#SomberTuesday! Electioneering campaigns are in motion, with candidates and their proxies presenting their platforms to Nigerians.
If citizens were to hold the winners accountable, Nigeria will be closer to the accomplishment of the desired transformation and aspiration of greatness. The problem is that historical experience shows suboptimal performance on both sides. Majority of the people equate civic engagement with voting, leaving civil society organizations to do the work of demanding accountability from elected officials.
Once elected, said officials develop selective amnesia and show scant interest in fulfilling promises made in their platforms. For Nigeria to begin showing progress toward reaching its full potential, both sides (citizens and government) must not only take a serious approach toward the fulfilment of promises made during elections, but also address serious challenges in our nation.
This includes the #EndSARS protests where Nigerian youths demanded, among other things, an end to bad governance, impunity, violence, and police brutality. It is a matter of public record that they were brutally suppressed. This contradicts the expectations of Nigerians that our government will contribute to deepening democracy, not subvert and weaken it. The economy is in a downward spiral. Insecurity is rampant. Kidnappings and abductions are perpetrated casually and routinely. Families with members in captivity are on their own when it comes to ransoming them.
They do so amid great trauma, while incurring extraordinary financial burdens. There are numerous internally displaced and destitute citizens coping with the aftereffects of unprecedented floods. Catastrophic deaths, injuries, losses of property, and livelihood are distressing. Two years on, #Nigeria must remember the massacre of peacefully demonstrating youths at #LekkiTollGate and other locations. We should declare emphatically: #NigerianWomenArise #EndPoliceBrutalityinNigeriaNOW #EndSars #EndSWAT #EndImpunity
While I may appear to be a broken record, I find Howard Zinn’s statement important in Nigeria’s current predicament: “Civil disobedience, that’s not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while, the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.” Let the kleptocrats give back our stolen wealth so that we can fix our infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and also offer worthwhile social protection to our people.
Let the masses enjoy the full benefits of citizenship in Nigeria. Let the leaders and political class repent and build peace with justice. This is no time for politics as usual. The people elected should be those trusted to bring justice, equity, and human security to the entire country, not expedient, unethical, and egocentric individuals determined to dominate for self aggrandizement or sectional gain. We don’t need oligarchs’ continued domination. We also need a government that puts the interests of majority of citizens first.
