General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the former Head of State, has stated that he had no regrets about transferring power to a democratically elected president.
Abdulsalami handed over control to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999, following a series of military coups.
When questioned by a journalist from the Sun Newspaper, Abdulsalami said,
He said:
“Not at all! Not at all! Not at all! I am happy with what is going on. Yes, everything is not perfect, but here we are today, celebrating 25 years of unbroken democracy.
“Well, we thank God and I am very happy that it is now 25 years ago I handed over. And we thank God that Nigerians and Nigeria are enjoying the dividends of democracy.
“We are not yet there, but we have come a long way since 1999. The only drawback we have in the system is people still sell their votes and they do all types of things, they allow the politicians to use them in ballot box snatching here and there – unnecessary things that we should have overcome at this age. But gradually and thankfully, yes, Nigerians are gradually coming out of this menace, they are realising that their vote counts and they are making sure that their vote counts.
“Unfortunately, I still maintain, there are some very few people who abuse the process and they allow their votes to be bought. And if they are buying these votes, certainly they cannot be called to be accountable, the people who are being so elected”.
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cc: Vanguard Ng
