utterances capable of causing crisis in the country.

Speaking with newsmen in Onitsha, Anambra State, Senator Umeh advised national chairmen of political parties in the country to uphold the tenets of the constitution and the rule of law no matter how strongly they feel about issues in Nigeria politics, just as he urged them to remember that everybody is in the service of the electorate, as they are the  ones that will determine  who represents them.

“What Nigeria needs now are national chairmen of parties who will act in accordance with the law and have respect for the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to ensure the conduct of peaceful and credible general elections in 2019, not those that will heat up the polity with unguarded utterances.

“I have been a national chairman of a party before, I led APGA for ten years as national chairman. I think that everything the national chairmen of the political parties in the country should do must be to promote peace, democracy, respect for rule of law and respect for the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If everybody is guided by these principles, there will not be any problem.

“What national chairmen of the political parties and all of us must do is to apply ourselves to the constitution.The constitution is very important in democracy, and democracy has a language. The language of democracy does not  include must, must and must.

“I therefore ask everybody to take to the language of democracy in whatever they want, extending to people what they think is their due and lobbying them to agree with you and leave them with the right to disagree with you. If they are not convinced, we do not want anybody to be using a language of must in a democracy.

“This democracy is very dear to this country no matter the challenges we have. If we uphold the constitution, nobody will cross the line. So, we do not want anybody to cross the line.No matter how strongly you feel about anything, you must uphold the constitution and remember that  everybody is in the service of the people and the people will continue to give directives to those who represent them.

“The political party that is in authority, APC, was elected by the people and to that extent, they must listen to the pulse and heart beat of the people. That is the way to measure democracy and make it strong.”