Senate President Godswill Akpabio has warned that democracy cannot deliver on its promise to citizens without trust, saying governments must earn public confidence through fairness, transparency and accountability.
Akpabio made the submission on Tuesday while addressing the 153rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Arusha, Tanzania, where he led Nigeria’s delegation.
Speaking on the theme, “Inclusion, Trust and Opportunity,” the Senate President said trust remained the critical link between government and the people, stressing that it could neither be demanded nor imposed through legislation.
“Trust is the invisible currency of democracy. We cannot command it, demand it or legislate it into existence. We earn it through fairness, transparency and accountability,” he said.
According to him, every promise fulfilled by government strengthens public confidence, just as every citizen whose voice is heard brings government closer to the people.
He said the Nigerian National Assembly had a responsibility to translate the concerns of citizens into laws, budgets and oversight, describing Parliament as a bridge through which the expectations of ordinary Nigerians reach government.
Akpabio also challenged governments to measure democratic and economic progress by its impact on people’s everyday lives rather than by statistics alone.
“For Nigeria, democracy means more than elections, and development more than impressive statistics,” he said, adding that the real test was whether children could attend school, young people could secure employment and families could look to the future with confidence.
He said the 10th National Assembly, working with the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was pursuing reforms aimed at expanding participation and creating more opportunities for Nigerians.
Among the measures, he cited regional development institutions designed to take development closer to communities, tax reforms intended to make the system fairer and reduce pressure on low-income earners and small businesses, as well as the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), which provides interest-free financing to eligible students.
Akpabio said the education loan scheme reflected the principle that a young person’s future should not be determined by the circumstances of his or her birth.
He further linked inclusion to Nigeria’s diversity, arguing that the country’s different peoples, languages, cultures and faiths should strengthen rather than weaken its democracy.
“No citizen should be a stranger in his own country, and no community should stand at the margins of our common future,” he said.
The Senate President urged parliamentarians at the IPU assembly to build institutions that listen to citizens, governments that respond to their needs and systems that honour commitments made to the people.
He said Nigeria’s democratic aspiration was ultimately about creating a society in which citizens could genuinely say they belonged, were heard and had a stake in the nation’s future.
