The Heartbreak When Activists Or Their Friends Become Politicians, Are Elected, But Fail In Governance

By Lucky Okoedion

Many Nigerians and international observers are still shocked to observe that the Nigerian Labour Congress and other activists who were very gallant in organising civil disobedience and other means of protesting against previous government administrations in Nigeria have suddenly become powerless and silent under the present administration led by president Muhammadu Buhari. The suspicion is not far fetched. It is alleged that this silence is a consequence of compromise on the part of the activists due to their friendship and past collaboration with the leadership of the current administration when they were still in the opposition. How can you brutally criticize someone to whom you still feel indebted in one way or another – someone who sponsored your activism career in the past?

This apparent inability or sudden impotence being displayed by the gallant activists of yesteryears in the face of gross abuse of human rights and leadership failure by the Buhari administration is also interpreted by observers as a proof that the so-called activists were not fighting for the interest of the masses all those years. These observers that are skeptical about the integrity of Nigerian activists are also of the opinion that the fact that many of these so-called activists later metamorphosed into full-blown politicians is a proof that their activism of yesteryear was only a means to a political end for themselves and their cronies. 

But how good has been the performance in office by the former activists who later ran for office and won in Nigeria? Is it any “good to write home about”? Arguably, there has not been any remarkable performance by any of the activists who went on to become governors or legislators. They easily got blended into the mix, making no remarkable impact, until their tenures vanished like vapor together with their reputation and public regard.  This means that time and again, the Nigerian people got their hopes dashed by the activists or “preachers of good governance and human rights”. In other words, these men who the masses and specifically the younger generation considered as hope for a better Nigeria got into power and simply performed as poorly as those who they once criticized or even worse. To the end that the hope of many on the Nigerian project is dashed.

The Nigerian situation today is that of loss of faith in the promise of democracy. A pathetic situation in which due to the consistent asymmetry between the promise and the performance by activists and political actors in our democracy, the citizenry have lost faith in the whole Nigerian project. And the danger is that no nation in the world can continue to exist when the majority of its citizenry has lost faith in it. 

Activism is politically essential in a society. They help to fight discrimination and other forms of injustice. But every time the friends or relations of popular activists get into elective positions and begin to fail, and the once vocal activists suddenly become silent, or when it is the activists themselves that have metamorphosed into politicians and they begin to do what they once preached against, the soul of the nation is stabbed.  

Lucky Okoedion is a believer of a new Nigeria where true democracy and effective governance is practiced. He writes from Benin City. And can be reached on +2347038820118 .