Social contract is a political theory that is believed to
have given birth to a state as an institution. According to the social contract
theory, individuals came together and agreed to submit their freedom to use of
their power and conscience to an institution called the state, with the
agreement that their remaining rights will be protected by the state. The
theory went further to say that such individuals have the right to withdraw
from that contract if the state fails to protect their rights.
With this contract, individuals came together in an
organized way, elected among them the most accepted people and submitted their
freedoms to them to manage on their behalf. The right to kill was exclusively
in the hands of the state while in turn the state will ensure that no one is
unjustly killed. The state will decide what is wrong or right; all for the
interest of those individuals who have submitted their rights to the state
while in turn the individuals will obey the decisions of the state.
Now let’s come to the Nigerian situation, on what basis is
the Nigerian state founded, what contract exist between the government and the
people, does the state see itself as an institution created to protect the
rights of it citizens? A capital NO will be my candid answer. Of course how can I say yes in a situation where elected politicians parade
themselves like C.E.O’s of some multinational firms and carry out the affairs
of the state as if it was their private property somewhere in Dubai or a
Tropicana resort in the Caribbean Island. In fact, they are often times
worshiped like the gods of the ancient kingdoms.
When an elected official constructs a kilometer of road, he
sees it as his gift or favour to the people rather than see it as performing a
duty he has been elected to perform. When N50 is used to construct a bole hole,
N100 will be used for the ceremony to commission it. A country with over 160
million people has just about 400 thousand police officers and yet many of the police officers are assigned to serve as ‘personal bodyguards’ or escort to
the rich and their families, leaving the poor helpless while the politicians go
around in convoys whose length can only be compared to a moving train.
The law which should be the hope of the poor only serves as
a cane in the hand of the politicians to whip anyone who tries to question its
action or inaction. Our law can easily be likened to a cobweb which only has
the capacity to stop small and weak insects leaving the strong ones at liberty
to do as they wish.
I think this is not
how it should be, so we need to renegotiate this contract. Come 2015, we should
enter into contract only with those who are ready to keep to the terms of the
contract; please let’s not sell our conscience and enslave our Rights.
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