Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, has described Nigeria as a country currently bedeviled by structural, systemic challenges and value orientation.
Jega said this while delivering a pre-convocation lecture at the maiden Convocation of Bauchi State-owned Sa’adu Zungur University, Gadau, with the theme; ‘Safeguarding Nigeria’s Future: Prioritising Citizen’s Welfare and Security Amidst Challenges’.
He said, “Structurally, we need to, among other things, address the challenges of how our Federation is arranged and how it has evolved; how it has become distorted and centralized and how to deconcentrate power and resources from the federal center to the states and local governments.
“We also need to address how our national economy is structured and integrated into the global political economy, with greater benefits to former colonial masters than to citizens.
“The systemic challenges are related to our system of government, its composition and decomposition, its costs, institutional inefficiency and decay, as well as the bad governance the institutions and elected public officials deliver, through elite capture and self-serving control of the electoral process.”
Speaking on value-orientation, the University Don stressed that Nigeria as a nation needs “to address and reverse the mindsets of both the elites, especially the so-called political class, and the masses, especially the electorate, from destructive engagement, to a more constructive involvement, with the electoral process, so as to ensure its integrity in bringing about respectable, responsible and responsive representatives of the people into the executive and legislative arms of government; responsible people who would address the needs and aspirations of citizens who elected them through good governance, rather than merely focus upon their personal aggrandizement.”
According to him, “The combined effects of these challenges have resulted in contested legitimacy of the state, bad governance, stunted economic growth and development, increased inequality and poverty amongst citizens, acute failure of the state to provide for welfare and security of not just the privileged few but all citizens, popular dissatisfaction with electoral democracy and representative governance given their perceived failure to satisfy popular needs and aspirations, and hence, massive withdrawal of citizens from political participation in the governance processes, especially in elections, unless if there is massive corrupt, monetary, inducements.”
Continuing, the former INEC boss harped on how ruling and governing classes have, over the years, frustrated the country’s effort to achieve representative democracy.
“Nigerian citizens have for long aspired for representative democracy for socioeconomic development and have struggled for it. Their aspiration and struggles have, however, been constantly frustrated by the ruling and governing classes to the extent that for many citizens, despondency has set in and the effort now seems almost futile.
“The ruling and governing classes have refused to confer all the rights and privileges, which citizenship ordinarily confers to Nigerians. Rather, they have manipulated primordial identities to subvert the essence and content of citizenship and have, for example, significantly elevated so-called “indigene rights”, which are no more than spurious unjustified privileges, over and above citizenship rights, with dire negative consequences on national cohesion, stability and socio-economic development of Nigeria,” he added.
The former INEC Chairman stressed that, “The struggle to acquire, protect and defend citizenship rights, as once observed (Jega, 2019; 2021) is linked to the general struggles for expansion of democratic space, for protection and defense of fundamental rights, for the right to live in peace and securely, and earn a living in any part of Nigeria, and for good, democratic governance, which would ensure justice and equity as well as purposefully address the fundamental needs and aspirations of the majority of the ordinary Nigerians.
“The discourse on the citizens’ welfare and security in contemporary Nigeria needs to center on how the Nigerian state, currently under the liberal democratic framework, can discharge its responsibilities and obligations to its citizens through coherent, focused, people-oriented redistributive policies, which are targeted towards addressing the needs and aspirations of the generality of the citizens, devoid of exclusion, partiality, and abnegation of equality of opportunities for all citizens.”
He however added that the best way to safeguard Nigeria’s future is to have credible elections that are not hijacked by certain interests.
“If the reckless people are capturing the political process, the electoral process and government, and people just sit and watch, obviously they will destroy the future for everybody. So, constructive engagement is absolutely necessary; people have to get involved.
“Citizens have an obligation in good or bad times. They have key roles to play in order to ensure their country survives and good things happen to ordinary citizens,” he added.
According to him, “Ultimately the best way to safeguard Nigeria’s future and secure the welfare of citizens devoid of massive security challenges is to have elections with integrity, through an electoral process that is not captured. Unfortunately, now we are seeing that it is captured by reckless politicians.
“An election that is not captured will bring out quality people, and as they become elected public officials and representatives who have positive value orientation in governance processes, the institutions will harness societal resources and deliver good quality services.
“Only in this way can the state have the requisite legitimacy, stability, competence and capacity as well as resourcefulness to effectively address the needs of the people and safeguard the future of our country.
“The state exists to, among other things, cater for the security, welfare and basic needs of the citizens” and stressed that no nation could survive without institutions to promote security and the well-being of its people.
“Any state that fails to do this in the modern context will be considered a failed state. Due to the resources ordinarily available to the state under normal circumstances, it should have the capacity and competence to address human security challenges and actually succeed decisively in doing so.”
Jega concluded by imploring Nigerians to also identify their obligations to the country, “In this context, the Nigerian state needs to discharge these public obligations to its citizens because currently it is not discharging it.”
“However, the citizens need to recognise that they have obligations of citizenship to their country and therefore have a significant role to play in shaping the present and safeguarding the future of Nigeria, because the tendency we are seeing now when people are withdrawing and doing sit-down-look doesn’t help,” he implored.
Prof Attahiru Jega with Bauchi State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir at the Sa’adu Zungur University, Gadau convocation
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