As politicians, captains of
industries, scholars, academicians, youth/women leaders and media experts
gathered at a public lecture/award, an Iconic Strategist, Dr. Otive Igbuzor
unveiled the true State of Development and democracy in Delta State and Nigeria.
Presenting his lecture at the
maiden award and lecture series organized at Asaba by Trumpet International
Magazine, with the topic, Democracy and grassroots development in Delta State:
the best way forward, left no stone unturned.
Dr. Otive Igbuzor argued that
democracy goes beyond mere regular holding of elections, as polling booths and
voters are not all that make a democracy.
Democracy at its core, is a State
of mind, a set of attitudinal dispositions woven into the fabric of a society,
the concrete expression of which are its social institutions, but stated that
undemocratic social Institutions cannot sustain democratic government, no
matters how often the ballot box ritual is enacted, he maintained.
Dr. Otive Igbusor also took some
times to x-ray the true image grassroot Development trends in Delta State and
how Deltans have so far been impacted.
Quoting, Amatya Sen, Otive maintained that Development is a
process of expanding the real freedom grassroots people enjoy.
Development requires the removal
of all sources of unfreedom, which he listed as poverty, tyranny, poor economic
opportunities, systematic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities and
intolerance or over-activity of repressive states; Dr. Otiva reasoned.
He maintained that for a true
pro-people development there is need for advancement in some spheres of freedom
he listed as political freedom, economic facilities, Social Opportunities,
transparency and protective security.
People are both the beneficiaries and the drivers of human
development, both as individuals and in groups.
Development is the discipline the people needs to drive their
spirit to triumph over Odds of poverty trap, physical geography, fiscal trap,
governance, cultural barriers, geopolitics,
lack of innovation and demographic trap, Dr. Otive strongly emphasized.
The guest lecturer believed that Development will lead to good
change which will empower the people to have control over material assets,
intellectual resources/ ideology, obtain physical necessaries of life,
employment, equality, participation in governmet political and economic
independence, adequate education, gender equality, peace & sustainable due.
Despite the enomous wealth of Delta State, poverty level is
still high with official statictics putting it at 84.25% in 2001 and 63.6% in
2010, 20-30% 0f primary school children do not complete primary education.
26 children die in every 1000 live births, 244 women die
during child birth for every 100,000 deliveries, a reality he argued is grossly
unacceptable for a State with the king of wealthy resources like Delta State.
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