THE ROLE OF POLICY MAKERS IN ACTIVE PARTICIPATION OF CITIZENS IN THE PROCESS OF GOVERNANCE

Abstract

The role of policy makers is very key to proper governance. so also, is the active participation of its citizens in governance. After all, Abraham Lincoln has defined Democracy as the government of the people for the people and by the people. This suggests that governance is the responsibility of the citizens and leaders are only but guides to fulfil the people’s wishes. Policy makers have the responsibility of consulting their wards to obtain their views on certain projects before they carry them out. This paper has used secondary sources of data by reviewing literatures related to the field of research. It adopted the Elite theory as the bases for its theoretical framework. It observed that citizens don’t fully participate in the process of governance in Nigeria as policy makers don’t carry out consultations and in most cases are very far away from the people. Take for instance a member of the National Assembly that comes from Maiduguri, the distance between Abuja to his/her place in the North East will not allow him frequent time with the people of the community. The paper recommends that policy makers should be more conscious of policies that express the wishes of the people through first hand constant and consistent consultations.