Barrister Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, CFR |
Even in
matrimonial issues, trust plays high. The pertinent question here is: Can
spouses trust one another in their agreed covenant of holy matrimony? Does the
wife trust the husband or is she just playing along? And can the husband trust
the wife? Who can say with certainty that all is well with trust? What is
trust? Certainly an expected, irretraceable commitment between two people to
the performance of an act. Trust flows from the people to the government, such
that men and women who constitute government can be trusted to use the tax paid
by citizens to provide social service delivery at all levels.
Commitment
flows from government to the people that government will protect them in peace
and in crises. Commitment flows from the employee to the employer that, for instance,
if I work for you until the age of retirement, and I so work faithfully without
stealing, you are committed to the payment of my pension continuously and
forever. The question is: Who is working faithfully without taking bribe and
stealing in Nigeria today? Who is working without making provision for his
tomorrow as if the pension will not come? If you are not working faithfully,
then you need no reward! There may be reason why you are not working
faithfully, but you have paid yourself by breaching the trust, the commitment.
The pyramid
of trust flows from people to authority, and where there is no trust, there is
no law. Government spends a lot of time and resources on enforcement of laws
which ordinarily should be voluntarily complied with. In such situation, the
judiciary will work more and the prison will demand more resources to feed
convicted persons. What developed countries enjoy today is that high level of
trust from the citizen. When the government is not performing, there are
established limitations to noncompliance with laws and non-implementation of
the commitment to trust. Developing countries can only make impact if
governments start to work on how to bring back the lost trust between citizens
and government.
For how much
can anyone trust government on wicked problems such as lack of employment,
deficit balance of payment, insurgency, respect for rule of law, and protection
of citizens and their properties? The level of loyalty that government expects
from us is measured by how much we can trust government. And without citizen
loyalty, government has no place to draw down legitimacy, especially in times
of need. What went wrong is the collapse of the pyramid of trust. No one trusts
the other. This needs to be arrested immediately if we are to move the nation
forward. We must borrow from the Swedish government before things go
irredeemably bad! There is clear
evidence that it is not only individuals that can fail. Nations do fail! Now,
who is that individual that can succeed in a failed nation? (National Mirror)
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