Civil Society Groups Sustain Nigeria's Democracy, Says Oshiomhole

EDO State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole yesterday said the relative success Nigeria's democracy has achieved should be attributed to the efforts of civil society organisations and the organised labour, instead of politicians who he said have not done enough to fix Nigeria.He stated this in Benin City at a reception organised for him by civil society organisations in the state to celebrate his recent conferment with the national honour of Commander of the Order Of the Niger (CON) by the federal government.The civil society groups, led by the Executive Director, African Network for the Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), David Ugolor, and including representatives of Gani Fawehinmi Foundation for Good Governance, the Nigerian Labour Congress 9nlc0 and student bodies among others, recommended Oshiomhole as a role model to other politicians in the state.In their speeches, NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Peter Esele, endorsed Oshiomhole's bid for a second term.Oshiomhole also carpeted those he said have argued that labour leaders have failed as politicians.'They claimed that Federick Chiluba failed in Zambia, but I said Lula da Silva delivered Brazil. There is no question that our constituency is the best, because few years down the road, the godfathers of yesterday, those lions whose words were laws, that one man who determines who becomes a councillor in any part of the 192 wards in Edo State, have been reduced to vegetables.'Those who will go on the streets and absorb all the tear gas and even the bullets from the Nigerian police and sometimes the security apparatus, the only people who can take those risks and make such sacrifices without asking what is there for me, are members of the civil society and organised labour but you won't find them within political parties,' he said.The civil society, he insisted, represent the true conscience of the Nigerian nation, saying he is proud to have come from that background.'We haven't finished the whole problems of Edo State and we cannot finish them in many years. But we have made a statement that Edo can work and today, it is working. The same way I believe Edo can work, Nigeria can work and it will work one day,' he added.
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