Nigerian politicians are audaciously callous. They approach the electorate, soliciting their votes to represent them (the electorate) in various capacities — councillors, council chairmen, members of State Houses of Assembly, members of the House of Representatives, Senators, Governors and President.
While soliciting the votes of the electorate, the politicians travel the length and breadth of their Constituency, promise the people heaven and earth, humble themselves and do all manner of things to win the sympathy and eventual vote of the electorate. At the end of the day when they win, they deliberately and mischievously fail to fulfil their promises to the people, in spite of the social contract with the people to serve them.
While in office, most of the politicians do not visit their constituencies neither do they carry out the duties of their office. Some go to the legislative houses and their voices are not heard throughout their tenure while others simply sleep off their entire tenure. They rule with impunity as lords of the manor instead of servants to the people.
At the end of their tenure, a good number of them who did not perform, will have the audacity to come before the electorate to seek reelection just because they have the money to splash around. During electioneering campaigns the electorate cannot ask the politicians to give account of their stewardship because the campaign programmes are not designed to accommodate comments or questions from the masses; it is a one-way communication where the politicians just deliver their empty campaign messages and go.
Besides the fact that the people cannot ask questions during campaigns, they equally cannot approach their leaders because they are guarded by heavily armed security men. The politicians in the legislative arm of government build constituency offices that they hardly visit. Messages and complaints dropped at such constituency offices by the constituents hardly get to such parliamentarians.
On election day, the politicians take advantage of the general hunger in the land and poverty of the electorate and give them pittance, sometimes as small as N2,000 which the electorate accept, little realising that they are mortgaging their conscience for the next four years.
The politicians run their tenure out and come back again to seek re-election and the scenario is repeated all over again but it is no longer business as usual, as the people are now, in their own little ways, asking the politicians to give account of their stewardship before seeking re-election.
The situation of what played out in Owo 1 Constituency of Ondo State is a classical example of how the masses have woken up from their slumber and docility, and are now interrogating their leaders to give account of their stewardship before seeking a renewal of the mandate given to them earlier.
In a video that is currently trending on social media, a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Hon. Oluwole Ogunmolasuyi, was being chased and booed like a common criminal by the youths of his constituency for poor performance and total abandonment of his people since he was elected.
Ogunmolasuyi, who represents Owo 1 Constituency in the Ondo State House of Assembly, is not only the Majority Leader but also the Chairman of the House Committee on Procurement and Special Duties. As one of the principal officers of the House and a Committee chairman, the constituents expected that he should be able to attract quality government projects as well as constituency projects but unfortunately none of such happened and the people reacted.
Tosin Fapohunda II, who posted the message on Facebook last Wednesday wrote, “An Ondo State lawmaker was chased like a thief in broad daylight today by youth of his constituency over non-performance and absolute isolation from his constituency since he was voted in to represent them at the Ondo State House of Assembly”.
Incidentally, it is not only in Nigeria that the electorates are beginning to look their political leaders squarely in the face, ask them questions and tell them the naked truth as to whether or not they performed satisfactorily.
In neighbouring Ghana, another video that trended on social media in July 2021 showed youths from Busunu in West Gonja Municipality under the Savannah District rejecting bags of rice sent to them by the federal lawmaker representing Damongo Constituency, Samuel Abu Jinapor for Eid-el-Adha, a celebration among moslems.
The youths, who were seen in the video re-loading the bags of rice given to them, back into the parliamentarian’s open-back Hilux Jeep, complained that what they wanted were the jobs the lawmaker promised them during his electioneering campaigns and not the bags of rice.
The youths, led by a teacher simply identified as Gbelo, said “The era of promise and fail by politicians and political parties in Busunu is over. We didn’t ask you to give us rice, you promised us jobs and not rice. We have gone beyond the rice”.
And in far away Central America, angry residents of Frontera Comalapa in the Southern Mexican state of Chiapas, tied the Mayor, Oscar Ramirez to a tree when he came to inaugurate an overhead water tank. The residents were upset that Ramirez was inaugurating an overhead tank that was substandard as it had holes covered in concrete.
Clearly, it is no longer business as usual as Nigerians are now more than ready to begin to interrogate their leaders seeking their mandate to occupy political office. When they secure the mandate to occupy their desired political offices, they should remember that they have a duty to perform or the Owo Constituency 1 example will be applied to them. There will no longer be any hiding place for the politicians.
