ACTIVE citizens are the oxygen of democracy. A people that are docile and possess carefree attitude to democratic practices and behaviour of political leaders only enable their evil acts. A society that works, has active and vigilant citizens.
Recently it took the effort of a commuter in Ikorodu, Lagos, to let the authorities of LAMATA to understand what happens in BRT services in that axis. Few years ago, it took the vigilance of some youths to alert the nation that SARS had gone completely outside its operational mandate and had become a menace to the society.
We are standing at the juncture of ugly history with the ship of state going downhill, intimating a departure from the opprobrium of yesterday, affirming the putrefying rot of today and echoing the hopelessness of tomorrow. We are doomed if we refuse to stand up to speak and act.
Democracy without accountability is like a car without brakes, it will definitely crash. Accountability keeps leaders in check, ensures they’re serving the people, not just themselves. The masses must speak up, question the process and demand for accountability.
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Those in power are recklessly desperate to retain it – structures are being pulled down or disfigured. Our democracy faces serious threats ahead of 2027. How can we accept an electoral law that criminalises dual party membership but ignores certificate forgery? Voter turnout in FCT Council election was less than ten percent. This indicates that people are disillusioned. Silence is dangerous.
At this point, silence isn’t golden – it’s complicity. Governors are buying SUVs while people suffer: insecurity is crippling movement, damaging rural economy; farmers can’t farm, market women can’t trade, religious worshippers can’t gather. No roads, no factories, no jobs for youths, no homes for families. There is a new resurgence of thuggery in the political arena.
Your silence and docility are complicit. No one is going to do our duty for us. Americans built their democracy through thick and thin, resolving challenges thrown up as they went. Same for other advanced democracies – citizens stood up against wrong democratic practices and ensure they are replaced with civilised and equitable systems.
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How can you afford silence in a state where a governor will spend billions in arranging marriage for jobless people? Yet the entire state cannot cultivate its vast arable land because of insecurity. On the other side is mass population of out-of-school children roaming the streets. How can a governor be budgeting billions for fasting and delivering garri, kuli-kuli, and sugar and no one is asking question?
I’m traumatised by the silence of those who protested under Goodluck Jonathan but are silent now. Some are intellectuals, some ‘activists’, others ‘God’s giants’ who tribalize God. They are mute now, saying “pray, we’ve sinned”. Jonathan’s sin was his, but Tinubu’s is ours? Their kind elsewhere want us to believe that the God of the Iranian and Palestinian is deferent from the God of Israel and America. Over the years their best effort is to present God as biased and tribalistic.
It hurts knowing our intellectuals, activists, clerics, and citizens sit idly by while equity and justice are subverted shamelessly. Democracy has become transactional – people are bribed to support candidates or parties. If you’re collecting handouts in safe areas like Makurdi while people die in Yelwata, or in Owerri while Orlu is in chaos, you’re feasting on your people’s blood.
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We are standing at the juncture of ugly history with the ship of state going downhill, intimating a departure from the opprobrium of yesterday, affirming the putrefying rot of today and echoing the hopelessness of tomorrow. We are doomed if we refuse to stand up to speak and act.
You who has muted because the ruinner in chief is from your tribe or because you’re afraid that your business may be ruined or due to pecuniary benefits or you are afraid of the state’s grip, should not forget what Mordecai said to Esther in the book of Esther, chapter 4, verse 14: “If you don’t speak up for your people, God will send someone else”. No darkness has ever lasted forever and no war has ever claimed everyone before. Our survival will surely come if we all rise up.
As I am writing this essay, news came in from Bakassi in Cross River State of thugs alleged to be working for APC, destroying and scattering an ADC meeting venue sounding it loud and clear that no other party except APC is needed in the state. Earlier in the month, we heard the Edo state governor, Senator Monday Okpehbolo saying that no billboard of any other presidential candidate will be allowed in Edo state.
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Joseph Stalin once ripped all the feathers off a live chicken as a lesson to his followers. He then set the chicken on the floor a short distance away. The chicken was bloodied and suffering immensely, yet, when Stalin began to toss some bits of wheat toward the chicken it followed him around. He said to his followers: “This is how easy it is to govern stupid people, they will follow you no matter how much pain you cause them, as long as you throw them a little worthless treat once in a while.”
Stalin’s experiment shows how leaders impoverished us, stripped our dignity, and destroyed checks and balances. Our despair fuels transactional politics – Nigerians, young and old, crave handouts. Politicians know they’ve got us on a leash. The palliative queues scream hunger, despair, and hopelessness. Our freedom is in our hands
You who has muted because the ruinner in chief is from your tribe or because you’re afraid that your business may be ruined or due to pecuniary benefits or you are afraid of the state’s grip, should not forget what Mordecai said to Esther in the book of Esther, chapter 4, verse 14: “If you don’t speak up for your people, God will send someone else”. No darkness has ever lasted forever and no war has ever claimed everyone before. Our survival will surely come if we all rise up.
