By political culture, we mean the entrenched societal way of
life of a people and their socio-political beliefs. The
political state of a human society, must be dynamic, not
static not retrogressive.
Since the life of a society is incomplete without societal
institutions, there must be a government that should
regulate the all-round development of the state.
For there to be continuity and change, political parties
must exist to contest for power through general elections.
Election success does not necessarily guarantee good
governance. Japanese, Indian and Nigerian politics, economic
and cultural traits are subjects for my intensive
sociological appraisals. The three play like a mariachi
band.
India is one of the world’s democratic states. Since 1947,
corruption, the cast system and Maharaja Mentality have
hindered India’s progress. India could have done much
better, if corruption were minimized.
Nigeria has the capacity for growth and development.
However, the country has not been well-run as governments
promise heaven and earth, but do not deliver.
As a result, Nigeria’s abundant, talented human resources
have not been deployed properly. The gains from natural
resources are regularly squandered, stolen, or
misappropriated.
The most debilitating factor in Nigerian social life is our
inability to objectively and dispassionately embrace the
truth about our short-comings. The press is under pressure,
as a result of poor salaries and so, panders to publicity
seeking politicians. This has become a political culture
that seems irredeemable.
General Ibrahim Babangida has disclosed that the press did
push him to say unpleasant things about General Olusegun
Obasanjo, during his recent birthday interaction with the
press. Those purchasable libertines, especially the ones on
the take, do avoid publishing certain articles, just to
please the powers-that-be.
Some Nigerian journalists tell our leaders that which they
think the leaders would like to hear and they cut pet names
for the destroyers of Nigeria. In a political culture, in
which the press collaborates covertly of overtly with the
ruling elite, the latter feel comfortable to carry on
business as usual.
People, who point out ways to societal progress and make
rational, solid suggestions are ignored and are considered
trouble-makers at secret government meetings and are
ostracized. Evidence abound. Post-press conference envelops
are routinely distributed and thankfully accepted. As the
press loses its informed watch-men to the other side, the
media windows get closed.
The rot deepens. In Nigeria, reactions to sad events become
opportunities to address the media and show off. We love to
cry over spilt milk!
One of the most demonizing legacies of colonial rule is that
it etched indelible marks in the minds of ex-colonials that
they must acquire wealth by hook or crook .That they must
fight and die for political office, even if such an aspirant
knows very well that he or she has neither the relevant
knowledge and experience in the political post, he or she
seeks.
In most cases, amateur political neophytes “succeed” in
getting appointed, elected, or rigged into office. Then, the
disaster of inability, incapacity and failure become real.
In Japan, as a result of their ingrained ethos of honour,
self-respect, self-knowledge and self-restraint, all
dominated by the power of shame, a Japanese leader, will, on
his own, tender his resignation, if it becomes obvious that
he has become overwhelmed by the requirements of his office.
This is why the Japanese have had six governments in five
years. Hatano (1982; Holloway 1988) found that the Japanese
political culture may be characterized by what they termed
belief-in-effort.
The Japanese believe in the supreme importance of effort as
a determinant of intellectual achievement and
effort-dependent optimism. They uphold the distribution of
the fruits of labour, which shapes their social justice
system.(Robert J. Sternberg)
In Nigeria, only very few Ministers have ever resigned in
acknowledgement of failure in government. I was very proud
of a Minister from Rivers State, who left the Obasanjo
government on principle! He has been my soul-mate ever
since.
As a result of their over-stay in government and for failure
to govern well, some Nigerian leaders were removed from
office, in circumstances of utmost cruelty. Many government
officials have been jailed or dismissed from office,
discredited in circumstances associated with the fruits of
retributive justice.
What is always written in marble is the opprobrium with
which the Nigerian people treat those disgraced officials
and how they neither forgive nor forget them. This negative
remembrance will last as the centuries hurry by.
Two weeks ago in India, a man born of a woman, with a social
conscience and who had conquered the spirit of fear about
possible government repression, went on hunger strike to
draw the attention of Indians and the world, to the rampant
corruption in India.
He found support among upright people, who gave him moral
support. On the 13th day of his self-imposed hunger strike,
the government acceded to his demands and passed the
necessary legislation to legally address the issue of
corruption in India.
Citizen Anna Hazare had demanded that there should be laws
that would enable the people to recall non-performing
politicians and government officials and the right to reject
bad rulers.
Hazares’ actions led to one hundred amendments of existing
laws in India.. His demands will set for a formidable
political struggle between legislators and the people of
India. Anna Hazare has said that” The power of the people is
greater that of Parliament”. This will be the mantra for the
coming political struggles world-wide.
Indian wise men have long admonished the race” to know the
nature of thought. One, who knows the nature of thinking,
becomes endowed with intelligence and all the advantages of
being intelligent. He wavers not and lives in an unwavering
world; he becomes free of sorrow”
Anna Hazare had imbibed this world-view. He used speech and
language in an evocative manner to address issues of
national concerns in Indian political life; corruption and
deficiencies in legislation.
Like Gandhi, his application of intelligence “could be
viewed within taxonomy of metaphors.” (Bibhu D Baral and
J.P. Das). Many intelligent Indians have absorbed concepts
of intelligence from the classical literatures of India,
written in Sanskrit. Zimmer in his 1951 studies of the
Sanskrit described extensively Indian Philosophical and
Psychological Views of Intelligence.
So, Japanese Shintoism and Indian Sanskrit have shaped the
political and ethical cultures of both societies.
Pray, what shapes the Nigerian political culture? It is
shaped by tribal vulgarism, ethnic preferences, and the
British colonial legacy of “agbata eke”, opportunism, ego-
defence, conservatism, misplaced conscience and the lack of
advanced thinkers.
If Anna Hazare were a Nigerian, the man would have died of
hunger and only a very few people would see the heroism in
his protest.
Recently, we were given a laughable lecture about why “some
citizens are above the law “and so, cannot be made to
account for their corrupt tendencies. This traditional way
of thought, must make way for modernism in Nigeria.
Ideally, no one should be above the law. However, former
Nigerian Heads of State, who had access to intelligence
reports about fellow politicians, are feared. This makes
them to be immune from damaging disclosures because, they
too, can fight back.
Young Nigerians are beginning to ask why their country is
uninhabitable and are thereby forced to move to other lands,
in humiliating circumstances? They point at former leaders,
after being told of how they squandered their fortune and
future.
As Comus wrote, “All the swains that there abide
With jigs and rural dance resort; we shall catch them at
their sport,
And our sudden coming there
Will double all their mirth and cheer”
In future, Nigerians will discuss these issues in great
details, aided by the Freedom of Information Act.
Since most politicians love to be remembered, their legacies
will be fraught with curses, defamation and scorn because
they abducted our commonwealth with impunity.
Nigerian life is” a network of contrasts- heaven and hell,
light and darkness, good and evil, love and hate, humility
and pride, creation and destruction. The greatest contrast
is between Christ and Satan”, who, in Nigeria, seems to “
combine , on a grand scale, the heroic energy, endurance and
resources of the traditional Lucifer and the traditional
epic hero, no being less grand could be the adversary of
God.” ( Douglas Bush).
But he was defeated on the cross by the Blood of Jesus, the
Christ, who “broke the gates of hell and cut the bars of
iron in two.”
Yet, satan’s demonic influence is pushing the frontiers of
debauchery in Nigeria and the world. In Nigeria, there are
kidnapping, corruption, Godlessness, self-adoration,
self-promotion, haughtiness, evil-mindedness and the
preponderance of negativism.
Out there, we have rebellions, wars (televised) and the
reign of burnt-out artists, nude singers and half-dressed
film “stars,” the preponderance of mass culture hits as well
as the hip hop and sex culture. The love for scandals, both
real and contrived are all the unmistakable signs of the
END-TIME.
As we seek genuinely to transform Nigeria, we must
understand the retrogressive forces at work from both within
and especially from outside Nigeria.
Those, who had predicted that Nigeria would disintegrate,
are bending double to cause fear, dislocation of the
territorial integrity and political independence of Nigeria.
They will fail.
Yet, they parade themselves as friends of Nigeria and we
naively believe their antics. They are damned!
I listen to the ocean, thunder, lightning, the winds,
earthquakes, and the early morning songs of birds, all
informing me about what awaits the party of the anti-christ
in this Era of the Gentiles, Atonement and the Brotherhood
of man.
The grand scope and actions of fallen angels are unfolding
in brutal rhythm and brutal peculiarity, sometime to the
point of denying the divinity of man. This peculiarity
yields to the Virgilian tradition, but more suitably, this
peculiarity approximates to Dante’s narratives.
In the televised wars in the Middle East and North Africa,
man’s inhumanity to man has been laid bare. Cruelty of the
most shocking types has been recorded. No side is free from
inglorious acts, although the “truth” is made to reside on
one side.
The United Nations in passing Resolution 1973, appeared to
have inadvertently lost sight of its historical, diplomatic
success in November, 1956, when “it created the United
Nations Emergency Force, (UNEF), as an emergency measure to
restore order in the Middle East, after a dispute between
Israel and Egypt led to an Israeli invasion of Egypt,
supported by Great Britain and France. The Security Council
had met on October 30 to consider a resolution calling for a
ceasefire, but failed as a result of vetoes by France and
Britain. Hence, an emergency session of the General Assembly
met on the night of November 1-2 and approved by a large
majority, a resolution calling for a ceasefire. The fighting
continued and in another night meeting, the Assembly adopted
a proposal for a United Nations international force
presented by Canada. The plan specified that members of the
UNEF would be recruited from among nations, exclusive of the
five members of the Security Council. The force was directly
responsible to the United Nations, a decision, which gave
the UNEF the distinction of being the first genuine
international police force in history. It consisted of
volunteer troops from Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Denmark,
Finland, India, Indonesia, Norway. Sweden and Yugoslavia;
troops from other nations were placed on stand-by call. The
UN peace-keeping force ended the fight on November 6,
Britain and France suspended military action and Israel
withdrew its troops.” The New Universal Library, page 105.
I think that if the United Nations Emergency Force had been
sent very early into Libya, to erect a buffer between the
rebels and Kaddafi forces, a ceasefire would have been made
to hold. There would have been a call on Kaddafi to step
aside, hold elections and relinquished power.
If Kaddafi refused, then all the member-states of the United
Nations would have been persuaded to break diplomatic,
consular and economic relations with Libya.
Within six months, the Kaddafi regime would have crumble or
would have existed on in name. This type of diplomatic
offensive, should be the subject of a United Nations
Resolution to be discussed as from September 10, 2011. The
UN must re-affirm that it upholds the provisions of Article
2(4) and Article 2(7) of the UN Charter.
Perhaps Colonel Kaddafi would have respected the
intervention of the UNEF rather than that of NATO.
After watching the nanny, who was allegedly scalded by the
wife of Hannibal Kaddafi and after recalling the incident of
the Saudi Madame, who stuck nails into the body of her
Indonesian house girl and the atrocities of the Arab
Jihadists and slave traders in Africa, I now associate some
members of the Arab ruling class with mawkish acts of
degeneracy.
The “Solomonic” vision of the new world order is that it
seems to play out in “an elevated and ritualistic tone and
movement, which will support their theme with a stylistic
and rhythmical assurance,” of democracies in the world.
Of course there is an element of “the grandeur of
generality” that will prove unrealizable, after the war
efforts and the peace process end.. Why must nations fight,
destroy and then make peace?
Imagine where Germany would have been, if Hitlerism had not
intervened and diverted the attention of one of the most
intelligent race on earth to destroy and be destroyed? I
know them very well.
In Japan, leaders do not steal and challenge any court to
try them. They leave office with a bow. Some have even
committed suicide. Shintoism may be responsible for the
Japanese high sense of shame. The Indians are religious and
understand the disastrous consequences of KARMA.
A highly developed status of the soul. Is the reason, why if
a Japanese government fails, the leader promptly resigns. He
does not sit-tight; punish the people with inaction,
ineffectiveness, and do-littleness.
One would pray that the people in all countries do not
forcibly remove their leaders, but use constitutional means
to effect such changes. In the long run, it is the people,
who would lose if their cities are bombarded, resulting in
no food, no water and no electricity. The end result is
death, misery and social dislocation.
In Libya, the hospitals, which provide succor to the
injured, would take time to be re-built and re-equipped.
In the last thirty years, we have advocated that every state
in Nigeria should have state-of-the art hospitals in. Taking
sick Nigerians to foreign hospitals is a failure of social
policy.
I was very ashamed, last week, when the United Nations
requested that all those injured persons in the UN Abuja
bomb blast be sent to South Africa! I wonder if you felt the
same pangs of humiliation.
The UN disagreed with South Africa’s non-recognition of the
Libyan rebels, but had no choice in seeking better medical
attention for the wounded.
Next time, we seek to engage in diplomatic arguments with
South Africa, their representatives will chuckle.
There is need to investigate the psychology of human
intelligence that regularly cries over spilt milk, never
exhaustively discusses national problems with knowledgeable
citizens, only to lament profusely, when that which could
have been forestalled happens.
Since the October 1, 2010 incident as well as other untoward
security events in the country, no one has investigated
thoroughly and briefed the nation.
How can we know the truth beyond sympathetic condolences,
promises to “fish out” the perpetrators and other such
homilies that do not help our concerns?
The security agencies must be adequately equipped to do
their work. Issues concerning social justice, good
governance, finding out the grievances of political
mal-contents, assuaging the fears of the dispossessed, all
these must go into the package for reconciliation, fruitful
participation of every citizen in the governance of the
country, which will enhance peaceful co-existence.
We must begin to adopt a civic culture of humaneness based
on healthy biological influences. The ecology of human
development in Nigeria is hard to understand.
Thinking and reasoning could evolve for us, dynamic systems
as tools for analyzing our societal behaviour and judgment.
How it is that impunity, capriciousness and opportunism
dominate our values as a people, in spite of our
religiousity?
Very often, I wonder what happened to the TEN COMMANDMENTS,
the preaching at the mosques and churches, the religious
doctrines that should mould humanists par excellence.
In Nigeria, it seems that the quest for ill-gotten gains
have diluted our redemption through Christ. In Western
Europe and America, where our political cultural habits are
formed, they have been mutilated by the hip hop culture and
the debauchery associated with sex, same-sex marriages and
other social infirmities.
Skeptical and scientific rationalism have dulled their
spiritual life. In these END-TIMES, the Cherubs and the
Seraphs send winds, rain, earthquakes to territories, which
give a semblance of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Cambridge Platonists believed in the philosophy of
rational faith and order. “The traditional orthodoxy was
shaped in some characteristically Miltonic ways.”
The Second fall of Man will be accelerated by the agents of
the anti-christ, who now spread hatred amongst brethren,
encouraging rebellion and causing social dislocation in this
Era of the Gentiles, Atonement and the Brotherhood of Man.
Love for wars has become a fact of universal experience. The
rational dignity of man is fast eroding as human carcasses
litter the streets of Iraq, Libya and Syria.
The Almighty God, who decreed that “You shall not kill,” is
now angered by these acts of extreme wickedness. The author
of Aeropagitica acknowledged “ the weakness of human reason
and will, and the need of humility, obedience and divine
grace”
In the last three years, there have been shakings of the
earth, in circumstances that make it clear that divine grace
is being limited in amounts and benevolence.
Modern media reportage plays down the role of the Sovereign
Deity in contemporary world affairs, but it is very real.
The media would make short work of such a creed, but Science
can only assist man to the extent of human intelligence and
reason.” God is watching us from a distance”.
In spite of our mystical, psychic, clairvoyance and medium
prowess, the Divine Order will always prevail.
India, Thailand, Japan still make the Creator of the
Universe angry by worshipping idols. Nigerians, who do not
act in obedience to Divine injunctions, will face occasional
degradation, each time HE turns away from us.
The Japanese former Prime Minister has given way to Mr. Y.
Noda.There is nothing shameful about resigning from a
political office, if circumstances get beyond control. It is
fraudulent not to.
The Indian Parliament acted honourably by acceding to the
constructive requests of Mr. Anna Hazare. It would have been
counter-productive if the Indian Government had called out
the troops to shoot innocent civilians.
The above must be the new trend in world politics.
The armed forces, the police and other security agencies
should never kill their compatriots because people have
risen against incompetent governments. In future, they and
the government officials they seek to protect will be
prosecuted. Egypt has set the tone.
In Europe and America, politicians resign from office, if
they are dissatisfied with the way the country is run by the
government. In Africa, leaders sit-tight, even when they
have failed to govern well.
Full and impressive orotund speeches, delivered from
orographic heights, will earn some applause but they do not
build nor transform a state.
In spite of all the well-crafted speeches by government,
which permitted hopes of a radical transformation of the
Nigerian state, I am still lighting candles, drinking from
my well, fuelling my generator and buying food at
extortionate prices, one year and a hundred days into the
new dispensation. I am still cautiously optimistic that the
transformation train will take off soon.
Professor Dr. Emmanuel Omoh Esiemokhai, a Writer and
Academic, is the Academic Chancellor, BOSAS INTERNATIONAL
LAW BUREAU, Abuja, Nigeria.
Published
September 5th, 2011
