Government at all levels need to fine-tune its policies and programmes to meet the peculiarities of Nigeria’s economic situation, prevent mediocrity in political space and address insecurity to promote egalitarian society.
These were parts of the submissions of Stakeholders in Ekiti State as Nigeria marks Sixty-Fourth Independence Anniversary and Ekiti at Twenty Eight.
Correspondent, Oriola Afolabi who sampled opinions of stakeholders, report that many of the speakers expressed the need for citizens to still appreciate the togetherness of various components in the country despite her various challenges.
While rejoicing with Nigeria on the 64th anniversary, a former Governor of Ekiti State, Asiwaju Segun Oni urged Nigerians not to lose hope but believe that the future would be great.
While accessing the country’s political system and spate of Governance, Chief Oni observed that both the leadership and followership were responsible for whatever that is wrong with the country.
Chief Oni said “Nigerians believe that the future would be great and not to lose hope in the present leadership but to join hands in building the nation”
“As a leader, going back to regional Government would not be the solution to our problem in Nigeria but just like moving backwards, whatever that is wrong with the country was a question of individuals attitude and not about leadership or political office holders as leadership doesn’t operate in a vacuum.
The present challenges are collective mistakes we should try to address and stop the blame game, said Chief Oni.
A political Scientist, Professor Lasisi Olaniyan who noted that the Nigeria democratic system was improving gradually in spite of challenges, said that all factors affecting the country’s electoral process should be addressed to increase people’s confidence in the system.
While speaking on Governance, Professor Olaniyan urged federal and state governments to cut running cost, address unemployment rate, infrastructural deficit, insecurity and hunger.
Professor Olaniyan noted that at 64, Nigeria still have a lot of way to go, although we started with democratic governance but was truncated by military rules and now we are having successive democratic administrations, for twenty five years now we are still counting and to me is a step forward”
“Presently there were a lot of improvement in our political space, even though, there were challenges, when we talk of success recorded so far, we can see that our electoral process is gradually improving, we are having election on regular basis and the issue of impunity on the part of leaders especially politicians during election is gradually fading away, people now have power to decide compared with before when INEC would just announce results, to me gradually, Nigeria will get there, said Professor Olaniyan”
On his part, A Professor of Economics, Abel Awe explained that Nigeria is making progress economically but the growth was being determined only by the service sector, a development which he said was not good enough.
Professor Awe pointed out that energy, transport and interest rate should be looked into to address some of the challenges promoting hunger.
The professor of Economics added that economic deregulation could only work in a country where there were competitors and not Monopolistic economy that Nigeria now operates.
While commending President Bola Tinubu for taking a bold step to rebuild the nation’s economy, a former Governorship Candidate in Ekiti State, Erelu Elebute Halle urged Nigerians to have faith in the Programme and policies of the present administration, saying that though the country might not be progressing geometrically but efforts of the present Government would soon be yeiding results.
Erelu Elebute Halle observed that attitudinal problem often contribute to some of the challenges in the society.
She “congratulated Nigerians and Ekiti people on the anniversary and noted that whether people believe it or not Nigeria is moving forward and time is not waiting for anybody, though the country might not be progressing in a geometric progression but the present administration is taking a bold step to rebuild the nation’s economy”
Erelu Elebute Halle said President Bola Tinubu is a man of the people who did not like anyone to suffer at all and she expressed the belief that his policies and Programmes would soon be yeilding results to make life easier and meaningful to the masses.
Let’s have faith in our government and in the system, lack of faith often promote misunderstanding between the people and government, many people do not believe in Nigeria that is why they always criticize and not see reason in whatever that government is doing, Nigeria will be great and Ekiti will surely more forward”
