LAGOS AUGUST 7TH (URHOBOTODAY)-“The bad governance habit of the Nigerian ruling class may not be obliterated in one fell swoop of a few days of protest. In view of this fact, organisers of the #EndBadGovernance campaign may need to institutionalise it.

THE Delta Obidient Elders’ Council has appraised the outcome of the End Bad Governance Campaign embarked upon since Thursday last week and advocated the need to institutionalise it.

The advice was contained in a press statement endorsed by Chris O. O. Biose, a.k.a. OBIDIENT DADDY, Protem Chairman and Chief Solomon Akeni, Protem Secretary, for and on behalf of DELTA OBIDIENT ELDERS’ COUNCIL.

The group also berated the ‘lame duck’ activities of our representatives at both the National and State Houses of Assembly in the country as hindrance because these representatives are supposed to hold the Executive Arm of Government to account.

According to the statement “if bad governance must be brought to an end in Nigeria, citizens must ceaselessly and persistently repudiate it in any contact with their oppressors. It should not be left to Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), or Human Rights and pro-democracy groups. Agitation for good governance should be a job for all patriotic citizens. Failure to do so, political hawks will continue to prey on the society and everyone suffers.

“The bad governance habit of the Nigerian ruling class may not be obliterated in one fell swoop of a few days of protest. In view of this fact, organisers of the #EndBadGovernance campaign may need to institutionalise it.

“They may need to make it a regular activity, say, once in a month, similar to the weekly Monday sit-at-home non-violent protest in the South-East. Each protest outing may be concentrated on a particular aspect of concern at each point in time.

“This line of action poses a major organisational challenge particularly when some well-meaning participants may interpret the concept of civil protest in varying ways. Since people do not form new habits overnight, they are most likely to conceptualise it in terms of their traditional ways of reacting to perceived injustice.

“For this reason, organisers have to undertake a massive project of teaching citizens how to conduct civil protests, using social media, town halls and face to face contacts”.

…. Our woes are compounded by lame-duck National/ State Houses of Assembly

The statement further said that “Nigeria’s woes are compounded by lame-duck National Assembly (NASS) and State Assemblies. Like the Nigerian Presidency and various Government Houses, national and State Legislatures since 1999 have been colossal disasters that appear not to realize the purpose of their existence. They regard their positions as opportunities to share in looting of public funds.

“Whereas the legislature in a presidential system is designed to act as check on the executive, it does absolutely nothing of the sort in Nigeria. Rather, it is hand in gloves with executive excesses and in most cases, take directives from the executive, at national and state levels.

“Because of these ‘zombie’ legislatures”, the statement continued, “the electorate loses benefit of democratic governance. Representatives who are expected to speak and defend the interests of the electorate actually represent and defend the interests of godfathers and other oppressor groups, which are directly antithetical to the interests and well-being of the electorate.

“With the clear exception of oppressive feudal system in some parts of Northern Nigeria, most Nigerian societies are community-centred. The increasing feudalization and personalization of government is one of the most dangerous and corrupting influences in the country and unless this is effectively checked, Nigeria may slide from military dictatorship to civilian autocracy.

“As a pre-condition for being placed in their positions, legislators are duty bound to give regular account of their legislative activities to the constituencies that elected them. Where this is not done, citizens must demand such accountability.

“In addition to their huge emoluments and allowances, Senators and Representatives are said to be entitled to between N75 million and N500 million per legislator annually for constituency projects, depending on their ranking. The most controversial of these constituency projects in the 2024 budget occurred in Akwa-Ibom (North-West Senatorial District), the Senatorial District of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio. It included N18.5 billion for construction of rural roads and markets in Akwa-Ibom (North-West Senatorial District) which was strangely inserted in the budget for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Another sum of N2.5 billion for provision of deep freezers and generators to be distributed in the Senate President’s constituency was also included in the budget of the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs.

“The self-centred legislators that receive these financial benefits from the public purse are the same ones that insist that N70,000 per month (about USD46.7 at the rate of N1,500 to $1) is good enough as minimum wage for non-political public servants.

“Therefore, Nigerian youths at state and local government levels need to beam their searchlight on public affairs in their areas with a view to ensuring that public funds are judiciously utilised for the benefit of citizens. They must show their anger in constitutionally or socially accepted means but must never cooperate with thieves and oppressors.

“In African justice system, where there are no prisons, thieves and other malfeasors are subjected to social sanctions. Women and children boo them if they have the temerity to appear in public places and they hide their faces in shame. That is the minimum sanction. A situation where citizens sing and dance for reputed thieves is unheard of”, the statement added.

… faults President Tinubu’s nation-wide broadcast

The group also faulted President Tinubu’s nation-wide broadcast.

It said that “after three days of the protest, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made a nation-wide broadcast at 7am on Sunday, August 4, 2024. He condemned the violent turn of the protests in some parts of the country and reeled out some of the economic measures taken by his government, urging hungry citizens to suspend the protest.

“The President acknowledged the severe suffering of the masses but failed completely to present any fresh policy measure to respond to any of their demands of the protesters.

“On a general note, we find it shocking that President Tinubu failed to address the issue of horrendous killings of crop farmers in many parts of the country by armed Fulani herdsmen. It is unreasonable to believe that he does not know that this phenomenon is at the root of inability of Nigerian farmers to produce sufficient food for local consumption in the past few years.

“Nigerians accuse President Tinubu’s administration of lack of accountability, profligacy, expenditure on frivolous items while majority of Nigerians were suffering from intense hunger but he failed to address these issues. He was silent about rampaging oil thieves that run down the economy. Worse still, he made no mention of investigating brutal killing of Nigerian citizens by his police men”, they further stated.

The TownHall

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