The government is essentially saddled with the responsibility of fixing things. The task of bringing closure to teething issues. The onus of finding permanent solutions to problems. The burden of developing our communities and the duty of securing the citizens.
It is charities and not-for-profit organizations, as well as philanthropy, that support the government with palliatives to augment societal challenges. Even when there are emergencies, the government’s immediate intervention with palliatives is usually a stop-gap expediency to ameliorate conditions before bringing a permanent solution.
But when people in government take up the duty of charities, NGOs, and philanthropists, and abandon the core duties of governance, there is no way society will grow. Such dereliction only ensures that society continues to deteriorate as time goes by. Let me elucidate further.
Boreholes, for instance, are emergency sources of water for non-permanent residential camps, like Internally Displaced Persons IDP or refugee camps, etc. They are not permanent solutions or replacements for pipe-borne water supply. The goal and duty of government is to connect remote communities and sub-urban areas with reticulated pipes and supply clean treated water to homes.
And this is not a tall order. We have always had water works from where clean water was reticulated to our homes. The last two decades of democracy, instead of modernizing and expanding the water supply facilities, has wrecked almost all of them and leaders have resorted to siting boreholes in hamlets and clapping for the inanity. The truth is that what water is needed for, both our homes, industries, and agriculture, boreholes are a far cry and the government has to become intentional about rebuilding permanent solutions to the supply of water.
The same thing applies to solar streetlights. Those are just rechargeable lamps strapped to aluminum poles and straddled along our streets. They only last a couple of months. They can’t bring development. They can’t power a clipper or a hair dryer or a vulcanizing or welding machine. Our communities need electricity and there are different sources and models of generating power nowadays and communities with municipal governments around the globe have taken self-help initiatives to solve their power supply issues. The law in Nigeria also now supports individuals, companies, and governments at all levels to generate power.
What of health outreaches? Our leaders are now making it look as though the health of the people can be taken care of in a few days of community health outreaches. That’s tokenism. Those were activities that were hitherto organized by NGOs and supported by international donor agencies. It is more sustainable to revamp and equip our primary health centers and ensure the supply of essential drugs to the health centers. Fix our decrepit general hospitals and have our population on year-round health insurance packages. But hell no, our politicians have chosen the short path of out-racing themselves in who gathered the highest number of old men and women in one football field in the village for three days, in the name of health outreach.
I can go on and on and on. Instead of leveraging on technology and community cooperation to open up motorable roads, they prefer to supply bikes and Keke, to cut-off and abandoned communities. But what is even more disheartening is that our people are clapping and calling them capacity leaders. But how do you blame the people? If you haven’t experienced good governance before in your lifetime, how do you know what is bad governance?
Citizen Agba Jalingo is the Publisher of CrossRiverWatch and a rights activist, a Cross Riverian, and writes from Lagos.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.
Leave feedback about this