CSOs and the Media in Promoting Democracy and Good Governance in Nigeria (Part 4)

Introduction 

In the last part of this intervention, we dealt with the following sub-topics: Good governance differs from country to country; Major good governance indicators and Good governance needs strong followership (having commenced same). In this part, we shall further explore the following themes: Good governance needs strong followership; Some CSOs in Nigeria; Typologies of Nigerian CSOs; Questions raised by CSOs; Proliferation and Roles of CSOs; NGOs and the role of CSOs. Please read on.

Good Governance Needs Strong Followership 

(Civil Society Organisations) (Continues)

Members of the political community should see good governance as a collective effort, where they must play their part. Citizens can set up Non-governmental organisations, to address or assist government in tackling some perceived problems of the polity. Civil societies like religious organisations, organised labour, academic unions, student organisations, should be strengthened and help in defending the autonomy of private interest. The civil society and non-governmental organisations, community based organisations, market associations, professional associations should be able to collaborate and mobilise the citizens to stand against democratic abuses, obnoxious laws and policies; roguery in positions of power, election rigging etc. The end will be the massive withdrawal of support, in form of mass action, strikes, demonstration etc, until government purges itself of toga of enslavement and maltreatment of the people. 

In the same vein, it follows that any government that cannot command the followership of its citizens, is already heading to the precipice. If it degenerates to the level of exceeding its powers, and becomes purposeless and infringes on natural rights of the people, it should be dissolved, because the essence of instating governance has been defeated. Choosing credible leaders, is the greatest duty followers must perform. It is incumbent on them, to elect and enthrone their leader. They should not tolerate poor leadership. They should assess their leaders based on veritable values of honesty, integrity, accountability, probity etc. The people should not mortgage their conscience, by taking bribes from the leaders before they elect them. They must note that any leader who wants to buy the people is evil, and will eventually shortchange them. The people should elicit nothing short of sound accountable leadership. Good governance posits also that there must be absence of corruption, so as to preserve the integrity of democracy. The absence of bribery, graft and corruption in general, spurs growth, development and foreign investment.  

Some Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria

Acronyms and Abbreviations

ASUU  – Academic Staff Union of Universities

CAN – Christian Association of Nigeria

CBO – Community Based Organisation

CLO – Civil Liberties Organisation

CSO – Civil Society Organisation

DG – Democracy and Governance

CEDPA-  Centre for Development and Population

                                Activities

ENABLE –  Creating an Enabling Environment for

Women’s Effective Participation                                                                                      

FOIACT – Freedom of Information Act

FOM WAN – Federation of Muslim Woman’s Association of Nigeria

ILO – International Labour Organisation

INEC – Independent National Electoral Commission

LAW GROUP – International Human Rights Law Group

MAN – Manufacturers Association of Nigeria

NACCIMA  – National Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry Mines and Agriculture.

NCWS – National Council of Women’s Societies

NLC – Nigerian Labour Congress

NGO – Non-Government Organisation

NSCIA – Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs

PACE – Partnership for Advocacy and Civil

 Empowerment

PROSPECT – Promoting Stakeholder Participation in Economic Transition

TMG – Transition Monitoring Group

UDD – Universal Defenders of Democracy

Typologies of Nigerian Civil Society Organisations

1. Professional Associations

2. Labour and Trade Unions

3. Philanthropic Organisations

4. Religious or Faith-based Organisations

5. Development NGOs

• Service Delivery Organisation

• Research, Resource/Support Centres

6. Foundations

7. Ethnic Militias/Vanguards

8. Networks:

• Umbrellas

• Issue-driven Networks Health, Education

• Regional Networks

• Woman’s Networks

9. Private Sector

10. Community-Based Organisations (CBOs)

• Community Development Associations (CDAs)

• Town Unions

• Religious Association

• Neighbourhood Associations and Vigilance Groups

• Social Clubs and Age Grade Associations

• Trade Guilds

• Market Women Associations

• Youth Organisations

Questions Raised by CSOs

Support for civil society’s role in building democracy in Nigeria, thus, raises three fundamental questions:

1. How can civil society’s meta-role in restoring the interest of the public on the priority agenda of the political elite, be strengthened?

2. How can the centrifugal forces among civil society groups be best managed, so that coalitions advocating priority public issues can be maintained?

3. How does the structural division within civil society between interest based organisations and the NGOs, impact USAID strategy for assisting civil society’s role in building democracy in Nigeria.

Proliferation and Roles of CSOs in Nigeria 

After decades of struggling with military rule, Nigerian Civil Society has emerged as a vibrant, battle-hardened force for change in the Nation’s young democracy. Yet, civil society in Nigeria developed in relation to the beleaguered State. Thus, the diversity and many complexities that characterise Nigerian politics are reflected in its dynamic civil society, including the contradictions that result in seeking to build a democracy out of a polity that is not a single coherent nation.

Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)

Closely related to, but different from CSOs, are Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). NGOs are non-governmental organisations which are founded voluntarily by citizens, who have the zeal to work for the welfare of the citizens. They are generally formed independent of the government; non-profit making, and very active in humanitarian and social causes.

They also include clubs and associations, that provide services to their members and the larger society. They have high degree of public trust, which makes them useful stakeholders for the concerns of society. Some NGOs have been known to be lobby groups for corporations, e.g, the World Economic Forum. But, they are distinct from International and inter-government organisations (IOs), in that the latter group is more directly involved with sovereign States and their governments.

Examples of NGOs are: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Salvation Army, Emergency Nutrition Network, Health link, Health Net TPO, CARE (fighting against global poverty) and Global Humanitarian Assistance.

Other examples are: INGO – An international NGO such as Oxfam; ENGO – An environmental NGO like Greenpeace; RINGO – A religious international NGO such as Catholic Relief Services; CSO – A Civil Society Organisation like Amnesty International.

The Nigerian State

The Nigerian State began as a colonial imposition on a wide range of polities, that still exist within Nigeria’s current boundaries. This makes it, in many ways, a nation of nations to date. Several decades of irresponsible military rule, even after the exit of the colonialists, has left the country as deeply divided as it was, prior to independence. Military leaders and their civilian allies exploited ethnic differences to prolong their stay in power, and to capture the vast oil revenues that had been centralised under State control since the 1970s. As the mismanaged economy rose – divided with oil prices in the 1980s, the handful of elite with access to the State grew fabulously rich, while the number of Nigerians living in poverty rose shockingly from a quarter of the population in the 1970s to three-quarters of the population in the 1990s. The elite – known as the ‘Big Men”- have massive networks of clients dependent upon them for channels to State Largesse.

Nigerian Politics

Nigerian politics is primarily a game of “Big Men” seeking to recoup their election investments and to expand their access to State resources, it often has little to do with improving the lot of the vast majority of Nigerians. The great promises of civil society for democratic development in Nigeria therefore, is that the sector as a whole, has the potential to reverse this growing political distance between the powerful elite and the largely disenfranchised masses. Civil society’s strength is in preserving a plurality of aggregated interest, to balance those of the elite and to check the elite’s excesses on specific issues on occasion. The latter role, however, depends upon a unanimity among civil society groups that is difficult to forge, and even harder to maintain beyond the political moment. 

The Role of CSOs

The political elite has long recognised both the promise and problems of civil society; and since the 1960s, they have used a combination of repression and cooptation, to bring the most powerful and representative of these groups into the orbit of the State. Trade unions, for instance, bear heavy State regulation, and are partially dependent upon the State for funds. Nonetheless, unions and other great associations like the Bar Association fought military rule throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and suffered as a result.

As these massive Civil Society groups were hobbled by military interference, many Nigerian activists turned to a new type of organisation that began to proliferate in the late 1980s, the NGO. It is important to remember that, NGOs are a non sub-category of CSOs.

NGOs at first, were often small and structured undemocratically in that their executives were not elected by the members of the organisation, or by the population they sought to serve. Yet, NGOs offered services and skills to replace those abandoned by the receding State, and provided a critical platform for dissent against the military that international donors could readily recognise and support.

Civil Society organisations balance the strength and influence of the State; they are supposed to protect citizens from abuses of State power. They play the role of monitor and watchdog. They embody the rights of citizens to freedom of expression and association, and they are channels of popular participation in governance. Moreover, the end of military rule in 1999 opened the political space and provoked a civil renaissance. The older, massive, interest based associations like trade unions and professional associations have rebuilt their structures, and reasserted their former dominance of the political scene. Meanwhile, NGOs have proliferated across the country, and many have begun the process of democratising their own structure and developing mechanisms of representation and accountability.

Civil Society has the potential to reverse the growing political distance, between the powerful elite and the largely disenfranchised masses. However, CSOs are not of one mind on issues, nor do they speak with one voice. CSOs represent issues from nearly all sides, and speak with a cacophony of interests and demands that overlap, complete and/or contradict one another. In this context, can CSOs bring the government to reflect citizens’ interest? (To be continued).

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people, but the silence over that by the good people.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)