Nigeria is adrift and it is time to take tough decisions to rescue the country from collapse, Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki has said.
Obaseki spoke yesterday while delivering a lecture, titled: Making Politics Work for Citizens, Governance and Development: The Edo State Experience, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on Victoria Island in Lagos.
The governor said the country must adopt proven methods and innovations in retooling its politics and democracy and make them work for the delivery of good governance and development for the people.
He noted that the political elite, who have the responsibility not only to institutionalise the democratic process but also develop a political culture that should foster and enhance development, have so far failed to do so.
“The Nigerian people, having subscribed to the ideals of democracy, expect that, at the very least, those in position of authority will organise the socio-political, geographic and economic environment in such a way that it guarantees, to a significant extent, the security of lives and property.
“But unfortunately, this has not been the exp1erience in our country, as the people have continuously had to grapple with the ever-evolving problems of insecurity, specifically terrorism, banditry, militancy and communal clashes.
“The people have had to contend with a poverty rate of 47.3 per cent, representing 98 million Nigerians; 38 per cent unemployment rate among the working population and a struggling national economy,” he said.
Obaseki also highlighted some of the defects in Nigeria’s political system.
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These, the governor noted, include entry barriers into the political system, such as age restriction and high cost of nomination and expression of interest; negative perception of politics and the attendant skirmishes, including mudslinging, deliberate character assassination, blackmail, which make it unattractive to professionals to participate in; prohibitive cost of the electioneering process; proliferation of political parties without any ideology; and electoral malpractices, which have instigated voter apathy.
He argued that with the concentration of resources and power with the Federal Government, the federating states become almost absolutely dependent on the centre, thereby losing creativity and drive to generate internal resources as well as chart the path for progress as economically viable sub-nationals.
Obaseki said his administration in Edo State had to take deliberate and intentioned steps to retool its politics to engender growth.
Having built public trust, he said, his administration was able to win the trust of the electorate “because we had focused on ideals that have come to define our politics and through which we have made the most impact in their lives”.
The governor said his administration invested hugely in human capital development, particularly across all tiers of the state’s education system, starting with the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) programme, which has transformed the lives of over 400,000 pupils across the state and improved learning outcomes.