It was this situation that made Dr. LawrenceEkpebu to infer, “In office the politicians turned the government treasury intolarge scale private gold mine. To remain in office, they used armed thugs toensure better representation for their political parties and rigged electionsin open day light”. What do you think? A governor within three years is foreverout of penury, with hotels, houses and other related properties here and there.The get-rich propensity has become the watch word of our politicians. People’sconsciences are bought with money to the extent that praise singers are now allover the place singing the glory of some non performing Chief Executives.
SomeChief Executives on their own are all over the media talking about greatprojects their administrations have initiated and concluded. The site wheresome of these projected are situated are still thick forest with local deitiestightly sited.
Thedemocratic process and the quest for human rights find their proper bearing andequilibrium in the common good rightly understood and interpreted by theCatholic Bishop Conference of England and Wales thus, “The proliferation of alleged‘right’ can devalue the very concept. So can the amplification of rightswithout equivalent stress on duties, and without some concept of the commongood to which all have an obligation to contribute”.
The principles of subsidiary and solidarity areregarded as linked with the idea of the common good in our implicit, intimateand inseparable way. On its own part the intimate link between the common goodand the principle of solidarity consists in solidarity understood asinter-dependence being embraced as a moral and social attitude. As John Paul IIputs it, interdependence so understood is solidarity which “is a form andpreserving determination to commit oneself to the common goal, which is to sayto the good of all and of each individual because we are all responsible forall”.
Thefirst civilian administration in Nigeria lasted from the 1st ofOctober, 1960 to January 15th, 1966. This was period of Nigerian’sfirst five years of independence. The government and the destiny of the nationwere in the hands of the politicians. Most of the key positions in thecountry’s public sector were now occupied by Nigerians.
However,it is important to note that political corruption was widespread in Nigeriaduring this phase of the nation’s development. It manifested itself in manyforms and was found in various spheres of the government. This social problemwas so pervasive in the country that Mr. Tokunboh, a former permanent secretaryin the Federal Ministry of Establishment maintained that, “It is not anexaggeration of the tragic events of the years since independence to say thatall efforts to establish a just and efficient administration have beenfrustrated by corruption. The evil exists in every facet of our society. Youbribe to get your child into a school, you pay to secure a job and you alsocontinue to pay in some cases to retain it, you dash the tax officer to avoidpaying taxes; you pay the hospital doctor and nurse to get proper attention;you pay the policeman to evade arrest. This catalogue of shame can continuewithout shame”.
Political corruption that existed in Nigeriaduring the colonial era was significant when compared to what took place duringthe first civilian administration. An expatriate medical doctor who was inNigeria then described the social problem as intolerable when he said, “Tricksbribes and corruption among politicians and government officials were the orderof the day…it was the same fundamentally in every region and in the FederalGovernment in Lagos”. Don’t forget that we are talking about politicalcorruption which in my words is the unlawful use of political or official poweror influence by an official of the government either to enrich himself or furtherhis cause and/or any other person at the expense of the public incontraventions of laws that are in force. The above definition has nothing todo with those of the private sector, but is concerned with the officialcorruption that is going on within the political system.
Today,many in political positions are very ostentations and extravagant. Some liveabove their normal income and are sometimes seen pasting currency notes on theforehand of traditional dancers who entertain and welcome them to their differentconstituencies. A situation where a contractor will bribe his way throughbefore getting a contract is a bugaboo. Today despite the well meaning effortby EFCC, ICPC and other security agencies, political corruption is on the highside.
Moralityin the politics of today is dead and any political leader whose principles ofleadership are bereft of morality ends up a dictator. In his famous book MotherTeresa and Mobutu Sese Seko: The Beautiful and the Ugly, John Odey defines adictator as, “…a person who holds complete and autocratic control of a nationor people in a given circumstance; a person who holds absolute power; a personwho rules absolutely and oppressively; a ruler who has absolute authorityespecially one who has obtained such authority by force or on illegal means; aperson who decides what he wants the people to have and to do, and they can saynothing about it except to carry out his orders, for better for worse; a personwho controls his country as if it were his bedroom; a person who is prepared todo any harm, to commit any atrocity in order to maintain his hold on power”.The above appears to be our present state!
Itis obvious that John Odey understood our depraved morals before giving us thiselaborate and descriptive definition of what is hitherto apparent. In my termdictatorship is associated with a bundle of vices, megalomania and pathologicalruthlessness.
Inthe words of Professor Simon O. Anyanwu, “It is a political aberration which nocountry, nation or people can afford to tolerate on a permanent basis. Being acult and false worship of power, dictatorship is not only immoral but also amoral”.This kind of leadership negates all that political ethics holds as sacred,including a denial of the common good and democracy which we underline as thecentral ideas of political ethics from the Christian point of view.
Whena dictator chief executive takes over power, morality is negated thus he worksto impoverish others and mislead them. He does not obey court injunction. Heputs his interest first and is gratified by same.
He is unjust and reacts tooppositions the way Pentecostals deliverance pastors react to demons. Hisknowledge is bereft of proper sense of justice. Justice according to Aquinas is‘like other virtues, is a habit that is the principle of a good act, it needsto be defined by means of the good act bearing on the matter proper to thevirtue of justice”.
Theproper matter of justice consists of the things that have to do with ourrelationship with other men. St Thomas Aquinas concludes that justice means‘rendering to each one his right’. St. Isidore on the other hand affirms, “Aman is said to be just because he respects the right of others”. Theadministration of a dictator does not have respect for the rights of others. Othis is moral evil!
This (moral evil) in accordance withphilosophical principles of theodicy is evil purposely or consciouslyperpetuated by man on his fellow men. In the description of Reichenbach, moralevil is all the instances of pain and suffering-physically and mentally and allstates of affairs significantly disadvantageous to the organism which arecaused by actions for which a (dictator) human agent can be held morallyblameworthy. It is indeed the case of moral evils according to ProfessorPantaleon that the reality of God is most put to question.
Thereis an order even in the colony of ants. Like the sayings of Brahmana, “Any manmay make a mistake, but none but a fool will continue in it.” St. ThomasAquinas concludes, “When the conscience is purified, the will is strengthened”.Any chief executive should bear in mind that a leader is one who, out ofmadness or goodness volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people forno government can remain stable in an unstable and hungry society.