Civic Participation

All around the world, local government councils are using civic participation strategies to inform policy decision, build stronger communities and create more effective governance. In Nigeria, we need to strengthen representative’s democracy; we need to get the people more involved in local governance especially in the budgetary process. The elected officials have few methods of knowing what the ordinary, unaffiliated citizens feel about issues, for example, during focus group discussions; the people repeatedly complained that the elected officials don’t consult with the people on their immediate needs when planning development projects. Instead they listen to their ‘godfathers’ or political touts who are always around the elected officials and who are primarily concerned with pursuing their personal interest. Collectively, ordinary, unaffiliated citizens have the capacity to make better judgements for the public than the usual suspects. The elected officials are indebted to their party and funders, so they don’t enjoy the freedom to care for the good of all. We need to think up better ways to convene people into meaningful deliberation that inform our elected officials about what the public wants.

- Hadiza