Ideology key to supporting democracy – Ikpeazu
Nigeria needs democratic system, political party ideology and strong citizen participation to support democratic governance, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Maritime Safety, Education and Administration, Lynda Chuba Ikpeazu, said yesterday.
Ikpeazu, who also spoke at the event, said a major weakness of Nigeria’s democracy in the last two decades remained the absence of a democratic system.
“What we have in Nigeria now is a democratic government. Do we have a democratic system to support it? My opinion is that we don’t,” she said.
She said citizens were not aware of their rights and since Nigeria is not a jungle, citizens should know and protect their rights. To strengthen democracy, the lawmaker made a case for a strong civil service system to support democratic governance, ramping up the fight against graft, stopping selecting adherence to the rule of law by the executive and increasing the number of women participation in both elective and appointive positions.
“The last two decades of democratic rule have seen fluctuating numbers of women in both elective and appointive positions. Democracy should be about equitable representation for all interest groups in society. However, we have struggled as a country to achieve this,” she said.
Ikpeazu also identified the absence of political party ideologies as a key weakness of the democracy in Nigeria.
A mild drama played out at this point as Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, disagreed over her position on the absence of political party ideologies in Nigeria.
Governor Kayode shook his head and protested from the crowd when she said, “If I were to ask my brother, the Governor of Ekiti State about the ideology of APC, I am sure his ideology will be different from the next person.”
As Governor Kayode shook his head and said his ideology was the same as other APC members, Ikpeazu insisted, “No, it is not. It is not. Forget about that. It is not. That’s the truth. We should not be partisan; our problem in Nigeria is that we tend to be partisan and once we are partisan, definitely it clouds and determines how we act.”