Starting from the ancient days, man is governed by fellow man. Without leader, there would be no direction in the society; hence, man submits his rights to live, dignity and liberty to another man. Etymologically, it is done by agreement. Modern Political Scholars such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and Jean Jacque Rousseau argued extensively on man and governance in their “Social Contracts Theory.”
Social Contracts Theory explains how man submitted all his Fundamental Human Rights to another man to be governed via systemic agreement. Agreement in essence that the rules of law must be applied whenever man disobey the agreement he enter into with government and government must respect the agreement entered into with man.
Contemporarily, man which John Locked titled as the “governed” has obligations to government while government has duties to perform in order to make life better for the governed. Nothing goes for anything in life ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s instruction in the Garden of Eden.
Man is expected to pay taxes, respect the rules of law and perform his civic responsibilities while government is bounded by law to protect the lives and property of man, ensure that fundamental human and social rights of man such as right to education, right to live, right to peaceful gathering, right to own properties, right to association, right to movement, right to speech and expression, right to enjoy basic amenities of life etc are jealously guided and protected.
Man and the nation of Nigeria are creatures of God; therefore, it is commonsensical to posit that the voice of man is the voice of God.
Using Nigeria as a case study, I ask that do the governed fulfill their agreement to the government. How have those holding the crest of authority in Nigeria been delivering democratic services to the governed as entrenched by the principles of law and social contracts theory that fundamentally, are creation of God?
Now, let’s juxtapose further. According to Lateef Raji, a public policy analyst, election means constitutional weapon of change. In Nigeria, voters’ votes periodically every four years to either sack elected officials that breaches the agreements entered into with them or renew the services of those that kept to their agreements. However, I can declare that by indirect observation, the sacked and promoted public officials obviously governed with reckless abandonment. They ruled without the fear of God.
Today, in Nigeria, those saddled with baton of power serve neither God nor the people. They are serving themselves and their pockets. Economically, people have been pauperized. The governed are daily wallowing in reckless abandonment. People snivel and gnashes in isolation. According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), 83% of Nigerians from the ages of 22 to 35 are unemployed due to the failure of government.
Furthermore, God was quoted in the holy book of exodus telling both the government and the governed that that thou shall not steal. However, today, looting and stealing of the patrimony of common people have become the watchwords of those the governed entrusted with power. At their inaugurations, government officials swear via holy bible and Quran to govern their people according to the dictates of God but they do otherwise upon getting the baton. They rule with impunity. Government violates the right to live and dignity of the governed at will by planting the seeds of unemployment, poverty, hunger and starvation into their midst. By doing that, life expectancy of the governed is reduced, leading to their untimely death.
The right to own properties that government promised the governed has been violated. Today, some states and local governments owe their workers four to eight months salaries. How can workers or pensioners that have not been paid eight months salaries own properties? By the failure of government to deliver the people of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States respectively from the formidable bondage of Boko Haram, I ask, where is their right to live a peaceful life?
Nigerian government officials wine and dine inside corruption. A Governor that chose to fly his family members from Maiduguri to London to avoid being killed instead of protecting all and sundries fear not God. A governor that converted textile industry that ought to be rehabilitated to provide jobs for the teeming population of unemployed youths in his state to lock-up shops lacks the fear of God.
A governor that spends over N2billion to rehabilitate tomato paste factory without a can of paste to show for the huge money spent, four years after the contract was awarded and money released has no fear of God. A governor that chose to build N3billion worth of lodge for him while his people wallow in abject hunger and starvation is anti-God.
I say without any fear of contradiction that political parties that preaches virtue and practice vices are agents of Satan. More also, I declare unequivocally that a state governor that awarded a kilometer of road on dry land for N1billion will definitely rout in hell because such an act is anti-thesis of Governance in God’s direction.
A government that expended $16billion on power supply without the light proper has no place in the kingdom of God. It is height of anti-thesis when government agents’ flies chattered jets because the roads which they refused to fix are in appalling conditions.
It is a crime against humanity and sin against God when a governor refused to provide pipe borne water for his people to drink but chose to establish a bottled water company for his wife. A politician that lost an election and his people retaliated by killing thousands of innocent people has no seat in heaven. A president that under his watch, power mega watt dropped from 2,212 to 1,322 has many questions to answer when he get to heaven.
In conclusion, let me expressly pronounce that governance in the thesis of God’s direction is the one where people enjoy basic amenities, enjoy rights to live, property, movement, liberty, dignity, association, peaceful assembly etc. When the governed enjoy the light they paid for, it is thesis but when they are not enjoying the light they paid for, it is anti-thesis. Meta-physically, when a leader rule in line with the commandments of God, he Climax; but it is anti-climax when a leader govern in flagrant disregard of God’s will and laws.
From the era of Adam till date, governance has never been in line with the dictates of law. Today, the developed nations are enacting laws allowing same sex marriage. This is anti-thesis of governance in God’s direction.
May God grant the government wisdom to govern in God’s direction; and May God grant the governed wisdom to follow in God’s direction! Amen.
Maxwell Adeyemi Adeleye write from Magodo, Lagos