CIVIL NON COOPERATION [DISOBEDIENCE]

CIVIL NON COOPERATION [DISOBEDIENCE]….  AN ARTICLE OF FAITH

There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.

Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

All over the world, even in the largest democracies and economies, the government and the people are bound to disagree over policy, law, moral, crime and a plethora of other societal oddities. Oddities’ depending on whose ox is gored. In respect of this People have evolved several systems through which they communicate disapproval of these ‘oddities’ including CRIMINAL SYNDICALISM, RADICAL ADVOCACY, VIOLENT PROTESTS, GUERRILLA WARFARE, TERRORISM, MILITANCY AND CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE.

One of the accounts propounded by John Rawls believes that “Civil disobedience is a public, non-violent and conscientious breach of law undertaken with the aim of bringing about a change in laws or government policies. On this account, the persons who practice civil disobedience are willing to accept the legal consequences of their actions, as this shows their fidelity to the rule of law”.

 Section 14 (1)(2) of the Nigerian constitution states that ‘it is hereby accordingly declared that sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this constitution derives all its power and authority’. It goes on from section 14 to 24 to declare the FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVES AND DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY and the DUTIES of the citizens, which includes the fact that every citizen ‘shall abide by this constitution’. A careful reading of these sections shows clearly that the government is not abiding by its objective which then is tantamount to disobedience of the constitution.

As the saying goes, there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things’, however the time has come for Nigerians to learn how to help Government deliver on its objectives. From time to time we the people i.e the employers’ of government must exercise our rights as the true custodians of power to bend the will of government through the instrumentality of Civil disobedience.

Civil disobedience, does not involve any acts of violence, it is just intentionally refusing to conform to a wrong status quo. Martin Luther king and the black civil rights activists did it by marching on Washington, Mohandas Gandhi did it by refusing to eat, pay taxes or obey certain laws, Nelson Mandela had to spend about 29 years in prison to resist the evil of apartheid. We all have a moral role to play in deciding how we would be governed.

Ghandi went further to state that “Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has become lawless or corrupt. And a citizen who barters with such a state shares in its corruption and lawlessness...Every citizen is responsible for every act of his government...There is only one sovereign remedy, namely, non-violent non-cooperation.”

Between civil disobedience and other identified means of communicating dissatisfaction with status quo, I pray the government chooses/obliges the former for its own good. For like it or not, the people are dissatisfied, they only search the appropriate means by which to communicate this dissatisfaction.

God bless Nigeria.