‘Our democracy is not Afrocentric’ – Governor Ayade

“We inherited a brand of democracy which is not Afrocentric, neither does it have the sensitivity of the African culture and morality.”

The Governor of Cross-River State, Ben Ayade, on Sunday berated the current democracy being practised in Nigeria. Ayade made this criticism while addressing some stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the governor’s lodge in Calabar, the state capital.

According to him, the current democratic process is antithetical to the entrenchment of justice in society. He said this while calling for the entrenchment of zoning within the political system.

“Democracy is so primitively blind that it reduces itself to numbers. The higher your population, the more you win. So, there is nothing like balancing; there is no equity in democracy.

“There is no moral conscience. Democracy is blind to ethnicity; it is blind to religion, it is blind to fairness, it is repugnant to natural justice,” the governor said.

Furthermore, the governor also advocated the rotation of the governorship position amongst the various senatorial districts in the states to entrench fairness.

According to him, the next governor should hail from the southern senatorial district while reiterating that every stakeholder must maintain a sense of peace.

He said, “It is against this background that I will keep to my words. 2023 is a harbinger of peace, equity and justice so that every one of us will have a sense of equity and a sense of balance to maintain and sustain our politics.

“This will enable everybody to know his turn at every given time, and this decision to return power to the south was based on morality, and the region has credible people with the capacity to be governor.”

CABLE/Suzan O.