7th January, 2021
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar on Thursday said a key lesson to learn from the certification of Joe Biden as next president of the United States is that strong institutions are vital to the sustainability of democracy.
President Donald Trump had tried to subvert the US democratic system by inciting a mob to invade the Capitol on Wednesday.
The president had refused to accept defeat since November 2020 and had gone to courts and lost all cases.
Trump’s last move was to mount pressure on Republicans and Vice President Mike Pence to discredit Biden’s victory.
But the US Congress, after Wednesday’s uprising, still met to certify the victory of Biden as the next US President come January 20, 2021.
Reacting to the development, Atiku said democracy is a process, saying that the certification of Biden’s victory called for need to build strong institutions.
“Democracy, as it is often said, is a process. With the culmination of the process certifying the electoral vote of Joe Biden as the next President of the United States, it is clear that strong institutions are vital to the sustainability of democracy.
“This is a lesson to be learnt: that strong institutions and not strong personalities are the bulwark of a rich democratic culture,” he said.