22 Jun 2009 |
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Neither Great Speeches Nor Debates. Emeka Makata Perhaps; the clearest elucidation of the responsibility of parties in Burke’s social contract theorem on societal governance was made by Thomas Jefferson in the second paragraph of the American declaration of independence with the following. “We hold these truth to be self evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organising its power in such form as to them might seem likely to effect their safety and happiness “ This assertion spells out vividly what is expected of a Government and the governed as it highlights the immense power at the disposal of a conscious people. In this context, I shall ponder on the extent to which we, the Nigerian people have fulfilled our responsibility as a party in the contract in the mist of damning evidence of abdication of fundamental responsibilities of government by successive governments in Nigeria. Since I come to posterity, I must first admit that we have contributed as much to the sorry state of our country as our deservedly maligned leaders. As an instance, right from the beginning of this year, there has been a continual revelation of unprecedented volume of mind blowing acts of corruption in Nigerian. From the Seamen’s to the Halliburton scandal- From the revelation of the House committee on power probe of the National Independent Power Projects to the indulgence of the members of the committee in rural electrification contract scam. While the government has so far shown a clear lack of will to fulfil her statutory obligation of bringing those indicted to justice, we have on the other hand remained incredibly calm, going about our lawful business as always required of us as against the expectation that we should rise and act by the theory of social contract. It has become our way to always sit on our hands in anticipation of the intervention of unseen hands in our body polity even in situations that more than warrant resistance by any group with any sense of dignity and self esteem ,yet even when there is no reason to thump our chest, we conjure all manner of claims: We are the smartest population of black people in the world, We are the most educated group of foreigners in the United States, we are this ,we are that; even the Nigerian television authority whose embarrassing picture quality on satellite does nothing but highlight our poverty of standard to the rest of the world goes about shouting on top of her voice that she is the largest TV network in Africa. Truth is that by our inactions, we have proved to be one of the least civilised groups of people on earth- What manners of people are this comfortable in this complete state of nature? Tell me any other country on earth that people will be this calm if a quarter of the political malfeasance going on in Nigeria happens there? The import of this is that we have collectively failed in our fundamental responsibilities as citizens knowing that the complete absence of will to act and in essence the unconditional acceptance of our sorry situation is absolutely incompatible with the nature worthy citizens. An interesting dimension in the spate of acts of corruption committed against the Nigerian state and her people is that it is always through active collaboration of Nigerians in government and companies and foreigners from countries where corruption is highly abhorred to the extent that some of their home country’s justice system punish citizens for crimes of corruption committed outside the state. This surely bring us to the import of the quoted section of American declaration of independence as regards to the place of the people in achieving a just and liveable society as well as the relationship between the nature of a people and the prevailing order in their immediate society. The activities of citizens from developed countries in Nigeria shows that they are not truly above the tendency to be corrupt. Matter of factly, the scandalous reputation of the American Company Halliburton in which the former vice president of America has a substantial interest in proves that if he was left unchecked when he was the office, he may have indulged. Furthermore, the citizens of China where the punishment for corruption is death freely participate in the perpetration of corruption in Nigeria when they dare not do that in their country. The arising question thereof is why somebody who will not involve himself in corrupt acts in his home country will do that in another man’s country. The answer to this may seem to be in the presence of regulating laws and the willingness of the government to enforce it in their home countries. However , there are several laws and agencies in Nigeria designed to fight corruption which we at least all agree is our biggest problem yet there is a clear absence political will to enforce such laws. Where then does the willingness of the government to enforce laws flow from? Certainly from the fear of ever present willingness of the people to change any government that becomes destructive of the peoples collective aspiration, a trait long lost among us. Given the long standing history of brazen repudiation of the franchise of Nigerians by the government and her agents whenever elections are organised in Nigeria, many Nigerians have remained in a perpetual state of protest by staying away from even voters’ registration exercise much more voting. The resultant consequence is that we inadvertently deprive ourselves the most fundamental mark of relevance in democratic society. We are so passive that our government which should be responsible to us have taken us for granted knowing that we do not know what we ought to do. The people have made themselves not to count giving government the leeway to become one big franchisor of corruption and hardship. That we are so unmoved by the way things are going only portrays us more as an unserious group of people incapable of freedom and responsibility. The much some of us have done is write and talk, but much more is needed. There can never be a reinvention of our society without the restoration of our dignity as a people. Like otho Von Bismarck once told the Germans, it is not by great speeches and debates that great questions of the day are decided but with iron and blood. Luckily, we do not need iron and blood, only active involvement in the political affairs of our country. We may actually not have elected our governments but they always claim we did. We can also assume we did and play the role expected of us by the social contract theory for the sake of our dignity and that of our country. This is a shot I hope will be heard around the world by anybody anywhere who wishes our country well.
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