Recently, a friend told me that government is a fraud. He did not speak for himself alone, but averred that in the opinion of his people, the government is perceived to be insincere and insensitive to the plight of the people and is only interested in exploiting them. His analysis was that in the past, whenever the people had a need, they rallied round, put their resources together and did whatever was necessary to solve the problem. If, for instance, the bridge across their stream was faulty, they would quickly task themselves, engage people who do such jobs and ensure it is done to specification and within the shortest time possible. If it is something that can be done without spending money such as clearing the road or filling potholes, weeding the foot paths, etc, the leaders would mandate everyone to be physically present to get the job done.
What triggered this discourse was a refuse heap along Orji-Uratta Road, Imo State, that has remained a menace on that major road for more than two years. My friend believes that the Igbo man has lost his essence as, according to him, back in the days, no community would allow such a life-threatening nuisance for such a long time. They would have organized young people to clear the mess somehow without looking up to any government. Unfortunately, everyone kept looking up to the government for one month, two months, one year, two years and still counting.
The argument against his position is that the government collects monies from citizens regularly with a promise to take care of everything for them. There is the annual tax, capitation rate, business premises rate, sanitation rate and so on. When people pay these monies, the expectation is that the government will live up to its responsibility to solve these problems that usually arise wherever human beings live in a communal arrangement. Moreover, municipal waste is beyond what a few youths will cart away with shovels, spades and wheelbarrows. Sophisticated gadgets must be employed to tackle such huge deposits of refuse.
The monumental refuse heap along Orji-Uratta Road is only one out of many of such anomalies all over the nation. The failure of government to live up to its bidding goes beyond refuse disposal. Water supply, education services, fire service, security, electric power supply, price control, road construction, provision of housing, development of agricultural resources and so on are other examples. To the average Nigerian, government is a failure. Even those who have benefitted from the rot in government acknowledge that the government has failed. Why else would they send their children abroad to study if not that the education ministry has failed woefully? Why would someone go abroad to treat minor ailments as often as four or five times in a year if not that he cannot trust the health industry in his country? Why would our country be known globally as a good dumpsite for fake electronics gadgets rejected in other climes? Why would all fake products thrive in our nation including drugs? Yes, failure in the civil service, failure in policy houses, failure everywhere!
Of course, it would be wrong for my friend’s people to say that government is a fraud. It’s a generalization. Even at the time they are referring to, they also had a government; the kind of government the world should envy. What they should be talking about is the kind of government we practice today in this country. In the traditional government of most places, it was indeed the government of the people by the people and for the people. It was the people that decided what they wanted by consensus. The leaders’ mandate was to carry out what the people wanted. Any day the leader decided that he was bigger than the people, he was removed. That is why there was more stability and order in that form of government.
What we have today is an aberration. You cannot be talking about government of the people by the people and for the people when the people have no access to the so-called leaders. The peoples’ voices are not heard at all. It is anomalous to say that one person in the House of Assembly represents and speaks the minds of all citizens of a local government area who sometimes are more than one million individuals. Meanwhile, this representative will not visit his constituents throughout his tenure. He speaks for himself and his family and the people have to take care of themselves.
The point I am making is that the government as we see it today is actually a fraud. The people have no say in the government. They cannot even get their say without undue molestation from the few persons they empowered to speak for them or to oversee their affairs.
Every governor gets into the office on the false pretence of having the people’s interest at heart. As soon as they vote him into office, he builds a barricade between him and the people. For an ordinary person to see his governor face to face in the government house is as difficult as waiting to see God. This person may have to visit the government house consistently for six months or more and endure all kinds of maltreatment before he succeeds, if at all.
All these anomalies breed distrust, disaffection and frustration in the people. Since the government does not care about them, they must find a way to survive. It is common knowledge that when a society is allowed to play the survival game without interventions, it is a recipe for disaster.
This society is heading to anarchy because the people have come to realize that the government does not care whether they live or die. Human life in this country is worth nothing. I believe that the constitution should be reviewed and a system of government that will suit the people introduced so that we will stop seeing the government as a distant and oppressive entity but as a mother figure that exists to give us succour and comfort.
Nnenna Ihebom
