Gov Uba Sani calls for consolidation of lessons from June 12

Forum 11 months ago

Gov Uba Sani calls for consolidation of lessons from June 12

Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Uba Sani has said the lessons of the June 12 incident should be used to build and renew people’s trust in government while recounting the late MKO Abiola’s huge sacrifices to ensure that democracy thrives in Nigeria.

The Governor said Nigeria has come a long way in its practice of democracy which has been a mixed bag of successes, failures, unmet expectations and rising expectations.

“It is also a story of heroes and villains,” Governor Uba Sani lamented.

He noted that Nigeria’s founding fathers, labour leaders, civil society and pro-democracy activists have made remarkable contributions to the growth and development of democracy and the nation owes them a debt of gratitude for their labour of love.

“The last few years of our practice of democracy have been full of challenges. Our people’s trust in democracy and government waned considerably due to economic, social and political crisis, with their debilitating consequences.

“Many of our people feel the country and its leaders do not care about them. The youths feel the country does not care about their future. Many parts of the country feel they have not been given a sense of belonging. These sentiments and anxieties threaten our country’s economic prospects and our desire for national unity,” the Governor said.

He lamented that the way policies were designed and implemented in Nigeria without adequate consultations and scrutiny tended to alienate the people while corruption had worsened trust.

“The challenge before us therefore is how to restore the people’s trust in government and effectively mobilize them for the important task of national renewal.

“Our country must move in a new direction. We must put in place measures to ensure inclusiveness, responsiveness, fairness and integrity in policy making and service delivery. Devolution of powers is the way to go. More powers must be given to the states to take care of the needs of the people at the grassroots. Decentralization of powers will unleash the potential that exists everywhere in Nigeria,” he said.

Kaduna State, the Governor said, was making conscious and deliberate efforts to spread development by focusing on the rural areas and his government was determined to reinvent and reenergise the rural economies through massive infrastructural development.

“When we make the grassroots attractive to our people, rural – urban migration will be checked and our people will fully embrace democracy as a system that caters for their welfare and enables them to realize their full potentials,” he said