It Is The Duty Of The Press To Hold Leaders Accountable – Atiku

Ex-Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has come out to urge the newly elected Nigeria Guild of Editors, NGE, led by Mustapha Isah, to be a strong voice for good governance in Nigeria.

He recently revealed this while reacting to the election of the new officers of the Nigerian Guild of Editors.

According to him, he can only beg the new guild leaders to show courage by speaking out on behalf of the ordinary Nigerians who have no voice in the face of excruciating challenges of existence.

He added that the media is supposed to be the watchdog of society, so they have a massive responsibility to hold leaders accountable for as long as possible.

His words, “The press is indispensable to a free, democratic society. So, you are the voice of the people. Your role is not that of cheerleaders, but of holding government accountable for the good of democracy.”

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The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is a major contemporary political party in Nigeria. Its policies generally lie towards the centre-right of the political spectrum. It won every Presidential election between 1999 and 2011, and was until the 2015 elections, the governing party in the Fourth Republic although in some cases, amid a few controversial electoral circumstances. Currently, PDP controls 14 states out of 36 states in Nigeria.

In 1998 the PDP in its first presidential primary election held in Jos, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria norminated former military leader Olusegun Obasanjo who had just been released from detention as political prisoner as the presidential candidate in the elections of February 1999, with Atiku Abubakar (Governor-Elect of Adamawa State and a former leading member of the Social Democratic Party) as his running mate. They won the presidential election and were inaugurated 29 May, 1999.

The longtime slogan of the People’s Democratic Party has been “Power to the people”. During the party’s National Convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on 21 May 2016, David Mark, a former President of the Senate of Nigeria, introduced “Change the change” as the party’s campaign slogan for the 2019 general elections.