Democracy Does not Rule in the Cathedral

By Ogiri John Ogiri.

Let me be straight with this. Our dear Governor, His Excellency, Very Revd Fr Hyacinth Alia PhD is the brainchild of a constituency with an interesting organizational structure and institutional arrangement.In that constituency, unalloyed loyalty and submission to a higher authority is usually more emphasized and condoned than an obedience to democratic ethos namely free speech, majority rule, rule of law among many others. All authority originates and terminates at the highest hierarchy. That constituency is the Church. 

I am sorry but there is no democracy in the Church. Yes, in the Church, the majority does have a say but the minority, represented by the highest authority, usually have their way. Decision-making and general administration takes place within the hierarchical framework of what obtains in a purely theocratic government. Yes, the Church may be the most organized institution in the world but one could quite outrightly say that this enviable organizational status did not come to be out of any experiment with democracy but out of sheer experiment and success with theocratic governance over the centuries past.

It may be argued therefore that one trained in such an environment may find it difficult to allow democracy, with its many contradictions and controversies, to dominate and dictate the exercise of his executive power in the government house. Although, by virtue of his training as a Philosopher, a priest is supposed to be the best manager and enabler of democracy. Yet, becoming a practitioner of democracy is not quite easy since democracy does not exist in the Church.

This is why the recent suspension and tactical dissolution of elected Local Government executives in Benue State by the APC-led administration of our dear Fr Dr Alia did not come to me as a surprise. In any case, however ,I think that my reverred priest and governor should reflect on that decision of his government and see that the right thing is done.

I do not feel any sense of pride in the way and manner some of them rendered their stewardship as Local Government executives in their various spheres of influence but I think that due process of law should have been allowed to decide whether they should have been allowed to complete their tenure or not.

That way, an executive action of this kind that seems to suggest that we are in a supremacy competition with military dictatorship would be withdrawn so that rule of law is allowed its sacred right to truly rule.

May His Excellency succeed!

Long live Benue State!

God bless Nigeria!

© Ogiri John Ogiri.