Don wants Nigerians to demand accountability from political office holders

Emmanuel Onwiodukit, a university don, has urged Nigerians to demand accountability from governments at all levels to ensure transparency and good governance in the country.

Onwiodukit, a professor of Economics at the University of Uyo, said that demanding accountability from political office holders would “always keep the government on its toes to focus on development of society.”

In an interview with BusinessDay, the university don, who was a member of the Akwa Ibom Sate Executive Council in charge of Economic Development, noted that the demand for accountability has become necessary to force those in positions of responsibility at all levels to be accountable to the people.

“The people should demand for accountability from governments; they should demand to know how much has gone into each state from the federation account, what projects were executed and at what cost?” he said.

Explaining that governments “sometimes may not want to voluntarily be accountable, it is the duty of the people to demand accountability; this will help put the government on its toes which may force the government to do things the right way.”

The university don, who also frowned at the absence of development plans, noted that the country has recorded slow industrial growth due to the absence of sustained development plans.

“Governments should focus on a development plan, get professionals to develop a plan and get everybody to buy into it including members of opposing political parties.

“Let debate the plan; when we debate and agree, it will be adopted as the development plan of the state,’’ he stated.

He decried strategies being adopted by various states in the country to fight poverty adding that the high level of poverty could be addressed by integrating the people into the production sector and not by “empowerment schemes.”

According to him, “We don’t bring people out of poverty by giving them cars, and tricycles because they will break down after a while and poverty will multiply.

“So, the way to get the people out of poverty is to get people integrated into the production process to acquire skills and negotiate their own living wages.

Onwioduokit, however, commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the removal of power generation from the exclusive legislative list, saying that with the latest development, states should be actively involved in power generation and distribution to boost economic growth in the country.