by Ugochukwu Nnamdi Ukamba

Political engagement by citizens is critical to ‘deepening’ democracy. The idea is that where majority of the citizenry are dissatisfied with an issue and are constantly expressing that displeasure the political class, fully aware that their legitimate rise or fall depends on the opinion of majority, will seek to quickly address that issue.

To my mind, an issue based engagement is to be preferred to a person based political engagement. What do I mean? Mantras like #IStandWithBuhari and #GoForwardwithGoodluck are good for the electoral cycle but once we are through with the politicking, the engagement should move away from the principals to their policies.

The downside to an #IStandWithBuhari mantra after an election is that our human ego would not allow us question a Buhari policy that we find objectionable because we have shouted ourselves hoarse standing with him. I see folks who will boldly declare ‘I am a die-hard Buharist’ or ‘I am a GEJite forever’. It is good to identify with each of these men or the persons who will come after them but it’s best to stand on the side of an issue based engagement because these men, humans they are, are not infallible and blind followership often leads to blind leadership.

Let’s put the above in some context: if you look critically at some of the most vocal praise singers of the present administration you will find that they formed the nucleus of the most vocal critics of the immediate past administration. In their continued support you get the feeling that they don’t want to bear the shame of recanting their earlier position. The same also holds true for some of the vocal critics of this administration. If the political tide were to turn today, it is not far-fetched that the supporters club would also change their tune to sync with the divide that their favourite politician falls into!

Our concerns actually should be on addressing the issues that these men focused on. There are policies initiated by the Goodluck administration that was beneficial to a greater number of Nigerians and there were policies that were not worth the white-paper that it was documented on. There are policies that the Buhari administration have set in motion or will set in motion that will be beneficial to a larger number of Nigerians, there are others that are or will be complete balderdash!

Beyond the past and present administration, this is the time to focus on an issue based engagement ahead of the next election cycle. There is currently a widespread discontentment with the present administration. This is the time to be asking the people angling to take over the helms of power to clearly articulate how they intend to deal with those issues that we are dissatisfied with or to show a ‘certificate’ of their pedigree in resolving those issues.

The options are clearly straightforward, if we refuse to engage on policies and decide to stand with person A or person B, we would continue to end up with the inevitable trauma of having to defend every single action of the person -defensible or not. On the other hand, if our focus is on policy, when a politician is not addressing the policies we consider important, we can call him or her out very quickly without qualms and without the needless anxiety of appearing like a traitor!

Policies over person will undoubtedly lead to more ‘deepening’ of our democratic experience!

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Ugochukwu Nnamdi Ukamba is a Legal Practitioner based in Lagos.Hetweets @NnamdiUkamba