Democracy simply put they say is the government of the people by the people and for the people. This definition is saying the people are at the centre of any reasonable democracy but the people cannot all be in government. Democracy has critical components that give full representative to the people in government. The components such as separation of power, check and balance which the arms of government use to check and stop excesses of one and other. The budget process and the implementation of the budget are examples of how these components of democracy work. The question this morning is; are these components of democracy effective in governance in Nigeria? The fact remains that if we say we are practicing democracy and these components are not effective, then our style of government should be given another name different from democracy.
No doubt legislative oversight function is an important component of democracy mostly in democratic structure like ours in Nigeria. In our quest for nation building as a country, the exercise of effective legislative oversight function remains crucial. As crucial as this is; how effective is it in our democracy? What are the challenges the lawmakers are facing in the process of performing their oversight functions in Nigeria? What is your assessment of the oversight functions of our legislative arm of government? Some say they are doing it but the Nigerian factor is affecting their performance while others are asking when are we going to do away with this thing called Nigerian factor that is affecting all aspects of governance process negatively. Some people say we have not started the practice of democracy in Nigeria; if the critical components of democracy are difficult for us to practice then we should give our style of government another name rather than deceiving our self claiming we practice democracy. Where do you stand in this as we are going into another legislative journey in the next 53 days or so? Let’s talk about it. Time: 7am on 90.5FM.08034379453 facebook ogunradio abeokuta.
