Nigeria: Power to the people

Democracy, is a system of government where power belongs to the citizens of a country. This power is exercised either directly or indirectly through elected representatives by the citizens through the voting system ensuring decisions governing the country reflects the popular will of the citizens of that country. In a more popular localized term, democracy is the power of the people, for the people and by the people. This means power rest with the people who at will chose some representatives through voting to represent their constituency at the federal level to make decisions to improve the standard of living and economy of that country.

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With these being established, the elected is not stronger than the person who elected him. The purpose of electing senates and representatives is because everybody can not be at the decision making gathering at the same time. The person elected to do so (Senates and house of representative member) is hereby required to give reports to their constituency before bills are passed on behalf of them (the citizens) who happens to be affected by the bills passed. But such is not the case. Most Nigerians don't even the person representing them. They only know the parties, some people do not even know the party that birthed the person representing them.

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It is such a pity that bills are without the consent of the electorate which contradicts the definition of democracy as reflecting the popular will of the people. Before any bill is passed, the representative is supposed to relay the content of such bill back to the people that appointed him there as their representative in order to reflect the true purpose democracy: power of the people, by the people and for the people. A bill passed without the consent of the populace is not in good faith. These are one of the areas where restructures are urgently needed. The house of representatives members and senators MUST give report back to the people they are representing and before any bill is passed, the citizens must know the content of such bill because they are the ones the law will govern. If done, this is a step in the right direction.

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