A civil society group, the Northern Reform Organisation, has urged political parties across the country to redefine their aims and objectives for all elected officials.
In a press statement titled: “Northern Reform Organisation Mourns the 15th January 1966 Military Coup” and signed by the Chairman Media and Publicity of the group, Alhaji Ardo Muhammed, on Friday, the group urged the public to propose good policies and hold elected officials to transparency and accountability.
The statement reads in part: “Our political parties must design, define and articulate sound agenda for all our elected officials.
“Government business should not be left to politicians alone.
“The general public must pro-actively propose good policies and hold elected officials to transparency and accountability.”
The statement added that leaders in the country should be beacons of hope, models of service and icons of culture, champions of causes and standpoints, voices of reason and moderation and reservoirs of knowledge.
The group added that leadership question must be addressed to make people in public responsibilities to be capable, competent, accountable, knowledgeable and of sound moral character.
The statement added: “For this to happen, the citizenry must change their “unquestioning” behavior and develop the right attitude towards the leadership cadre, through consistent scrutiny.
“The society must restore its ideals and uphold the values of empathy and kindred spirit of being one another’s keeper.”
According to the statement, the 1966 tragedy stifled and compromised the country’s political initiatives and its vibrant honorable culture of service to people.
It stated: “The North intermittent hold on power has been an enormous sacrifice to the unity and constitutional development of the nation, due to our sense of fair dealing.”
Describing the coup as “a watershed betrayal of trust by some misguided military zealots”, the group commiserated with Nigerians and mourned the great loses over the tragic military coup of January 15th, 1966.
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