The Irreparable Bridge between Morality and Politics: The Nigeria Experience - By Lucas Nwachukwu

Politics is a game, is a general saying around, and it is played in any state with a substantive government in place. Political actors play with one purpose, and that purpose is to wrestle power and wield it to protect their interests. But the poser here is, is it for self or for the State, (the people they represent?)I must clearly state that I write not to demonize politics through my submission as politics is engaged in, expressed through the appropriate channels or institutions put in place.

According to Okoye (1982), Politics comprises activities of formal structure, institution and organization which competes through electoral mechanism to influence the people, policies and programmes as well as allocation of public wealth through a stipulated and articulated procedure.Without drawing up confusing definitions of morality, I am going to be practical with the kind of morality I think is greatly at conflict with the kind of politics we are experiencing in Nigeria. It is the morality of the common good or interest, it is the morality of duty, do to others as you would want them do to you, such as virtue, compassion, love, which I consider very important in delivering good governance.

Niccolo Machiavelli and other writers that are seen as pragmatist and as immoralist may have divorced politics from morality which prioritize the “end”, even the most unscrupulous “end” which inspires politicians to pursue and protect their interests first before that of anyone they represent. Sadly, in the case of Nigeria, the political actors subordinate moral standards to political ones. One will wonder when the saying has it that man is a moral being, if Nigeria politicians are included.

Politics has been extremely abused through pursuing self-interest, political rivalry, ethno-religious sentiment and making it incompatible with morality. It is even the caricature and travesty of what may or should have counted as morally good.This have made the people deeply suspicious and very cynical about the veracity of a politician’s promises during political/election campaigns whether it serves the general interest or just masquerading as one. The present day brand of politics glorifies corruption and even rewards people that are thieves, recently, the chairman of a ruling political party openly said once you join the party, your “sins” will be forgiven. Such style of politicking is devoid of morality.

Also, in Nigeria, politics is predicated to be engaged in and considered with personal or group interests rather than enviable national principles and values driven by morality which have threatened service delivery or for better word, good governance viz-a-viz good politicking. The Nigeria politics is run on the basis of “at any cost” or “do or die” making it impossible to serve the interest of the people when they are elected into the office. Perhaps our expectations are unrealistic because how do you expect someone that spent billions of Naira to emerge and even used thugs to achieve his/her election to power to be moral in serving the interest of the people? To them it is only but a business, they invest heavily and must recoup and make profit off the public treasury.Another contending issue in Nigerian politics is the common issue of ethnicity or cultural differences which is as a result of people from different tribal and cultural backgrounds.

This creates insurmountable numerous problems for the country at large. Their interests are marked by aggressive ethnic nationalism as they push for the realization of their sub-national self-determination. Like the case of Independent people of Biafra-IPOB, that often their demand for sub-national self-determination and directly challenge the Federal government’s demand for national unity. One would ask, where is the morality in this act as it undermines the general interest.With the benefit of hindsight, one cannot but marvel at how politics in the 1st and 2nd republic was played, there was a certain enviable level of morality in the manner it was played as figures like late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and others pursued the interest of the country. They did play with conscience regarding the consequences of their actions.

But this age and time, a politician is elected to represent his pockets, and satisfy his greed, we have countless cases of corrupt leaders that have continually remained at the corridor of power and have no conscience to resign and face the law.

The brand of morality that should be practiced alongside our politics is founded on humanism, it considers interests of the people and welfare as core. This is why in African moral thought, we speak of communitarian ethos of the African society. Any good brand of politics should be done with a sense of the common good which is a core of shared values, which is the underlying presupposition of political morality to ensure that the interests everyone can be achieved within this communitarian society.If we are stuck at this impasse, should we say “there was a country”.