Towards and Beyond 2019 General Elections: Citizens Engagement and way out for Good Governance in Nigeria by Salaam Rasak O.
It should be particularly stated that this piece you aimed at reading is a groundbreaking research work borne out of the First Oyo Oratory Contest for Secondary school students which is scheduled to hold this Saturday, 31st of March, 2018, at Model College Oyo.
As a trained political scientist, I decided to lend my authoritative political voice into the deep topic of inquiry with the view of preferring lasting solutions. This piece is just an abridged version. Interested lovers of the piece may request a full copy on some conditions.
Introduction
Environmentally laced with phenomenal politicking at this point less than a year to 2019 general elections, the need for citizens participation with the view of enthroning good governance is imperative, fundamental and cannot be overruled. It is particularly unarguably clear that citizens apathy have been timeless in our political realm. The thrust of this paper examines the possible impacts of citizens engagement in politics both before and after election. It asserts from noticeable political lapses that there is need for a paradigm shift in our political attitudes as the conclusion upholds the view that citizens engagement in politics is a pathway to good governance, by extension, not only in Nigeria but the world as a whole.
Towards and Beyond 2019 General Elections: Citizens Engagements and way out of Good Governance in Nigeria
Political apathy has been established to be suicidal to national growth and development. This is because, it gives room for the emergence of a vision-less and dictatorial leader. Within the context of Nigerian politics, political apathy is no less a prominent phenomenon. Hence, the more reason our political system remains the same. There is a need for political attitudinal change with the view of getting it right. In the light of this, Citizens engagement in politics is the surest leeway to good governance.
Before proceeding, let us operationalize key variables: Citizens Engagement, Governance, and political apathy.
(i). Citizens engagement simply refers to the participation or inclusion of the citizens in political affairs of their country.
It appears in various forms like voting during election, belonging to political parties, sponsoring political parties, calling political office holders to account among others.
(ii). Governance refers to the coordination of the activities of government. It is the totality of actions and decisions taken by political office holders. Such action may be good or bad. If they were good actions it will results into good governance and vice versa.
(iii). Political apathy implies the political indifference or lack of interest in political activities within a given political system. It is a somewhat “I-don't care attitudes" towards political activities.
Given the following operationalization, let us shift back and focus on the subject matter. It is particularly unfortunate that Nigerians barely see the need to taking political participation as a civil responsibility. Many of the citizenry are renowned with the words that politics is a dirty game and refuse to participate nor vote. They always try to isolate themselves from bad governance upon the claim that they will not vote for underperforming leaders, forgetting the words of George Jean Nathan (1882-1958) who said that: “bad leaders are elected by good people who do not vote”. This is…
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You are equally invited to the first of its kind Oyo Oratory Contest. Again, it will hold at Model College Oyo. It promises to be academically engaging, entertaining and enthralling. Programme commences by 10:00am prompt. See you there.