A survey report conducted by the African Polling Institute (API) has highlighted existential gaps in Nigeria’s social contract between the government and the citizenry.
The report of the survey titled: “Does Nigeria love Nigerians?” by API in Abuja, revealed that about 75 per cent of Nigerians claiming not to have benefitted from the present administration in the last five years, while 54 per cent said their voices and opinions do not count in government decision-making.
According to the report, Nigerians further appealed to the federal government to focus on policies targeted at creating employment, improving security, promoting good governance, empowering citizens and strengthening the quality of education.
The report signed by the Executive Director API, Dr. Bell Ihua, stated that, 60 per cent of Nigerians either do not believe their lives matter to the Nigerian government or are simply unsure.
“This finding clearly highlights an existential gap in government’s ability to protect the lives and properties of her citizens. On the contrary, 4 in 10 Nigerians (40%) said they believe that their lives matter to the government. This finding has been corroborated in the literature by several scholars such as Ogunowo & Joshua (2019), who argued that Nigerian lives do not matter to the Nigerian government, given the government poor response to various issues pertaining to citizens’ well-being and protection,” Ihua said.
According Ihua, more findings revealed that while there was equal proportion of citizens who agreed or disagreed that Nigeria loves them, same cannot be said across gender, age group and literacy levels.
“From the result there were slightly more males (52%) respondents who believe that Nigeria loves them as citizens, compared to female respondents aged 60 and above expressed a stronger opinion that Nigeria does not love them as citizens.
“In addition, the data showed that there were more respondents in northern Nigeria (57%) who believe that the country love them, compared to 57 per cent of those in southern Nigeria who believe that the country does not love them as citizens,” he said.
He urged the federal government to create a platform where youths could air their disaffection with the activities of government.
