22/12/2013
THE ROLE OF NIGERIANS IN DEMANDING GOOD GOVERNANCE
Former South African President, Thabo
Mbeki’s contention that ordinary
Nigerians deserve as much blame as the
politicians for the leadership failure in the
country provides a valid platform for the
re-evaluation of citizens’ role in governance in Nigeria. According to the
man who took over the mantle of
leadership from the great Nelson
Mandela, it is only the citizens themselves
that can put a stop to bad leadership. We
agree. Democracy’s efficacy and legitimacy are
predicated on an informed citizenry;
without active and knowledgeable
citizens, democratic representation
remains empty; without vigilant,
informed citizens, there is no check on potential tyranny. Mbeki’s position quickly brings to mind
the statement credited to a French
historian and political thinker, Alexis de
Tocqueville, that “in a democracy, the
people get the government they
deserve.”
Given his background as an activist and freedom fighter, whose
struggles along side that of late MANDELA helped to bring down the
obnoxious apartheid system in his
country, Mbeki certainly knows what it
takes to put a government under
pressure and compel it to do the bidding of the people, in whom lies ultimate
sovereignty. This civic political culture is
lacking in Nigeria at present. But recent events in the Arab world,
known as the Arab Spring, have clearly
demonstrated what the people can do
with power when they realise that it
belongs to them, and is only held in trust
on their behalf by politicians.
Once the Arabs lost faith in the way they were
being governed, they expressed their
views very strongly and forced changes.
The change of government that took
place in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt was an
inevitable capitulation to the will of the people, just in the same manner as the
reforms that were introduced in Morocco. This point has been made even more
pointedly in Egypt where, after three
decades of authoritarian rule, the
government of Hosni Mubarak was
unceremoniously brought to an end.
Notably too, even his successor, Mohammed Morsi, was swept away in a
gale of protests, barely a year after
assuming office as the first democratically
elected president of the country. To
achieve this, the people were ready to
put their lives on the line, confronting security agents and defying live bullets.
Although the Arab Spring measure is never an ideal way of effecting a CHANGE in leadership, we still believe strongly that the citizens (Nigerians) hold it as a responsibility to effect a well-coordinated Nigeria…in which all political office holders shall be promptly held accountable irrespective of religion, origin or political affiliations.
Apathy
by the civil populace has meekly handed
politicians and political office holders the
freedom to steal the country blind and
squander its resources in a manner, perhaps, unheard of in the annals of the
country.
It is difficult to think of a country
where over N2 trillion spent in the name
of subsidy has not been properly
accounted for; yet, nobody is behind bars
two years after. It is unimaginable that in a country that professes the rule of law,
billions of naira belonging to pensioners
could vanish into thin air and nobody is
made to account for it. Indeed, it is still difficult to fathom how
over 100 security agents could be
murdered in cold blood while on official
duty and the killers still prance around
unmolested. It is perhaps only in Nigeria
that a minister would authorise the purchase of two extra cars, apart from
her other official vehicles, for N255
million. To think that this is happening at
a time when a minister was given the
boot in Ghana for merely expressing her
desire to acquire up to $1 million through politics only reinforces the
extent to which Nigerians are docile and
satisfied with the kind of government
that they have. The Nigerian minister in
question is still in office.
It is not just under the current
government, governments in Nigeria
have always acted as if they exist in a
different planet and owe the electorate
neither explanations for their actions, nor
effective service delivery. Yet, when the time comes to make a change through
the ballot box, it is either the same
villains are returned to power or they rig
themselves back, regardless of what the
ballot says. In Nigeria, it appears nothing can
provoke the people into demanding
accountability from political office
holders. Things that would jolt a
government in any other clime go
unnoticed in the country. For instance, how does one explain the continued
deterioration in the quality of
infrastructure amidst an endless flow of
money from the sale of crude oil? How
can the decline in the quality of
education and health care delivery be explained in view of the amount that
accrues to the country from the crude oil
sale? It is in this same country that a
government came to office when the
price of oil was $18 per barrel was able to
pay off the country’s debt of over $30 billion and saved over $50 billion in
foreign reserves and more than $20
billion in Excess Crude Account. But the
country is now accumulating debts, even
when the price of oil in the international
market has remained largely above $100 per barrel in the past six years. Yet, Nigerians are
not asking questions and are so
enfeebled that their views, when
expressed, don’t count.
A major factor has been the role of
ethnicity and religion in the way people
perceive issues in the country. Once a
person offends the law and is about to be
brought to justice, there will be
shameless protests from his kith and kin, claiming victimisation on account of the
person’s ethnic origin. This blackmail has
worked in many cases, including the
corruption case of a former Delta State
Governor, James Ibori, and it is currently
being put to test in the ongoing bullet proof cars purchase scandal
involving the Minister of Aviation, Stella
Oduah.
Making democracy work, says the
National Democratic Institute, a United
States-based non-profit organisation,
requires informed and active citizens who
understand how to voice their interests,
act collectively and hold public officials accountable. Democracy’s credibility and
sustainability depends, to an important
degree, on how it works in practice, and
on what it delivers. As Mbeki puts it, bad
governments thrive in Nigeria, or
elsewhere for that matter, because “the leadership does not feel pressure from
the people.” It therefore follows that if
Nigerians desire the dividends of
democracy, they will have to fight for it.
They must decide whether to continue
with the way they are being governed or become active in demanding
transparency and accountability from
government.
There will be no better time than now!
Join Us at for the Crusade towards CHANGE and Accountability in NIGERIA.
The MGGRN Team.
