Beyond Mere Grumbling

By

Anthony Akinola

anthonyakinola@yahoo.co.uk

What has become rather customary whenever we commemorate our independence is for quite a number of writers to want to review the state of the nation. Expectedly, leadership is blamed for the litany of woes. While it can hardly be contradicted that leadership has failed in its responsibilities to Nigerians, the position one takes here is that we the followers have also failed ourselves in some respects. We have failed to check the greed and corruption of leadership, thereby contributing inadvertently to the abysmal failure to achieve the goals of development in our not-too-poor political entity.

There is this assumption that politicians have sacrificed their time and resources to get into public positions because of their patriotism. This may be true elsewhere but not in Nigeria . Most of those who hold public positions in our society today are where they are because of the alluring prospects of power, fame and fortune. . They would not be in politics if it were otherwise.

Be that as it may, our elected politicians nevertheless owe us a duty because they would not be where they are without our votes. They are our representatives; however, their failure is also an indictment of our ability to dictate the terms. We must accept that we have failed in this respect.

Political representation is a two-way process; there is an input and there is a feedback. The feedback generates further input. This, indeed, is how it works in a proper representative democracy. But how many of the so-called intelligentsia in our various communities can claim to have held meetings with their representatives regarding the plights and aspirations of their local constituencies? The representatives award themselves huge sums of money as constituency allowances but in what respects have these allowances been justified? Our young ladies are being sexually harassed here and there by prospective employers and those who should be in fiduciary positions but how many of our representatives have taken up their complaints and work towards a law that makes sexual harassment a punishable offence?

The great Wole Soyinka was once optimistic that it would no longer be business as usual with our elected leaders. He indicated an intention to float a non-political interest group that would make its presence felt in the corridors of power nationwide. One hopes this inspirational genius of our generation would still be there to contribute to the founding of such a desirable association . An example of a non-partisan interest group in the USA is Common Cause whose activities have benefited ordinary Americans since it was founded in 1970.

We in Nigeria have been treated to how a non-partisan interest group can identify and stand up for what is good for all. The Save Nigeria Group, led by Pastor Tunde Bakare and others, proved that politicians can be forced to be responsible if those who elected them can also put some pressure on them. The Save Nigeria Group which sprung into action following the controversy generated by the incapacitation of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua should have transformed into a permanent interest group. It is sad that it did not.

There was always very little the “one-man bands” of the Tai Solarins and Gani Fawehinmis could have achieved.. Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, the late Pan-Africanist campaigner and scholar said we should “organise, not agonise”. If we are genuinely concerned about our plights and rights, maybe it is time we organised ourselves into a non-partisan group, subscribed to by patriotic Nigerians across the various divides. The trouble with Nigeria is significantly that of a followership that would rather grumble than act collectively in pursuit of desired objectives.

We all accept that corruption is the cancer killing our nation but what have we done about it collectively? How many of us, including those who influence pubic opinion, can claim to be immune from it? How many of our professors or journalists would rather appear before the magistrate and be fined for committing a traffic offence than bribe the police?

Corruption will not go away unless we genuinely resent it and are prepared to vent our anger. There is one Anna Hazare, an Indian currently leading a campaign against corruption in his equally corrupt society. He has been able to inspire millions of his compatriots and the results are showing. The same can be done in Nigeria . It is a matter of a people taking a stand on what they claim they deplore. Our politicians can be cowed if we can insist we are no “idiots”. Was it not the fear of Boko Haram and that of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) that forced our political leaders to abandon the traditional Eagle Square and celebrate independence anniversary in relative obscurity?

The message is simple: when we are no longer out there to marvel at the sight of palaces and obscenely expensive cars, proceeds of corruption that they are, our politicians will think twice about their greed – inspired indulgences and aspirations. We must deploy the power of education to free our peoples from the psychology of servitude imposed by some overbearing culture.