{"id":80311,"date":"2021-05-04T00:54:25","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T23:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=80311"},"modified":"2021-05-04T00:59:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T23:59:23","slug":"the-platform-and-one-discussion-we-are-all-avoiding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/the-platform-and-one-discussion-we-are-all-avoiding\/","title":{"rendered":"THE PLATFORM AND ONE DISCUSSION WE ARE ALL AVOIDING"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every May Day, the Pastor Poju Oyemade-led Covenant Christian Centre, Lagos invites speakers of all shades of opinions to speak at a discussion programme, THE PLATFORM<\/em> with the view to preferring solutions to Nigeria\u2019s multifaceted problems. At every edition, speakers give brilliant speeches on how best to make the nation work. Speakers like Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Rev. Fr. Matthew Kukah, Governor Peter Obi, and persons of such ilk have spoken at THE PLATFORM<\/em> on several topical issues from the economy, governance, etc. It\u2019s difficult to see an edition of the programme without a controversial position or character on any selected national discourse or topic. Any curious observer will not fail to notice that most of the discussants speak so much about the problems in governments (federal, states, and local), institutions, systems (whatever that means), the Civil Service, etc, but not a lot of them made any attempt about the role of the citizens in all these. One begins to ask himself or herself if the citizens have any role in all these. This, interestingly, is a discussion we all are, understandably, trying very desperately to avoid.<\/p>\n

Observing the challenges of adopting democracies in post-colonial African states, Professor Mahmood Mamdani – in his seminal work Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism<\/em> \u2013 beautifully and boldly dissects the impacts of colonial mentality in reproducing \u201cracial identity in citizens and ethnic identity in subjects\u201d on the former colonies. Even though Professor Mamdani\u2019s case studies are primarily in two Southern African countries – Uganda and South Africa \u2013 many of his thoughts are still being firmly reflected in Nigeria today.<\/p>\n

The Colonial State in Africa did not hope to prepare Africans for citizenship. This made locals view everything \u201cGovernment\u201d with so much distrust. Public properties mean nothing other than \u201cnobody\u2019s business\u201d or something to be looted at the slightest opportunity because of poorly defined ownership. An invitation to serve in public office is an opportunity to \u201cpartake in the national cake\u201d. As Nigeria\u2019s foremost novelist, Chinua Achebe, wrote in his No Longer At Ease<\/em>, once a young (wo)man get appointed or elected into public office, he automatically begins to shoulder the responsibilities of his extended family, his clan, or friends who sees his or her appointment as their window to \u201ctake\u201d their portion from state\u2019s resources, rather than an opportunity to serve. Mr Obi (the central character in the novel), soon found out that the demands from his clan\u2019s people will soon make him engage in corrupt practices as the Secretary of the Scholarship Commission in the Ministry of Education. After all, according to Achebe in A Man of the People,<\/em> nobody wants to miss \u201ctheir chance of getting \u2026their share of the national cake\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

In all these, one will notice the patterns have been about what is to be taken from the state. The citizens feel a sense of entitlement without any corresponding value addition. Governance is an opportunity to \u201cchop\u201d, and not to serve. The recent spat between Festus Keyamo and Eedris Abdulkareem over the latter\u2019s new song \u201cJaga Jaga Reloaded\u201d shows how unapologetic many Nigerians see public service as a kind of empowerment scheme with everyone desperately competing for their turn or share.<\/p>\n

While not saying Government officials shouldn\u2019t be held accountable for their (in)actions or that our institutions need to undergo reforms, one thing we seem to always forget is that these officials who occupy these institutions are also citizens like the rest of us. These institutions or systems won\u2019t run themselves. They will be run by officials who come from within and amongst us. These persons were brought up in the same society, environment, or conditions as most of us. They are not strangers or people from other planets. Getting elected or appointed into public offices won\u2019t just suddenly change them into something they are not. The Professor who was recently caught collecting money to rig for one of the candidates in an election he served as Returning Officer, has probably cheated all his life undetected. If not, he couldn\u2019t just have developed the cheating trait all of a sudden. No one teaches old dogs some new tricks. Old habits die hard. The Twitter influencer, who recently bagged a PhD, says \u201cintegrity doesn\u2019t put food on the table or pay bills\u201d because a virtuous woman returned money (running into millions) she found at an airport to the owner has probably lived his life believing cheating or gaming systems will be the best way to go. If we check properly, I won\u2019t be surprised his doctoral thesis will be a huge academic fraud since he sees no problem with academic dishonesty. If these characters finding their ways into public offices, they will surely have no issues violating the Procurement Act in the contract bidding process in favour of their friends, families, or other close relatives since integrity \u201cdoesn\u2019t put food on the table\u2026\u201d There are always clues if we are paying enough attention!<\/p>\n

I have also read through the 1999 Constitution and say how well detailed the framers of the documents spelt out the rights of citizens from Sections 33 to 45. Something that is conspicuously missing in the same Constitution the Section dealing with the responsibilities of citizens. Even in Sections 25 to 32 where CITIZENSHIP is established, not a single mention of their responsibilities. Well, this can\u2019t simply be an innocent oversight on the part of the framers of the Constitution. They are simply too aware of the kind of citizens we are. John F. Kennedy knew what he was saying when he said \u201c\u2026 ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country\u201d during his inaugural address as the 35th<\/sup> US President in 1961.<\/p>\n

We can talk (or rant) so much about how rascally public officials behave at every talk shows. We can talk about how \u201cpoliticians are dragging us back\u201d or how the nation is not working. We can speak passionately about how the devolution of powers will be the magic wand to solve all our problems. We can speak about how changing parties in government will be the almighty formula to all our challenges. We will keep leaving out the serious issues around the crisis of citizenship. How can the nation work when everyone just wants to \u201ctake\u201d without giving back anything in return? A nation where people only talk about rights (getting) without corresponding responsibilities (giving back) won\u2019t work. It\u2019s like being employed in a company but just want to be collecting salaries monthly without giving much or anything in return. As noted by Frantz Fanon in his The Wretched of the Earth, <\/em>\u201cA government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.\u201d It\u2019s obvious we are avoiding this discussion but we will come back to it someday whether or not we like it. This will be part of my contributions to THE PLATFORM<\/em> if I\u2019m ever invited to speak!<\/p>\n

Olalekan Adigun, a public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos. He tweets from @MrLekanAdigun\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Every May Day, the Pastor Poju Oyemade-led Covenant Christian Centre, Lagos invites speakers of all shades of opinions to speak at a discussion programme, THE PLATFORM with the view to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":80314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\nTHE PLATFORM AND ONE DISCUSSION WE ARE ALL AVOIDING - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/the-platform-and-one-discussion-we-are-all-avoiding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE PLATFORM AND ONE DISCUSSION WE ARE ALL AVOIDING - 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