A political analyst, Achike Jide, has appealed to Nigerians to determine the country they want and how they want governed saying that they should take appropriate action to determine the course the country should take.
The political analyst said Nigerians should invest in the political process taking interest in what happens and deciding how the country should be governed by political representatives.
Jide said that political office holders would always protect their interests so it should be a Nigerian issue to bring about needed change.
The political analyst said: “The people themselves have to determine the kind of country they want, the kind of politicians they want, the kind of governance they want and the way they can do that is to be interested in the things that happen”.
He said Nigerians must be interested in the political process and not just sit by when things happen contrary to expectation.
He said Nigerians could use advocacy and when it becomes necessary legitimate peaceful protests to call for change.
“They are not going to supervise process that will be detrimental to their interest. They are not going to do that. So the people have to determine what constitutes their own interest and work towards actualizing those interests,” he said.
He said that the effort to bring about change would be a struggle saying that the people should not allow politicians “ride roughshod” over them.
He said it was true the majority would be able to bring about change if they were determined and the minority would not hold them to ransom.
The political analyst said that elections were too expensive in the country and characterized by corruption.
Jide also said that salaries and allowances of elected representatives be reduced to make the cost of governance less expensive.
He spoke as guest on radio station in Port-Harcourt, 92.3 Nigeria Info.
He said that there should be electoral reform and electronic voting to pave the way for free and fair elections.
He also said so long as the country invests in technology in conducting elections it would be difficult for politicians to manipulate the system and win elections.
