Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has praised Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike for his bravery and desire to keep Nigeria’s democracy intact.
The former President stated that the governor of Rivers’ courage to speak truth to power and challenge any leader was critical to the country’s democracy’s survival.
Obasanjo stated this on Thursday during the 2023 Port Harcourt City International Conference in Port Harcourt, according to WITHIN NIGERIA.
Obasanjo, who delivered the Keynote address titled “Respecting the Principles of Democracy,” praised the conference organizers and Wike for putting their weight behind the intellectual discourse at this critical time.
He said:
Wike’s courage ‘is one of the things’ he believed were essential for the survival of democracy in Nigeria.
In addition, Obasanjo advised the country’s leadership to address deep cultural and physiological issues in order to deepen democracy, noting that Nigeria had experienced twists, dives, and turns since its political independence.
Obasanjo stated that a nation cannot make meaningful and sustainable progress unless it engages in conversation, self-analysis, self-criticism, regular reading, and interactions.
He stated that true democracy promotes patriotism and nationalism, fosters trust in leaders and government, and encourages citizens to reach their full creative and production potential.
Obasanjo stated that democracy, when practiced properly in the interests of peace, inclusion, national growth, development, security, and sustainability, would solve the nation’s problems.
According to him, no two democracies are exactly alike because the specifics of history, society, culture, the nature of production and exchange, orientation, special balancing, and the character of the government and ruling elites shape democratic parties and institutions.
Obasanjo stated that because governing is completely open, governing and ruling elites who are not anchored in production will not have the desire to invest in R&D, science and technology, and good governance.
According to him, citizens who live in a democracy share common perspectives, petitions, and commitments in the fundamental terms of democratic practice, and they may end up as beneficiaries or victims depending on the outcome of the democratic process and practice.
If after six decades of political independence, our leaders are not showing clear capacities to provide a transformative leadership that unites Nigerians and contains ethnic, religious, regional, selfish and class proclivities then there is a problem, he said.