I was discussing with someone who is a fellow Nigerian yesterday. Although we are of different political opinions, we were able to agree that the problem of Nigeria is much more a citizenship one than a leadership one.
Let’s look at the ongoing elections in the country.
In the first instance, did the president, INEC chairman or the contestants go to commit electoral offences physically?
Are we not the ones that are being used to commit these offences and more?
If we had standards and refused to sell ourselves cheaply, will electoral malpractices not be reduced to the barest minimum?
Note the word “cheaply.”
Do we have the ability to say “no”, not only to electoral offences but to even matters of non-provision of basic amenities, bad performance of public officers or even accepting and giving bribes?
Do we have a culture of queueing up to be served?
Have we cultivated the habit of saying no to bad services, not only in the public sector but even in the private sector?
How many of us actually understand that the people we elect are our employees who should be at our beck and call every time and not the other way around?
Until we understand these and behave accordingly, we can’t ever have good governance.
We need a rethink!
“A people will always deserve its ruling class!”
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