Democracy is popularly defined as a system of government designed by the people for the people. The adoption of this style as best practice of governance by several nation states is supported by the far reaching economic and social progress made by those countries with strong democratic principles and structures.

Nigerians may be forgiven if they do not know that the cumulative effects of the policies of Central Bank and Ministry of Finance (MOF) are generally responsible for the level of economic growth and price stability in the country.

“Advocacy for increased wages will perhaps remain eternal in the struggle of organised labour. Thus, expectedly the speeches made by Labour leaders all over the country last Friday, May 1st 2009 touched on the demand for a reasonable minimum wage that would give some measure of dignity to their rank and file. Indeed such demands are not peculiar to Nigerian workers as inflation generally gallops ahead of wage levels over time leaving income earners with lower purchasing power.

Nigerians may rightly feel shortchanged by the shenanigans in the banking sub sector in the last two years or so. In the wake of the global meltdown, the eloquent Professor at the helm of our Central Bank assured Nigerians, including the Federal Legislature, over and over again that Nigerian banks were insulated from the global crisis as a result of astute regulation of the commercial banks and adoption of best practices in monetary policy and management.

No rational person will decry communal debt accumulation if the proceeds were directly applied to the alleviation of critical areas of deprivation, such that the repayment terms and cost of servicing the loan pale into insignificance when compared with the social and welfare benefits which will be enjoyed by the community over time.