Doherty charges politicians to address failings in delivery of dividends of democracy

From Ogundele Olanrewaju

As Nigerians are celebrating the Democracy Day, frontline politician and leader of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Eng. Adedeji Doherty, has called on political leaders across the country to readdress themselves to the failures of government in delivering the dividends of democracy to the citizenry.

Doherty, a former State Chairman and gubernatorial aspirant in the Lagos PDP, said that while it was worthwhile remembering the landmark June 12, 1993 election whose annulment by the then military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida led to the celebration of the Democracy Day, any politician with a conscience would not shy from admitting that politicians have disappointed the Nigerian populace under the current dispensation since 1999.

He said politicians, irrespective of where anyone stood within the polity, should admit that they have collectively failed to deliver good governance, leading to the current escalating level of insecurity across the country, poor economy, collapsing infrastructure, rising unemployment, as well as the prevailing deeply rooted corruption tendencies and general lack of social support for the well-being of the people.

Doherty, who is the leader of Unity Freedom Group in the Lagos PDP, said that he’s personally embarrassed as a politician with the disappointing performances of politicians who have had the opportunity of running the country since the return to democracy, saying it is time political parties and governments realigned their programmes to the yearnings of the people and put the country on the path to greatnessv before it is too late.

Using Lagos State as a microcosm of the the Nigerian nation and her diverse nationalities, he said the performance indices of the state government did not reflect the huge revenue being generated monthly in the state.

According to him, the performance rating of the Lagos State Government on education, infrastructural development and maintenance, and other services is very low compared to the almost N60b accrueing to the state monthly as internally generated revenue and money from the federal allocation.

Doherty said: “In the two major political parties, enough has not been done to show that democracy is really having an impact on the generality of the populace. Politicians are not meeting the yearnings of the people. Most of the infrastructure in Nigeria are quite old; they are not only old but decaying due to age . The weak ones are not being revamped, there hasn’t been any new infrastructure being built , especially in Lagos State, where you have over N60b monthly as internally generated revenue including the FAAC and other royalties and corporate taxes . The development in Lagos is way below the expectations of the people. Education is low; infrastructural development is low; medical facilities are poor; tertiary institutions are not given due attention; ICT is also low; low cost housing not available to the masses; agriculture not in existence; the youths have been abandoned, they do not have the right template for qualitative education. Even the youths that manage to get education do not have skills and the prerequisite qualities of expressing themselves and getting good jobs. The old people of Lagos are not being taken care off, i.e in terms of them getting free transportation,and medical attention, and they do not have medical insurance and other basic facilities that can make life easy for them. “

Doherty said it was disheartening that the government of Lagos had failed in keeping the civil servants in the state contented by meetting the inflation rate in the country vis-a-vis their present salary.

He said the pressure on the civil servants had led most of them into looking for other sources of making extra income, which has heightened corruption in the system.

Doherty, however, said the challenges of bad governance and the rot in the society could not be addressed without the politicians working to entrench internal democracy within the political parties.

The astute politician who stepped aside from the race for the governorship ticket of the Lagos PDP, citing wilful manipulation of the processes for the party primary, said democracy will continue to suffer with attendant consequences of bad governance when political leaders jettison due process and impose candidates on the party.

The PDP leader added that politicians and the nation would give due honour to the memory of the late winner of the June 12 election as the hero of democracy when the country is made prosperous and Nigeria practices true democracy where citizen rights are respected and protected.