18
as honest, compared with 40 percent nationally.
18
The effects of poor governance and perceived
disenfranchisement have alienated citizens in the Niger Delta, and political disaffection is clearly
associated with the accentuation of communal identities.
Political Efficacy and Participation
If the democratic system has failed to provide desired political or economic goods, how
does this affect citizens’ perceptions of their ability to engage in politics, and their attitudes to
collective action? These questions point to the dimension of political efficacy. Table 7 shows
three measures of political efficacy: assessments of the responsiveness of elected officials; views
on citizen access to government; and confidence in understanding politics.
- TABLE 7 -
The first item is perhaps the most impressive. In the wake of the political transition,
citizens in the Niger Delta already had low expectations of politicians, as little more than a third
of respondents believed that elected leaders look after their interests, compared with more than
half of Nigerians outside the region. Assessments of elected leaders have declined everywhere,
but in the Niger Delta there is virtually no confidence in the responsiveness of politicians. With
regard to the ability of people to influence government actions, confidence has also plummeted.
In the first two surveys, respondents in the Delta were quite similar in their assessments to other
Nigerians, and well over half perceived improvements in citizen influence in politics since the
end of military rule. In the most recent survey, less than a fifth of those in the Delta have a
favorable view of citizen access in the current regime. Residents of the Delta appear somewhat
18
Human Rights Watch 2004, p. 1.
Convention