Free Press, Democratic Elections, Compromise & Consensus Are Vibrant Democratic Culture – Dogara

By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon. Yakubu Dogara has described free press, democratic elections, parliamentary debates, civil society activities, Labour unions, conflict, compromise, consensus as entranced parts of a vibrant democratic culture.

Dogara also said that apart from fascism, no democracy anywhere has ever licensed its citizens to be their worst-selves, hence Nigerians must understand the responsibility of freedom, which means that they are free not to be irresponsible.

In a paper presentation titled, Platform Nigeria On “Democracy and Free Market Economy” as part of the activities marking the country’s 25th anniversary of uninterrupted democracy, stressed the need for deployment of our democratic rights to build rather than to destroy.

“For progress to be made, we must creatively create a reward system that works only for citizens who are bakers not those that are hunters – those rent seekers masquerading as business men and women who now promiscuously litter our economic space”

According to him, if Nigeria keeps holding on to what is normal, it will keep letting go of what is possible. We must never lose sight of the fact that scientists built the titanic while amateurs built the ark, but the titanic couldn’t survive a collision with an iceberg while the ark defied the global floods.

“The fight to rebuild our faltering economy is our collective fight. We must at all cost reduce the present poverty level and Government must lead the way by being very aggressive in the pursuit, design, and implementation of appropriate policies that would give birth to a robust ecosystem of MSMEs all over the country”.

Dogara also described as unfortunate the demise or deliberate elimination of the third tier of government in Nigeria-the Local Government Councils, stressing “Theoretically we have 774 of them but practically, all but the six area councils of the Federal Capital Territory are non-existent since 2002 when the tenure of the last democratically elected council elapsed and state governors hijacked the system”

He observed that almost 30 percent or more of Nigeria’s revenue is accrues to the local governments but for more than two decades their resources have been diverted and wasted through joint accounts by successive state governments, thereby causing major economic dislocation of more than half of the population that live in the rural areas.

Hon. Dogara commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s effort at granting autonomy to local government councils. Until such a time when elections into the councils are conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the journey for a true democracy and true federation has not started.

“The case the Federal government instituted at the Supreme Court against the 36 state governments is commendable. I urge the Chief Justice of Federation and all Honourable Justices of the Supreme Court to do everything possible to grant autonomy to local governments”.

“We must learn to resist the temptation to define our happiness as the other groups unhappiness and we must tame our misdirected rage at a Government we wrongly believe is big enough to solve all our problems but unable to do so”.

He conclusively said, “The sooner we accept the fact that our government is limited and therefore limited in what it can do for us as individual citizens, the better. As difficult a message to sell, but it is the raw truth”.

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