Don Wants Social Security For Nigerians

A former Dean of Political Science, University of Lagos, Prof. Adele Jinadu has called for the establishment of social security for Nigerians.

 Prof. Jinadu made the call while delivering the Fifth Annual Law and Social Development Lecture organised by a Lagos-based law firm, recently.

Our Correspondent  reports that the lecture was entitled:”Social Security: Taking the Lives of Nigerians Seriously”.

The former dean said that the security threat posed by the Boko Haram sect might have resulted from the absence of social security.

He said, “Indeed, there is a strong correlation between social security and state capacity; the weaker social security is, the weaker the state capacity.

“The stronger the social security, the stronger the state capacity also will be.

“Social security provides an important constitutive foundation for the social trust which is vital for engendering and sustaining state capacity.”

The Political Scientist urged that government policies should be geared toward improving living standards by raising persistently low incomes.

The don further urged that Nigeria must move away from an elitist view of democratic politics and governance to a more inclusive, participatory and populist one.

“This means that Nigeria must embrace and practice politics as the pursuit of the public interest using the instrumentality of the state as the leading and principal force to provide social development for empowering Nigerians.

“Doing this will require strengthening political freedom, providing abundantly for economic facilities, creating social opportunities, checking arbitrariness and abuse of power by public authorities and giving a human face to governance,” he said.

Jinadu blamed Nigeria’s problems on alleged lackadaisical attitude of the country’s professionals in the affairs of the country.

“Nigeria is where it is today because the country’s professional (middle) class continues to shy away from its social responsibility.

“They have collaborated, in many instances, and unconsciously so, with the country’s public authorities and political class in the rape of democratic politics in our country.

“Our professionals must stand up against new forms of incipient and creeping authoritarian rule in the deceptive garb of democratic politics.

“To do so, they must give uncompromising expression to voice and become politically active through organised public engagement on public issues,” he said.

Earlier in his address of welcome, the convener, Mr Bamidele Aturu, said that the lecture was aimed at addressing socio-economic and political problems of Nigeria.

Aturu said that Nigeria’s poor performance in the Ibrahim Foundation’s African Governance Index released on October 15 should motivate its citizens to demand for more accountability from their leaders.