{"id":381815,"date":"2011-04-19T00:38:06","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T00:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/"},"modified":"2011-04-19T00:38:06","modified_gmt":"2011-04-19T00:38:06","slug":"umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"95\">\n<p>By Ebele Orakpo<\/p>\n<p>KADUNA \u2014 Former Kaduna State Governor and civil rights activist, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd), has described the National Assembly and presidential elections as free, fair, and praise-worthy. saying \u201cNigerians have disappointed our detractors who say we never can organise free, fair, and praise worthy elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement in Kaduna, Umar said the conduct of the two elections showed that the country\u2019s democracy was growing, adding that the peaceful conduct of the electorate also proved that Nigeria has come to terms with civil governance.<\/p>\n<p>He appealed to political leaders, especially the presidential candidates, to call their members and supporters to order and avoid actions that might overheat the polity and cause the nation to be mocked.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cAs leaders, they must know they will get the blame for any foolish actions their supporters take. The nation looks up to them and the world expects them to show leadership at this critical moment of our history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All Nigerians have an obligation to step forward and help the political leaders, the civil authorities and the security agencies maintain law and order in all parts of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the same vein, Umar advised the eventual winners to be humble in victory and extend hands of fellowship to contestants that did not win. \u201c Let us finish this election in the same responsible manner we started it. And those who lose in this contest will do well to remember that another opportunity will become available some four short years from now.<\/p>\n<p>They should ensure that nothing is done either by themselves or on their behalf to undermine or even destroy the fragile peace and stability we enjoy in this country today,\u201d he stated. Continuing, he said: \u201cDemocracy will not be worth its price tag if major elections such as this pitch us against each other and make enemies of otherwise friendly neighbours. We owe a duty to make democracy work for Nigeria as it did for other nations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He praised President Goodluck Jonathan for making good his pledge not to use his position and interfere with the work of INEC but to allow the Commission enjoy its law_given independence and also the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega whom he said has unequivocally vindicated all those that have been swearing with his integrity.<\/p>\n<p>Umar noted that while God would always anoint the leader, it is the people who will cast the votes to elect them. \u201cFor the office of the President, our founding fathers, in their wisdom, made additional laws requiring that candidates not only obtain overall majority of votes cast but to get at least 25% of votes in 67%\u00a0 of the states of the federation.<\/p>\n<p>This was designed to promote our integration into one big family and deny sectional or divisive candidates a place in the nation\u2019s seat of power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The rest is here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/2011\/04\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/\" title=\"Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> By Ebele Orakpo KADUNA \u2014 Former Kaduna State Governor and civil rights activist, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd), has described the National Assembly and presidential elections as free, fair, and praise-worthy. saying \u201cNigerians have disappointed our detractors who say we never can organise free, fair, and praise worthy elections.\u201d In a statement in Kaduna, Umar said the conduct of the two elections showed that the country\u2019s democracy was growing, adding that the peaceful conduct of the electorate also proved that Nigeria has come to terms with civil governance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-381815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"By Ebele Orakpo KADUNA \u2014 Former Kaduna State Governor and civil rights activist, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd), has described the National Assembly and presidential elections as free, fair, and praise-worthy. saying \u201cNigerians have disappointed our detractors who say we never can organise free, fair, and praise worthy elections.\u201d In a statement in Kaduna, Umar said the conduct of the two elections showed that the country\u2019s democracy was growing, adding that the peaceful conduct of the electorate also proved that Nigeria has come to terms with civil governance.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-19T00:38:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/\"},\"wordCount\":503,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/\",\"name\":\"Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-19T00:38:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"By Ebele Orakpo KADUNA \u2014 Former Kaduna State Governor and civil rights activist, Col. Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (rtd), has described the National Assembly and presidential elections as free, fair, and praise-worthy. saying \u201cNigerians have disappointed our detractors who say we never can organise free, fair, and praise worthy elections.\u201d In a statement in Kaduna, Umar said the conduct of the two elections showed that the country\u2019s democracy was growing, adding that the peaceful conduct of the electorate also proved that Nigeria has come to terms with civil governance.","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace","datePublished":"2011-04-19T00:38:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/"},"wordCount":503,"commentCount":0,"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/","name":"Umar praises polls conduct, calls for peace - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-04-19T00:38:06+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/19\/umar-praises-polls-conduct-calls-for-peace\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}