From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani has said the lessons of the June 12 incident should be used to build and renew people’s trust in government while recounting the late MKO Abiola’s huge sacrifices to ensure that democracy thrives in Nigeria.
Governor Uba Sani said Nigeria has come a long way in its practice of democracy which has been a mixed bag of successes, failures, and rising expectations.
He lamented that the way and manner policies are designed and implemented in Nigeria without adequate consultations and scrutiny have tended to alienate the people while corruption has worsened the trust deficit.
In a statement through his Senior Special Adviser on media (Print), Nasir Abdulkadir, the governor noted that “It is also a story of heroes and villains.”
He noted that Nigeria’s founding fathers, labour leaders, civil society and pro-democracy activists have made remarkable contributions to the growth and development of democracy and the nation owes them a debt of gratitude for their labours of love.
“The last few years of our practice of democracy have been full of challenges. Our people’s trust in democracy and government waned considerably due to economic, social and political crises, with their debilitating consequences.
“Many of our people feel the country and its leaders do not care about them. The youths feel the country does not care about their future. Many parts of the country feel they have not been given a sense of belonging. These sentiments and anxieties threaten our country’s economic prospects and our desire for national unity,” the governor said.
“The challenge before us, therefore, is how to restore the people’s trust in government and effectively mobilize them for the important task of national renewal.
“Our country must move in a new direction. We must put in place measures to ensure inclusiveness, responsiveness, fairness and integrity in policy-making and service delivery.
“Devolution of powers is the way to go. More powers must be given to the states to take care of the needs of the people at the grassroots. Decentralization of powers will unleash the potential that exists everywhere in Nigeria,” he said.
The governor said Kaduna State is making conscious and deliberate efforts to spread development by focusing on the rural areas and his government is determined to reinvent and re-energise the rural economies through massive infrastructural development.
“When we make the grassroots attractive to our people, rural-urban migration will be checked and our people will fully embrace democracy as a system that caters for their welfare and enables them to realize their full potential,” he added.