Some scholars on Thursday said that Nigeria’s democracy required serious attention to give hope and bring dividends to the common man.
The dons spoke at the 25th Edition of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) June 12 Lecture in Lagos.
The lecture was titled ” June 12 as a Catalyst for National Development: True Federalism and Nigeria’s Integration”.
Speaking, Prof. Femi Otubanjo of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, who commended the OPC community for sustaining the memory of June 12, said that the election was a manifestation of imperfections of Nigeria’s federation.
Otubanjo, who noted that democracy should serve the people and help the people out of their problems, said that much had not been achieved in the country.
“We are in a union in which we do not all share the same values. A significant part of Nigeria wants to move with time while another significant part wants to remain where they are always being.
“The result of this is that 65 years after independence, what we have had is motion without movement.
“We have to change our democracy. We have to change our demography. We have to improve our federation system,” Otubanjo said.
Otubanjo said that Nigeria must continue rotation of presidential office between the north and south to achieve some measure of stability.
“Rotation is supposed to be a stabilising factor in which every region knows that sooner or later, it will have the opportunity to occupy the office of the president,” he said.
The don said that the desperation of some politicians to return power to the north in 2027 would constitute an affront on that principle of rotation.
“More importantly, it will be an assault on the peace, equity and unity of Nigeria. We ought to know that rotation gives some sense of stability.
“Nigeria is a work in progress, I don’t know when we are going to get there We need to put in our constitution a principle of referendum that will enable us to vote on restructuring and such other governmental change,” Otubanjo said.
Also speaking, Prof. Femi Obayori of the Lagos State University, said that June 12 was a struggle of resistance against exploitation, oppression and injustice, watered by the blood of ordinary Nigerians.
Obayori, who noted that June 12 was a struggle for better Nigeria, said: “Expectations were that transition to civil rule in 1999 will end most Nigeria’s problems .
“What we have is not a federation. Nigeria must become a true federation, with a government that takes into cognisant of our ethic peculiarities and goals as a people to move forward,” he said.
Advocating fiscal federalism, regionalism, state and local government police and other reforms, Obayori said that these would solve many of the challenges facing the country.
He urged President Bola Tinubu not to pay lip service to the 2014 Constitutional Conference resolutions to bring peace and stability into the country.
Also, Prof. Adebola Osipitan, of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun, who noted that some people paid with their lives for democracy, said Nigerians were not enjoying the system fully yet.
The Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Akanbi Ilupeju, urged Nigerians not jettison election because of the mindset that votes would not count.
Advocating for transparent electoral system, Ilupeju said, “Let us have the belief that our votes will count and participate in elections.”
In his remark, Prof. Chiedozie Okoro, the Head of Department, Philosophy, University of Lagos, who noted that many African countries ,including Nigeria,were yet to have full attributes of working nations.
Calling for true federalism and dismantling of colonial structures in the Nigerian system, Okoro noted that June 12 remained an ideology.
Also speaking,another scholar, Dr Rhoda Showunmi, said that the answer to Nigeria’s numerous challenges remained restructuring of the system.
“We must not continue to travel on a road that we have seen will never take us to our destination,” she said.
The event was attended by some rights activists and followers of late Chief MKO Abiola, leaders of thoughts and leaders of Southwest Security Outfit, codenamed Amotekun, among others.