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Abe bemoans lack of trust among politicians

By Ann Godwin, Port Harcourt
14 October 2019   |   3:09 am
The immediate past lawmaker representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District, Senator Magnus Abe, has said that Nigerian politicians no longer trust each other because they believe that everybody is a cheater.

The immediate past lawmaker representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District, Senator Magnus Abe, has said that Nigerian politicians no longer trust each other because they believe that everybody is a cheater.

Abe, who noted that absence of trust among politicians and even the followers was responsible for lack of internal democracy and underdevelopment in the country, said that the nation could not experience internal democracy, which he described as the solution to under-development in Nigeria without the common agreement of the participants and the citizens.

The former lawmaker stated this in Port Harcourt at the weekend during a lecture titled, “Importance of Internal Democracy to the Development of Democracy in Nigeria” organised by the state All Progressives Congress (APC) visionary media team.

Abe said: “In our politics, nobody trusts each other. In any contest that you are going into, everybody believes that you are going there to cheat. So, if you do not have the plan to cheat, you have lost already because if you don’t cheat, the other person will cheat. So, you cannot have internal democracy without the common agreement of the participants.”

The former lawmaker, who blamed the enormous challenges bedeviling the country to godfatherism, a situation where politicians play by the rules without the common interest of the masses, further said: “As politicians, do not play the game according to the rules. People (politicians) only complain when the rules do not favour them. You also realise that if you are in the position to decide how the game will be played, the same thing you would have complained about is the same thing you will do.

“So, let us always learn not to play by the rules because if we do, we will get the same bad results over and over again because you don’t trust me and I don’t trust you. To achieve internal democracy, we have to live by what we preach.”

He, therefore, enjoined politicians to live by what they preach and give priority attention to the needs of the citizens to enable them regain public trust.

He said that for Nigerians to have meaningful lives, the leaders needed to create a society that provides for everyone, including those who do not have access to government at any given point in time.

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