Citizens Participation: The Complexities, Vis, Youth Mis-Participation; The Pros And Cons

The problems in Africa are large and rife, and seem unending even in the face of world progress and globalization. They look too complex, such that there’s a common monopoly on defining solutions through policies and programmes by governments across the continent.

Governments across Africa, understanding clearly the overall lack of awareness on the part of citizens and their unawaken consciousness to participate in the governance value chain, have arrogated to themselves the ultimate powers to singing, better still, reminding citizens of the problems they face, proffering solutions, and developing policies and programmes to phasing-out these problems.

To the average citizen in Africa, the provision of social amenities, and services, is assumed, and largely accepted to be the sole responsibility of government, and yes, to the extent this is true, the citizens get it wrong also assuming that government’s responsibility, if accepted and followed in the provision of such amenities and services is a means to an end. This wrong assumption is cemented by the growing numbers of shoddy projects that are done by governments, and defined as solutions to address the problems of the people.

For instance, in Africa, the life span of many asphalted road projects is one year. Same can be said for school buildings, hospitals, toilets, and the list continues. In rare instances, a school building or a road can last for five years.

What this means is that, participation among citizens is limited, and this needs to be demystified and broadened, to the extent where citizens have the fullest capacity of active citizenship in participatory planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation of all it is that is handed them as solutions to the many problems they face.

The lack of awareness on the part of citizens on their fullest and active participation in the governance value chain has largely fueled the acts of corruption in government, where every politician, civil or public servant is either rich or seen to be rich. Many an elite people in Africa have considered politics as business where profit is constant, and would do just anything, mostly, in the bad, to go into politics and make money at the expense of citizens.

Politics which ideally should be seen as service to the people has become a solid opportunity to milk the people.

The acts of corruption that have made many politicians rich have deepened complexity for citizens’ participation in government: To this reason, there are more poor people in the continent than any other in the world. The majority of rich and powerful elite in Africa are mainly politicians and their accomplices.

To the poor citizens of Africa, participation is limited to joining a queue and standing from morning to evening to vote for a rich politician. Even with this limited horizon of participation, most citizens do not do so consciously. Most do that as a result of undue influences, from intimidations to being paid to vote. There have been several video footages online to prove that some citizens in Africa are patronised to vote for politicians who if they had a free will to think and vote, they would not have voted for.

Same can be said of intimidations with guns, and other forms of electoral violence that cow citizens into force participation. The complexity of citizens’ participation in Africa is real, yet this does not seem to end anytime soon.

Africa, as was envisioned by early freedom fighters, has a very rich mineral wealth, and so, by their imagination, it was worth the salt to die for their generations live and unborn to take control of these resources in order that it benefits everyone. Regrettably, these freedom fighters might have died in vain, and if many of them were present in this age of the continent, they will bother not to think of dying for Africa.

Today in Africa, aside the rich mineral wealth, the continent has the most youthful population as compared to her peers. Unfortunately, this youthful population has been handed the truest meaning of hopelessness; one that would not in the near or far future change the narration of corruptibility, but strengthens the status quo.

As I have narrated above, the complexity of citizens’ participation affects the youth more than any other group of people. The realities are that most of these youths completely lack awareness of the governance structures, and have become rent seeking for politicians in the causing of mayhem and all forms of destructions. They have become perpetrators of violence, and that has defined their way of participation.

For instance, BBC recently aired a documentary on occultism in Nigeria titled: Black Axe, and in the documentary, one could see how politicians with power have recruited young people as agents of murder to maim and kill other people, all in the name of making the politicians more richer and powerful to their own detriment. But this is not just only in Nigeria. There have been several other cases of young people being used by rent seeking politicians in other parts of Africa to perpetrate violence. To many of these young people, this mis-participation defines their way of participating in the governance value chain. Most of them consciously do this and unaware of the dangers this has on their lives and future.

The other form of danger to the complexity of citizens’ participation in Africa, which I identify with as a Ghanaian is the number of youth in Ghana who have mustered the art of singing encomiums of politicians. Their trade is to follow the politician anyhow, anyway, and everywhere to sing praises of the politician in exchange of handouts that can only feed from hand to mouth, and have mostly been brainwashed to accept that other youths who criticize politicians whose encomiums they sing, is an enemy, and must be attacked verbally, physically, and in writing, especially in this age of social media.

The danger lies more with the number of youth who by virtue of singing praises of politicians, have become rich overnight, contributing to strengthening corruption and making citizens’ participation more complex. Such is a mean order of mis-participation in governance, I must add.

Citizens’ Participation is the rights and responsibilities of citizens to contribute their talents, enterprise, aptitudes, and passions in issues that affect public policy. What this tells us is that every human being, much as their citizenship to any nation is defined and guaranteed, has the right, and is clothed with responsibility to actively take part in decisions that affects public policy. Public policies are drivers of projects and programmes that are aimed at solving the problems of communities and nations.

The African youth therefore needs to first and foremost be challenged and become alert to their rights and responsibilities on active citizenship and must see themselves as drivers of change. Alhaji Amidu Ibrahim-Tanko, Executive Director of the STAR-Ghana Foundation puts it aptly when he says "if change is not led by young people, then we are embarking on a fruitless adventure." The lack of awareness on active citizenship among young people has largely contributed to the complexity on citizens participation and this goes on to compound the problems faced in Africa by her people.

Abdul-Mumin Sofo Yumzaa
Executive Director, Simba Ghana
Email: [email protected]