Vibrant opposition critical to good governance, says Atiku
Former Vice President and chieftain of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has declared that a vibrant and constructive opposition, including opposition political parties and independent news media, are critical in ensuring good governance.
Atiku pointed out that a vibrant and constructive opposition was critical because they help to inform and mobilise the citizens and hold the government to account.
The former Vice President between 1999 and 2007 said this in a speech he delivered at the 2nd Annual Convention of the Abia State Medical Association Alumni Association, UK, held at Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, Dartford, London recently.
He equally said that a good governance requires a vigilant and demanding electorate.
The Turakin Adamawa pointed out that it has been very difficult to realise good governance in Nigeria due to a number of structural, historical and socio-cultural factors, stressing that human actors are largely responsible for the current state of affairs.
He said: “In contemporary Nigeria, good governance would involve addressing the country’s economic stagnation and crisis, including transitioning the economy to a post-oil/commodities trajectory, ensuring security, fighting corruption and restructuring the polity, including the structure of the federation and government institutions.
“In a democracy, a vibrant and constructive opposition, including opposition political parties and independent news media, are critical in ensuring good governance because they help to inform and mobilize the citizens and hold the government to account.
“And above all, perhaps, good governance requires a vigilant and demanding electorate.
“I think it has been very difficult to realize good governance in Nigeria due to a number of structural, historical and socio-cultural factors. But human actors are largely responsible for the current state of affairs. A brief excursion into Nigeria’s history will help”.
Atiku maintained that good governance will require a plan, not just for managing day-day governance issues but to address emerging and anticipated future challenges.
According to him, the goals of good governance, after all, are people’s security and welfare and the smooth functioning of society.
Continuing, he said: “In Nigeria, we need to restore due process and respect for government procedures rules and regulations. And we need to enforce sanctions for their disregard.
“We really need to go back to the basics of what makes for an orderly and smooth functioning governmental administration.
“Good governance requires proper coordination of the organs of government. You cannot have different agencies of the same government working at cross-purposes or contradicting each other on very important policy issues, and personnel selection.
“We must address Nigeria’s economic stagnation/crisis. This will include economic reform and modernisation which privileges the private sector as the engine of growth and employment generation.
“We must continue to diversify our economy away from the excessive reliance on oil, continue the privatization policy began more than a decade ago and try to align monetary and fiscal policies for much needed coherence, predictability and stability in order to attract investments.
“Good governance in Nigeria will include a relentless effort to curb corruption in public life. And this should not be merely dealing with corruption after the fact. Perhaps more important are efforts to prevent corruption from taking place, especially through the removal of opportunities for corruption and imposing strong sanctions for the corrupt.
“Such efforts should also include ensuring the independence of the anti-corruption agencies through such measures as funding them through the first line charge in the consolidated revenue fund and having them report to the parliament.
“We also have to improve security, including anti-terrorism, anti-kidnapping and anti-armed robbery, and efforts to end the herdsmen-farmers clashes. Fortunately, progress has been made in the fight against the Boko Haram insurgency by the Buhari administration, but we need to also make progress on the others.
“All these security issues are broadly linked to economic challenges, and improvements in the latter will help in that regard.
“To improve good governance in Nigeria we also need to restructure the country’s federal system. This include fiscal federalism, devolution of powers to federating units and the restoration of state police to states that so desire. “We might consider using the current geo-political zones as federating units since they are large enough to be more viable or we may consider a means-test for viability of states such that existing states that are unable to generate a specified percentage of their revenues from internal sources will be collapsed into other states.
“This will encourage the federating units to once more engage in productive activities and healthy rivalries.
“On the whole, good leadership is critical for good governance. This will involve leadership by example, a leadership that steers the country in a clear direction, is competent; has integrity and credibility; and is perceived as fair to all segments of the population.
“Effective opposition is critical for the maintenance of good governance and the deepening of democracy, which in turn, helps in the maintenance of good governance”.
