There is a statement that has always been the anchor of every form of government, which is the supremacy of the law. In every country, in order to enjoy a peaceful and fair human society, there needs to be a constitution, written or unwritten, there have to be something that the government uses as a measure to determine crimes and to reassure the citizens justice exist. Which means if anyone goes contrary to the stated laws and policies there is a justification for punishing the offender.
One of the things that makes law effective is the fact that, no one should be above the law, but believing this is equal to believing a snake can crawl backwards. Everyone in power wants the citizens to believe that the law is above everyone including them, which is a myth. There are people in the government that the law is just a play thing to them. They have grown so mighty that everyone that is expected to enforce the law and punish them for their crimes is already a junior colleague to them or on their payroll but this not my greatest concern.
The atrocities committed by those in power is something that is obvious to everyone but here is the issue. Whenever anyone wants to form an argument, they start criticizing those in power, highlighting their atrocities, This I can understand. The part I disagree with is when people start saying, if they were in that position they would do better, that is the one thing I would never believe. I have seen how people behave when they find themselves in a position of authority, ordinary CDA chairman would abuse the little authority placed on him/her.
Then you would wonder, if someone at the lowest level of authority could behave like this, how would they behave if they are placed in the highest point of authority. Most people don't understand how easy it is to become power drunk.
I had an experience some time ago, with one of the community leaders in my area. There is a policy created and implemented by people inmy area which is "no heavy duty truck will be allowed into our streets after 8pm". This is due to all these street boys that goes to people's land and perform illegal digging of sand. This policy has been around for long, which everyone of us abide by, including construction workers in our area.
Recently, one of our community leaders was working on his site, I don't really know what happened, but he decided to bring in those heavy duty truck into our street. Those that had the key to the gate refused to release the key due to the policy that was on ground. This man got really angry and was saying the policy does not apply to him. This is the same man who has denied a lot people entry but when it got to his turn, he felt he is too big to abide by the law.
This man got in a physical fight with the vigilantes at the gate and even dared to slap one of them. This got me thinking, so these man believes everyone can follow the law except him. This is how citizens in different sectors behave when they are in a position of authority. They suddenly feel like the law does not apply to them and it is something that makes me feel sorry for the future of my country. Everyone feels like they can get the job done but what about the little authority they have presently, what are they doing with it?
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled Power in hive learners community.
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