Democracy is a symbiotic relationship between a good leader that is answerable to his her followers and followers showing their support to the leader when they see the good leader positively affecting their daily lives. We as Nigerians castigated our leaders all the time for their ineptitude and sometimes gross negligence but have we ever checked ourselves to see if we we doing our duties to the community too as a Stake Holders in the success or failure of our Nation?. How many of us can answer the above question firmly?, Community Development Service (CDS) is a major theme and cardinal point of NYSC, l believe it was designed to cultivate the habit of selfless service to our immediate community not only during the service year but throughout our life time. But we have limited the CDS to just one year spent in serving our father’s land. We need to change our orientation on this.
Selfless service to our community is one of the social obligations we must observe religiously, and as we demand for accountability and stewardship from our leaders every now and then, we should also present our score card if not to the community, at least to ourselves. We need to assess ourselves and ask ourselves some rhetorical questions. Like what have I done for the past few years for the betterment and development of my community,? How can I help my community?, How can I help the government?. Gone are those good old days when members of our communities trooped out every weekend to engage in one community service or the other.
Though most of them have little or no formal education and neither are they really financially buoyant but through this selfless routine, bridges were constructed, blocked drainages were freed of debris, electric poles were erected, bushes were cleared, people were informed of the happening through community meeting that holds every week. There was love and unity.
It’s quite incredible that though there are more elites, more educated, more rich, more agile and strong people in our midst, it has not resulted into a more serene, organized, developed and progressive community.
The reason for this is not far fetched as these sets of supposed learned and educated fellows channel their resources to blaming and nagging elected and constituted leaders alone instead of realizing that they could also help their various communities.
These people can call for the head of the leader if there is a cob Web in their room, they do nothing that could benefit the community, many tarred road got washed by erosion due to their nonchalant and environmental negligence. They have turned drainages to waste bin and refuse dump sites, which subsequently prevent easy flow of erosion.
It baffles though unsurprising to find a dead animal roting and smelling around a community or an electric pole fell and nobody cares to take up the responsibility of the sanitation or calling the appropriate authority (PHCN for the pole) because is a community assignment which someone thinks is somebody job, and everybody thinks somebody will get the job done but at the end of day nobody did the job
As a stake Holders we need to set some pace, and maintain some degree of social standard which our leaders will be contesting and striving to attain such standard. As Ira Chaleff observed “Leaders rarely use their power wisely or effectively over long periods unless they are supported by followers who have the stature to help them do so.
Conclusively society/community are successful or not partly on the basis of how well their leaders lead, but also in great part on the basis of how well their followers follow. Surely improving the performance of followers should be worthwhile.
Adesina Julius Prestige write from Igbeti.