Former Minister of State for Defence, Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro, has stated that for democracy to work effectively in the country, the government must invest in conducting free, fair, and credible elections, News About Nigeria reports.
He stated this while speaking in an interview in Lagos in commemoration of Nigeria’s 2024 Democracy Day.
He noted that ensuring a more credible electoral process would be a good starting point for Nigeria to stand out in democracy, adding that once a process loses credibility, there is a problem.
“One of the things is to ensure that we have a transparent electoral process, a process that cannot be easily manipulated by anybody so that it can be credible.
“Once an election is credible, all the litigation surrounding elections will go down, and people will happily contest and when they lose, they go home.
“This is the only aspect of our democracy that we need to invest heavily in and ensure that it works, because once a process loses credibility, there is a problem,” he stated.
He further noted that Nigerian democracy is expensive, and it does not have to be so.
Obanikoro urged Nigerians to imitate the Western countries in practicing an inexpensive democracy, by making the budget of the National Assembly more transparent.
“Democracy doesn’t have to be this expensive, that is one thing we don’t get right.
“It is expensive because we have made it so. Let me give you a good example because we borrowed this system from America.
“In America, they don’t provide accommodation for lawmakers, they fend for themselves when it comes to that, they live basically on salary and very small fringe benefits.
“When the budget is more transparent and people can go online and see what is allocated to every member of the National Assembly and can also input into the process, I do believe that will make the process or the institution less expensive,” he added.
