Opinion: Influencing policy: Where is our organised lobby?

by Chijioke Kaduru

Lobbying has internationally become acclaimed as a part of representative democracy and like other democratic institutions, lobbying has its own best practices, which include understanding clients and government work, obeying laws, disclosing processes and building strong relations and connections.

In a country with 109 senators and 360 members of the house of representatives, along with members of the state houses of assembly, the role that young people have to play within the auspices of law & policy making, takes on a rather unclear stance, for many.

Many young people are either unfamiliar with lobbying, or do not believe in their ability to influence policy making in Nigeria, and the need then arises to evaluate lobbying as an entity, understand its degree of influence and to identify some obstacles that stand in the way of Nigerian youths having a say on policy formulation within the country.

Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Many different types of people and organized groups are involved in lobbying, including individuals in the private sector, corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or advocacy groups (interest groups). Lobbyists may be among a legislator’s constituencies, they may engage in lobbying as a business, or not. Professional lobbyists are people whose business is trying to influence legislation on behalf of a group or individual who hires them. Individuals and nonprofit organizations can also lobby as an act of volunteering or as a small part of their normal job.

The ethics and morality of lobbying are dual-edged. Lobbying is often spoken of with contempt, when the implication is that people with inordinate socioeconomic power are corrupting the law (twisting it away from fairness) in order to serve their own interests. But another side of lobbying is making sure that others’ interests are duly defended against others’ corruption, or even simply making sure that minority interests are fairly defended against mere tyranny of the majority and vice versa.

The difficulty in drawing objective lines between which lobbyists are “good lobbyists” and which ones are “bad lobbyists” is compounded by the cleverness with which lobbyists or their clients can speciously argue that their own lobbying is of the “good” kind. The motives behind any lobby range from predation to self-defense to fighting for justice, and the dividing line between predation and justice is subject to rationalization.

In 2009, in Britain, where lobbying is acclaimed as legitimate, the House of Commons Public Administration select committee recommended that a statutory register of lobbying activity and lobbyists would improve transparency to the dealings between Whitehall decision makers and outside interests. Over the past twenty years lobbying in Australia has become a political fact of life and is now endemic in local, state and federal government. In the United States, lobbying is a legal phenomenon that is protected by the right to petition in the first amendment. In Brussels, there are well over 15,000 lobbyists who on a daily basis, seek to influence the power of legislation in the European Union (EU).

Lobbying has internationally become acclaimed as a part of representative democracy and like other democratic institutions, lobbying has its own best practices, which include understanding clients and government work, obeying laws, disclosing processes and building strong relations and connections.

In the not too distant past, a roundtable conference on “Lobbying, the Lobbyist and the Legislature” took place in Abuja, where Nigerian party officials and legislators learned about the central role of lobbyists and interest groups in policy processes and political representation under a democratic setting. The conference was organized by the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) in collaboration with the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), Colorado USA, and was facilitated by Karl Kurtz and Tina Walls. It was explained at this conference, that lobbying all over the world has different rules and regulations. It was also stated categorically that, it was pertinent for Nigeria to develop her own laws regarding lobbying.

There are a number of areas to evaluate, when evaluating the actual successes of lobbying, including institutions, interests, issues and rules surrounding the policy making process, however, some glaring examples of lobby success can be found all around.

One such example of a lobby pulling weight, can be seen in state capitals and city halls across the US, where the National Rifle Association (NRA) is demonstrating its enduring ability to thwart new firearms regulations and expand rights for gun owners — even after a school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, gave the gun-control cause new momentum.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has been lobbying since 2000, for cheaper medicines, more global funding for the HIV crisis and changes in policy towards the epidemic. Organized lobby by MSF and many other health organizations, continues to thwart European efforts to mold free trade agreements, international treaties and customs regulations, which will cause the source of affordable medicines for millions of people across the developing world to dry up, as generic companies will no longer have the space to produce or sell them. This is the already well-known “Europe! Hands off our medicine” campaign.

A recent analysis and presentation by Julia Jahansoozi from the University of Stirling, Scotland, concluded that Lobbying in Nigeria is peculiar, but not that different to its global counterparts.

In July 2009, over forty civil society groups, lawyers and public health advocates stormed the National Assembly in the capital, Abuja, to demand that the Nigerian legislature sign the National Tobacco Control Bill into law. The bill had been brought before the Assembly five months earlier, but it took more than two years before lawmakers finally approved it. Since March 2011, the bill has been awaiting ratification by the federal government. It is widely suggested that the bill is yet to be enacted into law, because of pressure from tobacco lobbying groups.

A ThisDay article from the 15th September 2011 titled “Politics and the Health Bill” also highlights the influence of different lobby groups on the National Health Bill, which as yet, has not been signed into law in Nigeria. Lobby efforts from several organizations including Ipas international spurred National Assembly to pass the bill, following over six years of delays. Many powerful lobby groups are widely speculated to be behind the President’s refusal to give assent to the bill.

If organized lobby, is not that different in Nigeria, and has been shown to have successes, members of the public, especially our young people, must put more efforts together, and lobby concisely for better policies. Considering the wit shown by many young Nigerians across social media, and their sometimes very well read perspectives on issues, supported by evidence of international best practices, young Nigerians should be more proactive in concisely marshaling their knowledge and efforts, towards influencing law and policy making in the country.

Many hindrances exist to organized lobby by young Nigerians, and we will take a look at some that spring to mind easily. It is not an all-inclusive list, but it does seem to show some good places to start.

Young Nigerians knowing or not knowing their representatives in the Senate and House of Representatives is an obstacle. These representatives are produced by our constituencies and elected by us, to set legislature for the entire country. It speaks volumes about our level of interest in legislature and policy, if we do not know the people who we have empowered from each of our constituencies to make laws for us. It also pulls the mat from under all our complaints about poor policies.

Additionally, many will agree that the election of legislatives, are some of the easiest elections to influence, considering the smaller geo-political territories they cover and the number of voters within those territories. A good place to start for young Nigerians, as we strive to influence policy, has to be in knowing and keeping an eye on our representatives, and in making sure that they know this. It is also important to constantly remind them that it is our votes that got them there in the first place.

Another critical area is the building of networks and amassing media support. The PDP continues to thrive as a political party, partly because of its well-established grassroots network. We must therefore never understate the importance of our network, as the more people who buy into a specific policy idea, the greater the scope of influence and the louder the voice, behind that policy proposition.

Members of the media, are also needed to continue to exact their right to a free press and the right to free speech, to evaluate policies, publish widely and seek mass reactions and contribution. The new age of social media has indeed eased up this process through micro-blogs (tweets), blogs and increased access to articles through online portals; however, we must not forget the daily tabloid reader. He needs to be informed and roped into a network of people driving policy change.

Networks must also not be limited to the digital “experts” and the daily tabloid readers, as there are the many who do not have access to either platform. Town meetings, beer parlors, buyer-seller market discourse and everyday interactions must be harnessed. Every common man must be made to see his level of influence, and must be taught how to use it. He must be encouraged to buy into the need for a specific policy change, and he must be made to become a key component of every lobby.

The most important, and probably the least considered pillar of a youth lobby in Nigeria, revolves around knowing and caring about the issues. In a country, where many young people abhor politicking and have pinned their resolve on waiting for their shot at leadership, knowing and caring about the issues takes center stage.

An effective youth lobby must start with people taking an interest in the issues. This is followed closely by educating oneself on the issue, exploring supportive and contradictory opinions and maintaining an open mind, to be able to appreciate the possible limitations faced by our policy makers. Without this, there can be no organized lobby. Without this, our young people will be unable to demonstrate their capacity to analyze the issues and proffer concrete solutions, which means that they will not be able to gain audience with our lawmakers.

It is of high importance, to remember that our legislators are elected from amongst you and I, men from different works of life. Amongst them are engineers, real estate specialists, marketers, doctors, lawyers and teachers. This means that they will not have in-depth knowledge on all issues that require policy or law making. This means that they will make many a decision, purely based on the arguments presented, and in a flawed system like ours, often based on the majority approach, party alliances or the odd buck. We therefore should hold ourselves to blame, just as often, when we do not present concrete arguments for or against a piece of policy, to our lawmakers, as we indirectly assent to their right to make a decision on whatever other basis they choose.

The entirety of this article does not undermine the huge influence played by money in all lobby and policy processes. It does not take away from the need for our leaders and representatives to be conscientious in their approach to policy making, as well as in providing oversight. It however tries to stress on what lobbying is, how effective it is and why there is a strong need for young people across this country to take their complaints beyond social media and take up organized lobby activities.

Make no mistake, everyone who talks about change is already politicking. It is more impressive however, if we young people can legitimately take our talks to the corridors of power and secure policies that work to boost our economy, fight corruption and create education and health institutions that will stand the test of time.

What democracy do we have, if the next generation cannot take up organized lobby and build this country, as we would like to leave it for the future generations?

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Chijioke Kaduru is a medical doctor, and he tweets as @dr_kaduru

 

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

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