By: Ochi, Maduabuchi

Civic responsibility is defined by Law Insider as ‘the patriotic and ethical duty of all citizens to take an active role in society and to consider the interests and concerns of other individuals in the community’. Taking an active role in society, in the popular sense, takes the form of voting during elections or contesting for political posts. However, it also extends to joining organisations that express concern for and help take care of the environment in which society exists, even partaking in protests that advocate for environmental justice as well as those that demand an end to the unfair treatment of certain sections of the population, whether they be men, women, working class or poor.

In essence, civic responsibility is a call to activism; which cuts across environmental activism, to agitations against gender-based violence, the former aiming to ensure that the physical landscape which houses the society does not get damaged or rendered unliveable; and advocacy for equality within all spheres of the society. This responsibility rests on the shoulders of each and every member of society, who is expected to take an active role, to speak against and stand against actions that harm humans, humanity and the society at large.

Civic responsibility, therefore, does not become non-existent even within the figurative four walls of the university. While students do have a duty to advocate for a better country, that same duty compels them to advocate first for a better University community. Rightly, students should not turn a blind eye when others on campus face injustice. Students should not keep silent when they see their environment being depleted. They should not, to cite a fairly recent example, remain silent while other students are made to resort to loans in order to pay their school fees. It is a civic responsibility that, as members of society, they lend their voices to these issues.

This responsibility is not nulled by one’s religious background. A person can convert from one religion to another and still remain a member of the society. Regardless, one remains, basically, a student of the University of Ibadan. As a result, one’s civic responsibility remains irrespective of one’s religious affiliation. Historically, across the world, religions often play important roles in aiding mass movements meant to bring about important societal reforms. From conscientization to mobilization for mass actions, religion brings liss and strength of heart.

In the 1970s and 80s, South Africa was embroiled in an anti-apartheid struggle. Agitations for liberation taking place in nearby countries inspired the growing number of Africans in its borders, putting them in direct conflict with the government of the day, even as unemployment rates among Blacks continued to rise. In the early 80s, police had begun to target anti-apartheid activists and between 1985 and 1989, more than 5000 people were killed in order to destroy the liberation movement. It was within this context that prophetic Christianity became more articulate in its support for the liberation movement. They pulled into questioning the ideologies that formed the base of the apartheid state and helped reinvigorate the struggle by de-legitimising the apartheid regime and empowering the dispossessed.

The Islamic world has seen no less in terms of members of their religious organisations taking up their civic responsibility. During the Arab Spring, a series of anti-government protests that swept through the entire Arab world started from Tunisia, with Islam playing a major role. The religious symbolism that was present in the protests suggested that the movement was shaped by religious forces.

More than just shaping the movement, they also took part, and practically, in the organisation of the protests. Believers often went straight from their Friday prayers to the protest grounds. The mosques became points around which political opposition, organisation and important actors in the underground movement converged.

Within the university community, however, we see a totally different reality. Instead of being a rallying point around which students can gather and mobilise in the fulfilment of their civic responsibility, religious bodies act as barriers to it. The collectively disapproving outlook towards protests increase the barriers students need to break in order to move out. In contrast to the examples set by wider religious movements, we see more conservative stances that discourage the performance of civic duty.

This is not to say that the right thing to do is to agitate for mass actions during periods of relative peace. Neither is it to request that they start protests over minor issues. Rather, it is a suggestion that when the time comes for the students to move in pursuance of their civic responsibilities, they lend their voices to strengthen, and not hold them back. That they do not make it harder for their followers to take that necessary first step towards the making of a better society.

No one can escape from their civic responsibility, whether it is to the university or the country at large. This civic responsibility asks from citizens, and students, that they not only participate in society but also look out for their fellow citizens. And as a result, civic responsibility requires that they come out and partake in mass actions.

In the wider global community both Christianity and Islam have participated greatly in aiding their members to fulfil their civic responsibility. They spoke out against oppressive institutions, served as spaces where opposing political discussions could take place, and points around which members could organise.

Religious bodies on campus should work along similar lines. They should encourage their followers to respond to civic responsibility, and not serve as barriers to its fulfillment. This is because the peaceful and just society we all crave will not evolve by accident. Rather, only by fulfilling civic duty where justice reigns.

Credit: https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/religious-freedom-protest-usa.html?sortBy=relevant