The immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has told his critics that he won’t be giving accountability of his stewardship to the state on the pages of newspaper.
Fashola stated this while responding to the question by a journalist on his accountability after delivering a lecture on Thursday at the 16th edition of the Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture held in Lagos.
He said Nigerians should learn to love their country stressing that it is what one gives to the nation that the nation will give back to such as he stressed the need for people to believe in their country.
According to Fashola, good governance is the only purpose for which a government can legitimately exist adding that the definition of good governance is not a matter that all citizens can easily agree upon because what constitutes good governance to a section can be opposed by another segment of society on a subjective basis.
“The test of good policies and by extension good governance should be whether it brings the greatest good to the greatest number of people in terms of their welfare, safety and security and not whether it brings the greatest good to every member of society”, he said.
He argued that the active participation of citizens is a pre-condition for democracy to translate to good governance while democratic governments must constantly keep in touch with the changing needs of their citizens through polls, surveys and other scientific models of empiric information gathering before formulating or concluding on policies.
“Good governance in a democracy is not an utopia, it is possible because it is a journey whose milestones are dynamic. Continuous enlightenment through all legitimate means of information dissemination is a necessary condition for good governance”, he said.
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