Director General of One Nation for Asiwaju Support Group, Alhaji Muhammadu Etsugaie, on Saturday called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rebuild the nation’s economy, and tackle corruption, injustice, insecurity, and nepotism.
Alhaji Etsugaie gave the charge in Abuja while delivering a lecture on ‘Democracy and its challenges in Nigeria – A victory celebration and a contributory agenda-setting note for Mr President: Ahmed Bola Tinubu’.
“There is no doubt left that democracy in Nigeria is diseased, and some of its own principles have been perverted. Nigeria is today a country driven by financial markets infected by massive multifaceted corruption that knows no borders. Unfortunately, the forces which have a stake in maintaining the status quo are far greater than the forces struggling to establish a just social order, at least as a democratic model.
What we see every day, and which has become part of our ugly democratic culture, is that more and more individuals and groups are dreaming of national domination and governance mechanism.
“The problem, however, is that dreaming and struggling for the top has blinded and distracted them from the rot at the bottom. And we, the citizens of Nigeria, have probably underrated the ability of these forces to drain governance of social democratic substance and divert it towards capitalist democracy or worse still back to the defunct dreaded oligarchy. Just look at the flamboyant and arrogant conduct of some of our representatives; sometimes you are tempted to mistake them for new lottery winners.
“As we begin another democratic cycle with your leadership, I wish to warn that we would not be able to build a stable, corporate, and peaceful democratic Nigerian nation with the prevalence of injustice, corruption, and decline in family and social solidarity, or rise in insecurity, crime, and anomie or even the ethnic and religious divisiveness that characterized the 2023 elections, and which almost marred it.
“The fact of the matter is – Nigeria and Nigerians deserve to be liberated from the ongoing perverted democratic process so that a progressive Nigerian nation that could stimulate profound reform and growth, in order for the system to stop churning out angry young men and women who are attracted to a wide spectrum of great crimes like Boko Haram, human kidnapping and trafficking, baby factory, oil theft and militancy, bank robbery, and other social vices like rape, examination malpractice, cybercrime, or even the shameless election rigging that are all babies of 24 years of our democracy. And which also laid the foundation for its challenges.
“In the final analysis, Mr President, the greatest challenges of our democracy today are ignorance, injustice, political selfishness, greed, corruption, desperation, nepotism, tribal malice, and low spiritual content of individuals. The greatest problem then is how to tackle the challenges.
“These challenges can only be frontally tackled with the presence of first: a religious, duty-conscious, and politically sensitive citizenry with a high democratic participatory spirit, which would then lead to the emergence of credible, competent, caring, and morally sensitive political leadership that will, in turn, instil a high public and private morality needed to establish true democratic governance whose major tenets will be justice through equal opportunities for the citizenry.
“In this regard, public morality is very important because if the state itself is immoral, it cannot make its citizens moral. In most cases, it is the quality of governance that dictates public obedience. Revolutions, civil disobedience, and even the unfortunate security challenges in Nigeria today are caused by the craving of citizens for a good life or at least basic survival. This is where you come in and why Nigerians invested their votes in you: to arrest the bad governance situation in Nigeria necessary preventive.
“Mr President, the best preventives are the immediate rebuilding of our economic and political institutions through good governance, encouragement, and proper empowerment of the middle class, respect for the constitution and rule of law, and proper education of the citizenry in the spirit of the constitution.
“As you prepare to take the country to greater heights, I considered it important and politically expedient to pray to God to console the families and relations of those who have died or have suffered any form of incapacitation/misfortune arising from the fallout of the ongoing democratic process in Nigeria since its inception in 1999,” he said.
In his address, National Coordinator of One Nation Asiwaju Support Group, Mr Odumosun Temitope, explained that the group was formed by some Nigerians who believe in development, growth, and prosperity in a people-representative democracy, like the ongoing one in Nigeria.
While urging that the Support Group members must not be left to chance as it is hitherto the practice, Mr Odumosun averred that growth and prosperity normally come through good government formed by good leaders the people must select and elect through their popular consent in credible elections.
“The Group is convinced that only the Asiwaju/Shettima ticket has the potential to secure and stabilize Nigeria for her desired move forward towards socioeconomic prosperity and modern transformation.
“The conviction and belief are rooted in the past public service antecedents of the duo, where they exhibited knowledge, creativity, courage, strong-willed, and a high mentorship spirit while governing their states. They showed exemplary servant leadership for the happiness and comfort of their people regardless of religion and ethnicity.
“It is for the above reasons that the support Group became more convinced that the Asiwaju/Shettima ticket is the only potential Special Purpose Vehicle to take Nigeria and Nigerians to the promised land.”
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