How our democracy can meet legitimate expectations of Nigerians – Gbajabiamila

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila has spoken on what the in-coming tenth National Assembly can do to help democracy meet the legitimate expectations of Nigerians.

Gbajabiamila stated this while addressing returning and newly-elected members of the tenth National Assembly at the commencement of their in­duction programme in Abuja on Tuesday night.

He also noted that while Nigeria’s democratic experience may still be tender, it has indeed come a long way from when this dispensation started under former president, Olusegun Obasanjo back in the year 1999.

Gbajabiamila further admitted that democracy in Nigeria is not quite at a level that can be compared to those of other climes.

He, however, stressed that Nigerian leaders must accelerate efforts toward justifying the choice of democracy as a system of governance by providing effective leadership for the citizens.

“Our democratic experience is still very young compared to others across the world and even here in Africa.

“We have come a long way since 1999, but we are still not where we can be or where the Nigerian people right­ly expect us to be.

“Consequently, we are beginning to see a ‘crisis of democracy’. Too many Nigerians, many born in the years after military rule, are beginning to wonder aloud if democracy is the right choice after all.

“This dire development imposes on all of us political leaders an urgent obligation to accelerate the democratic dividends for all our nation’s people or risk the total loss of legitimacy that can only lead to bad outcomes.

“For our democracy to meet the legitimate expectations of the Nigerian people, the institutions of government have to become better than they are.

“They must become more efficient and more effective, better at managing scarce resources, more accountable and transpar­ent to the Nigerian people.

“This applies to all government institutions, those established by the constitution, such as the Nation­al Assembly, and those created by statute and executive order.

“This imposes a dual obligation on the National Assembly, first to reform ourselves, then to re­form the rest of government,” the outgoing speaker stated.