Admin l Monday, Nov. 19, 2018
LAGOS, Nigeria – The Alliance for Democracy (AD) gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State, Chief Owolabi Salis has called on the youths to preserved the unity of the country and shun politically induced killings and monitization of votes.
Salis disclosed this in Lagos at Akwa-Cross 2018 program, with the theme: ‘Creating Sense of Belonging to Minorities in Nigeria’ noting that it is important for Nigerians to stay together as a country united in diversity. He said Nigeria as the most populous country in the world needed to be together in the interest of black brothers distributed across the globe.
According to him, Nigeria has been matured in managing challenging crises for good system of government.
” We have to stay together because we are strong together and present hope for black race. For us to stay together in peace and love, we have to reform or restructure to create proportional opportunities for all diverse group within the country. The system we currently practiced does not give hope to the minorities even though they are stakeholders in Nigeria project.
“The best solution is to practice a form of democracy called ‘equitocracy’, an equity based system that helps to reduced and or eliminate all the above vices at the same time . it is called diversity based democracy. With this system, Nigeria will assume the name called Federal Equity Republic of Nigeria or Equity Republic of Nigeria.”
However, the Akwa-cross group advised the marginalised group in the six geo-political zones, to remain focused, united and see the bigger picture in Nigeria. The group through their representative, Mr Saleh Udom said the presidential system of government as practised in Nigeria does not seem to give a place for the minority. He however, advocated a system called equity-based democracy.The group honoured Salis with a title, Abai of Akwa-Cross.
“Although, the Federal Government of Nigeria has made effort in creating bodies to protect the interest of minorities like the federal character commission, the National Human Rights Commission,where the minorities can lodge complaints. However, praiseworthy and laudable these bodies seem to be, the genuine intention of the government are at best for psychological satisfaction as those bodies are underfunded.
“The minority communities have been clamouring for control and decentralisation of power as a measure to integrate them in the main stream of governance but both present and past government have carefully avoided policies or bill in that regard. A system of government that would bring about rotational presidency within the six geo-political zone would surely create a sense of belonging for the minority race and even confidence in the majority race, that all interest have been fully integrated in governance,” the group said.
