Activist urges transparency in governance

Prominent unionist and National Executive Council (NEC) member of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Issa Aremu, has emphasised the need for transparency in the management of political offices in the country.

He said this would reduce to the barest minimum, the problems of poverty, unemployment, famine and other setbacks to the growth and development of the country and make Nigerians enjoy the dividends of democracy.

Aremu who said this at PANAFEST foundation’s 25th anniversary colloquium with the theme: ‘Leadership Challenges in Africa’, maintained that the African continent would only get it right “if they have the right mindset.”

Citing the former President of South Africa, Dr. Nelson Mandela, whom he described as a success story in the African continent, Aremu said that his selflessness and nature is what all would remember.

According to him, “What is required of our leaders is transparency, respect for human rights and responsive attitudes. It is then that the trusting can start on the part of the followership.”

Aremu posited that the integration and rebirth of the African societies would facilitate and re-energise the people’s commitment to developing the black race thereby creating more jobs, building new businesses, hospitals, new road networks and better healthcare systems and dictating a new direction for Africa’s political and economic policies.

He also identified that with a new rebirth, Africa is close to emancipation that would launch Africa to a new dawn. Aremu called for the homecoming of African in the Diaspora adding that this would commence the integration of collective efforts in building and re-energizing the African societies, with enduring and lasting values that Dr. Kwame Nkruma, Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Geoge Padmore, Nnamdi Azikiwe among others started.

“The integration of African nations will strengthen the possibilities of having one voice speaking for the continent and a force to reckon with in the world affairs. It will equip African economies to find her feet and create room for a more formidable intellectual and scientific collaborations that would inspire the continent’s progress towards achieving the dreams of past and present African leaders and Pan Africanists.”

Also speaking, representatives of PANAFEST in Nigeria, Kehinde and Taiwo Oluwafunsho, called for serious business in the executive and legislative arms of government and lamented that Africa is not catching up with the demands of the 21st century.