Former chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega has said that since return to civil rule in 1999, the quality of Nigeria’s governance and democratic development seems to have deteriorated.
Jega who spoke at an Niger state governorship inaugural lecture at Legbo Kutigi conference centre yesterday in his key note: “Addressing the challenges of socio economic development at sub national level in Nigeria” also said democratic good governance depended on the adherence to rule of law by the elected leaders.
“While Nigeria seems to have evaded a total slide back into authoritarian rule in the past 24 years, it has merely been muddling through socio-economic development engulfed in bad governance” he said .
He declared that “In particular, in the period since return to civil rule in 1999, the quality of Nigeria’s governance and democratic development seems to have deteriorated.
“Whatever global comparative indices/measures one uses, there is no doubting that bad governance is, in general, recklessly, ‘institutionalised’, if not entrenched. The country is, literally, being run aground, as illustrated by the worrisome data of high incidences of poverty, high statistics of unemployment especially among the youthful population, high rates of inflation, heightened and generalised insecurity, and acute threats to human security generally.”
The former governor of Kano State Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso who was the chairman of the occasion advised Niger state governor-elect Umar Mohammed Bago to work for the people by hitting the ground running immediately after his swearing in for the socio economic development of the state.
He revealed that lack of competence and knowledge has made some elected governors who claimed to know all to fail and have nothing to show in their states after four or eight years of governance.
In his remarks, Bago, pledged to surpass the expectations of the people by raising the bar in governance, assured to operate an open door policy for a renewed Niger State.
Bago stated that the lecture has provided inputs and a foundation for a renew hope for the state,
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