THE HOLINESS OF POLITICAL MANDATE
Since the dawn of civilization, human beings have always ascribed royalty to divinity. From the Egyptians to the Greeks, the Arabians, the Turks, the Russians, the French, the English and all the way to the Americans of millennium age and wonder, the position of state leadership has a toga of divine authority invested in it, concretized in the famous latin maxim “Vox Populi, Vox Dei”, that is the voice of the people is the voice of God. This general belief must have emanated from the simple fact that it takes divine intercession or influence to make a multitude listen to and be ready to follow the lead of another person, just the way the whole universe seems to be under the control of supreme divinity. Humans, in awe of such authority earned either through valour, talent or family pedigree, readily give up their individuality for the society and in this way a King or Queen becomes an embodiment of divine authority and therefore worthy of obedience.
In democracy, the position of leadership as being of divine origin is expressed through the process of election. The prelude to general election gives the society the opportunity to decide between two opposite choices afforded by the divine, where two opposing candidates from separate political parties offer their pledge of service to the people. Based on campaign promises and antecedent of such aspirants, on the Election Day the people of the society are given a divine blank cheque to cash in the form of their vote and whoever they cast their votes for and emerge as winner will be their divine representative for the duration of his or her term. Further to this, on the inauguration day, the elected official is sworn on oath to pledge his or her service to the people and the society, in the firm belief that such an elected official will be guided by conscience and the fear of oath of office taken.
The beauty of divinity of political mandate is however better seen in the Western countries and other developed economies where they have developed strong institutions over the decades to safeguard the divinity of political authority. It is in such climes that citizens recognise and value their electoral power, knowing they can express their divine destiny via the vote every four years (depending on the term). Thus, where a political aspirant managed to secure this holy mandate at the polls and thereafter mortgage this privilege on frivolous undertakings, he or she will be shown the way out in the next election or even summarily by the aggrieved constituents if his or her transgression is gross and unbearable. This situation of check and balance has brought exponential development to such countries and reduced treasury stealing, commonwealth wastage and pillage to barest minuscule.
In Africa with our democracy still in its fledgling state, political actors tend to abuse this divine authority to serve by using it to amass ill-gotten wealth and oppress the opposition who dares to criticize them. Even though elected state officials get sworn on oath using either the Bible or the Quran, the moment they get to office, this oath is often forgotten and cast aside, while state treasury will be looted and pillaged without conscience or regards to commonwealth. This is responsible for the poor state of African economies because the divine authority that is supposed to have the interest of people at heart is not guided by good conscience and truth. It’s rather a heart ruled by greed, darkness, blind ambition and vengeance — a Satanic authority and fruits of its evil spirit can be seen in the endemic poverty, violence and corruption that continues to imperil our collective destiny.
Ironically, Africans have much reverence for the divine as can be seen in our various ancient cultures and tribes and we once had empires ruled by benevolent authorities with divine attributes. But it seems we have not been able to transition from our patriarchal political culture to democratic political culture with enduring institutions that will safeguard the holiness of political mandate and make it a divine instrument of change and advancement as obtains in other climes. My consolation, however, is that with time and continued evolution of our precious democracy, African people will get to rediscover and value the sacredness of their electoral power and be ready to exercise and assert it in constructive ways that will bring prosperity and development to the Black Continent; shutting the door permanently on retrogressive and satanic politics.
See you soon. Take care of you
WSO
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