This question I know certainly will be in every citizen's heart: why should we be made to pay for the decisions of our leaders? Especially the way our fellow Africans and foreigners react to international conflicts towards us. If a fight breaks out between two countries, the ordinary people suffer. People who wake up early to hustle, worry about how to pay bills, pray for their loved ones, and dream of having a simple life of peace still pay for the wrong agreement.
Every day they find themselves blamed for choices that they never agreed to. One may ask if it's fair. Honestly, it isn't at all. We don't have the power to influence the decisions made in government houses, military headquarters, or presidential offices. Look, during the election, every citizen had the man they wanted to be the president of our country, but we find ourselves with what we can't explain: a president without conscience, someone who forces his way into the presidential seat.
At first we decided to manage him to see if he was different from what we had heard, but he became our nightmare. We, the citizens, are bearing the brunt of our INEC chairman's greed. A lot of us don't even know what secret negotiations go on behind closed doors. Many citizens have never seen the inside of a parliament building. Yet somehow when things go wrong, the world turns to us as if every citizen personally signed off on the conflicts.
Imagine a Nigerian youth studying abroad suddenly facing suspicion when applying for a visa not because he or she did anything wrong but because of their country's reputation for scams. Our celebrities are not being left out; every day they are being pressured to speak out on political matters that most of them had no hand in creating. It's just like being blamed for a fight you didn't start; you don't even know how it came about.
Many people will say Nigerians practice democracy, and in democracy citizens vote for their leaders, so they share some responsibility for their actions. It's not in Nigeria; we don't vote for our leaders; they elect themselves. How many ordinary Nigerians actually have full control over political outcomes?. Let's say Nigeria actually votes. We all know that politicians do change course after being voted in; policies can shift, and corruption often undermines every good intention. Most times speaking out is very dangerous in Nigeria. Then if we dare to protest or criticize the government, there are always real consequences like being arrested, police harassment, or worse, or the shooting at the people directly.
So sometimes silence doesn't mean agreement; it's fear or survival. So what Nigerians are going through now is a mixture of unfairness and misunderstanding. Those in Nigeria suffer the insecurity, high cost of food, and pain of government failures. While those abroad bear the weight of the reputational failure. It's easy for people to point fingers at the ordinary Nigerians rather than call out our decision-makers in Abuja. We are just citizens caught in a situation we can't disengage ourselves from.
We can call them out through social media, just like we are doing these days, but it still has little or no effect on them. But if most of our celebrities call them out, maybe there will be massive changes. I hope people will come to understand that we are simply the citizens and not the sole decision makers. Although we citizens have our problems, but now are they presently such that they can affect us like we are now?. We are actually victims, not the villains.
Images are ai generated.
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