FORMER South African President, Thabo
Mbeki’s contention that ordinary
Nigerians deserve as much blame as the
politicians for the leadership failure in the
country provides a valid platform for the
re-evaluation of citizens’ role in
governance in Nigeria. According to the
man who took over the mantle of
leadership from the great Nelson
Mandela, it is only the citizens themselves
that can put a stop to bad leadership. We
agree.
Democracy’s efficacy and legitimacy are
predicated on an informed citizenry;
without active and knowledgeable
citizens, democratic representation
remains empty; without vigilant, informed
citizens, there is no check on potential
tyranny. Mbeki’s position quickly brings to
mind the statement credited to a French
historian and political thinker, Alexis de
Tocqueville, that “in a democracy, the
people get the government they deserve.”
Given his background as an activist and
freedom fighter, whose struggles helped
to bring down the obnoxious apartheid
system in his country, Mbeki certainly
knows what it takes to put a government
under pressure and compel it to do the
bidding of the people, in whom lies
ultimate sovereignty. This civic political
culture is lacking in Nigeria at present.
But recent events in the Arab world,
known as the Arab Spring, have clearly
demonstrated what the people can do
with power when they realise that it
belongs to them, and is only held in trust
on their behalf by politicians. Once the
Arabs lost faith in the way they were
being governed, they expressed their
views very strongly and forced changes.
The change of government that took place
in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt was an
inevitable capitulation to the will of the
people, just in the same manner as the
reforms that were introduced in Morocco.
This point has been made even more
pointedly in Egypt where, after three
decades of authoritarian rule, the
government of Hosni Mubarak was
unceremoniously brought to an end.
Notably too, even his successor,
Mohammed Morsi, was swept away in a
gale of protests, barely a year after
assuming office as the first democratically
elected president of the country. To
achieve this, the people were ready to put
their lives on the line, confronting security
agents and defying live bullets.
Unfortunately, here in Nigeria, nobody
wants to put his life on the line. Apathy by
the civil populace has meekly handed
politicians and political office holders the
freedom to steal the country blind and
squander its resources in a manner,
perhaps, unheard of in the annals of the
country. It is difficult to think of a country
where over N2 trillion spent in the name
of subsidy has not been properly
accounted for; yet, nobody is behind bars
two years after. It is unimaginable that in
a country that professes the rule of law,
billions of naira belonging to pensioners
could vanish into thin air and nobody is
made to account for it.
Indeed, it is still difficult to fathom how
over 100 security agents could be
murdered in cold blood while on official
duty and the killers still prance around
unmolested. It is perhaps only in Nigeria
that a minister would authorise the
purchase of two extra cars, apart from her
other official vehicles, for N255 million.
To think that this is happening at a time
when a minister was given the boot in
Ghana for merely expressing her desire to
acquire up to $1 million through politics
only reinforces the extent to which
Nigerians are docile and satisfied with the
kind of government that they have. The
Nigerian minister in question is still in
office.
It is not just under the current
government, governments in Nigeria have
always acted as if they exist in a different
planet and owe the electorate neither
explanations for their actions, nor
effective service delivery. Yet, when the
time comes to make a change through the
ballot box, it is either the same villains
are returned to power or they rig
themselves back, regardless of what the
ballot says.
In Nigeria, it appears nothing can provoke
the people into demanding accountability
from political office holders. Things that
would jolt a government in any other
clime go unnoticed in the country. For
instance, how does one explain the
continued deterioration in the quality of
infrastructure amidst an endless flow of
money from the sale of crude oil? How
can the decline in the quality of education
and health care delivery be explained in
view of the amount that accrues to the
country from the crude oil sale? It is in
this same country that a government
came to office when the price of oil was
$18 per barrel was able to pay off the
country’s debt of over $30 billion and
saved over $50 billion in foreign reserves
and more than $20 billion in Excess
Crude Account. But the country is now
accumulating debts, even when the price
of oil in the international market has
remained largely above $100 pb in the
past six years. Yet, Nigerians are not
asking questions and are so enfeebled
that their views, when expressed, don’t
count.
A major factor has been the role of
ethnicity and religion in the way people
perceive issues in the country. Once a
person offends the law and is about to be
brought to justice, there will be
shameless protests from his kith and kin,
claiming victimisation on account of the
person’s ethnic origin. This blackmail has
worked in many cases, including the
corruption case of a former Delta State
Governor, James Ibori, and it is currently
being put to test in the ongoing
bulletproof cars purchase scandal
involving the Minister of Aviation, Stella
Oduah.
Making democracy work, says the National
Democratic Institute, a United States-
based non-profit organisation, requires
informed and active citizens who
understand how to voice their interests,
act collectively and hold public officials
accountable. Democracy’s credibility and
sustainability depends, to an important
degree, on how it works in practice, and
on what it delivers. As Mbeki puts it, bad
governments thrive in Nigeria, or
elsewhere for that matter, because “the
leadership does not feel pressure from
the people.” It therefore follows that if
Nigerians desire the dividends of
democracy, they will have to fight for it.
They must decide whether to continue
with the way they are being governed or
become active in demanding transparency
and accountability from government.

Home truth to a people not truthful to themselves!