STRIKER: First Thing First: Make Your Voices Heard

On every subject matter, from football to democracy and governance, almost every Nigerian (from teenage up) is an expert! Nigerians have a strong opinion on almost every societal problem and they have readily proffered solutions. Across pubs, newsstands, worship places and all sorts of social gatherings, you can hear their loud voices on different issues that catch the day’s fancy.

However loud the voices are, are they truly heard? If heard at all by those who should hear, is attention paid to the opinions much else given due consideration and acted on?

Individuals may rise to prominent social status that makes their opinions powerful and indismissible, Professor Wole Soyinka, for a good instance. However well the opinions of such statesmen approximate the collective wishes, the powers-that-be in any clime have a way of quieting them down.

Those who are keen to make their voices heard can always do so, and like we mentioned in a previous article, the primary thing to do is have solid knowledge on the subject at hand. In politics, we have said a study of all the Rule Books, beginning with the Constitution of Nigeria. After the constitution, there are several other rules and regulation books that must come next, among which are The Electoral Act and the INEC Guidelines for political parties and election conducts. Once thus equipped with these and general knowledge of society, you are good to go.

Every adult (above 18 years of age) is duty bound to be aware of his or her rights and duties as citizens. Once you reach that age and beyond, you are either in tertiary schools, working or unemployed. At all levels, there are associations formed to look after your interests. From your immediate community, the Landlord/Tenants Associations, The Community Development Association, The Association at Township levels, The Students Union, Alumni Association and Old Students Associations, Trades Unions and Market Associations, Religious and Cultural Associations, Farmers Associations, Youth Associations, Women Groups, et cetera, you need to take a good look around and develop interest in the activities of associations that capture your location. It is by attending the meetings and contributing to the proceedings of these associations that you build a voice that increasingly matters, and eventually join in actions that positively help the cause. If you are not in any of these associations, join now. If you are already in there, don’t settle down as just a number. Make your voice heard sensibly, learn from others, grow in influence and grow the influence of the association. The only way to grow is by seeking and accepting responsibilities!

Governance and Democracy is not a 4-Yearly Election Day affair. Politics is played every day, right from the family and the neighbourhood all the way to Aso Rock Villa. Having played commendable roles at these grassroots associations, the next level is to really make your voice matter in politics itself, and this too must start at the grassroots level. When it comes to this, the Party is all in all.

In Nigeria, it is the party that must provide candidates for elections. There is one in a million chances that someone from outside any party politics will be adopted as a candidate at any level and presented for elections. However, never bank on it. You must study all political parties in your country, read their manifestoes and programmes, look at the characters of the personalities playing leading roles there, and if they happen to have run government at any level, then you must study the quality of service delivery by them. You must then join the party, again from the grassroots unit, the Ward.

There is absolutely no way of ever being elected into government positions outside being presented by the Party. There is a better chance of being appointed without being a card carrying party member, still such individual must have played considerable role for the party, indirectly. His or her voice and actions elsewhere, along with professional competence must have mattered, which is why making your voice heard in influential associations to the extent they make positive impact is key.

Steadily since 1999 at least, there have been the opportunities to pick those who will assume power at different levels to solve Nigeria’s problems and build a just, free and prosperous nation but majority of Nigerians appear to want the best lives for themselves and a superb society the standard they see overseas without wanting to fulfil their duty, while resigning to lamentation and negative hustles, blaming the society and the people in government. Sometimes, when caught in criminal activities by the law, they even blame the devil! Is it not strange that in 2019 for instance (after 20 years of unbroken civil rule) in a country of about 200 million population with not less than 100 million adults (above 18 years of age), only 84,000,084 adults Registered to Vote, 72,775,585 collected their Permanent Voters Card but only 28,614,190 eventually voted (35.66%); and the president today has the mandate of 15,191,847 citizens, as against 11,262,978 of his closest rival, all candidates in the election polling less than 30 million votes as against over 60 million adults that don’t care what happened but want Nigeria to become a paradise on earth!

Reviewing this “dismal low turnout” in his article “Democracy Has Failed in Nigeria When Voters No Longer Care Who Wins” in his Opinion article in The Guardian of Friday, March 1, 2019, which you can check out, Remi Adekoya said “Although this gave Buhari 56% of the total votes cast, in a country with a population close to 200 million, including more than 84 million registered voters, 15.2 million votes hardly qualifies as a huge mandate. The 35% voter turnout was down from 44% in the 2015 presidential election and way down from the 54% turnout in 2011. In fact, turnout for Nigeria Presidential elections has been dropping at an alarmingly consistent rate since 2003. So why are increasingly fewer Nigerians feeling the need to vote in elections that decide the most powerful political office?”

Yes, there are several reasons why people don’t care anymore, or distance themselves from politics, or associations and groups in general. Most students don’t want to have anything to do with Students Unionism in their schools; Nigerian youths hardly know that there is a National Youth Council and a Nigerian Youth Parliament. It is surely not the way to go. Imagine that just 30 million more youths who are active in influential organisations and political parties had turn out! It would not only have deepened the outcome but as at today, being active youths, they would be better able to interrogate the manner of government the delivered. However strident our individual voices at the vendors’ stand and beer parlours, unless those genuinely lamenting turn from agonising to influential voices and partakers in the activities of the mentioned associations, and eventually in politics, our day of deliverance is as far ahead as we are far away from the promised land.

In conclusion, absence of popular participation is not the only problem of democracy and governance in Nigeria. However, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. When there is a disciplined collection of reasonable voices, the chances of ignoring them, when they strongly articulate a progressive voice in a legitimate and legal way are slim. Therefore, start by taking a stand henceforth, get all the knowledge you need of the rule books and the society, belong to associations you should belong and join the party of your choice and begin to make your voices heard and take active part in building better communities, LGAs, States and the Nation.