WHOS JOB IS IT?

By: Ngozi Chianakwalam Email: ngochiana@yahoo.com

WHOS JOB IS IT? This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody could do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybodys job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldnt do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done!

I have had a tea cloth with, the above printing on it for more than twenty years. Even though it is a tea cloth, I hung it on my office wall over the years. Whenever it got dusty, I simply washed, starched, and ironed it. And up on my wall it went right back. Over the years, as I also pondered on the happenings around me, and the attitudinal issues of many people I come across, I would always go back and read my tea cloth on the wall. So many visitors to my various offices over the years have read my tea cloth on the wall. Some have copied it, some have crammed it, but I have always hoped to use it as a theme for a series of critiques of all aspects of our lives in this our beloved country Nigeria. This brings me to the issue of civic responsibility.

Section 24 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states as follows: It shall be the duty of every citizen to (a) abide by this Constitution, respect its ideals and its institutions, the National Flag, the National Anthem, the National Pledge, and legitimate authorities; (b) help to enhance the power, prestige and good name of Nigeria, defend Nigeria and render such national service as may be required; (c) respect the dignity of other citizens and the rights and legitimate interests of others and live in unity and harmony and in the spirit of common brotherhood; (d) make positive and useful contribution to the advancement, progress and well-being of the community where he resides; (e) render assistance to appropriate and lawful agencies in the maintenance of law and order; and (f) declare his income honestly to appropriate and lawful agencies and pay his tax promptly. Historic Roots Civic Responsibility dates to ancient Rome whose citizens wanted to contribute to Roman society. Civic responsibility may have started with Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus in 519 BC. Although Civic Responsibility has existed for centuries in society, it was officially sanctioned in the United States of America as a blueprint for democracy in 1787 by the ratification of the United States Constitution. The Constitution declared, "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States." In the 18th and 19th centuries and through the 1930s, civic responsibility in America was tied to a commonwealth perspective. From voluntary fire departments to the public arts to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) of the 1930s and 1940s, citizens participated in projects that shaped communities and
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ultimately the nation. Due to civic responsibility, citizenship was understood in terms of the labors of ordinary people who created goods and undertook projects to benefit the public, as opposed to the high-minded, virtuous and leisure activities of the so called gentlemen. This kind of civic identity helped create an important balance between pursuit of individual wealth and the creation of public things In the 1960s, community responsibility and civic responsibility became more popular. The Cold War and nuclear threats were common fears that coalesced citizens of the United States. Combined with opposition to the war in Vietnam, grassroots organizations to fight environmental pollution and college campus protest demonstrations, citizens learned the value of expressing civic responsibility through civil disobedience. People relied on each other in order to correct injustice and achieve greatness in the nation. People were involved in political organizations and community action groups because modern technology allowed more free time to society. Participation proved successful in the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King and later failed in the 1980s with the Equal Rights Amendment initiative. I presume that the above examples are a bit more analogical to our situation at present, since we have adopted the presidential style of governance. Maybe if we see how civic responsibility evolved there we could adopt a more clairvoyant approach to rectifying some of our own anomalies. Importance The importance of civic responsibility is paramount to the success of democracy and philanthropy. By engaging in civic responsibility, citizens ensure and uphold certain democratic values written into our Constitution. Those values or duties include justice, freedom, equality, diversity, authority, privacy, due process, property, participation, truth, patriotism, human rights, rule of law, tolerance, mutual assistance, self restraint and self respect. Schools are supposed to teach civic responsibility to students with the goal to produce responsible citizens and active participants in community and government. Schools are very strong and formal agents of secondary socialization processes within the personality development schemes of all individuals as products of the larger society.
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Schools, in this context therefore can best be seen as effective tools for balanced behavior modification campaign drive in both civic education and civic responsibilities. Given the way we are in Nigeria today and given the way the society stands in our time, nothing can best re define the seemingly dysfunctional state of the behavioral discrepancies that challenge our mind sets and world views on collective living, especially under group dynamics. The experiences and lasting impressions that derive from the often deviant reactions elicited by the average Nigerian person shows that the Federal Government through its various agencies of socialization has a great correctional challenge before it. The level of social, economic, and cultural deviance on one hand, and fiscal criminality, armed robbery, cultism, juvenile and adult delinquency amongst our kinsmen and women, on the other hand, perhaps add up to show to the outside world that we are people who live in a disorganized society. Whos job is it then to proffer solutions to the multiplicity of social problems that negatively influence, affect, shape and define the overall character traits and dispositions of our kinsmen and women, children and adults? Whos job is it then for instance to ensure that such national sociologically premised ethos and correlates as moral discipline, self esteem and reliance, social justice and equity, integrity and dignity of labor, patriotism, religious tolerance and temperate expressive thoughts, are inculcated in our younger generation of youths. Whos job is it to ensure that the kind of criminal and pathological deviance that is currently being experienced in the Niger Delta Region, through rag-tag militancy of some misguided miscreants is halted. Whos job is it to find out why most Nigerians show aggressive dispositions, lack courtesy in their interpersonal relations with others and are for the most part very uncouth in their personal and official dealings with their peers and significant others in society. Whos job is it to restore the growing profile of decay and senselessness that had characterized the emerging breakdown in the social values of most population domains in Nigeria.

Whos job is it to ensure that all hands must be on deck to rectify these myriad of anomalies in the Nigerian Society? Whos job is it to ensure that all relevant institutions of government align with the civic society groups and non-governmental agencies to punish negatively reinforcing behavioral tendencies or traits that do not give Nigeria a positive international image? Whos job is it to create an enabling environment within the different tiers of government in such a way or manner that programmes and activities of the government are well explained to the electorate in Nigeria in turn get feedback mechanisms that will enable the citizenry better appreciate the workings and good intentions of the Federal Government towards a healthy economy, stable polity and crisis free society or at least a society where most of the emerging social and political problems are seen to be amenable to change, empirical measurement and control? Whos job is it to ensure that Nigeria and Nigerians, do not internalize the option of urban and rural violence as a way of life in view of the trend which we have presently in the Niger Delta? Whos job is it to ensure that this ugly trend in lawlessness and pathological criminality in the Niger Delta is checked for the growth of our economy, security of business investors and foreign policy options for growth and development? Maybe by the time we answer these questions, we will begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Till next time.