Japheth J. Omojuwa ― Why Government Fails In Nigeria

The Nigerian libertarian explains why Government is failing Africa's largest economy: "In January 2013, a few Nigerian citizens got emails about the danger of abandoning Bagega, a lead poisoned village in Zamafara unremediated. There was the danger of losing at least 1500 children to lead poisoning, not to mention the attendant danger to adults. There was meant to be a reason to fear for the lives of residents of Bagega as they had been  promised a quick remediation process when the president Dr. Goodluck Jonathan said money would be released for the purpose. Nothing happened for about 10 months. Bagega residents had been living through lead poison for at least 2 years. Then these citizens bought into the idea of saving Bagega, launched a Twitter hashtag #SaveBagega, got the phone numbers of certain Senators and Lawmakers, got the buy-in of a major Senator. The Twitter campaign was intense, the phone calls never stopped. In just less than 3 days, the FG released the money for the remediation of Bagega. The remediation happened. Children got saved. Change happened. All of this under the same government that never really cared. What really changed? Ordinary citizens became active citizens. They activated change by using the government to do what it was meant to do but left undone for years.

He continues his commentary: The formation of Enough Is Enough Nigeria happened through the same process. A President was ill and was dying, a Vice President needed to be made acting President to keep the state running. In a sane democracy, that would have happened automatically. Nigeria’s situations often come with a few drops of insanity and this had loads of it. A power cabal refused to let the VP become acting president citing technicalities in the departure of the president. The president never handed over to the acting president when he made the journey abroad to Saudi Arabia for treatment. Again, ordinary citizens got together. They were young, they were mostly meeting one another for the first time. They agonized, then organized, then marched. In Lagos and Abuja. That accident birth EIE Nigeria. It was a birth necessitated by the needs of the Nigerian society. The doctrine of necessity happened at the Nigerian National Assembly,Goodluck Jonathan, then powerless and redundant Vice President soon became Acting President. When he eventually became the President following the eventual death of President Yar’Adua in May of 2010, it was a smooth transition but only because the battle had been won weeks before. Won mostly by ordinary citizens taking the role of the citizen, playing to the responsibility of the active citizen, acting in the office of the modern day active citizen."

Read more: http://www.africanliberty.org/the-office-of-the-citizen-and-why-government-fails-in-nigeria-japheth-j-omojuwa/