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There is something called Office of the Citizen (OOTC) which many Nigerians do not know about. But all citizens occupy that office, with or without desks and chairs, fans or airconditioners, refrigerators or television sets. It is a fundamental democratic concept that says that the citizen is the highest office in the land, he is the king or queen, the emperor, the Lord of the Manor; he is rated higher, much higher, than any elected official whether President or Governor or Legislator. He has powers and duties assigned to him by the mere occupation of that office, powers that are more important than even the powers assigned to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That is the theory of it but if he conscientiously exercises that power he would become the master, not the servant that he is today, the shepherd not the sheep that he has been all along. If he had been performing faithfully the duties of that office Nigeria would have been a better, safer and saner country than it is today. But the citizen is missing, sleeping, snoring. That is why the country is looking like a down-in-the-dumps nation; that is why there is supercharged tension; that is why there is darkness in our lives; that is why our lives seem to be in the last lane; that is why there is a devouring gulf of despair, and our lives now seem to be a negation of our dreams, dreams of security and prosperity.
But let’s spell out the duties of that office. The citizen’s duties include voting for competent leaders, participation in public conversation on public good, scrutinizing the actions of our elected officials at all levels, demanding accountability, transparency and efficiency in service delivery. It also includes the agitation for appropriate policy reforms, challenging policies, programmes and laws that do not work for the greatest good of the greatest number of the people. These duties also come with responsibilities such as paying taxes, obeying the laws of the country, defending the country, rendering needed service and respecting the rights of other citizens. There are a couple of civil society organisations in Nigeria that have been trying to educate and mobilise the citizens to do their duties to themselves and the nation. One of them is called Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria. This organisation runs public campaigns and workshops under its Office of the Citizen programme to improve the knowledge and participation of the citizens in governance.
The other outfit is actually called Office of the Citizen (OOTC). It is an organisation that simplifies the electoral process and provides tools like a passport or Handbook to help voters understand governance and how to hold government officials accountable. Of course, there are some civil society organisations such as SERAP that have done a fantastic job of working for the public good without necessarily getting the citizens involved. SERAP goes to court regularly to challenge legislation, actions and decisions that it considers challengeable. That organisation earns my full respect for its dedication and tenacity in its pursuit of the public good. If we had a few more of such patriotic organisations we would be in a better place than we are now. But our discussion today is on the citizen and how it has discharged or failed to discharge its duties. The first point to note is that most citizens do not know that they have duties that they owe to themselves. One of such duties is that citizens must put themselves in positions where they can become successful in life. There are many people who think that reduction of poverty is solely a responsibility of the government of the day. It is not. Individuals owe themselves that duty to try to be successful with or without government support. Individuals must put themselves in positions where they can benefit from education, skills development and improvement in their general well-being. Many individuals have failed to do this duty to themselves. In that same vein such persons are not even able to perform the duties assigned to them by the Office of the Citizen. That to me is the equivalent of followership failure. That is why many of us seem to have that sickening sensation of our lives plunging downwards. The reason is that we are not doing dutifully our duty to ourselves and our country. A few examples can illuminate this point.
Ajaokuta Steel Mill was established in the 1970s. Between then and now an estimated $8 billion has been spent on this huge industrial plant without our getting the full benefit that the establishment of that massive industry was supposed to bring to Nigeria. There are millions of people who live in that State but they have done nothing or next to nothing to get the facility working seamlessly. That is followership failure.
For the past two decades or so the four Federal Government-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna have been dead, almost stone dead. We the followers have not done anything tangible to get the Government to either revive them or sell them or build new ones. All that we have been doing is to mutely accept the excessively high cost refined imported petroleum products always inflicted on us by Shylock marketers. We sleep and snore at these petrol stations for days during festive periods and when it is our chance to be served the price is outrageous. We pay uncomplainingly or if we do not want to sleep at the petrol station we patronize black market hawkers who charge an arm and a leg. Today, we depend largely on a private refinery established by a private person, Alhaji Aliko Dangote. That is followership failure.
The Federal Government established three paper mills many years ago, to improve the printing, publishing and educational needs of our huge population. Today, none of those paper mills is working or working satisfactorily. So our paper needs are largely imported with negative consequences such as the high cost of school textbooks and other reading materials. These factories are located in Akwa Ibom, Ogun and Kogi States. I am not sure that the people living in those places who were, and ought to be, the major beneficiaries have held a demonstration or led a delegation to the Federal Government on these dormant assets which have now become whited sepulchers. That is followership failure.
There is a 15-storey complex in Lagos that served as a hub of government activities before Nigeria’s capital moved from Lagos to Abuja. The facility has been largely unoccupied since 1991 and nothing has been done by either selling it or donating it or leasing it. Whatever is the controversy surrounding its idle life should have been resolved ages ago. That edifice gives us an obsessive sense of something seriously going wrong with us. The effect is graveyard.
Some years ago, President Muhammadu Buhari set up a forensic audit team to look into the affairs of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). The then Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Godswill Akpabio told Nigerians that 13,000 projects had been abandoned in the Niger Delta. It shocked many fair-minded people that such a huge number of projects could be abandoned in the Niger Delta, the cash cow of the nation, without any volcanic eruption by the people. PANDEF which used to be the vocal voice of the Niger Delta people went silent, unsagaciously silent, while the people wrestled quietly with the sorrow of being abandoned to their devices despite their enormous contribution to the national wallet. That is followership failure. When Edmund Burke said that “the people are the masters” he did not have Nigerians in mind. In Nigeria, the privileged and the people belong to two nations, two nations that are polar apart.
It is obvious that many Nigerians do not know that they owe something to themselves. They do not know that they can get their government to do better than they are doing if they can harass them with open letters, letters to the editors, law suits, demonstrations, processions, criticisms and correct voting decisions. My thesis is that it is followers that can make leaders better; if followers fail to harass their leaders, the leaders will continue to do as they please; they will continue to treat their constituents with ignominy. So my view is that it is followership failure that has largely led to leadership failure in Nigeria. This failure has led to a devouring gulf of despair among the people. For where we are now, the citizens must hold themselves responsible. Why? Because they have failed to do their duty to themselves. What Nigerians largely see today are the ashes of their dreams, because the people who occupy the Office of the Citizen are in the arms of Morpheus.
