The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Terrence McCulley, has said the major lesson the Nigerian government must learn from America’s long democratic practice is to be accountable to the people.

Speaking after a tour of Kwara State’s experiment of commercial farming, in partnership with some white farmers in Shonga area of the state, during the week, the US envoy said the building of democratic institutions in Nigeria must be geared towards achieving good governance.

“An accountable government is one which responds to the wishes of electorate, which responds to the delivery of services from infrastructure to power, to public health, education etc. The lesson we all need to learn is that government must be accountable to its people, like it is here in Kwara State, with government making all its strides,” he said.

The American ambassador, who commended the successes the white farmers had been able to record in areas of production and processing of poultry, dairy, among others, described it as a model and expressed hope that the US government would come into the project with a supply of equipment. He said agriculture would play important roles in building the economy of the state, adding that the Shonga farm was a practical example of how state governments could support mechanised agriculture in partnership with the private sector.

He also said that the US was looking into how it could develop partnership with both the state government and private organisations to do projects in areas of health, education and agric sectors, “so that Kwara can be self sufficient”.