As a young and fresh student offering the subject "government" in the prestigious Hope Waddel Training Institution, Calabar, I was made to understand that the subject government, could be seen from three broad perspectives. They are:
(1) As an academic field of study
(2) As an institution of the state &
(3)As an act of governance.
For obvious reasons, I won't dwell on their definitions because they are self explanatory, even to the dullest of skulls.
For the benefits of this write up, we'll have a working definition of the concept government. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, government is defined as the " Organization, machinery or agency through which a political derives authority and performs functions and which is usually classified according to the distribution of power within it".
It also defines it as the complex of political institutions, laws and customs through which the function of governing is carried out. Finally, it is the body of persons that constitutes the authority of a political unit or organization.
From the definitions above, we can that in a nutshell, it is a group of people who control and make decisions for a country, state etc.
REASONS FOR GOVERNMENT:
One cannot actually talk about the need for government without talking about the works of the Socratic philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle.
The both philosophers agreed to the fact that the self insufficiency of man in his natural state made it possible for men to come together to form the state in order for them to over come their inadequacies and insufficiencies. Thus, the urge to meet man's basic needs propelled the formation of the state.
Apart from the Socratic philosophers, the philosophers called the Renaissance philosophers also commented extensively on the necessity of government. Thinkers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes and J. J.
Rousseau among others fall under this group. They are also known as the social contractarian philosophers.
According to the Hobbesian theory, life in the state of nature was short, nasty, brutish and solitary. It was a state characterized by perpetual war and man was in a continuous state of war with his neighbour. Might was right.
Thus, in order to bring about a lasting peace, all men had to surrender their individual executive power to a new body of men formed to oversee the affairs of all men in the state of nature. Thus the Leviathan (government) came to be.
THE IMPORTANCE OF GOVERNMENT:
From the foregoing, it can be seen that the importance of government can't be overemphasized. In summary, I will quote Aristotle's wordings to crown it all.
" for he that founded the state (government) is the greatest of beneficiaries, for man, when perfected is the best of animals, but when separated from law and justice, is the worst of all". With this we can see how important the government is to any set of people.
OKOBO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA:
Okobo LGA is one of the lucky LGAs mentioned in the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended. Yes, lucky, because other persons agitating for LGAs haven't been able to get it. For every LGA created, there are compelling factors. They are the
(1) Letter (2) Spirit. The letter constitute the paper on which it is written, while the spirit involve the idea, reasons and others for its agitation. Most often than not, the letter aspect is being achieved, while the spirit is being defeated.
OKOBO LGA AND DEVELOPMENT:
Before I venture into this, I will like to define what development means in its simplest term. The abovementioned dictionary defined development as " the act or process of growing or causing something to grow or become larger or more advanced". It further defines it as the "act or process of creating over a period of time".
Thus, it must be conscious, calculated, concerted, programmed and deliberate. This is opposed of it occurring accidentally and instantly.
Okobo LGA has been one "blessed" with incapable, ineptitude, and insensitive leadership. The primary purposes why LGAs were being created have been defeated in Okobo.
If many years after its creation, the LGA still wears the toga of a glorified village, and the vistages of ruralities are still found everywhere, it only points to the fact that the LGA has been sucked dry by the political buccaneers masquerading as leaders. And the LGA crying for restoration.
Roads leading to most of the villages are impassable, houses scattered here and there are mostly thatched, and most of the young men have taken to Okada riding. This shows nothing but governments bereft of ideas on how to turn the fortune of the LGA around.
If our forebears that agitated for the creation of the LGA should see what is going on in the LGA now, I swear, they will be taken over by tears because what is happening now was the last envisaged by them. Incompetence now walks on two legs in the LGA.
There has never been a time that Okobo yearns for quality leadership than now and the past administration headed by Rt. Hon. Princess Felicia Bassey.
It. Pains me that the leaders of Okobo are still quiet over her kind of leadership and even gave her a pat on the back by rewarding her for her ineptitude leadership by voting her into the AKHA. Hers was a government that has nothing to show for the huge sum of money that accrued to the LGA during her reigns.
It was a government characterised by squander mania. Thus, there was no concious efforts on her part to develop the LGA, I stand to be corrected though.
The government heads by Hon. Ubuo is another puppet government. Can the government really boast of anything to show for the funds collected since its inception? Can the Transition chairman in all sincerity to himself, beat his chest and say " yes, I have done well for the Okobo people"?.
It pains me that Okobo is still a far cry from what a local government should look like. The leaders are so wicked that they even find it difficult to build a decent Secretariat block. Even among thieves, there are honest men. They should look into the state of the structure and see why they have to give it a face lift.
Those that failed in their individual lives or without administrative acumen shouldn't be allowed to oversee the affairs of the LGA anymore. We need to assess those coming to lead us in all ramifications before voting for them.
Those that have failed in their private lives, be it, in business, marriage, relationship, parental responsibility to their children, etc must really be rejected by the electorates.
Winning and excellence are not gotten by accident, they come as a result of a conscious effort by the doers. One that has failed in his or private life can't be a good public administrator.
LET'S THINK TWICE THE PEOPLE OF OKOBO LGA.
ATAI, J. JOHN
CONVENER,
NEW OKOBO MOVEMENT (N.O.M.)
WRITES FROM
UDUNG AFFIANG, ATAK-ORO.
OKOBO LGA.
08102433538
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