EFFORTS by Nigerian leaders to govern the country rightly since 1999 have not been “good enough to improve on the lives of the citizenry and grow the nation in all facets of development needs,” former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has said.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 election said in spite of the long period in which the nation has practised democracy for which Nigeria is celebrating Democracy Day on June 12 every year, “it remains saddening that we have not delivered enough dividends for our people to be happy.”
Atiku said this in his message to Nigerians on the occasion of the 21st anniversary of Democracy Day in the country According to him, the celebration of Democracy Day is an affirmation of collective struggles towards a system of participatory government and acceptance of the primacy of the rule of law.
“Between 1999 to the present time, our democracy has thrown up all shades of characters at the leadership levels. Many, if not all of them, have tried their best to deliver good governance to the country.
“But the results of their efforts, judging by what we have at hand today, clearly show that our best has not been good enough thus far.
“It is clear that the problem of leadership is at the epicentre of governance issues that has afflicted Nigeria since the restoration of this democratic dispensation.
“To get at this problem would require the voting citizens of the country to undertake a more critical evaluation of national leadership recruitment – a rare gift which democracy guarantees through the instrumentality of periodic elections,” he said.