The Bible upholds politics as a good thing willed by God for the well-being ofhumanity. It was for this good reason that St. Paul affirms that “all government comes from God” and that “The state is there to serve God for (people’s) benefit…” (Rom. 13:1-7). It is has become obvious that the Christian concept of politics is founded on the common good and is opposed to separation of politics from morality. This is further confirmed by a South African theologian T.S.N. Gqubule thus, “The Christian religion teaches that God is lord of the whole life and the lord of all creation. There is no sphere of life such as politics, economics, education, which is not under his lordship.”
The decayed value system is affecting our growth. Values give direction and firmness to life and they bring to life the important dimension of meaning which adds joy, satisfaction and peace to life. Values identify a person, giving him a name, a face and character. Without values, one would be floating like a piece of driftwood in the swirling waters of a river. Values bring quality to life. The philosophical study dealing with the nature of value and the types of value, as in morals, aesthetics religion and metaphysics, is known as axiology. Morality, which is part of our value system, is gradually eroding away, thereby making politics a do-or-die affair. All hands must be on deck to resurrect our values to enable us stand the taste of future civilizations.
Man is a moral being, unique in creation, possessing higher powers. His conduct is controlled by thoughts and emotions, by desires and intensions. His actions become the subject of his own and of other men’s criticism. These actions may be judged good or bad, praiseworthy or blameworthy, right or wrong. In the light of the above, man is termed a ‘moral being’. Man is not just an animal, he is a person who can choose what he will do and who is in some way responsible for his actions. This is exactly what Ethics (which is derived from the Greek word Ethos, meaning ‘conduct’ or way oflife) is all about.
Ethical science seeks to examine conduct and to deliberate on correct modes of conduct. Down the centuries, man has speculated about what constitutes “the good life.” Socrates, for example, maintained that education is the secret of virtue for knowledge, according to him, is virtue, this was his famous dictum. The Epicureans, on their own, regarded the pursuant of pleasure and the avoidance of pain as the only worthwhile aim in life.
The late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe maintained thateducation constitutes more than learning, when he said, “By education, I do notmean simply learning, I mean…Training…the head, hand and the heart…Training in mind, in morals and in hand that helps make one socially efficient.” In my term, if people are denied books, I mean the right type of books that could help in moulding them morally, the society suffers from academic malnutrition, starvation, moral atrophy and depravity. Such a society will continue to produce morally depraved leaders, those without conscience, who on the other hand will not allow their lives to be guided by same. Like the sayings of JuanAries, “I am free when I accept the fact that my life should be ruled by conscience”.
Those leaders who disobey their consciences know without being told that they formulate new premises for life every day, which will in turn haunt them. Our conscience is an avenue through which the divine passes his message to us. It is unfortunate that some of our leaders belong to the school of thought that says that conscience is an expression of feelings of pleasure or pain.
Theabove school of thought tells us that an action is right if it is pleasure-producing and wrong if it is pain-producing. These philosophies belong to the ‘Hedonist School of Ethics’ and are very dangerous to our daily moral life. If conscience is just related to what makes us feel pleasure or pain, then life becomes entirely a matter of what we feel we like or dislike and there is no room left for God or for his will. It was this obnoxious thought that influenced the high level of looting the state’x treasury, abuse of human rights and constant threat to life witnessed in this nation.
A situation in which some state governors rule without conscience, hoodwinking the masses with deceptive slogans and policies bereft of positive impacts becomes an achievement. Few days ago, I could recall, I had a chat with a friend who informed me that there’s great hope for Nigeria to become one of the world’s growing economies. I was happy when he said it and I quickly informed him of my fears, I see domination, intimidation and control. However, we need to keep faith alive! If a politician promises good governance and turns to do otherwise, it’s bad and amounts to political corruption.
This in my opinion is political corruption, which is the anti-thesis to our values, ethics and morality. In the words of Philomena Agudo, “Values are so importantto human beings that, without them, one cannot possibly discover a meaning to life”. In more or less different words, C. Kluckholm expresses the same view as follows, “A selective orientation towards experience, implying deep commitmentor repudiation, which influences the ordering of choices between possible alternatives in action”.
Political corruption is a social problem found in various degrees and forms in most primitive societies. It is a characteristic of life bereft of morality. It is endemic in both authoritarian and party systems of government. For James C. Scott, political corruption “must be understood as a regular, repetitive and integral part of the operation of most political systems”. I am of the view that this phenomenon is more prevalent in developing countries than the developed ones.
Political corruption is the practice of politics without morality. What can we say then, if criminals rule as governors, ex-convicts are in various positions of integrity and authority? In Nigeria, a governor who tells a lot of lies on AIT and Channels TV, loots state treasury to influence people, can win an award of any type. Thieves are given places and titles of honour in the churches, mosques and in the society; integrity goes for a pittance. In this country, there is nothing money cannot do. The way both opposition and ruling parties worship and kill for money is a thing that threatens the interest of the common man.
The naïve voice of a mediocre in leadership who, nevertheless, is not willing to abide by the true political philosophy of “the common good”, which in the words of Matthew Hassan Kukah, “The common good makes being a spectator an act of treasury to (one’s) community…No one can remain indifferent to affairs that affect the welfare of (one’s) community”.
David Knostant described ‘the common good’ as “something that many people will find familiar but may not have had a name for”. David Knostant’s statement is informed by the fact that humanity ought to know what is right and wrong. Though it is obvious that there are leaders whose purpose of leadership isbereft of “the common good”. The ancient Romans variously called it ‘bonumCommune’, ‘utilitas’ communis’ while the Germans named it, Gemeinwohl or‘Gemeingut’ which is to say that the reality was known to them. The greatquestion today is where is the reality of this in our nation Nigeria? Where isthe trace of this in our various states?
It should be noted that ‘the common good’ isfor the well-being of human beings living together in so far as they aremembers of a concrete human society, family, association etc. It was consequentupon the above that the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales(CBCEW) warns, “If democracy is not to become a democratic tyranny in which themajority oppresses the minority, it is necessary for the public to have anunderstanding of the common good and the concepts that underlies it”. This isthe bottom line! Democracy in some of our states is the practice of oppression,humiliation and suppression of opposition who are in minority.
Thatreminds me; in fact Nigeria’s independence was only one year old when theleader of opposition (late chief Obafemi Awolowo) in the Federal House ofRepresentatives called the attention of the government to the declining moralsof the country. He maintained that the outstanding feature of Nigeria was adangerous decline in moral values, whereby honesty was at discount and therewas a high premium on corruption and mediocrity. “Prophet” Obafemi Awolowo wasprognosticating on the future of our nation which today is highly conspicuousthat great minds are asking, where are our values, morals and consciences?