You are an enterprising young man or woman, who likes to mind your business. Your only interests are your family, your career, and your religion. You come across as a decent person, having no problem with the status quo as long as you get by. You will not join the army of those who have come to be notorious for their perpetual ranting about the anomalies that characterize governance in Nigeria. They have gradually adorned an anti-establishment posture; criticizing any and every misstep of government. They sparingly have anything good to say about those whose task it is to navigate the ship of State in the turbulent, nay perilous waters that Nigeria is. But no! It cannot be you.
As long as you stay faithful to your church and mosque – or even your shrine – no evil shall come near you; no scourge shall come near your tent. It is not your portion, you say. Politics is for touts and charlatans. It is too dirty a game for you. All you need is to navigate your way through some ascending stairway to the middle level of some organization or beyond. And yes, you are made. You are a gentleman or a lady. You cannot ruffle feathers. You are a career-minded individual. You cannot be involved in politics or anything of the sort. You do not care if mediocres hold the reins of power, as long as you get by. It is not your job. The activists and politicians should do what they do, while you do yours. You are not involved.
The foregoing is the sad commentary that fittingly describes the average good-natured young Nigerian. He would not get involved in matters that directly concern him and that affect the entire society. He doesn’t mind if the country is run aground. And that is the very bane of Nigeria’s steady descent down the abyss of pernicious and debilitating sociopolitical milieu. Majority of those who consider themselves enlightened, elect not to “dent” themselves in the muddy subterranean entanglements that politics is. They are in denial. At best, they lie in wait for some biblical deliverer in the mould of Moses, to make change happen.
The reality suggests otherwise.
If you do not say “I am”, no one would say, “Thou art”. If you make no demands on those who swore to defend your fundamental rights as a Nigerian, you are sure to continue to have a country such as we have now, and worse; for degeneration is the only option, as stagnation is an illusion. You either make progress, or you retrogress. You are either for positive change, or you are for the continuation of the current scheme of things. Is it not said, that survival is the first law of nature? How do you explain the scenario where Nigerians are made to exist in subhuman standards and life is lived in the state of nature described by Thomas Hobbes, where life is solitary, brutish, and short; and you claim not to be involved? Is your not getting involved, not a latent, if not manifest, prodding of the handlers of Nigeria, to do as they please with the country? Are you not, by your laidback posture, and I-don’t-care disposition, working at cross purposes with your own best interests? You don’t see the connection?
You are an entrepreneur who invested his resources in setting up a business. You then hire some employees to see to the day-to-day running of the business on your behalf; only for those employees of yours to negate the rules and regulations which govern the business according to global best practices, and resort to their personal misguided whims and caprices in taking decisions for your business. And then, you say you don’t care! The preceding analogy serves the Nigerian situation. The people are the employers or entrepreneurs, while the governments at all levels, constitute the employees. We must note that government, in this day and age is radically different from some ancient absolute monarchy, wherein the king is the lord and master of his people. It follows that the employees should do the bidding of the employers, and not vice versa. As they say, it is the dog that wags the tail, and not the tail, wagging the dog.
According to the social contract theory, the government exists at the behest of the citizenry. The paramount function of which, is the security and welfare of the people. Thus, wherever there is insecurity and a preponderance of persons living in abject poverty; there is a failure of the institution of government. At such a time, the overriding job of the citizen is not to excuse the failures of the powers that be, but to call them to order, or get them replaced by others who would better serve the popular will. Just as a government can fail, and does actually fail, as is evident in Nigeria; so also can the citizenry fail. A failed citizenry is one which is unable to galvanize the government into acting in the collective best interests of the people. Put differently, a failed citizenry exists in that society in which the government assumes the position of master or lord of the manor disposition; while the citizen becomes the servant or the plebeian, if you like.
For those who engage in self deceit, claiming they are not involved in emplacing the ideal society, a few illustrations would suffice.
There is palpable bloodshed in the North; hapless citizens were murdered in cold blood in Mubi, Adamawa State, by gun-wielding and machete brandishing hoodlums. The questions are: whose job is it to ensure there is no unauthorized access to arms and ammunition? Whose job is it to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice? Who is supposed to guarantee a safe environment conducive to the pursuit of a citizen’s normal life? Take the Aluu experience as an example. Whereas the perpetrators must be condemned for taking laws into their hands; whose failure to act led to the loss of the lives of the young men? Who has supervised public institutions that are havens of mediocrity and corruption, and as a consequent of which, commanding little or no faith from the citizenry?
Okay, let’s not dwell on security. Take the flooding that is ravaging various parts of Nigeria as a case study. Did you say it is a natural disaster? Alright! Is it also a natural disaster that city-specific warnings were not issued by the appropriate agencies, other than the general statements that rainfall would increase, and mass evacuations undertaken to shelters provided before hand? Is it also natural that you don’t see aircrafts hovering over our airways, and trucks snaking their way through our deathtraps of roads, ferrying emergency supplies to cater for the needs of the affected? Is it a natural disaster that our roads are impassable, or that power continues to be epileptic? Is it a natural disaster that Nigerians suspected to have engaged in petty-thievery, languish away in our prisons or are sent to early graves by rampaging mobs; while those who loot our commonwealth are awarded national honours and hobnob with those who should go after them?
Truth be told, no one would do for you, what you should do for yourself. Shrieking your responsibility to yourself and your society is an indication of a pathological condition from which one must seek deliverance. Calling on God in churches and mosques is good; but that alone, is not what has given economic growth to China and other countries on the path of development. We are all involved in the task of building Nigeria or destroying Nigeria. You just have to choose your side. I am involved. Are you involved? “Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.” – Frederick Douglas.
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