Obaseki advocates Bottom–up approach to governance

…As Edo APC retreat begins

Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has recommended a Bottom–up approach to governance which he said will ensure the speedy development of the country.

Obaseki made the submission while declaring open the Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) Executive Retreat in Benin City, on Friday, June 8, 2018.

“We cannot continue to operate the top-down approach to governance which over the years has not delivered the dividends of democracy to the base. This accounts for why we have continued to record crises in most communities today,” he told his fellow party men and women at the event.

The governor advised: “Let us use the logic of democracy to govern, which is government of the people, by the people and for the people. We need to provide for the people at the base. We need to go to them, empower them because they elected us to serve them.”

He further urged: “Let us go back to the basis and start ward development, let us get people who live in those wards to organise themselves and tell us what their needs are, and what the government needs to do.”

Obaseki challenged the state APC executives to use the opportunity of the 2-day retreat to brainstorm and come up with sustainable models that would drive governance at the grassroots, and which will serve as models for other states of the country.

“I charge you to interrogate, discuss the nature, structure, financing models and management, as well as the role of the APC party and politics in general, in an emerging democracy. You must now give the people a reason to vote for our great party,” he said.