As citizens, we have expectations from public office holders at the helms of affairs at the three tiers of government, which are the Local Government, the State Government and the Federal Government. These expectations are based on mutual social contract between the People and the Government. This is as a result of the common weal we share. When the citizen mutually transfers right of governance to a central authority called ‘government’; it is done on trust. So if Citizens relinquish some of their rights to the government, they also have moral justification to ask questions when things are going the wrong direction. The government should be accountable to her citizens as long as they carry out their civic responsibilities like paying just taxes, exercising voting franchise, among others. The need for social amenities such as provision of portable water, electricity, good roads, access to good and affordable hospitals Etc. are part of the non-negotiable social responsibilities of any responsible government.
Recently the Lagos State Government declared state of emergency on roads in the state. What this meant is that even the government cannot continue to pretend that our roads are in good condition. It is hard to find, nowadays in Lagos, for example, a 100km road free of pot holes. These have become death traps and pivot points for road accidents and other nefarious things. Every motorist in one place or another now bows to portholes before the right of passage. It is quite abnormal in any given society. The number of hours it takes a commuter to move from one point to another these days has geometrically increased. This is a huge wastage on man hours of productivity. Besides, in order to catch up with lost time, commercial transport operators now increase the fares indiscriminately and arbitrarily as if we are already in lawless society. How can we as Nigerians continue to live like this? We should not forget that time, apart from being money is also glory.
The Nigerian masses are dying daily in most-cruel circumstances and excruciating pain of hopelessness and lack of bare necessities of life. How can we be talking about provision of basic needs of life such as good portable water, healthcare and good roads in in this twenty first century in midst of such plenty? Nigeria has enough resources to take care of her citizens. The downtrodden population of the Nigerian Peoples seem to have left their fate in the hands of the Almighty God. This is really disturbing. The elites of the Nigerian State appear to be taking the resilience of the Nigerian masses for granted.
There is more that the political leaders of this country can do to better the lives of her people instead of continually paying lip service to their responsibilities. Massive infrastructural development can create more jobs to empower people financially rather than distributing cash to market peoples every now and then. Commodities such as oil will not create as many jobs as would harnessed agricultural policies. Purposeful implementation of Agricultural policies for common good can create more economic opportunities for the common man to rise out of his/her pecuniary and other poverties.
On another hand, the citizens have a role to play in ensuring that there is order in the system. Government cannot solve all the problems alone. Fixing the problems on this country is everybody’s business, however there must be common platform for everyone to contribute his or her own quota towards addressing the malaise of the present time. The Mechanic or passenger for example, who after drinking a sachet or bottled water, throws the container out of the window of the vehicle or on the drainage near him without recourse to order of waste management, is as guilty as the government official who neglects to walk the talk of his campaign promises. In a country where laws are not duly implemented leaves room for all sorts of misbehavior.
Government owes its citizens the duty to regulate conducts and especially protect the dignity of the human person and the less privileged. Under such orderly circumstances the citizens would then do the needful. There is so much impunity in the Nigerian system at the moment that calls for urgent action from everyone.
