The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Nigerians to engage in active and equal participation of governance...
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Nigerians to engage in active and equal participation of governance in the country.
The organization said this can be achieved by asking questions and holding people in power accountable and thereby improve governance.
"When you ask questions, they will label you a troublemaker but the next time when they see you, they will not want your trouble,"
A Lecturer in Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Dr. Olubunmi Afinowi, gave the advice on Thursday in her presentation made during a town hall meeting held at the Airport Hotel, Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja.
The theme of the town hall meeting was: "Promoting Citizen's Participation in Governance and Protection of Dissent"
Participants at the town hall meeting included artisans, market men and women, students, community leaders, disables amongst other less privileged people.
Afinowi said local governance gave room for people at the grassroots to participate and the constitution, regardless of its flaws, served as an important tool in the hands of the citizens.
She said in the global governance index, Nigeria scored less than 20 out of 100 in the global good governance while it scored 150 out of 180 in the 2021 corruption index.
"These are enough reasons for citizens to properly participate in improving the indices of governance in Nigeria," Afinowi said.
According to her, "challenging government's actions that were not linked with the rule of law was one of the ways of participation.
"It is essential to hold the government at the grassroots accountable.
"The local level government should give room for market traders, NURTW, landlord association, artisans and the likes to have equal rights in governance.
"The constitution may not be what we want or may not be the best but it is what we have and we have a constitutional guaranteed right to say something about governance and it should not in any way to cause violence", she argued.
Dr. Afinowi also admonished Nigerians to embrace a modal system of governance where small groups of people were instrumental to the governance of a society.
She described market associations as one of the most useful small group that could impact on governance.
She urged them to pay unscheduled courtesy visits and registering their presence and existence with the chairpersons of local governments.
According to her, the Chapter two of the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended), contained provisions for socio-economic rights for citizens but did not state anyone or agency to hold accountable for the provisions.
She, however, said there were ways out of the problem of non-accountability in the constitution, which included international agreements and the fundamental human rights enshrined in the constitution.
"Nigeria has signed various international agreements that enforce the provisions of Chapter two so we can hold the government accountable.
"Also, Chapter four of the constitution contains fundamental human rights that nobody can take them away.
"In other words, we can use the provisions of Chapter Four to uphold the provisions of Chapter Two," she added.
Afinowi berated the idea and imposition of "godfather system" in Nigeria and stressed the need for a community effort in improving governance in Nigeria.
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