NewzFormer Cross River State governor and presidential candidate of Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, Donald Duke, has declared that Nigerians were better off under military rule. He argued that 27 years of civilian government had imposed enormous costs without delivering corresponding improvements in the lives of the people. “The people were better off under the military.
At least governance was not that expensive,” Duke said in an interview weekend. He added that the assessment should be measured against the welfare of citizens and the “democracy dividends” delivered since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999. If we focus on the well-being of the people, what we term democracy dividends, how much has been delivered?
“We’re still having the same problems we had 27 years ago. The number of children out of school has not improved; it’s deteriorating. The healthcare system is not improving; it’s deteriorating.
“Infrastructure deficiency over the last 27 years — are we better off? The question is: are we better off today than we were in 1999 “Hardly so. Duke said Nigeria had failed to resolve the fundamental problems that existed before the return of democratic government.
“The problems that existed before 1999 —electrification, unemployment— those things are still there. And I don’t see a structured approach towards dealing with these issues. “This is my frustration, because there’s no problem we cannot resolve.
“There are peer reviews you can do. Are we thinking through our problems?” he queried. The PRP presidential candidate said Nigeria’s governance crisis was worsened by an ineffective opposition and a political system in which election results often failed to reflect the wishes of voters.
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