Former Governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel, has said that trust, and not promises, is the lifeline of democracy, saying that Nigeria’s democratic legitimacy is being eroded at the grassroots where government is most absent.

He spoke yesterday in Lagos at the 2026 Nigeria Grassroots Governance Summit and Awards (NIGGSA), where insecurity, financial autonomy and the collapse of local governance took centre stage.

Daniel, who is currently representing Ogun East Senatorial District at the National Assembly, in his keynote address at the event, titled “Building trust between government and the people,” held at the Marriott Hotel, Ikeja, said elections only confer legitimacy, while performance sustains it.

“When citizens elect leaders, they are entrusting them with their hopes and collective future. When promises are repeatedly made and abandoned, public trust diminishes,” he said, noting that distrust undermines tax compliance, discourages investment and widens the gap between institutions and the people.

He called for local councils to be professionally managed and genuinely empowered, with citizens’ engagement moving beyond ceremonial consultations to real participation in identifying needs and tracking projects.

The message was reinforced by Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Adeleye Olusola Oyebade (rtd), who said the country’s reliance on top-down reactive policing has failed.

He said that community policing is not about vigilante groups but about partnership, where traditional rulers provide intelligence, local councils coordinate prevention, women and youths supply early warning information, and the police respond lawfully and accountably.

Oyebade said for years, Nigeria’s security response has been to deploy personnel after lives had been lost and property destroyed.

“When security agencies arrive only after lives have been lost, the damage has already occurred,” he said, insisting that security is not merely the absence of threats but the presence of trust and collective responsibility.

The Convener of NIGGSA and Executive Director of Hope for the Masses Foundation, Oluwatomisin Badewole, noted that out of 774 local councils in Nigeria, each holds at least 10 grassroots communities barely touched by governance, despite constitutional responsibilities for primary education, healthcare and rural development.

Oyebade, however, proposed a practical fix — a four-point grassroots roadmap that includes establishing ward-level security committees, ensuring community watch groups operate under legal authority, expanding school and youth engagement against cultism and drug abuse, and improving confidential reporting channels.

He also called for secure channels to protect informants and regular meetings between Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) and community leaders.

Daniel tied the security crisis to a wider governance failure, insisting that transparency must become an operating principle, not a declaration.

He said that technology alone could not guarantee trust, as a government that builds digital platforms but fails to respond only transfers inefficiency online.

The former governor said development must be judged not by amount spent, but by value created.