Rakiya A. Muhammad
21 November 2008
Sokoto — Former president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari has said it was high time the nation had a viable democratic system that can guarantee peace, justice and fair play towards sustaina-ble stability in the county.
Alhaji Shehu Shagari who stated this at a three-day retreat organi-zed by the Sokoto State House of Assembly, challenged stake-holders in the political system towards achieving that.
He noted that Nigeria's de-mocracy in the past 40 years went through various military interventions and critical politi-cal developments which marred Nigeria's progress towards stable and efficient democracy.
Shagari said in order to achie-ve a viable democratic system, each of the three arms of go-vernment had a vital role to play and urged them to fully under-stand their functions, powers and limitations. Sokoto State Governor, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko attributed the achie-vements recorded by his admi-nistration to the effective and purposeful collaboration bet-ween the three arms of govern-ment in the state.
He asserted that the effective collaboration that had existed among the three arms of go-vernment had enhanced accoun-tability in governance through various mechanisms of checks and balances as dictated by the principle of separation of powers.
Effective delivery of the much desired dividend of democracy, he emphasized, could only be guaranteed through the collective pursuit of the developmental needs and aspirations of the people.
He stressed that at this stage of the nation's political and eco-nomic development, destructive conflicts that negatively affect purposeful people oriented and genuine implementation of grass-roots development political culture should be de-empha-sized.
Speaker, Sokoto State House of Assembly, Balarabe Salame, who harped on the need for ca-pacity building among the legis-lators, said the retreat was aimed at addressing the complexities of legislative practices in a de-mocratic setting.
He assured that they would continue to play their roles in the quest for socio-economic development of the state.
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