You must admit from the outset, that as much as it is said to have Greek origin, democracy received plenty of influence from Judeo-Christian traditions, the same way the indigenous administrative style of Northern Nigerian monarchy is largely derived from Islamic traditions.
In other words, whereas the indigenous political and administrative structures in Southern Nigeria have been greatly eroded by Christian religious doctrines and usages, subtly presented as ritzy Western values, indigenous rule, official conduct, and usages, in most of Muslim Northern Nigeria are almost entirely guided by Islamic tenets.
In a letter he wrote to Malik al-Ashtar, whom he had appointed as the Governor of Egypt in 657 AD, Imam Ali had admonished: “Do not say (to your subjects), ‘I am your overlord and dictator, and you should therefore bow to my command’…
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“Maintain justice in administration, and impose it on yourself too, and seek the consent of the people… It is the Common Man who is the strength of the State and of Religion. It is (the Common Man) who fights the enemy.” You can see that Islamic rule is humane and empathetic.
Indeed, the Islamic view of governance includes the following tenets as a checklist: the rule of law or As-Shura, Khalifah, accountability, transparency, justice, equity, and the longishly written phrase, Al-amr bil maruf wa nahi an al- munkar.”
As-Shura, if you like to know, are people who are empowered to make decisions for the community, as it is also a rule based on the rule of Allah’s words, and the hadith of Prophet Muhammed, with the explanation that loyalty to those rules are the basis of faith.
More specifically about Sharia, the better known term for As-shur; it is law, derived from the religious precepts of Islamic traditions of the Quran and the hadith, though the incursion of Western civilisation that came with colonialism may have reduced its fundamental fervour in Nigeria.
Sharia is God’s immutable (meaning, unchangeable) divine law, which is in contrast to fiqh, its human scholarly interpretation. Asifa Quraeishi-Landes wrote in The Washington Post of June 24, 2016: “Sharia is not a book of statutes or judicial precedents imposed by government, and it is not a set of regulations adjudicated in court.
“Rather, it is a set of Quran-based guidelines that point Muslims towards living an Islamic life.” It should be left for theological and constitutional experts to determine if Sharia rule can be compared with the Unwritten Constitution of Great Britain, which is derived from conventions, practices and traditions.
Khalifa is the Arabic word for successor (of Prophet Muhammed), and the caliphate is a politico-religious Muslim state, governed by a caliph. What this suggests is that there is no separation between religion and the state.
Amr bil Ma’ruf (is the ordering for acknowledged virtues), and nahi an al munkar (forbidden from sin), for which Allah had said, “And there shall be a group amongst you who invite (others) through good order for acknowledged virtues, (and) forbid them from sin.” That should explain the Hisbah, the Kano State religious or moral police.
It was reported that Prophet Muhammed actually wondered aloud: “How will it be for you when your women will commit sins, and your youth will transgress, and you will not order for acknowledged virtues, nor forbid from sin?”
On the other hand, the abiding principle of Western democracy is that the individual members, or, at least, all eligible members, of a state, (at least, theoretically) have an input in policy formulation, if not also implementation.
American President Abraham Lincoln explained democracy as government of the people, by the people, and for the people. This is probably a bit too simplistic, but it should be in the ballpark of how democracy works.
Democracy stresses individualism that favours expression of individual choices over collective or state control. The seeming contradiction within this political theory is resolved by allowing the majority to have their way, while the minority would have had their say.
The doctrine of democracy is enhanced by the two principles of freedom of speech and freedom of expression. One major aspect of democracy is the mass media of communication, whose major assignment is advocacy for the rights, and on the behalf, of all citizens, be they in, or out of government.
That must have explained the following opinion of Louis D. Brandeis, first Jew to be appointed into the Supreme Court of the United States of America: “The most important office in a democracy is that of the private citizen.”
But you must also recognise that Judeo-Christian traditions pervaded and greatly influenced governance, commerce, and culture of the Old World of Western Europe, and the New World of the Americas.
This European thought was driven by the Age of Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, that ran between 1715 and 1789, the year the French Revolution erupted and the Bastille was violently stormed.
It was an intellectual and philosophical movement that emphasised sovereignty of reason, evidence from enquiries or scientific methods of obtaining information, and separation of religion from the state.
The rapid spread of Christianity, through the auspices of the Holy Roman Empire, spread Christianity, or maybe Catholicism, across Europe. Please don’t laugh, when you discover that the Anglican Communion of Great Britain came out of the Catholic Church, when it became a matter of state policy that Britain’s King Henry VIII needed to have a religion that would permit him to divorce his Queen, and marry another.
Christian religion, also coming out of the Orient, like Islam, got so pervasive that most monarchs, potentates, and political office holders, like presidents, legislators, and judicial officers, in Europe and America, were sworn into office with the Bible.
It has been observed that, whereas it should be an advantage, renewal of vigour in the practice of Islam and Christianity, is threatening the political unity of Nigeria, whose citizens are increasingly migrating towards religio-ethnic fault lines. And it is unfortunate that it is negatively affecting the economy of the nation.
The National Christian Elders Forum, whose most visible leaders appear to be from Southern and Middle Belt Nigeria, got a bit strident in protesting the encroachment of what it described as unacceptable aspects of Islamism in Nigeria.
But it first gave the caveat of what the problems of Nigeria are not: Christians versus Muslims; Southerners versus Northerners, or vice versa; partisan or political party preferences; military versus civilians; the rich versus the poor; or even poverty, unemployment and desertification.
The forum came up with an interesting perspective, namely; “The problem of Nigeria is ideological. It is simply (that of) democracy versus Sharia,” as they also observe that, (save for Nigeria), “no country has more than one ideology.”
They argue that “Islamism (not Islam, please), is a conscious attempt to manipulate religion as a tool for cultural and political domination… While Islam is a religion, Islamism, otherwise called ‘political Islam,’ is a set of ideologies that hold that Islam is not only a religion, but (also) a political system.”
What the Forum hasn’t quite said is that though Nigeria’s constitution stresses democracy, even prescribes democratic structures, in achieving the political, economic, and social, objectives of the nation, the policy or decision making process is swinging like a pendulum between the divine and the rational.
This knot should be untied quickly.
I wish all my readers a most rewarding and prosperous New Year!
