Casting off the Veil of Ignorance – By Efe Wanogho

---

Time was, when in the geopolitical space constituting what ispresently known as Nigeria, there existed a groundswell of superstitious beliefs, which blurred the vision of the mass of the people. It was such baseless myths and beliefs that saw a prevalence of preventable deaths within and among the population. In the not-too-distant-past, the Ogbanje, or is it Abiku, phenomenon held sway in the psyche of the people. Deaths in young children that resulted from a genotype incompatibility of their parents were blamed on some spiritual force; some curse on the family; or the dictate of the gods. With the illuminating impact of education, the massive ignorance that characterized our society – and which partly accounts for Africa being designated as the dark continent – is being slowly but steadily dispelled.
More Nigerians are now aware that malaria is a function of exposure to mosquito bite and the subsequent infection of the host organism, with the malaria parasite. Only among a very few people, is the belief still held, that every death in the neighbourhood, is a result of the wickedness of the enemies. Not many people still think that there’s a constant enemy hovering around them to ensure their misfortune. Such were the vibes from times past. Nigerians are increasingly being made aware of such terminologies as HIV/AIDS, Cardiac Arrest/Heart Failure, Asthma, Sickle Cell Anemia, Poliomyelitis, and more recently, renal or kidney dysfunction. Thanks to enlightenment. The more people that are enlightened in the society, the less damage ignorance can do. After all, it is said that “it is from ignorance, and ignorance only, that man must be freed.”
It is however not all rosy in every sphere of our national life; yet. Certain aspects of our collective being are in grave need of the life-giving elixir of illumination. Massive enlightenment, particularly in the sociopolitical and religious arenas of Nigeria, beckons. For the purpose of this piece, I shall restrict myself to issues bordering on the sociopolitical quagmire that Nigeria has become.
Firstly, there’s baseless myth that only the wealthy, and most likely, recycled opportunists of leaders, can form political parties. This is absolutely wrong. The seemingly herculean requirements of the manifestly disenfranchising Electoral Act, notwithstanding; ordinary Nigerians, and I use the term with every sense of literary specificity, can reach out to like minds across the nation, and float the most formidable political platform ever conceived in these shores. All that is required is commitment and the will to do the needful. The Act stipulates a national headquarters in Abuja, and State Offices in a given number of States, but does not state that such offices must be acquired only after millions of naira have been rightfully spent, or misappropriated outright. Nigerians do not have to groan under the baggage of the PDP, with its assemblage of strange bedfellows and a failure to impact on the life of the ordinary Nigerian, despite having had a sole claim to the reins of power at the center, since 1999; nor do we have to be bound to the megalomania and dictatorial dictates of the emperor of the ACN, whose word is law. What about the CPC, with its baggage of near absence of membership in parts of the country other than the North? Must we always rally around some spent out forces that know next to nothing about people-driven democracy, and expect their money-spinning enterprises of parties, to lead the way in our national transformation?
Then, there is the impression being bandied around that governance is a difficult task, and that it takes centuries – at least by PDP standards – for positive change to begin to take root. This is another barefaced lie. Recall that Nigerians were told by telecom operators that billing subscribers on a per-second basis was practically impossible. The story changed as soon as a new entrant into the telecommunication market provided the per-second plan and saw its subscriber base skyrocket. Those who sang a different tune previously, quickly adjusted their service plans to cater for the innovation. Now, in the business of governance, mediocres and visionless office holders are wont to complicate ordinarily simple tasks. They either set their sights very low, or they make innumerable excuses for failures. When you push them, they tell you Nigeria is a complicated society with never-before-seen peculiarities. But the question is this simple: what complications are there in expending public resources for the public good? How difficult is it for a President who engaged in vigorous campaigns for months prior to the elections, and who had the advantage of incumbency, to hit the ground running, as far as service delivery is concerned? What does it take to appoint credible persons into positions of authority and demanding nothing short of excellence from them? Would Nigerians be asking the impossible if they ask their President to lead by example in terms of distancing himself as much as is possible from the corrupt, and to actually give a damn about publicly declaring his assets?
Another misconception that requires jettisoning with proper enlightenment, is the perception that the government, be it in Aso Rock or some State Capital, actually owns the funds or resources that it administers. The truth is that the government of the day is an institution of State (s)elected by the people, from among the people, to serve the interests of the vast majority of the people while ensuring that the minority is heard. The funds available to the government belongs to the public; the mass of the citizenry. The assets available to public officers, movable and immovable, are not government property, as one is wont to hear from some ill-informed public officer, but public property.
The relationship that ought to exist between the government and the governed is actually one of Master-Servant; but in reverse order. The subsisting system in which government officials assume office and put on the toga of some king in a medieval society with absolute monarchy, who thinks the citizenry owes their very breath to his magnanimity, is an aberration. The master in any democracy, properly so designated, is the people. The government only exists at the will and mercy of the people, to serve the common good of the greater number. Anything short of the foregoing is not a democracy. We must divest our system of political administration of such prehistoric traits that characterized our ancient kingdoms in which the king must be feared and is beyond reproach. Is it proper to hire a manager in a firm in which you are the CEO, and the manager decides to run the firm according to his whims and caprices with extreme disregard for the interests of the CEO? When the ordinary Nigerian realizes that the man in government house is actually supposed to do his bidding, there would be a turnaround.
Nigerians must also understand that the corruption and insecurity that plagues the nation are not God’s will. Statements such as: “na God dey give leaders”, must be discarded entirely as they are churned out by inept, incompetent, and autocratic leaders, to hold the people in perpetual subjugation and bring about political lethargy and complacency on the part of the people. Without focused effort by any people, anywhere in the world; their fortunes do not improve.
Further, we must know that any government in office derives its powers from the degree of legitimacy it enjoys from the electorate. The power of the government is, in a manner of speaking, directly proportional to the goodwill it enjoys from the people. As, the moment the goodwill is frittered away by irresponsible governance riddled with mediocrity, insecurity and criminality, and unchecked corruption; the life of the government, would be as good as a withered tree that bears no fruit. Such trees are good for nothing other than to be cut down and used as firewood. Put differently, there is real democracy when the government respects the pulse of the people and actually fears the anger and opprobrium that could come from the people. When the people fear the government, what we have is tyranny; irrespective of appearances to the contrary.
The people must, of necessity, assume the drivers’ seat in the quest for change. It is usually a case of extreme and exceptional rarity, to find a government that decides to drive the process of positive change of its own accord, without being pushed by extraneous forces coming from the citizenry. If we can only make reference to a handful of States, which number, we can count on the fingers of one hand, in the thirty-six States that we have; while contemplating examples of governments that deliver service to the people, then we are faced with the reality of such a rarity. To then, hope endlessly for the emergence in the center of such a government that would freely and of its own accord, decide to truly serve the people, and predicate the future of our nation on the possibility of such a fortuitous occurrence, would be tantamount to waiting for that elusive national messiah. It is synonymous to waiting for God to descend into the realm of gross matter, and in no other place but Nigeria, to exorcise freewill from mankind. It amounts to calling the Egyptians and Tunisians idiots, for daring to take their destinies in their own hand.
The entirety of human existence is about struggle. The advancement of society, thus far, is hinged on the furtherance of that struggle in varying fronts. People, individually and collectively, challenged the status quo and explored new frontiers. They demanded better treatment, and in some cases, paid the supreme sacrifice. The result is better societies in which the people are taken seriously by the government. Never in history, at least in modern history, is it experienced that the people would nicely, ask the government for a better deal, as a man would woo a woman in a gentlemanly fashion, and did get a better deal; nor did the people achieve results by running to their churches and mosques to seek Divine aid in matters that are clearly within their purview.
The quality of governance you have is a function of the quality of people that are in the government. It is therefore, foolhardy to expect any genuine developmental strides from an administration peopled with persons who have never been known to be passionate about zero tolerance for corruption. Only recently, President Jonathan was quoted as saying corruption was not the problem of Nigeria, but the attitude of the citizens. Now, when the man who should spearhead the fight against a national monster and aggressively re-orientate the minds of the people, believes that corruption is not a problem; your guess is as good as mine as to what can come out of an administration headed by such a man. Does it make sense for the electorate to invest their hopes in a leader via the process of election, only for the leader to tell them that he had handed over the country to God?
I am @efewanogho on twitter.