Why Nigeria’s future is in your hands

The other day, a friend and I revisited an incident that may have contributed to the ouster of Mr. Gordon Brown as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

During a door-to-door campaign towards the May 6, 2010, general elections, Brown encountered a 65-year-old widow, Gillian Duffy. Duffy, a longstanding Labour Party supporter and resident of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, had taken on the PM over his administration’s policies on national debt, education, and immigration. While speaking with the retired grandmother, Brown took all the points she made in his stride, trying to play the responsible and responsive politician obligated to the lowliest of voters. He even complimented her by acknowledging that she was from a good family and ended the conversation with: “It’s very nice to see you. Take care.”

But the Prime Minister had a totally different thing in mind. On getting back into his car, Brown engaged his communications director, Justin Forsyth, in the following conversation:

Brown: That was a disaster. Sue should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that?

Forsyth: I don’t know; I didn’t see her.
Brown: Sue’s, I think, just ridiculous…
Forsyth: What did she say?
Brown: Everything. She was just a sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be Labour. I mean, it’s just ridiculous…”

Unfortunately for Mr. Brown, what he thought was a private conversation was amplified by the microphone of a television channel still on his lapel. His vituperation against the citizen became global news within minutes.

While it may be hyperbolic to attribute the eventual loss of the general elections by Brown’s Labour Party to this event, there is no doubt that the PM’s disrespect took its own toll regardless of his various apologies to atone for his gaffe, Brown made “an extraordinary address to a live television audience from the grandmother’s driveway where he described himself as “a penitent sinner.” He also sent an email to supporters of the party where he expressed his “profound regret” for his behaviour. He was the leader of the country, yet he didn’t consider himself bigger than a common citizen or above his party’s reprimand!

In an article written the same day, The Telegraph quoted Lance Price, a former adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair, as saying: “To sustain its share of the vote and maximise the number of MPs it returns, Labour needs the votes of millions of traditional supporters like Mrs. Duffy. The party has lost not just hers but potentially thousands of others who will listen to what she said and find that they agree. Does Brown think they are all bigots, too?” The people have the power, and they deploy it when necessary.

I shared this long story to draw the attention of the good people of Nigeria to the power they wield in a democracy and how they allow politicians to take them for a ride. It could be argued that a willful submission to the shenanigans of politicians is a democratic right of the citizen, and that would be true, but only as long as it does not detract from the country’s development. The problem with the Nigerian situation is that it does!

Here, governments, their spokespersons, and appointees talk down on Nigerians as if they were doing the people a favour. Meanwhile, the opposite is the fact. Nigerians are the employers of your bosses and yourselves. Every elected and appointed official owes the people explanations for what the government does or doesn’t do. And those explanations should be delivered without pouring invectives on ordinary citizens who do not wear a partisan toga. Not everyone with an opinion or question comes from an opposition prism, and it is offensive for governments- federal, state or local to frame every such point as an opposition comeback! A few days ago, a minister of the Federal Republic said he could have shot a Nigerian journalist for doing his job! How so reckless, even if it was a joke!

As commendable as the democratic system of government is, it functions optimally when citizens are active participants in governance. While every citizen cannot be elected to office, he is the one who puts people in office, but that is not where it ends. In fact, the job of the electorate only begins after elections are over. Then he puts on his cap as a development partner and lights a fire under those he has elected until they deliver on their promises and make society better.

And as we see in the case of UK Citizen Duffy, in 2010, it should not matter whether the person occupying the political office is a member of your party or not. If the interests of the country are at the forefront of our minds and we consider the future of our children, the actions and inactions of the government would receive dispassionate attention from all Nigerians.

The truth is, politicians are the same everywhere. Again, I’ll refer readers to one of my favourite quotes from French statesman, Charles De Gaulle. De Gaulle, himself a politician, suggested that “politics is too serious a matter to be left in the hands of politicians.’ The point is that politicians make lofty vows of an impending Eldorado when they need our votes, but priorities change once they settle into office. They set their own agenda, which is usually orchestrated to win the next election for themselves or their party’s candidate.
I have argued now and again that this is not peculiar to Nigerian politicians; it is a tendency that you will find in those who ply the trade in Lagos, Johannesburg, London, Washington, Canberra, or Ottawa. But the redemption of any politician is in an alert citizenry, a populace conscious of and constantly ready to activate their citizenship. The drive for politicians to perform stems from the electorate’s capacity to discern and interject, even disrupt, misgovernance whenever that ugly head manifests.

Nigerians bury their heads in the sand by arguing that things are this way because the country is a fledgling democracy. While we cannot dismiss the fact that democracy is relatively nascent in Nigeria, change only occurs in societies that imbibe and act on lessons learnt from experience. So, the question to ask the average Nigerian is, what have we learnt in the past 25 years?

Yes, politics, especially electioneering, is emotional and perhaps combative almost everywhere. But when national interest is at stake, most citizens think straight and set aside partisanship. Of course, there is the peculiar reality that politics is a means of livelihood for many Nigerians. While political actors have not demonstrated fidelity to the people in their relationship with and governance of the people, the people who are the ultimate power holders and giver of cumulative and collective authority of the state have betrayed their powers and become accomplices in the deterioration of the state, arising from the love of their stomachs far more than the chance that the future generations will grow in abundance and confidence. But citizens must hold the leaders accountable. Nigerians cannot continue to consume patronise and get star-struck on elected politicians. We cannot also continue to treat as parents who must not be questioned. You elected them, and they serve at your pleasure.
So, what do I suggest? We must call out our leaders for their actions and inactions. We must not hero-worship our leaders because they are human and we elected them. We must exercise our right to vote out non-performing politicians and return those who have lived up to our expectations, periodically. Civil society organisations must lead the charge in awakening civic consciousness in Nigeria. It is true that poverty and ignorance keep the people under the thumb of the elite, thereby hindering independent thought. However, nothing will change until Nigerians are willing to delay gratification and make sacrifices today for a better tomorrow. The future of the country rests on the shoulders of its citizens.”

Twitter @niranadedokun