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By Mandy Tina
Labour Leader in Rivers State, Comrade Ikechukwu Onyefuru, has urged the government to prioritize the enhancement of democratic policies.
This call comes amid growing concerns over the integrity and effectiveness of the current democratic systems.
Onyefuru, who is the chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Rivers State chapter, emphasized the need for robust democratic reforms to ensure transparency and accountability in governance.
He said there is a critical need for robust and transparent governance structures to ensure equitable and effective democratic outcomes for all citizens.
Onyefuru expressed concern that government has failed in it’s responsibilities to deliver the dividends of democracy to the citizenry.
He called on government to cut down cost of governance and focus more on strengthening democratic policies.
“You will agree with me that indeed we have failed as a democratic nation because Nigeria till date cannot boast of basic needs such as; electricity supply, good road infrastructure, pipe-borne water, low income housing for the middle and lower class earners.
“If you do not have a process that is working how would you get dividends from the system. It is very simple, if you have a corrupt government that do not care for the people there is no way to move forward as a country.
“Right now there is hunger in the land, Nigerians can not afford basic food, every day more Nigerians are pushed into poverty. You can not separate democracy and good governance.
“The government has failed the people, the people are disappointed. Today, dollar and naira exchange is over one thousand five hundred per dollar, the pump price of petroleum products is something not affordable to the average Nigerian.
“How about medicals, Nigerian’s cannot afford the lowest of drugs, Nigerians are dying due to poor health facilities.
“We have failed as a country when we begin to look at the dividend that should come with democracy and when we bench mark ourselves with other countries in the world that practice democracy.
“If you have good government the citizens will be good, whereby you have bad leadership, corrupt leaders, there is no way you can have good followers. Even in a simple nuclear family, if you have father and mother not behaving well naturally the chances of the children not behaving well is high.
“We expect government to do the needful by cutting down the cost of governance. You can not be growing big and expect masses to be tightening their belt.
“Government should focus towards strengthening democratic policies, ensure democratic principles and policies are applied. It will bring about economic growth.
“Government should establish law and order, ensure it is respected across board, reform judiciary, promote social justice.
“These are the basic things we expect the government to do until that is done, then we can say we are enjoying the dividends of democracy. Government should wake up to its responsibilities,” he said.
Onyefuru urged government to stop prioritizing things that add no value or importance to the common man and focus its attention on revamping the nation’s refineries and building strong security network.
“The nation’s refineries are not working, our security network is not functioning well due to lack of attention and poor working conditions.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves, look at the coastal high way the government want to embark on, it means that we can not prioritize what is important to us as a country. why must they put such amount of money in a project that do not have any bearing to our economy.
“Companies are winding down and leaving Nigeria. It is time the nation think what will attract investors and not for the investors we have to be leaving the country and nobody cares”.
He further called on the Federal Government to emulate the steps of some state governors that have taken the bold steps to embark on human capital development.
“I want to commend some governors that have taken the giant stride. Just recently the governor of Rivers State launched the Blue Economy and the road map towards revamping the economy of the state that was plunging into a comatose.
“With the blue print he has already deployed, we see strategic actions outline to ensure that Rivers State attract investors, and the internal generated revenue (IGR) of the state will continue to increase.
“Why can’t the country copy from Governor Siminalayi Fubara. The foundation he is building, human capital development, these are the things we expect Nigeria to copy, because these things are the dividends of democracy”.
The Labour leader called for electoral restructuring that will bring about a credible, transparent voting system.
“Nigeria remains one of the country in the world where manual voting is been practiced even with all the high technology in the world.
“Last election, trillions of naira was voted in yet we were unable to carry out the basic function of result transmission via the card reader machine.
“Nobody is asking questions of what happened at the last election, we have forgotten in a hurry. We became a laughing stock before the whole world.
“Let INEC be restructured, make the commission become a body that can indeed give us credible election acceptable globally.
“Look at what is happening in South Africa ongoing election, everybody is transparent, if you win, you win, if you do not win you wait for tomorrow that is what we expect in Nigeria”.
