In the ingenuity of the politician, the future of Nigeria is tied to elections. When politicians, who call themselves leaders, engage in phased discussions of Nigeria, they are not contemplating legacies that would enhance the development of Nigeria. Their entire concerns are elections, the struggle for power, the decisions about who becomes what, and those marked for nothingness.
The reduction of the country to this contracted vision is the biggest failure of civil rule since 1999. Every administration, from the local governments, through the States to the centre, sees elections as the platforms to perpetrate either itself or its interests in power. When it leaves, the damage endures.
It appears the most important ambition of the politician is to grab power, stay in office as long as he can, produce a successor that would do his bid, and retire to continue manipulating the system.
Disruptive as this attitude is, it is heightened, to the extent that most administrations do nothing, other than engaging in schemes to hold power which is everything the politician wants. He gets it first, before thinking of what he would do with it. Rarely do we hear politicians espousing their ideas about the future of Nigeria and expending their energies in ensuring their dream is realised.
It is not surprising that most of those who gain access to power in these circumstances, abuse it. The abuses stem from ignorance, outright greed and an obnoxious contention for narrow interests. The evidences include governors who have no agenda for their States or the federal, where there are no reflections of national aspirations in projects that are being executed, if any.
Do politicians realise that each year they spend in their quest for frivolities wastes opportunities for the country’s progress? What do they intend for Nigeria in 2015, 2019, 2023? What is their vision of Nigeria by those years beyond elections? Nigeria as a country should be built to last hundreds of years. The future of its institutions, for the benefit of its peoples, should be a primary concern of its leaders.
The well being of its peoples should be at the centre of policies. The Constitution explicitly states these in Section 14 (2b) where is says the security and welfare of the people should be the primary purpose of government.
Our future is not about elections; in the sense politicians see them. Elections are useful as part of the quest for democratic governance. Democratic importance of elections is over-emphasised where the people play minimal roles in them. What is important – always – is what people want to make of their country, elections cannot change our people, not the way politicians use them
While the author of this article means well the article’s expectation or admonitions that politicians would/should do the right thing, without the necessary accountability mechanisms, is naïve at best.
All well-meaning Nigerians should rather advocate for and help to actualize a political structure that ensures that politicians and leaders can be held to account for non-performance by the citizens that elect them.
For instance, what POLITICAL STRUCTURES do we need to ensure the following:
1. That the police “serve and protect” the people?
2. That elected local government officials perform their duties or are thrown out of office?
3. The governors and the state legislature perform their duties or are thrown out of office?
4. That the president, his/her nominated ministers and the federal legislature perform their duties or are thrown out of office?
Clearly, our current political structures are not achieving the above objectives. Having the best president cannot also achieve these objectives. Pleading with politicians to do the right thing are not working – tons of articles have been written on this. What we haven’t focused on is EMPOWERING THE VOTER!
If we empower voters they can collectively achieve the important objectives of holding politicians and leaders accountable. Empowering voters include the following:
1. Educating them (both locally and nationally) – most of this task falls mostly on the media to provide accurate information on political candidates and their ideas or objectives
2. Ensuring that they have effective and safe mechanisms to cast their vote – the media and local political and non-political organizations should convene technology and election experts to design safe and effective voting mechanisms and educate/urge voters to demand/pressure their local, state and federal legislators to create and implement laws for to support these voting mechanisms.
3. Ensuring that all politicians vying for the votes of citizens have effective ways to communicate their ideas and goals to voters – the media should provide avenues for politicians to communicate their ideas to voters in the language that the voter understands. Such media should be provided for free to all politicians contesting elections in exchange for certain tax benefits for the media houses.
4. Ensuring that voters have effective mechanisms to recall elected politicians that are not performing after being elected. The voting mechanisms advocated for in #1 may work.
These are ideas that may be further developed.