Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko on Saturday said Nigerian leaders were not accountable to the electorate because they did not owe their emergence to valid votes.
He said until the leaders began to rely on votes cast during elections, the people would continue to lament.
Mimiko, who spoke at the national convention of the Labour Party in Abuja, however, insisted that the 2011 elections must not be like previous ones.
He said, “Many of you may not know why those in government do not bother to be alive to their responsibilities and are not also answerable to the electorate.
“I must tell you that unless the votes count, people in government will not be responsible to the people. This is because they believe that they did not derive the power to get to their positions from the people.
“Therefore, we must insist that votes must count in the 2011 elections. We must also insist that there must be electoral reform; because without it, we may not be able to move forward.”
He said his government was reconnecting the people of the state to governance, which, according to him, was lacking before.
Mimiko said until now, there was a “total disconnect between the people of the state and the government,” adding that he had succeeded in this task.
Being the first person to be elected on the platform of the party as a state governor, Mimiko said the achievement of his government would make people to vote for the party in future elections.
Also speaking on the occasion, the LP’s National Chairman, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, said the party performed well in the 2007 elections despite its poor handling by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He attributed the defects of the elections to defective electoral instruments and the weakness of the 1999 Constitution, which he said were exploited by fraudulent politicians.
Why Nigerian leaders are not answerable to electorate — Mimiko
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