By Prof. Protus Nathan Uzorma
According to Martin Luther King Jr., “Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him that it is right.”
Man is a moral being, unique in creation possessing higher powers. His conduct is controlled by thoughts and emotions, by desires and intensions. His actions become the subject of his own and of other men’s criticism. These actions may be judged good or bad, praiseworthy or blameworthy, right or wrong. In the light of the above man is termed a ‘moral being’. Man is not just an animal, he is a person who can choose what he will do and who is in some way responsible for his actions. This is exactly what Ethics (which is derived from the Greek word Ethos (meaning conduct or way of life) is all about.
Ethical science seeks to examine conduct and to deliberate on correct modes of conduct. Down the centuries man has speculated about what constitutes “the good life.” Socrates for example maintained that education is the secret of virtue for knowledge according to him is virtue, this was his famous dictum. The Epicureans, on their own, regarded the pursuant of pleasure and the avoidance of pain as the only worthwhile aim in life.
Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe maintained that education constitute more than learning when he said, “By education I do not mean simply learning, I mean…Training…the head, hand and the heart…Training in mind, in morals and in hand that helps make one socially efficient”.
In my term, if people are denied of books, I mean the right type of books that could help in molding them morally; the society suffers from academic malnutrition, starvation, moral atrophy and depravity. Such a society will produce a morally depraved leader, one without conscience, who on the other hand, will not allow his life to be guided by same. Like the sayings of Juan Aries, “I am free when I accept the fact that my life should be ruled by conscience”.
Those leaders who disobey their consciences know without being told that they formulate new premises for life everyday which will in turn hunt them. Our conscience is an avenue through which the divine passes his message to us. It is unfortunate that some of our leaders belong to the school of thought which says that conscience is an expression of feelings of pleasure or pain.
The above school of thought tells us that an action is right if it is pleasure-producing and wrong if it is pain-producing. These philosophies belong to the ‘Hedonist School of Ethics’ and are very dangerous to our daily moral life.
If conscience is just related to what makes us feel pleasure or pain, then life becomes entirely a matter of what we feel we like or dislike and there is no room left for God or for his will. It was this obnoxious thought that influenced the high level of looting the state treasury, abuse of human right and constant threat to life witnessed in our political sphere.
Aristotle in Book 5 of his (Nicomachean) Ethics[i] noted that “equity and justice are neither absolutely identical nor generically different”. Equity for him is superior to legal justice but not to justice as being a different genus. “Thus, justice and equity coincide, and although both are good, equity is superior. What causes the difficulty is the fact that equity is just but not what is legally just: It is a rectification of legal justice”. Aristotle further defined an equitable man, (a virtuous elite, an equitable politician and political office holder aspirant) as, “one who chooses and does equitable acts, and is not duly insistent upon his rights, but accepts less than his share, although he has the law on his side. Such a disposition is equity”. By rectificatory justice, Aristotle meant remedying an inequitable division between two parties by means of a sort of arithmetical progression- the mean relative to us (or to a particular situation and circumstance). Consequently, he ruled that “in arithmetical proportion the equal is a mean between the greater and the less”.
Equity is an inter-human concept; it is a disposition that corrects anomalies or wrong situations. Consequently, a just man is one who does and prefers balanced acts, knowing his rights but does not insist on it; instead, gives in to the mean, to what is virtuous at a particular instance- The mean relative to us. Equity thus is an objective and realistic concept that is employed or sought for; for the correction, rectification or remedying of an inequitable sharing between or among parties. Without equity as rectificatory than distributive justice, (which favours merits and rights, survival of the fittest and might is right), concentration of goodies will be overloaded or excess in some places while rare and deficient in others.
In Aesop’s fables, the philosopher (Aesop) told a story of the lion and the wild Ass thus, “A lion and a wild ass went out hunting together, the latter was to run down the prey buy his superior speed, and the former would then come up and dispatch it. They met with great success, and when it came to sharing the spoil the lion divided it all into three equal portions. ‘I will take the first’. Said he, ‘because I am king of the beasts; I will also take the second, because as your partner, I am entitled to half of what remains, and as for the third-well, unless you give it up to me and take yourself off pretty quick, the third, believe me, will make you feel very sorry for yourself”.
The above story by Aesop however reflects the true position of how political power is shared in Imo State. Brief historical cum political inference shall justify my assertions.
The concept and reality of power-sharing and equity charter, is not an Imo State problem alone, it is universal amongst the entire States of the Federation; it is a National and Federal trend and trait. In the Federal level, from October 1, 1960-1966, 1979-1983, 1992-1993, 1999-2007, 2007-2011, 2011-2015, 2015 – 2019, and 2019-2023 the Nigerian Presidency, Vice Presidency, Senate Presidency as well as the Speaker House of Representatives, etc., have been rotated amongst the component socio-political divisions in the country.
Such power sharing formula and charter has also existed in Imo State since the inception of democracy in 1979-1983, which had polarised Imo State into 3 political segments for sharing-power among the 3 arms of government. The 3 political units: Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe have had as Governors: 1979-1983 (Okigwe Zone), 1992-1993 (Owerri Zone), 1999-2003; 2003-2007 (Orlu Zone), 2007-2011 (Okigwe Zone) and 2011-2015 (Orlu Zone) 2015 – 2019 (Orlu zone), 2019 – January 2020 (Owerri zone), from 2020 – 2024 and probably 2027 (Orlu zone). A rundown of this tenure-leaderships shows that for these 29 years of democratic governance in the State, Okigwe Zone has ruled 8/30, Owerri 2 ½ /30 and Orlu 20/30. This shows that Okigwe zone has headed Imo State Government for 36% of the duration so far past and present, Owerri 9 ½ % and Orlu for 75% or more respectively. Even a blind man who has no auditory impediments or vice versa would see, hear and observe the obvious disparity and inequality in the power-shifts. It is likened to the Nigerian 64 years of self-rule, which had the Northern Nigeria heading the Federal Government for many years and the Southern Nigeria for less number of years.
In these regimes, power-sharing were accordingly slated amidst the 3 arms of government in the State. 1979-1983: Chief Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe (Governor, Okigwe Zone), Chief Amahala (Deputy Governor) and Dr Okechukwu Okibedi (IMHA Speaker, Orlu Zone). This power-sharing model was inaugural for the latter 3 senatorial zones though Imo, Abia and parts of the today Ebonyi State made up the then Imo State; as Owerri, Aba, Umuahia, Okigwe, Orlu, Afikpo, were provincial headquarters.
This power-sharing model returned during the 1992-1993 short-lived civilian government of Chief Evan Enwerem (Governor, Owerri Zone), Dr Douglas Acholonu (Deputy Governor, Orlu Zone) and Hon Maxwell Duru (IMHA Speaker, Okigwe). At the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, Chief Achike Udenwa ruled from 1999- 2007 (Governor, Orlu Zone), Chief Ebere Udeagu (Deputy Governor, Okigwe Zone) and Hon Leo Agwuocha Chukwukadibia (IMHA Speaker, Owerri Zone). In 2007, the Imo State Governorship went to Chief Ikedi Godson Ohakim (Governor, Okigwe Zone), Dr Mrs Ada Okwuonu (Deputy Governor, Owerri Zone) and Hon Goodluck Nana Opiah (IMHA Speaker, Orlu Zone). (2011-2015), produced Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha (Governor, Orlu Zone), Chief Jude Agbaso/Prince Eze Madumere (Deputy Governors, Owerri Zone) and Hon Benjamin Uwajumogu (IMHA Speaker, Okigwe Zone). 2015 to 2019 Gov. Rochas continued with Prince Madumere as his deputy while Rt. Hon. Acho Ihem (Okigwe zone) was the speaker. In 2019 to 2023 and 2024, the same process of zoning was maintained.