NAN-H-116
Trump
Abuja, Jan.17, 2017 (NAN) The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has advised the Federal Government to shun external help and look inwards in tackling the country’s economic and security challenges.
Ms Idayat Hassan, Director of the centre, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), gave the advice at a seminar on “Surmounting Nigeria’s Challenges: The Trump Presidency and Nigeria” organised by the centre.
Hassan urged the government to put in place strategies that would address Nigeria’s current challenges, which included unemployment, lack of infrastructural development and security.
She expressed optimism that U.S. President-elect, Donald Trump, would govern and keep his campaign promises to the people, going by his foreign policies.
According to her, nothing is more worrisome than the mutilation of democratic values largely linked to the vast inequality pervading the world.
Hassan, however, observed that the global trends were not totally in tandem with happenings in Africa.
According to her, in Africa, the demand for democracy has unprecedentedly risen in the last couple of years and global events are bound to affect us.
“It is the west that has helped to build and sustain democracies and also maintains peace in the developing world.
“This crisis of legitimacy occasioned by the new politics of opportunism, threatens to shake the foundations of contemporary global civilisation,’’ she said.
Hassan said that if hackers could subvert the media and voters register in America, what then would be the fate of Nigeria which was governed by weak institutions.
One of the speakers, Prof. Clement Adibe of DePaul University, U.S., said there would continue to be debates across Africa about the likely implications of Trump’s presidency and what to expect on the global stage.
“Trump’s presidency has the tendency to create unease in the world system because the man Trump says things the way they are,” Adibe said. (NAN)
COO/DOR/OPI
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Edited by Nyisom Dore and Olisa Ifeajika