The Curious Case of Spectator Citizens by Olise Onwuka
The much-anticipated 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia is finally here. Football enthusiasts the world over couldn’t have waited for the event to come sooner. Fortunately, the long wait is over and participating teams would battle to win the coveted trophy and fly the flags of their beloved nations.
While everyone’s attention will be on the players, there is a much larger and prominent group whose contribution to the outcome of games is seldom overlooked — the SPECTATORS. At the core of their participation is an unwavering support for their teams. Without kicking the ball they cheer, chant, sing and dance to uplift the spirit of their teams and spur them to victory.
While that is the norm in football, governance works the other way around. Governance in Nigeria has seen too many spectators who cheer from the sidelines. We have been overly preoccupied with cheerleading that our leaders brazenly steal our collective national treasury and resources at the expense of our livelihood.
We seem to get it wrong at every turn as we hastily navigate away from the issues that plague us as a nation. From the North to the South, East to west the narrative is the same. Citizens have been complicit to our underdevelopment. Although we find it convenient to drop the blame on our leaders.
In the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, “A government can be no better than the public opinions that sustain it.”
For the 19th time we celebrated the birth of our Democracy in May. A democracy that has so far contradicted the tenets of its foundational principles — Government of the people, by the people and for the people. Our unwillingness to participate has helped create an opaque system where contracting processes are shrouded in fraud and secrecy.
As we demand better education, healthcare, jobs, infrastructure, security etc., citizens should be reminded that it is both a right and responsibility to sustain and develop our democracy.
The participation gap can only be bridged when citizens realize that the people of power are more powerful than the people in power. When we refuse to be used as tools and pawns in the hands of politicians to rig or influence the outcome of elections in their favour. Until we profoundly demand for accountability and improved services our dream of a better Nigeria will be an illusion.
The 2019 general elections is around the corner. There couldn’t be a much better time for citizens to exercise their constitutional rights by electing forward thinking leaders who would deliver on their mandate. Irrespective of our diversity and variance in religion, ethnicity, and political affiliation, a united voice in quest for better reforms and systems that work for the citizenry is what we need.
As we cheer the Super Eagles to victory in Russia, let us be resilient in our push for a government that works at all levels. Just like players rely on effective teamwork to win, so does good governance rely on the people.
“The only title in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen.” — Justice Louis Brandeis
