DO NOT GIVE WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE, REGAN UFOMBA TO CHINEDUM ORJI
The Governor As Repository of Sovereign Powers of a State
It’s not debatable that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is the legitimate repository of state powers.
People should therefore not break their heads over an infantile call made to humour a guru to usurp our sovereignty.
Sovereign issues are as old as man.
Adam and Eve were restricted to the garden of Eden, with orders not to eat a certain fruit. It is therefore not an open check that could be handed over to any one at will. Mr Speaker merely handed over a bounced check to OUK ab-intio, when he referred to him as “authentic leader”. OUK knows that the check he has can neither be cashed over the counter or through clearing.
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This is because no vacancy existed in government house Umuahia. In fact both the ‘hander’ and ‘handee’ know that non exists. The other puzzle has been who “the counterfeit leader” is?
The last time I checked issuing of a bounced check has got consequences, just as Adam and Eve’s transgressions had age long repercussions. So why must we cry over a deal gone bad, that never existed or at best, a spilt milk?
Louis the sixteenth once said of himself “L’etat c’est moi”, meaning I am the state. Such is the concept and perception of sovereignty in totalitarian states or nations.
He went ahead to remind us that “each time I fill a high office, I create a hundred discontented men and one ingrate”.
In democratic governance in Nigeria and the Americas, a governor has the entire state as his constituency, as no senator or federal or state representative compares.
In 16th century France Jean Bodin (1530–96) used the new concept of sovereignty to bolster the power of the French king over the rebellious feudal lords, facilitating the transition from feudalism to nationalism.
The thinker who did the most to provide the term with its modern meaning was the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), who argued that in every true state some person or body of persons must have the ultimate and absolute authority to declare the law; to divide this authority, he held, was essentially to destroy the unity of the state.
The theories of the English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704) and the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) that the state is based upon a formal or informal compact of its citizens, a social contract through which they entrust such powers to a government as may be necessary for common protection led to the development of the doctrine of popular sovereignty that found expression in the American Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Another twist was given to this concept by the statement in the French constitution of 1791 that “Sovereignty is one, indivisible, unalienable and imprescriptible; it belongs to the Nation, no group can attribute sovereignty to itself nor can an individual arrogate it to himself.”
Mr Speaker could not have given what he does not have. Is it political game?
Time shall tell.
About Author
With respect sir, your submission on the mission of Mr. Speaker to the Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate, Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu and dwelling so much on his conversation appears queer! Amongst all the visitors that visited OUK, why should Rt. Hon Chinedum Orji’s visit be singled out? Am sorry to say this, your analogy of history is self serving.
Leaders are expected to lead by example, if leaders in Abia are mentioned, sir! I am 100% sure that your name will be amongst them. Political leadership can be viewed from different angle, in political ranking in the State your position is not contestable likewise that of OUK, Mr. Speaker and His Excellency the Governor of the State.
The clanging of the bell is ringing that it is time we unite as a people to move Abia State forward and if Mr. Speaker has taken the bold step to serve as a bridge builder in the new Abia, his effort should be commended.
Mr. Speaker’s visit is not self serving but for the interest of the State.
History reminds us of the past, it also serves as a bench mark to galvanize us into a new vista where we all draw from the deep of brotherliness to achieve a height of greatness, bequeathing an out pouring of love in the State and our people irrespective of political divide to posterity.