News Investigators/ A former Director-General of National Orientation Agency (NOA), Idi Farouk, has called for an improved democratic system to enable Nigerians to fully enjoy dividends of democracy.
Mr Farouk made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
He said that while Nigeria had made progress in sustaining democratic governance for 26 years, there was still the need for deeper reforms to make the system more inclusive, transparent and responsive to the needs of the people.
According to him, democracy must go beyond the conduct of elections and translate into real benefits for citizens, better infrastructure, quality education and improved security.
While emphasising that the system was supposed to run on its course, Farouk said that the progress so far recorded should be glaring for everybody to see.
“Thus far, my question is: ‘What has democracy really done for us? What is it expected to do for us? Has it done all that is expected?
“This is because democracy in itself is not what is celebrated. It is what the practitioners have done with the system.
“We keep talking about dividends of democracy, but democracy has not delivered its own dividends.
“Democratic journey should provide what we all now call dividends. It has thus not provided it as it ought to.
“We’re supposed to have security. Do we really have security? We’re supposed to have uninterrupted power supply; do we have one?
“We’re supposed to have hospitals that are working; people are ‘japaying’ (traveling abroad) and those who can afford it are moving outside the country for treatment.
“So democracy is not just a journey; it is supposed to provide gains and it is those things that it has provided that we celebrate and not democracy as a system.
“As all of us here come from different states, I can assure you that no state is clear of the problem of insecurity. There is insecurity all over Nigeria,” he said.
Mr Farouk, however, commended the security agencies on their efforts at tackling insecurity across the country, while also calling for recruitment of more hands into military and paramilitary.
“If we need more boots on the ground, for goodness sake, let’s get it, because if we have more personnel, we will be able to solve our insecurity problem. I guess, democracy will begin to thrive and we will enjoy its dividends.
“One of the foremost things that the dividends of democracy that we talk about should bring to us is security of lives and property,” the former director-general said.
NAN
