ABUJA—Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, has called for the adoption of good governance in all spheres of the nation’s national life in order to attain sustainable development in the country  and identified corruption, ineptitude and lack of patriotism as major societal ills plaguing Nigeria.

Mr. Bankole made the call in a paper titled, Good Governance – The Bedrock of Sustainable National Development, delivered at separate convocation lectures at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State and the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, few days ago.

He listed some of the characteristics of good governance to include participation, consensus-orientation, accountability, transparency, responsiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, equity and inclusion, and rule of law.

According to him, the lack of good governance, which he defined as, “effective development efforts by public institutions and individuals on how they manage the resources of state judiciously, transparently and productively with a view to achieving expectations of the utilitarians…,” is at the root of the high rate of unemployment, infant and maternal mortality rate and low life expectancy that has become the lot of Nigerians albeit the rich human and natural endowments the country has been blessed.

He traced the dearth of governance to the military incursion to politics which disrupted the cultivation of good governance practice that the early nationalists were working hard to build.

“The brevity of democratic governance occasioned by the sudden and violent military overthrow of January 15, 1966, and many decades of military rule, ruined the efforts of the nationalists, to institute an enduring democratic culture and achieve good governance and sustainable national development.”

He noted that good governance anchored on transparency, accountability, rule of law, responsive and responsible parliament is a critical and unavoidable route to sustainable national development for the Nigerian nation and charged the graduands to join hands with other progressives to build the culture of good governance, promising them of the support the House of Representatives.

He informed them the National Assembly has been guided by its determination “…to ensure prudent management of the nation’s resources, ensure long-term macro-economic stability in the nation’s economy, secure greater accountability and transparency in order to achieve the promotion and enforcement of the nation’s economic objectives of rapid and sustainable development.”

He listed some of the achievements of the National Assembly to include the enactment of various laws including the Fiscal Responsibility, NEITI, Public Procurement, Nigerian Content and other laws that are aimed at the actualization of the nation’s economic objectives, institutionalizing fiscal prudence and good governance at all level and tiers of government, and the attainment of an improved overall welfare as well as achieving the Vision 20:20-20.

Rt Hon Dimeji Bankole became the Speaker of the House of Representatives on November 1, 2007. Since his ascension to the seat, he has succeeded in stabilizing the House and restored public confidence in the legislature.

He brought his youthful and patriotic zeal into the administration of the House and has charted a course for the harmonious co-existence between the Executive and the Legislature without compromising the legitimate roles expected of the both organs of government.

A proponent of generational change in the leadership of the country, Bankole has mentored the youths and championed the course at all times