POLITICS, POLITICIANS AND CHRISTIANITY: A POLITICIAN’S EXPERIENCE

CHAPTER 1
STATE, POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
‘’And the Lord God planted a garden eastward
in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had
formed’’
There is the need to begin this discourse with good understanding of some
concepts within which the main purpose of this book can be explained and
understood. There is the geographical space called the state within which politics
is played or practiced and which inexorably lead to the formation of the
government. From the Biblical stand point Heaven and the Earth are the creation
by God. The world erven if it sprouted out of no known formula; it is the spirit of a
celestial being who commanded the world to come into being. It is believed that
the circumference of the whole world is known to almighty God. Therefore, the
world may have been partitioned among the 8.1 billion inhabitants of the world to
the extent that there may be no unoccupied land to which anybody can make a
claim again. The earth is therefore divided among 195 countries of the world.
Each of the 195 countries have identifiable territories that can be called a State,
Counties or the nations of the world. The created world according to the Bible was
created by God initially without a form and it was void. Then came the garden of
Eden and the creation of rivers, firmament, rocks, grounds, animals and lastly
human being.
From the Biblical interpretation of creation, Garden of Eden can be the first
country of the world with President Adam as the first president of not only that
country but also in the whole world. Upon creation and specifically in the verse 28
of the first Chapter of the book of Genesis, man who was the last to be created
was told to be “fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it”. The resultant
effect of the multiplication is the 8.1 human specie that now populate the 195
UNO recognized nations of the world.
It is also reasonable to posit that the first known human organization is the family.
This is also Biblical as the first known family is that of Adam and Eve and later their
Children, Cain and Abel. It should therefore be assumed that with more
fruitfulness and multiplication there would be many families that must now go
communal from the level of the family. At the small family level there may be no
need for government as it is known today as there could be no need for a law to
be enforced by a coercive authority. After the creation of the garden of Eden as
the state, further creation of the State is human creation. That explains the issues
of the theories of the origin of the State.
In the formation of the modern State, Thomas Hobbes sees man as selfish and
that they can be brutal in the pursuit of their passion, desire and appetite. In the
Hobbesian State of nature; there will be no recognizable leader or authority. But it
shall be a perpetual struggle of all against all. He is of the view that life in the state
of nature will be solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. His recommendation is
that people must come together to form a state where power will be given to the
strongest that can protect the weak. Therefore must move from the wicked of all
against all form a community of men that will submit to coercive laws that will
regulate humas affairs. The man to whom such exercise of power is given
becomes the head of the State.
Another philosopher on the theory of the formation of the state is John Locke.
Locke like Thomas Hobbes is a philosopher of the state of nature bend. But his
view of man in the state of nature that of freedom and equality. He sees man as
naturally reasonable and lives according to his likings unimpaired by the interests
of his fellow colleagues. He did not see man in Hobbesian nature of brutish,
wicked and short. He is also of the same view that even in his view of man in the
state of nature, consent to live together to form as larger territory is necessary.
The consent to come together in the Locke’s state of nature so that man’s rights
shall not live without license.
The cardinal issue that all origin of the State emphasizes whether of Devine Origin,
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Rousseau, etc, the state is brought together as a
result of various causes: kinship, religion, force and political consciousness. And
the issue of politics in as much as it put together those that must direct citizen’s
affairs in the state is only practiced within the State. It is therefore established that
a State should have territorial space, be peopled by population and should enjoy
sovereignty. Nigeria 2023 with an estimate population of 223,804,432, territorial
area 923,768sq.km and being an independent Country since 1 st October 1960
qualifies to be a State. More so Nigeria is one of the 195 countries members of
the United Nations.
Of many definitions of politics of which there disputes among political
philosophers and scholars; I will only deal with three to explain the meanings of
politics. The first is the dictionary definition which defines politics as ‘’ the set of
activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of
power relations among individuals such as the distribution of resources or status’’.
To me this definition of politics is wide and broad to cover politics within the non-
state actors like Church, Mosques, Community Development Associations,
Professional Bodies or even family where various form of politics do take place.
There are also two well-known definitions of politics by Harold Laswell and David
Easton. Laswell defines politics ‘’as who gets what, when and how’’. David Easton
defines ‘’politics as authoritative allocation of values’’. Politics in the definition of
these two thinkers is reduced to activities that lead to sharing: sharing of
resources, infrastructures, positions and amenities among individuals and the
constituent units of the polity. Without politics either in a democracy,
authoritarian regimes or even democracy, how will there be authoritative
allocation of values like schools, hospitals, land, taxation, roads, among various
interests in the Country. Politics is therefore the instruments that establish
government that ensure who gets what, when and how.
We earlier established in the course of this discussion that the State is established
for some purposes and those purposes cannot be accomplished without some
people in leadership positions. The process of putting the leadership in place in all
states is through one form of politics or the other. The third in the functioning of
the State is the government. We have earlier discussed both the State and politics
The earlier two that had been discussed are the State and politics. The three are
interrelated and must go together if human society must grow and develop.
There is this acceptable definition of government which is “the exercise of political
authority over the actions, affairs, etc, of a political unit, people, etc, as well as the
performance of certain functions for this unit or body”. The meaning of the above
definition is that there must be a political unit (a Country like Nigeria) must have
distinct population of people over which authority can be exercised, there must
be objectives or agenda for which some actions must be taken. In short,
government is the instrument through which people in a country are governed or
regulated. Broadly speaking there three well-known types of government. They
are:
(a) Monarchy: This is usually a hereditary form of government through
which political authority is usually transferred from an incumbent to
another, upon the abdication or death of the holder of the office.
Political authority in a monarchy is not contestable except among the
descendants of the family usually known to have monopolized the
stool and the zeal of the title. The origin of the title might be due to
earliest settlement, wealth, wisdom, conquest of the progenitor that
established the hereditary office. There are still some countries of the
world with varying degrees of modifications that are governed
through monarchical form of government.
(b) Aristocracy: This a form of government in which governing power is
predicated on nobility. Some of this noble class had the nobility
conferred on them through hereditary titles or offices. In some
instances it can be said to be a government powered by the best
citizens. This best may be in the form of wealth, wisdom or even
social standing. However, it is also a form of government in the state.
(c) Democracy: The search for mass participation of people in
government in one form or another accounts for the concept of
democracy. It is a form of government that could allow for people’s
participation in government directly or through representatives that
are periodically elected. It is really the only concept of government
that is often called the government of the people even if is more in
symbol that the actual products of governments. In a democracy
there must be the expression of the popular will. In a democracy
more than the earlier two there is opportunities for expression of
opinions and free judgment could be passed on those that occupy
the seat of government. Under this system majority opinions mostly
rules while the minority must acquiescence in the decision of the
majority.
Broadly the three system of government as stated above from ages have been
used to govern human societies. The three monarchy, aristocracy and democracy
can be authoritarian, totalitarian, conservative, progressive, welfarism, etc. The
basic thing is that they are forms of government formed or permitted by a
population in a geographical space to address the problems of people that agree
to come together for the attainment of goals. Of the three forms of government
the miost germane to us in this book is democracy. This is because all other forms
of government had appeared earlier in history that democracy as we know it
today. Secondly the world is moving more into democracy that any other form of
government. Being a government of popular participation, democracy a grater
acceptability all over the world today than any other form of government. If
therefore we believe that Christians should take more active interests in politics, it
is better done in democracy than any other.
 KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE
My interest in politics started in 1972 when I registered for Government in my
West Africa School Certificate Examination (WAEC) in class three an equivalent of
SS three of today. It was in that class that I was introduced to the rudiment of the
theory of politics as a subject. At the Kwara State College of Technology, where I
did my Cambridge Advanced Level, in the School of Basic Studies, Government
was one of my three preferred subjects.
In 1976, I gained admission to the University of Ibadan to read Political Science.
Therefore, by training I am a political scientist and I graduated from the Nigerian
prestigious Premier University of Ibadan in the month of June 1979. With my
training it has not been difficult for me to be exposed to different political thinkers
and theorists. Therefore, understanding the concepts of State, Politics is not
difficult for me.
At the university of Ibadan during my days, students especially of the social
science Faculty, were exposed to regular public seminars and lectures organized
by Departments, Clubs, Students’ Unions, etc. These lectures and seminars
attracted speakers of high knowledge and repute within and outside the
University. Those were the days of Comrade Ola Oni, Prof Bade Onimode,
Ebenezer Babatope, Bola Ige, Bala Usman and a host of others. I was a regular
attendees of these seminars symposia and seminars.
Those too were the time of various socio/political organizations. I opted for
political organizations like Marxists Socialist ,Movement of Nigeria and Pan African
movement that were hard on the struggle for the decolonization process in Africa
and especially the struggle to dismantle apartheid in South Africa. My
involvement in all of the above had great impacts on me especially the
understanding of key concepts in political Science. Those organizations and the
attendance of symposia, seminars and lectures created an undying desire in me to
be a politician.
I also tested the practice of the theories and concept on the campus of the
University of Ibadan. I did this by contesting elections into my Kuti Hall of
Residence and also to the Students’ Representatives Council. It also made me to
contest to be the Secretary of Kwara State Students’ Union; University of Ibadan
Chapter. I gained serious insights from members of these platforms.