Nigeria’S government has promised a new era under the banner of “Renewed Hope.” Yet for most citizens, government is not experienced in Abuja’s policy documents but in the everyday encounters with public facing institutions: police officers at checkpoints, financial crimes officials, drug enforcement agents, airline staff, or local traffic officials. Too often, these interactions are marked not by service but by intimidation, indifference, or outright abuse.
Recent viral videos of citizens being brutalised by public and private officials highlight a deeper problem: the erosion of trust in the very institutions meant to serve. This is not a minor distraction. It is a governance crisis. One that undermines government’s promise to place the citizen first. It erodes trust.
Past lessons, forgotten promises
Nigeria has tried to tackle this before. In 2004, President Olusegun Obasanjo launched the Service Compact (SERVICOM) with All Nigerians. Its aim was simple: citizens deserve timely, transparent, and effective public services, and government officials must be held accountable for delivering them. For a time, SERVICOM gave Nigerians a glimpse of what a service-oriented government might look like. But without sustained political backing, momentum ebbed and the program was left to languish.
Other countries have succeeded where Nigeria faltered. Rwanda’s Imihigo performance contracts bind officials to measurable service-delivery targets. Ghana’s digital reforms have cut corruption while speeding up basic services such as passport issuance. This is similar to what has recently been achieved by Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. In India, the Digital India initiative has transformed access to government services for hundreds of millions, marrying technology with political will. The message is clear: citizen engagement programmes can work, but only when they are continuously nurtured and embedded in governance.
Restoring Hope in Nigeria’s institutions
For Nigeria’s government, this is an opportunity not to invent something new, but to renew and reimagine SERVICOM as a flagship Citizen Engagement Initiative under the Renewed Hope agenda. Such a program should rest on three pillars:
Professionalising the frontline: The policeman, the road safety officer, the immigration or customs official, the civil servant behind the counter; these are the true faces of government. Their conduct determines whether citizens see the state as protector or predator. Reorientation programmes must embed a customer-service culture, build communication skills, and set clear standards of accountability. Recognition through annual awards for exemplary service can foster healthy competition and incentivise improvement.
Technology for transparency: Citizens need a simple, reliable way to report grievances and track resolutions. A digital platform either through web and mobile platforms should serve as the central hub for complaints, feedback, and monitoring. Estonia, with far fewer resources than Nigeria, has digitised almost all citizen–state interactions. Nigeria can follow suit. Done well, such a system does more than log complaints: it signals seriousness, builds transparency, and generates data to improve services over time.
Public awareness and partnership: Even the best designed reforms fail if citizens do not know their rights or how to demand them. A broad communication campaign led by government agencies, reinforced by civil society and community groups, can make engagement a national habit. Citizens must come to see themselves not as subjects of state power, but as stakeholders in governance.
Leadership as the missing ingredient
Programmes succeed when leaders champion them and fail when leaders abandon them. The lesson of SERVICOM is not that Nigerian citizens are apathetic, but that reforms without political guardianship cannot last. The Presidency must make Renewed Hope Citizen Engagement a personal priority: monitoring progress, demanding accountability, and rewarding excellence across all sectors.
Leadership is not measured only in good intentions or catchy slogans. It is measured in whether the Nigerian public are treated with dignity by the very institutions meant to serve them. Every encounter with a public official is a test of government integrity. Fail that test often enough, and no amount of rhetoric can restore trust.
Why Now?
Nigeria faces daunting economic headwinds, sluggish growth, inflationary pressures, fiscal strain. In such an environment, citizens’ patience is short and skepticism high. A visible, well-publicized effort to humanise government and deliver daily improvements in service delivery could provide the government with something more valuable than money: credibility.
Rebuilding trust is not a luxury; it is the foundation of effective governance. And trust begins not with distant policy, but with how Nigerians are treated at the points where government and citizens interact.
The Renewed Hope agenda will stand or fall not on catchy phrases, but on the lived experiences of the Nigerian public. If the government embraces a Citizen Engagement Initiative that is serious, sustained, and citizen-centered, it can begin to restore faith in its institutions. If not, hope will curdle into disappointment, and disappointment into cynicism.
The choice before Nigeria’s leaders is stark. The government can allow daily abuses to define the administration in the minds of its citizens, or it can seize this moment to transform those interactions into proof that governance can be dignified, responsive, and accountable. The time to act is now. Renewed Hope must be more than a promise. It can come alive and must be felt in every encounter with government, in every service, in every citizen’s daily life.
Awoyinfa is a management consultant and international development leader. He can be reached via: [email protected]
