The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has urged the federal government to improve the country’s economic situation and the education and health sectors.

“Until we improve our economic situation, democracy will not prosper,” Ayoola Akinwole, the chairman of the University of Ibadan chapter of ASUU, said.

Mr Akinwale added, “The only antidote to this is to have a large percentage of the middle class sufficient to support democracy.”

Commenting on the celebration of the nation’s Democracy Day, he advised the government to build public institutions rather than giving Nigerians money to eradicate poverty.

He urged the ruling elites “to shun corruption, greed and primitive accumulation and desist from fanning embers and cinders of disunity and violence.

He advised governments at all levels to provide basic social infrastructure and employment opportunities to reduce poverty and crimes.

Also, Professor Babatunde Oyedeji of the Department of Politics and International Relations at the Lead City University, Ibadan and Stephen Lafenwa, a political scientist at the University of Ibadan, said there was a need to strengthen and consolidate on the gains of 23 years of uninterrupted democracy.

Mr Oyedeji said that there were so many problems affecting people directly, for instance, infrastructure and the economy, electricity and unemployment, and insecurity.

“Government needs to provide basic human needs like good roads; in most places, the roads are not good, and they are unsafe.

“We need to develop our industries, especially the production sector. The small-scale traders must be enhanced to contribute to the growth of the country’s economy,” he said.

(NAN)