Mark to Nigerian youths: Rise against political impunity

Ahead of the forthcoming elections, the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, has challenged Nigerian youths to rise against the anomie, including electoral or political impunity, that had hitherto undermined Nigeria’s progress as a nation.
This, Mark said, has become imperative in view of recent political developments in the country in order to safeguard democracy adjudged as “undoubtedly the superior and the best form of government because it is premised on the respect for man as a reasonable being.”
Addressing the audience at the maiden edition of the Initiative of Integrity Icons International in honour of the publisher of Leadership newspapers, Sam NDA-Isaiah, in Minna, Niger State at the weekend, Mark opined that the historic challenge of today’s youth is to work to further deepen democracy and those values that sustain it.
Speaking through his Chief of Staff, Senator Anthony Manzo, he stated that democracy with its ballot box is the only political tool that offers Nigerians a fighting chance, because it affords them a viable mechanism to hold those in power accountable.
Mark however lamented that a vast majority of Nigeria’s youths have been lost to crime and to endeavours that undermine national development.
He said: “Be it examination malpractices, thuggery, rigging, election violence, ballot box snatching, substance abuse, drug trafficking, cultism, kidnapping, armed robbery or banditry, religious extremism and armed insurgency or official corruption, almost all of these deleterious vocations are dominated by youths.
“The national ethos has become so bruised that many a youth would not cringe at the prospect of running away with billions of Naira pilfered from the public till.”
According to Mark, time has come for the nation to help Nigeria’s lost youths redeem themselves, pointing out: “This can only be achieved through good governance, fostered by democracy.
“Good governance is not an abstract principle, it is participatory, consensual, accountable, transparent, responsive, efficient, equitable and inclusive. It adheres strictly to the rule of law and affords a bulwark against caprice, arbitrariness and corruption.”
The fundamental objective of good governance, Mark added, is the acceleration of social, economic and political development, leading to mass and gainful employment and a reduction, if not total eradication, of poverty in the land.
The National Assembly on its part, he reiterated, has continued to play its critical role in ensuring that democracy thrives, pointing out that the passage of the Electoral Act 2010 and the successful amendment of the 1999 Constitution were all efforts borne out of a political soul searching to reform the electoral system.