Combating Politicians WithQuestions By SOS/Sonala Olumhense

Columnist: Sonala Olumhense
In general, human societies that use the ballot to select a leader or
a representative, seek the most qualified.
They look for a dignified and respectable achiever who is dedicated to
the best interests of the society. It is not an emotional decision,
and the ideal is not always achievable. What is most dangerous and
must be avoided, however, is the trap at the other end of the
spectrum:empowering the weakest.
In this area, Nigerians continue to get it wrong. We enthrone the
unmotivated, the compromised and the uncommitted, and then grumble
about why nothing is going right. Sometimes, we do not even bother
toget involved: we refuse to vote, or even to register to do so, only
to complain about bad leadership.
Our irresponsibility demonstrates itself in our dilapidated
institutions and glorified scam establishments, from government
agencies to political parties. We would rather put an idiot in
charge, especially if he is a relative, than someone whose abilities
we know to be vastly superior. A man we know to be a thief arrives
with a bribe and we greedily grab it and give him our support. He
saunters into office and steals us blind, and we throw up our hands.
This is the soil in which our legislatures are planted and nourished,
and it explains why the National Assembly has been in scandal mode
since 1999 and has not changed. It is difficult to argue that the
average federal legislator is interested in better legislation, or
even legislation. The federal legislature, the world's best paid, is
not the world's most patriotic or hardworking. It is the world's best
paid because its members simply help themselves to the money.
There is a word for that: robbery. But we do not call it that,
especially whenthose involved are friends and relatives, or when we
feel we can benefit. We worship them. We give them chieftaincy
titles. We beg them to marry our daughter who has been jobless for
five years in the first place partly on account of legislative
irresponsibility.
What we know of the executive is even more alarming, especially since
they are fewer, and have more ways of helping themselves to the money.
Members of the executive branch do not ask, in the tradition of civil
servants, "What is in for me?" They simply take it. They make very
little attempt to disguise their brigandage as they build homes and
buy bulletproof cars and private jets and travel the world. We give
them a great big Robin Hood cheer, as if we were not their very
victims.
The truth is that we are responsible for where we have found
ourselves. That is why we do not need to be rescued. We can rescue
ourselves if we wish.
The first step is that we must resolve to be "victims" no longer. Not
to be hypocrites. Not to be cowards.
And then we must learn to stand up straight and use the powerful tool
each of us is already armed with: the power to question. We must
summonthe courage to ask questions of those who run our affairs.
Think about it: we are governed not by aliens. Not even by boys
hiding inside starched khaki shirts pretending to be monsters. We
are governed by people we know; people who, in principle, we sent out
ourselves through the ballot box. We must be able to ask them what
they are doing, and how.
The ability to ask questions is the most important weapon of a citizen
ina democracy. It permits and challenges the citizen to assert his
place as the foundation of the political process by questioning an
electoral candidate; by questioning the winner so he remembers he is
responsible to those who elected him.
The citizen must question the official so he does not take his office
for granted. He must question the officialabout the principles that
govern his work. He must question him about the substance of his
work. The dog in the hunt hunts for itself especially in Nigeria's
public life; in the end, the hunter must recover the kill for the
hunter.
A question does not have to be cynical, insulting or rude. Indeed,
the best questions are not; they are based on the simple understanding
that the elected owes his position to those in whose name he says he
speaks.
Actually, the office-holder usually understands this point very well;
he just hopes that the electors do not so that he can present himself
not as servant but as Master; not as a messenger but as all-knowing
and all-powerful.
We have not just a right, but a responsibility, to question those who
serve in our names, even if they rigged themselves into that position.
A critical part of the problem we have in our hands is that some of
us, when we see a man who holds power, become star-struck and mute, as
if theman manufactured the power.We tremble and stutter not in
amazement at how well they are serving the common weal, but at simply
how powerful they are. Even journalists align with the applauding and
immobilized party faithful, forgetting that while anyone can quote
what a politician said, fewer can ask or report what he actually
accomplished, if anything.
With that said, it is clear that election year 2015 is critical for
Nigeria. It is a chance to stand up, speak up, and take
responsibility for doing the right thing. We can pay attention and
seek workable solutions, or we can do what we have always done. You
cannot present the clown as a prophet only to go home and then
complain about how "bad" things are.
Things are not bad. We are, and that is what must stop. This is
particularly important for Nigeria's younger generations. We can
begin to negotiate change that will benefit our future when we are
courageous enough to ask questions of those whoseek our permission to
dominate us.
And we must remember we have the right to say NO, to get angry when
they think they mislead. Democracy permits us to merge our outrage
withthe outrage of others who feel the same way as we do.
You die not when you speak up, but when you look away, in which case
you die twice.