Bitter Pills
By Des Wilson
- The Power of Government
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely – Lord Acton
Don’t trust anyone holding power even if they are cloaked in clerical robes. Power is meant to create a conducive environment for citizens to flourish, and anything short of that is terror in sheep’s clothing. In the former situation, power is supposed to create an atmosphere where citizens live in relative comfort and can work for the growth and success of the state.
The power of government is not for the state to intimidate peace- loving entities and deprive them of their rights, because the power of government is meant to protect the citizens from harm rather than oppress them with an assumed ‘force of nature’ such as rain, wind and fire or the force of Satan.
You don’t threaten the people you love with an assumed power that you do not have, unless you are ready to commit genocide as it has been the lot of Nigerian citizens living under what may seem the crack of doom.
The power that the people, the citizens, grant even the despot in measured doses at our tainted ballot selection process is meant to offer reassurance and not to bring a loss of confidence or regret.
The ruler who threatens the people with the force of nature is “a person with an exceptionally strong personality and immense energy who is unyielding, and has a significant, unforgettable impact on others, often defying societal expectations to achieve their goals’ in a ‘let-them-say’” eccentric manner.
Is this the type of person Akwa Ibom people ‘voted’ for in 2023? I believe that the user may have seen it as a declaration of unstoppable power. It may be so here on earth and for a maximum of eight years or maybe a little longer. The focus here is on the negativities of power and how it can be used to achieve negative ends, and not for the good of the people.
When I saw Abubakar Malami the other week in handcuffs like a common criminal, the message got to me even more deeply. Just three years back, Malami was a demi-god in Buhari’s administration. Today, he has been made to face the music of unstoppable power which, for him, included the right to loot the people’s patrimony.
They say history keeps repeating itself but as the Nigerian Nobel laureate noted some years ago, it is not history that repeats itself, but man that keeps revolving in a cycle of human stupidity. They operate the armed robbery theory which points to the fact that it is he that is caught that is the armed robber and that what befalls him is his lot. Perhaps that is why we call history to account. Is it really history or the experience of history? History is not a static thing. An event in history may come and go; it is what we make of it that can make sense to succeeding generations – which constitutes the experience of history.
True, the power of government can be used solely for the development of society as when states are wired to regulate education, control commerce, security, provide infrastructure, provide the right atmosphere for citizen engagement, engage in public financial and asset management, sustain the rule of law not mismanagement by lore, and ensure the general welfare of the polity and not be selectively insensitive to the citizens’ needs.
There is so much for the government to do for the people because the rulers are meant to serve the people. The roll call of government’s responsibilities is so long that one wonders how government gets involved in petty things and allows friendship and other relationships to becloud its sense of judgment. Take a look: Legislation and Administration, Education, Healthcare, Infrastructural development, Transportation, Security, Economic development, Local Government oversight, Revenue Generation, Elections, Licensing, Social Services, Economic Regulation, Public Safety and Law Enforcement. It’s a mouthful. Are citizens enlightened enough to ask questions about the capacity of government to do these things, such that as the long abandoned 2026 rolls into 2027, they will not be deceived again. The above duties are carried out by the Executive, Legislative and Judicial arms of Government, even though today, there is hardly a distinction between the various arms as they flow into each other like the lower and middle streams of a river. ‘You-rob-my-back-I-rob-yours’ philosophy rules governance today such that it is hard to distinguish the three of them when it comes to issues of public interest. Here we have the danger of overreach, limitation and the government’s role as either servant of the people or a necessary evil. Will somebody out there be advised?·