Democracy as we know is a government of active majority and for democracy to achieve its core aim of delivering good governance and promotion of human rights; then the majority must be actively involved. Why I choose active Citizen Participation as an ingredient needed to improve Nigeria’s democracy cannot be far-fetched because for now the level of apathy on the side of the citizen is too, high most especially the young people that makes up the vast majority of those that are supposed to be active participant in the democratic process. They do not understand national issues or even care to know what is expected from the elected officers, so how do we engage the leadership if we do not understand the issues ourselves. Every day I see the passion young people put in football following, they can call the first 11 team of any team in the English Premiership but do not know the name of their Councilor, or even know the real issue happening at home, and when issues of national interest comes up, they all discussed based on emotions, sentiment or what a particular journalist wrote which they are not really sure it is correct, because they themselves has not avail themselves with facts and figures. So to improve our democracy through engaging our leaders and holding them more accountable and responsive, there must be active citizen participation, these present culture of ‘ he no concern me….i no wan die….i no be sabi sabi’ must change.
Oni, G.I
Social Researcher
(This article was written on Monday 17th Oct. 2011 and submitted for the ignite change competition, to mark World Youth Day for Democracy, it won a Lunch Ticket with the New Human Right Officer @ US-Embassy Nigeria & Branded WYMD T-shirt/Badge)
