L
LequteMan
Guest
Ex President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, has condemned the Muhammadu Buhari government, demanding why life is becoming harder for Nigerians after it promised them change.
He said this in a piece sent to media houses on Tuesday titled 'The Truth and Nothing But the Truth,’ complaining about the bitter state of the country.
“What, for example, happened to all the lofty promises made during the campaign season that preceded the 2015 elections? Why are our politicians unwilling to be accountable? Why is transparency in government a taboo? Did they not promise to change this country into a paradise? Why is it, then, that life is getting even harder for the average Nigerian? Why is the level of insecurity so high that people are abducted even from their homes? Why has our country’s leadership failed to create an environment for investments to thrive?”
“A government that is more powerful than the people is not accountable to the people. It does not consider transparency a sacred obligation. That is the situation as we write. Our government is not accountable to the people. Even when government functionaries are invited to the National Assembly to answer some questions, they arrogantly fail to honour the invitation. And they get away with such insolence! But that is not what we need in Nigeria. For in a veritable democracy, the government is at the service of the citizen. Such is the profound significance of going to the polls.
“The citizen hires his president, governor, senator, etc. If the people are not satisfied with their performance, those they hired are fired at the polls. But that remains a tall dream in Nigeria where, precisely because those we hire are more powerful than their employers, they are in a position to perpetuate themselves in office through an electoral process whose integrity exists only in the breach.”
The retired bishop added that the country could not take its rightful place in the comity of nations while the political class imposed its “counterfeit democracy of sole candidates and ‘divinely’ anointed contestants on the rest of us.”
He said this in a piece sent to media houses on Tuesday titled 'The Truth and Nothing But the Truth,’ complaining about the bitter state of the country.
“What, for example, happened to all the lofty promises made during the campaign season that preceded the 2015 elections? Why are our politicians unwilling to be accountable? Why is transparency in government a taboo? Did they not promise to change this country into a paradise? Why is it, then, that life is getting even harder for the average Nigerian? Why is the level of insecurity so high that people are abducted even from their homes? Why has our country’s leadership failed to create an environment for investments to thrive?”
“A government that is more powerful than the people is not accountable to the people. It does not consider transparency a sacred obligation. That is the situation as we write. Our government is not accountable to the people. Even when government functionaries are invited to the National Assembly to answer some questions, they arrogantly fail to honour the invitation. And they get away with such insolence! But that is not what we need in Nigeria. For in a veritable democracy, the government is at the service of the citizen. Such is the profound significance of going to the polls.
“The citizen hires his president, governor, senator, etc. If the people are not satisfied with their performance, those they hired are fired at the polls. But that remains a tall dream in Nigeria where, precisely because those we hire are more powerful than their employers, they are in a position to perpetuate themselves in office through an electoral process whose integrity exists only in the breach.”
The retired bishop added that the country could not take its rightful place in the comity of nations while the political class imposed its “counterfeit democracy of sole candidates and ‘divinely’ anointed contestants on the rest of us.”
