Fayemi Wants FG to Tackle Insurgency, Infrastructural Deficits

Fayemi Wants FG to Tackle Insurgency, Infrastructural Deficits

By Chuks Okocha

The Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), who is also the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has urged the federal government to strategise efficiently towards solving the developmental deficit, poverty and insurgency in the country

Fayemi, who stated this at public presentation of a book titled: ‘Nigeria Democracy without Development: How to fix it’, written by Omano Edigheji, the special adviser to Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, called on the federal government to tackle poverty, illiteracy and insurgency, which he said are hindering the development of the country.

The governor, who was represented by Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi, said: “Democracy can only be sustained by people who are happy, and who can foresee a future for themselves and their children.

“And because of the current stability they enjoy, they would want to use the instrument of democracy to sustain that.

“I hold the view that to have a democratic state, we must firstly succeed as a developmental state, because it is when we get rid of poverty, illiteracy and insurgency that we can talk of democracy.

“It is only when these human calamities are taken away from a polity of a geographical location that you can say that democracy can work.

“Unfortunately, we believe that democracy in our country will lead to development, and that has been the state of Nigeria since Independence.

“That is why I believe that any government in the country, including the current government, needs to invest more time, more thinking, and must bring all hands on deck so that we can solve the problem of developmental deficits.”

Also, on his own at the event, Dr. Innocent Chukwuma of Ford Foundation decried the role of godfatherism in Nigerian politics

He attributed it to the criterion given by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the registration of political parties in 1998.

Related Articles