According Abraham Lincoln Democracy is government of the people, by the people, for the people. The term democracy consists of four key elements: (a) A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections ; (b) The active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life; (c) Protection of the human rights of all citizens, and (d) A rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.
Here in Ogun State we have people scattered across the three senatorial districts and who are knitted together by geographical entity call Ogun. The things that unite us are stronger than the things that divide us. That's what is obtainable in the past not until 2011 where most of state resources are concentrated in one district.
Otunba Rotimi Paseda have no intention of favouring one district at the expense of another. Subject to the over-riding need to preserve law and order, it is our determination that everyone should have access to government presence in terms of infrastructural development, bringing to life natural resources in such areas.
Paseda clearly believed in tolerance, accommodation and freedom to promote individual and collective good. He also believed that once the political elite would provide the right leadership unity is assured because the ordinary citizens have no problem with each other.
That the subject of marginalisation keeps recurring in our State discourse suggests that the leadership question is still critical to people quest for good governance and the consolidation of the democratic order.
This is definitely to be expected in view of the widely held notion that the problem with ethnicity is mainly that of leadership whose aim is solely to develop his own people at the expense of others.
The relationship between the state and the citizens today is under considerable storm and stress, and there is the need to begin to squarely address the question of poverty, unemployment of most especially the youth, decayed social and economic infrastructure, as well as marginalization of women in the development process in order to give meaning and content to our evolving democratic order.
Above all, Otunba Rotimi Paseda will address the often neglected imperative of attitudinal transformation on the part of the political elite, the absence of which, good governance and development will continue to be a mirage. In all these, however, there should be no lamentation or excuses from any senatorial district in Ogun State. To forge ahead, we must, like the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo evoke the spirit of hard work and selflessness to confront the challenges facing us without looking back.
By Onthegoinformation
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