The Social Contract

 
      Have we ever asked the question why we, humans as objects of free will and free thinking have never exercised our freedom? Why we have always been limited and tethered to that tree, to which society has us bound? The human race moves fast and we were born running, never thinking for a second to review the preset rules for this race we have all been accustomed to partake in.

     It is a necessity to be accepted in this system to which civilization has brought us. Civilization in Africa came long before Europe "discovered" Africa centuries ago. The black continent in its own self discovered what it meant to be civilized albeit not completely. But was well on its way to discovering that the reliance on intellect as a species seemed more effective than reliance on instinct. It is more befitting of higher animals that thrived on reasoning to dispose of the visceral, and embrace the intellect. So we refuse to be brutes and savages, we form societies for ourselves. Laws by which, we must adhere to. We chose leaders in the Obas, Ogisos, Emirs and the Igwe.

       Civilization is not a scientific word at all, nor is it the word that covers the advancement of technology in the human era of history; it is a word that reforms us as people. A word that reforms our behaviour and the concept of our free-will. Civilization is a word that is accompanied with integrity, honour and fairness irrespective of position. And ergo, absolute civilization is the complete suppression of the visceral.

    And to effect this orderliness in our lives and functions, our progenitors have signed the social contract. "The social contract is the agreement with which a person enters into civil society. The contract essentially binds people into a community that exists or mutual preservation. In entering into civil society, people sacrifice the physical freedom of being able to do whatever they please, but they gain the civil freedom of being able to think and act rationally and morally. Rousseau believes that only by entering into the social contract can we become fully human."

     So, we sold off our rights to freewill in exchange for civility. The Europeans also practiced this social contract, in fact they postulated it in words because the philosophy has existed before times unwritten. Bringing their own form of government to Africa, we became reformed and we, in their eyes, went from uncivilized, uncultured and uneducated to quasi-civilized, quasi-cultured and quasi-educated.

   But the individuals with whom we made this social contract have fallen victim to human imperfection. They, in their jobs which are to protect and serve in our interests and also in their interests have become power hungry. They have either lost sights of what it means to be responsible or they have simply been blinded, or both. And they have confused positions of authority with positions of "power". We have seen them look at political seats as their thrones and they have turned czars to former friends who now wait on them and serve them. Since their social atrocities have being excellently belabored and accentuated by numerous writers, the need to repeat it here is useless.

     Alas, I come bearing good news! There is a loophole in this contract! The social contract is bound by honour and integrity, and it is dependent solely upon the vows that the holder swore, whilst placing his right hand on his religious book. As this is done, every act of impunity from the holder breaks and devalues the contract. And since we, the masses, who reside at the other end of the agreement are not pleased and satisfied with the results of this agreement, coupled with the constant abuse of its rules. We have every right to also break our side of the pact and exercise freewill.

     Civil Disobedience as Thoreau calls it. It is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, or commands of a Government, or of an occupying international power. This little lapse gives us the ability and right to out rightly refuse to adhere by the rules we are not comfortable with and we also have the right to cancel a social contract and make a new one. Since a contract can only be made with both parties in accordance. It is high time we started realizing that the power resides with us, and not with them.