2022 Democracy Day: We have reasons to celebrate — SGF

By Joel Oladele, Abuja

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said Nigeria has many reasons to celebrate Democracy Day as it has brought a lot of unprecedented developments to the nation in the last 23 years.

Mustapha revealed this on Monday  while speaking with journalists after an event organised to mark the 23 years of an uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria held at Eagle Square, Abuja.

The carnival-like event had in attendance, people from all walks of life and dignitaries like: President Mohamadu Buhari, immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan, Senate president Ahmed Lawal, Speaker House of Representatives, Right Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the presidential flag bearer of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming 2023 general elections, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu amongst others.

According to, the government will continue to ensure that the citizens enjoy the dividends of democracy as that is the only way to prove that our democracy is growing.

“I believe by the time our democracy is 24 year old, we would have consolidated all the gains of democracy and you can see the amount of improvements that are being made.

“We have reasons to celebrate democracy, we’ve gone through so many challenges as a nation but 23 years of unbroken democracy on the continent of Africa, particularly for a country like Nigeria that has had a lot of interruptions in the course of our political development, I think it is worth celebrating and to also assure our people that there is hope for this country. We are birthing a new Nigeria as we move beyond 24 years of democracy,” Mustapha said.

He also used the occasion to score the Buhari led administration high in terms of running a transparent government.

“We are doing the best we can, having served in this government in the last five years, I think if there is any government that is open and transparent about engagement on the issue of human rights, it’s this particular administration, we are not hiding anything. We have subjected ourselves to interrogation by the Human Rights Commission and other international bodies, there might be some few abuses here and there, it’s part of the development process of evolving a humane, just, fair and equitable society.”

In his words of advice to Nigerians as we move towards 2023, Mustapha appealed to them to remain resolute even in the face of challenges bedeviling the nation as they have all it takes to overcome.

“I urge Nigerians to be hopeful, and continue to be Nigeria. We are very resourceful and resolute people. We are very determined people, we don’t feel defeated, we overcome them. Whenever we have problems, they are challenges.

“In terms of security and economy which is a global phenomenon, it’s not only restricted to Nigeria. The one between Ukraine and Russia has badly impacted the world, COVID-19 has its own adverse effects and we are just trying to come out of it but I can tell you that Nigeria as a nation has sustained its economic growth that we’ve been able to exit recession.

“Most developed countries are still in recession but we’ve been able to exit it and we have continuously maintained in the last four quarters a sustained growth in our economy and we have diversified the economy. Oil and gas is not the major index now in judging whether our economy is growing and I think that’s the best way to go, to diversify the economy so that the people will through SME be able to feed well and generate employment.

“Government cannot provide for everybody, we’ve come to a point where we must resolve that the way to go is to provide the enabling environment so that the people of Nigeria can just work as they have always worked. Nobody will ever refer to Nigerians as lazy people,  all of the world we are considered as vibrant, very strong and resourceful people,” he affirmed.

Also speaking, a female senatorial aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, representing Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja said security challenges is a global menace that is not limited to just Nigeria and it requires a collective responsibility of leaders and citizens to nip it in the bud.

“The level of insecurities is what it is all around the world. Insecurities right now is a state not just of my nation but nations of the world where we are as a siamese of all of the turbulence of nations of leadership failure, of followership failure, of failure of different advocates and interventions. We have CSIs, CSOs, and all kinds of Os but what’s anyone doing at the level of personal governance?

“Self governance will direct and redirect the security representation in a nation. My prayer is Oh God of creation,  direct our noble course, if he directs our leaders and helps our youths the truth to know. we will truly move from being a nation of recycling our bitter complaints and accusations to one that will rise up and fight what has become a personal challenge in our personal state.

“It takes maturing in terms of political capacity, in terms of political architecture and in terms of political intentionality by not just leadership but even politics in the positioning of the followership and the whole personal engagement in the political space. Politics is an advocacy, it is transactional before it becomes transformational, it’s a mess before it becomes a message.

“So for me, Democracy Day in my assessment will continue not just be a tribute but be a very deliberate expression of our political will as a people under God for the Federal Republic of Nigeria to establish and to rescale our highest democratic ideas,” Adedayo opined.

On women inclusion in government, she said women will continue to push until they get a better understanding on how to dominate the political space.

“I am still in the race for the FCT senate position, 2023. The realities of this expression and aspiration for women in the political space, we don’t stop, we don’t give up, we don’t just owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the child’s right now by the elect of women who have run, women who will run one day, a girl child today who sees us not just as a bastion of hope but a bastion of deliberate intervention and then for women who will never run, we are there as their representatives.

“So I say yes, it may not be impressive but I don’t need you to impress me for me to press you. It’s like having a child who has a challenge, do you give up on him if you are a mother? You do more than others to demonstrate you are truly a mother. You train the child up in the way he should go.

“Nigeria is a nation to be trained up, women, let us arise as an advocacy that must be trained up in the way to go. If we didn’t understand how to do it better, last time, this time, there is a way to go to continue to gain understanding. With all our getting, come-on women, let’s get the understanding by winning, we will win.”

This year Democracy Day also witnessed a lots of events lined up to spice up the day, part of which are: Military/Police March Past in slow and quick time, Combat display by the Nigerian Army Women Corps, Combined silent drill display by the armed forces and police, Democracy Day playlet among others.