Government Accountability:Is anything civil left in civil society organizations?

Once, they were fearless, determined and broke barriers, but today they are titans in corrupt practices looking for political positions.

Once, they were the conscience of the nation, today they are the amoral in immorality pledging continuous loyalty to those they should hold accountable.

When those who are meant to be the conscience of society become amoral, society itself becomes a corpse waiting to be buried.

The tsetse fly does not go silent for nothing — its silence means a pound of blood has already been taken from its host.

If the conscience of society is compromised, the soul of society is corrupted.

I remember — Nigeria remembers — the days of Gani Fawehinmi, SAN. A man who wore no uniform but whose voice shook military barracks.

Beko Ransome-Kuti, who turned his clinic into a war room for democracy.

Baba Omojola, Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba, Frank Kokori, Chima Ubani — who died on the road while fighting for the poor. The NLC, ASUU, NANS, NADECO, Civil Liberties Organisation. Students who faced bullets on campus.

Under the military jackboot, civil society was civil. It was brave. It was united.

Where is that civil society today?

Today, we ask with pain in our hearts: Is there anything CIVIL left in Civil Society Organizations?

Look around us, Edo State, Nigeria. The Ovia River Bridge is collapsing, but civil society is silent.

Markets burn at Oluku and no group raises a voice for traders. Fuel tanker falls, lives are lost, and our emergency response is still a joke, yet no coalition issues a statement.

Budgets are padded, palliatives disappear, roads swallow loved ones, and those who call themselves activists are now photographers at Government House.

What happened? The weakness is clear. Many CSOs have been compromised.

The inaction is sponsored. Some now chase grants, not justice. Some have become extensions of political parties — APC CSOs, PDP CSOs, Labour CSOs.

When your brother is in power, corruption becomes a strategy. When your opponent is in power, it becomes a scandal.

They have traded activism for appointments. They have traded Aluta for Alert. From “Comrade” to “Honourable” to “SA” overnight.

Corruption now walks naked in our streets. No one questions. No one mobilizes. The people have lost their shield.

The government now knows that if it ignores press statements, nothing will happen. Because civil society has lost its street power, its moral voice, its unity.

But it should not be so. Gani Fawehinmi did not fight the military to see civil society fight over crumbs under democracy.

Beko did not sacrifice his freedom so that activists would become praise-singers. Chima Ubani did not die so that the people would keep quiet while Edo bleeds.

They must find their courage again.

This is a call to conscience. The Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress, the student movement, market women associations, faith-based groups, professional bodies, pro-democracy groups — you must unite again.

Not for a political party. But for the people.

Your common enemy is not each other. Your common enemy is bad governance, corruption, impunity, neglect.

If civil society fails, democracy fails. If civil society sleeps, tyranny wakes up wearing agbada.

They have to forge a common goal again, to hold power accountable, no matter who is in power.

Because when civil society dies, the civil in, “civilian government” dies too.