Loss Of Confidence In Government

There is no gainsaying the fact that many Nigerians have lost confidence in government.

Citizens find it difficult to reason along with government officials.

If anything at all, citizens welcome new policies with skepticism.
The confidence reposed in government has been betrayed overtime, such that people now view every act of government with suspicion. Gone were the days when government actions and policies wee coterminous with the interest of people.

The military came with its might and bulldozed its way into every fabric of the society.

The awe with which people hold government officials no longer pervade.
In the interest of the society, the confidence needs to be restored, so that everybody would be better for it.

During the military rule, the unelected leaders could afford to treat the interest of the people with disdain, not so with the elected leaders.
Unfortunately for Nigeria, the civilian government that took over the reigns of administration after the long military interregnum was led by a man with a military background.

The man, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo himself, a beneficiary of military putsch found it difficult to internalize democratic tenets.

Obasanjo believed in what some Nigerians have come to describe as “garrison democracy” in the absence of a better term.

It  simply means that the leaders, who are elected can muzzle the people to achieve a set objective.

Since he was a product of the hierarchical structure of the military, he brooded no opposition.

He saw any dissent voice as rebellion against constituted authority.

Little wonder, the National Assembly (NASS) was brought under his effective control.

Ordinarily, the NASS, an arm of government ought to be independent, but the Balogun Owu would not tolerate that.
Under his administration, the high-handedness associated with the military was in vogue.

Promises made were not kept.

Probe panels set up to unearth malaise in any economic sector of the economy never saw the light of the day.

Economic saboteurs were allowed to go scot free without sanction.

The Pentascope, Halliburton probe panels reports were never implemented.
While most people may not be okay with such policy, they were helpless.

This shortcoming may not be peculiar to the government of Obasanjo, but overtime, the people have been able to predict certain government actions in a negative direction.

It is the government of President Goodluck Jonathan that inherited the fury of Nigerians.
The mutual distrust between the leaders and the led resulted into a situation where President Goodluck Jonathan could not come out openly to address Nigerians about the planned withdrawal of fuel subsidy.

The backlash was expected and it came in fast and fury.

Rather than listen to words of wisdom from distinguished people, eminent scholars, technocrats and divinely inspired men of God, the government of President Jonathan chose to listen to himself and a band of praise-singers around the corridors of power.

Even when the House of Representatives asked both the government and the organized labour under the auspices of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to give room for dialogue, the government stuck to its guns.
It would be recalled that the House mandated, to put it in the words of Dr Reuben Abati, the Presidential Adviser on Media, advised the government to revert to the pre-January 1st, 2012 fuel prices, while Labour too should not proceed on strike/protest, the Federal Government did not give room for dialogue.

According to him, it was advisory, therefore not binding.

The probe panel on fuel subsidy will come to naught.

All these acts show clearly that the electorate, who ought to be sovereign, are not.

Lives were lost, properties damaged and the economy suffered unnecessary collapse for five and half working days.
The government should not be seen as pandering to the wishes of the people only when there is election.

The interest of the people should always be paramount and should prevail in any circumstances.

Bootlickers and sycophants were even saying that Nigerians should be grateful to President Jonathan for having the audacity to withdraw fuel subsidy or better put, increase the price of fuel because he could have continued with the subsidy regime, which could have long term effect on the economy.

This assertion is neither here nor there because the expose at the Farouk Lawan’s House of Representatives committee on fuel subsidy has shown that all the government officials were feeding us with in terms of the quantity of fuel consumed daily and the attendant subsidy paid on it is all a façade.
The charade has been on for sometime, but the investigation has unearth a log of undercover dealings. Some critical minds are of the view that the President was hell bent on the increase in the price of petroleum products because the Federal Government was compelled to dip its hands into the federal coffers for the last general elections.
Rather than open up to its shortcomings and plead with Nigerians to see reasons with the inept Peoples Democratic Party’s Federal Government,  the President and his men kept giving conflicting and misleading data on fuel consumption, all to justify the increase.
Are the people wrong to have kicked against the policy, or better still, was it right for the people to have keyed into the organized labour’s instigated protests/strike? The people have been justified. In civilized climes, some officials would have lost their jobs for misleading the country. However, in our own country, we have to pamper them for doing the wrong thing.
There is a need for serious reflection to see why inspite of our abundant resources Nigerians are among the poorest on earth. We also need to know why the government has become a major source of primitive wealth accumulation.
We are made to believe that militancy in the Niger-Delta region was occasioned by what the people from that region saw in Abuja.

The people were mobilized by the General Sani Abacha military junta to sing the praises of Abacha so that he could perpetuate himself in power.

On getting to Abuja, they were astonished at the level of opulence and extravagance in the nation’s capital, whereas the region that lay the proverbial golden egg was made to suffer neglect, and live in squalor.
The leaders of the region decided to resort to kidnapping expatriates and damaging petroleum pipes.

The onslaught was on until the government of late President Musa Yar Adua gave them amnesty to stop the restiveness in the Niger-Delta.
Boko-Haram is purely a creation of politicians who used them as thugs to pursue their parochial interest.

The denizens of the society become a willing tool in the hands of politicians, who were prepared to feather their nest.

The Almajiri, who are children “orphaned” not because they have lost their parents, are made to go and fend for themselves anywhere they could get food.

They are itinerant and roam round food-selling places to solicit for left-over.

In some cases, a little indulgence could make a buyer of food lose his food to these children.

They are practically made to go abegging to feed themselves.

If these kids, who cannot be fed by their parents, grow up, they grow up to become willing tools in the hands of opportunists.

These opportunists, who are politicians, used them as thugs to achieve their aim and later abandon them.

It becomes very easy for these people to be mobilized for nefarious activities.

These almajiris have not enjoyed the good things of life, so it becomes easy for some unscrupulous people to promise them eternal bliss in Heaven.

It is simple logic that if all the world provides is misery disaster, hunger and untold hardships, then it is better to embrace the project of eternal bliss in Heaven.
The trust people have in government has gone to the lowest ebb to the extent that even when something good is conceived by public officials, citizens tend to believe that it has some material benefits to them.

Government needs to get the confidence of the people so that mutual interest would be developed.
Nigeria has everything to make it great, but with mismanagement, we now rank among the poorest countries in the world.

I strongly believe that with proper harnessing of resources for the good of the public, Nigerians would benefit greatly.

There is a need for sacrifice on the part of public officials, while there should also be altruistic instincts.

Government needs to do more than the ordinary to regain the confidence of the people, which it needs to make things work.