By Kate Toochi
May 7 (Newshour.com.ng) – It has been established that the whole essence of democracy in a party politics is nothing but growth, development, solving socioeconomic problems as well as exploring the modern technologies to solve humanity’s problems.
The Accord governorship candidate for the November 11, 2023 Imo State election, Ikenga Johnjude Okere pointed out this fact in a recent interview.
“Democracy is a way of governance. Even in small organizations, corporate offices and even families, you hear the slogan “we are in democracy”, “this is democracy”. It means we have alternatives and there are laid down procedures for doing things. However, that was not how it was about 25 years ago when we had military rule.
“That Time, one man, a dictator with all totalitarian powers, would just issue a decree and that was it. Political discussions and involvement never appeared robust for people to participate because they were brutalized”, he noted.
Ikenga Johnjude observed that the whole essence of democracy, democratic processes and procedures was societal growth and development, solving all the socioeconomic challenges of a particular enclave as well as making life easier for humanity.
According to him, “The people are the heartbeat of democracy. Therefore, for democracy to work, people must take charge and be in charge. It is the people that determine how democracy works.
“With democracy, growth and development are achieved. With democracy, man’s challenging problems are solved and life becomes easier to live”.
The Accord party candidate however regretted that about 63 years into independence and 24 years into the present democratic experience, Nigerians have practically learnt nothing and so nothing seems to be working.
He said, “Take it from me that we have not arrived. Not at all. I think, we missed our path somewhere. For instance, If you send a young boy to buy a bottle of groundnut, he goes to the shop and there are three bottles of groundnut on display and he makes his choice based on his conviction of the one he thinks to be the best. When he comes back to you, of course, you decide if his choice was in order.
“The choice the boy made is discretional based on his understanding of how a quality groundnut should look like. If he does not know, he will most likely make a mistake. That is exactly how governance works.
“For a government in power to deliver effective services to those that elected it, the principal actors must be men of proven character, competence and capacity. If you make a mistake to put criminals in office, they will give out criminal activities. If they are misfits, they will go to government to deliver substandard projects. And when the masses vote wrongly, they must correct their actions in the next election. This is what is called calling public office holders to accountability, just as the groundnut boy came back to account for the message he was sent for.
“Once you put a responsibility on a person, he is morally bound to carry it out. But the Nigerian masses are not doing this, hence, the country is not moving forward”.
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