To
talk of government is to talk of governance, which itself is about the act of
overseeing the control and direction of an organization or country.
Lionel
Trilling was said to have pressed the point, three years before he died, that
“The way a nation thinks, determines in the end, the quality of its
governance.” – Benjamin DeMott.
Michael
Dukakis, at the 1988 democratic convention also said, “Governance is about
competence, not ideology.” This thought is only half right because while
competence is important, ideology is critical. Competence needs correct
ideology as its foundation, upon which to build competently. The pillar of it
all however, is administration, hinged on care, conduct, charge, and control.
It is about direction, guidance, handling governance features management,
operation, oversight, supervision and stewardship.
Considering
the Nigerian situation in light of all these ingredients of governance,
listening – which in itself implies paying attention to hear something and give
thoughtful consideration to it – has been largely lacking.
Listening
requires interest, attention, readiness and willingness to hear and heed
accordingly. Where there is no interest, the obvious alternative is to ignore
and the result is to have the situation get worse; when the status quo is
maintained on the issues at stake, deterioration is inevitable. Therefore, as
concerned citizens, hands must be on deck to get the government to listen, by
every means legitimately possible.
Some
of the ways to get the government to listen include, but are not limited to the
following:
1. Dialogue
– this is an age old strategy of which is civil, effective, and result
oriented. It is a way of making the government reason with the citizens on
issues of concern, which, if taken seriously could avert a lot of breakdown of
law and order by otherwise frustrated people.
2.
Feedback
from the people to the government. Feedback mechanism is a two way thing. From
people, to whom the government policies, programmes and activities are
communicated through reportage, using different platforms, such as memorandum,
news bulletin and open letters. All these are done with the hope of favorable
responses from the government.
Unfortunately, the
government hardly ever responds to these strategies as favourably as expected.
This then leads to the next strategy, which though is the least advisable or
desirable, seems to be the only language the government understands and that
the people are left with as a viable option.
3.
Industrial
action/Strike – this is the case of the option of people concerned with the
issue at stake choosing to put down their tools and refusing to go to work in
whichever sector of the economy that they are employed. Even though the effect
of the strike still serves to worsen the already bad situation, they tend to go
by the stance that government would only touched by such a drastic measure.
However, as patriotic
citizens, this strategy is not one to be encouraged. Rather, the other
strategies that are known to be civil and effective, though take more time and
patience, should be upheld.
The current situation
in our country, in which case people are fast reaching their breaking point is
a pointer and a proof of the frustration that tend to push the people to
consider this third option, for which it is very difficult to blame them.
A situation where,
instead of finding respite to the increasing hardship, the rope is rather
getting tighter by the day, with increase in the cost of goods and services,
not to talk of the issue of insecurity, whereby people cannot even engage in
businesses that could help them generate the funds they need to meet the ever
increasing needs.
The basic needs, such
as food, power (electricity), transportation among others are out of reach.
People can no longer engage in farming peacefully, without the fear of attacks.
Civil Servants, as well
as Business people are all helpless in the face of galloping inflation. Parents
who have their wards in schools at different levels of education are already
developing high blood pressure because of the thought of how to source for the
school fees that have gone up by 150% at almost all levels. That is not to talk
of the exchange rate of naira to dollar, with its ripple effects on everything.
‘Solomon stresses the
importance of seeking counsel from a multitude of counselors in making
important decisions that affect a nation. It is also good advice for
individuals when facing important decisions that will affect their lives and
the lives of their families.’ Proverbs 11: 14.
May God help our government to be sensitive to the plight of the people they are governing, such that good governance would be given priority, so that the people can be happy and prosperous.
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