Ahead of the forthcoming elections, President of the Senate, Senator David Mark has challenged Nigerian youths to rise up against the anomie including electoral or political impunity that hitherto undermined our progress as a nation.
This he said has become imperative in view of recent political developments in the country in order to safe guard democracy adjudged as “undoubtedly the superior and the best form of government because it is premised on the respect for man as a reasonable being”.
Addressing the audience at the maiden edition of the Initiative of integrity icons international in honour of the publisher of Leadership Newspapers Sam Nda-Isaiah in Minna, Niger State at the weekend, Senator Mark opined that the historic challenge of today’s youth is to work to further deepen democracy and those values that sustains it.
Speaking through his Chief of Staff, Senator Anthony Manzo, he stated that democracy with its ballot box, is the only political tool that offers Nigerians a fighting chance, because it affords them a viable mechanism to hold those in power accountable.
Senator Mark however lamented that a vast majority of our youths have been lost to crime and to endeavors that undermine national development.
He said:”Be it examination malpractices, thuggery,rigging, election violence,ballot box snatching, substance abuse, drug trafficking, cultism,kidnapping, armed robbery or banditry,religious extremism and armed insurgency or official corruption- almost all of these deleterious vocations are dominated by youths.
“The national ethos has become so bruised that many a youth would not cringe at the prospect of running away with billions of Naira pilfered from the public till”.
According to Mark, time has come for the nation to help our lost youths redeem themselves pointing out that “this can only be achieved through good governance, fostered by democracy.
” Good governance is not an abstract principle, it is participatory, consensual, accountable, transparent, responsive, efficient, equitable and inclusive. It adheres strictly to the rule of law and affords a bulwark against caprice, arbitrariness and corruption”.
The fundamental objective of good governance, Senator Mark added is the acceleration of social, economic and political development, leading to mass and gainful employment and a reduction, if not total eradication of poverty in the land.
The National Assembly on its part he reiterated has continued to play its critical role in ensuring that democracy thrives pointing out that the passage of the Electoral Act 2010 and the successful alteration of the 1999 constitution were all efforts borne out of a political soul searching to reform the electoral system.
Thorough our elections are not yet a template for perfection, he was pleased to note
that impunity is no longer the order of the day, a positive trend he urged the youths to sustain by insisting on their rights and being eternally vigilant and actively participating in the electoral system.
One crucial component of that reform, he maintained was the insertion of a constitutional provision giving the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) and the Judiciary a first line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund so that they would not be encumbered or hindered by any bottleneck.
