Nigeria has advanced to liberal democratic state – Osita Okechukwku, VON DG

Mr Osita Okechukwu, the Director General of Voice of Nigeria
(VON), says Nigeria has advanced as a liberal democratic state.

Okechukwu said this on Sunday in an interview with the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He said the democratic system allows for checks and balances
which reduces the rate of impunity in the country.

Liberal democracy emphasises the separation of powers, an
independent judiciary and a system of checks and balances between branches of
government.

Multi-party systems with at least two persistent, viable
political parties are characteristic of liberal democracies.

“For those who do not agree that we’ve advanced, I do not
blame them, for them, they think that democracy is a revolution.

“Democracy is not a revolution, all these growth and
advancements that took place in democracy were incremental.

“If it’s when Buhari was military head of state, he doesn’t
need to go to the National Assembly to bargain for the budget, all he needed
was to sit somewhere and the thing moves on.

“But because liberal democracy is founded on freedom, the
values of a liberal state is that the left should know what the right hand is
doing, and the right should know what the left is doing.

“That’s why we have the parliament that provides checks and
balances, the checks and balances can delay the speed of governance.”

He said that over time, the electoral process in the country
has improved from what was obtained in 1999.

“There has been a lot of improvement, yes, there are
challenges, and there are flaws because we’re all human beings.”

Okechukwu added that during the just concluded elections, a
commercial motorcycle operator got elected while sitting governors lost their
bids to get into the chambers.

He said such occurrences, which happened in some parts of
the country during the elections, were a tremendous leap for strong democratic
values and ethos.