Political Turn-taking- A Perverted Form of Liberal Democracy - CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP DEV. & YOUTH ADVOCACY, Enugu State Chapter

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Political Turn-taking- A Perverted Form of Liberal Democracy - CENTER FOR LEADERSHIP DEV. & YOUTH ADVOCACY, Enugu State Chapter*

.... _only incompetence and visionless leaders who are out for selfish political ambition campaign on the basis of ethnicity, division or tribal sentiments._

All over the world, nations strive to bring out the best among its people to hold offices, so that the fullness of its potential can be released to address challenges facing the people, create and utilize opportunities for their advancement. And while liberal democracy ensure that universal representation is achieved through geographic delimitation, leadership opportunities are not restricted to carved-out zones that are not spelled out in the constitution because it not only limits the choice of qualified persons for political offices to a limited area; it also limits the chances of the state to develop, thereby sacrificing merit and  competence. 

  

Liberal democracy is a representative democracy in which the ability of the elected representatives to exercise decision-making power is subject to the rule of law, and usually moderated by a constitution that emphasizes the protection of the rights and freedom of individuals including the right to vie for elective offices and which places constraints on the leaders and on the extent to which the will of the majority can be exercised against the rights of minorities.

Though the practice of liberal democracy in Nigeria is now being overshadowed by the clamours for political zoning and other power-sharing arrangements as mechanisms for peace or ethno-regional balancing but surprising that the practice of such informality has left us devastated and worse than we never imagined, because it give room for incompetence people who are not prepared for such leadership to hold political positions. And the consequences of such archaic practice brought us to where we are today and the good question is, should we continue like this and how long shall we continue to use eight (8) solid years testing or trying people. It is often says that one of the greatest crime against self is when a leader sees a problem he thinks he can resolve, and offers his service to his people, it is a great disservice to the people to block that vision on the platform of arranged deals by unknown persons which are not sanctioned by the law or the citizens.

As a people, our focus should be on protecting our people and unifying our state and not dividing us. Our eyes should be centered on electing people of proven integrity, intelligence, drive, and vision who are prepared to perform and bring gains of democracy to the people. Because genuine democracy they say does not limit contestants to area of birth within a local, state, nation or region. Our belief in fair play, equity and justice revolves around allowing any indigene of any part of the state, as long as that person is qualified to contest any elective offices and let the masses decide and that means broadening the chances of the state to succeed. As far as we know, election should be based on ability to deliver service and democracy is about letting the masses decide and not sharing elective offices turn by turn as if we are sharing meat in a village square. Further, only incompetence and visionless leaders who are out for selfish political ambition campaign on the basis of ethnicity, division or tribal sentiments.

Finally, if we want to build unity, if we actually mean to develop our state and advance our people, we will wisely do away with cutting our state up into fragments that bring division and enhance our differences and reminds us of old wounds or affiliations, a reminder that we are not one and can't be one which will further divide and underdevelop us. For example, If someone from Enugu East is in a state of coma, and someone from Nsukka has tried before and he could not bring that person back to life, and yet another person from Enugu West has the magic wand to help resuscitate the dying Enugu East person, it would be plain stupidity to say "no" to the person with ability because you don't like his face or where he come from or maybe you think is not his shift to work at that moment. What it mean is that the sick Enugu East person will just suffer untimely death rather than get the needed lifeline help. In case you don’t know, the state of Enugu is on life support and require the service of a highly competent hand to save the state from the hands of quackery and opportunists and Senator Prof. Ike Ekweremadu is the needed hand and it will be the height of stupidity, insanity, primitive and self defeat for anyone to dispute his eligibility or competence to rescue the state from further detorioration. For Enugu 2023, Senator Ike Ekweremadu is the needed hand. 

_*CENTRE FOR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND YOUTH ADVOCACY, Enugu State Chapter.*_