You are responsible for bad leadership in the country — Lawan tells Nigerians

President of the Senate, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, has suggested in a recent comment that Nigerians are responsible for bad leadership in the country due to lack of active involvement of citizens in the process of governance.



Lawan made the statement when he hosted a delegation from the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, United Kingdom, and local officials of Inter-Parliamentary who paid an official visit at the National Assembly, Abuja.

He said until Nigerians begin to demand effective representation from elected officials, the nation's democracy would continue to suffer.


Speaking on attaining inclusion in governance, Lawan said, “while we emphasize on those elected, I think democracy can only be deepened if there is participation from those who are not in office.




“Those of us who have been elected of course represent people, but we can do little really, if there is no participation in the governance process by those who elected us.



“Hardly ever are we understood on what our roles are by those who elected us. They think we are sometimes supposed to behave like the executive arm of government.

“There is need for those who are not elected to also be properly on board, while those of us elected should be checked just as we check the executive arm of government.


“People should be interested in what we do. Those who elected us should continuously give advice and ask questions; and where there are questions, we should be able to provide explanations. This is very important.

“I will continue to advocate that we bring political education down to the primary school level. We shouldn’t be looking only at those already in office. What will make our democracy work for us is citizen participation,” the Senate president said.