Anger roils the land. There is a generalised lack of satisfaction and anger in the citizenry after the fifth general election in Nigeria’s 4th Republic. It has taken the shape of a fought republic in all areas as disputation grows over choice, denied choice from shenanigans with the electoral process, representation, governance and its outcomes.
There is angst in the streets. A fitting response to the street, also from the street, is the one that states that no matter how hot your anger, it cannot boil yams or cook stew. Citizens need to move beyond anger and outbursts on social media, the current replacement for previous watering holes of drinking pubs, salons and talk shops. Citizens should turn this anger into engagement in the political and governance process.
Many things account for the anger. Topmost is dissatisfaction with the elections. The local elections for Governorship and State House of Assembly representation worsened the situation caused by the Presidential and National Assembly polls. Then the crass ineptitude and impunity witnessed during the rerun elections in a few states took it to the very top.
There was the descent of the military into partisan political roles during the elections. Rivers State was the new battlefield where our military displayed an evident lack of professionalism. They were men on a slave’s errand and carried it out as slaves.
Top on the list, of course, is the flip flop of the Independent National Electoral Commission. The Inconclusive Nigerian Electoral Conundrum would continue to dominate discussions on how to improve our electoral performance and thus our democracy. Nigeria must strengthen its institutions, to minimise if not eliminate outrightly the obstacles on the path of officials performing their duties. It should be such that INEC should decide and implement electronic voting, as it initially planned, without the Executive standing in the way because of the plans of politicians to game the system. Strong institutions would empower the Army, the Police, INEC and everyone in-between who failed in the 2019 elections. There was no institutional security or fall back for brave men of conscience who wanted to play by the book.
One of the consequences of the post-election season is the heightened attention of citizens to matters of government performance. The story of Success Edegor is now a part of our national social narrative. It threw up the issue of the failure of governments in providing suitable infrastructural facilities for those at the foundation of our educational system. We train them in pigsties yet complain about the failings. The outcry caused the immediate action of the Delta State Government.
There are many instances of the Okotie Eboh Primary School. They call for active and engaged citizens as well as media. The Nigerian government and democracy need illumination, and the media need more than ever before to “show the light, so the people can find the way” as the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe defined the mission of The West African Pilot.
We often pass the buck to the politicians. However, Mr Citizen would make or mar Nigeria’s democracy. More pointedly, educated Middle-Class citizens need to engage Nigeria’s democracy to give it life and direction. Their peers as school mates, members of various associations from clubs to churches and mosques, are the officials running and ruining things. They have the social leverage to call them to order. Everywhere, democracy entails citizen involvement. It goes beyond registering to get a PVC and voting. Citizen engagement means monitoring and raising issues with our representatives on an ongoing basis for the next four years. Thankfully, there are indicators that this is growing after the locust years of military rule.
One of the ways of active citizen engagement would be knowing when the Delta State Government budgeted funds to fix the Okotie Eboh Primary School, how much was in the budget and who won the contract as well as the expected duration of the job. I have experienced firsthand the effect of “darkness” or lack of information in the lives of citizens and how it sustains lack of accountability. I lived pre-1999 on Solo Ogun Street in Aguda, Surulere, Lagos. The road was terrible and cut into two by the mere absence of a culvert. The residents’ association sent representatives to the Alausa seat of government. They reported that the files at Alausa claimed that the Government awarded a contract for the tarring of the road, and it the contractor had executed the job. File closed!
Such brazen fiction in accounts of government expenditure is possible because of the darkness around the operations of government. As The Washington Post asserts in its pay off, “Democracy dies in darkness”. For Democracy Nigeriana to take proper roots and grow, it needs the ray of light from active and engaged citizens as well as a press that leads the way. Citizens are now freely asking questions on social media and would be a great help to the press.
Please find out the address of your state assembly representative and that of your councillor. Engage them. What is in the budget of your state for health, education, environment, civil works, primarily, but other areas as well? You may find that the primary school in your immediate vicinity has a budget for items and this has been recurring in the last eight years. Whodunnit? The media need to go beyond the headlines of budgets to throwing light on actual projects “earmarked” until they become “eye marked.” Engagement is the call on us all as citizens if we are to enable our democracy to succeed.
Chido Nwakanma
