Government as the "whiteman": Another conception of government is one of the most prevalent among the people in the rural areas. It is the most popular notion of government among our vastly illiterate communities. This is a notion that identifies government with the whiteman."Whiteman" in this context must be taken in both its literal and figurative sense. In its literal sense, there are many people still alive who had first hand experience of, and have not forgotten in the word quoted by Isichei (1983:389) "the coming of government in the person of the whiteman". In other words,the imposition by the white invaders of a system of rule that was quite different from what the indigenes were used to. In its figurative sense it denotes alien rule as opposed to rule by indigenous leaders.
It must be noted that prior to European intrusion, our people organized themselves in a small face to face communities. The arrival of a whiteman, and the imposition of colonialism meant that, in the words of Okoli (p. 37) at least, a power, an 'over-arching power had come more powerful than any community or combination of communities. thus, by sheer might and invincibility, the white established his authority and reigned supreme over all the concerned communities and demanded allegiance as of right. From that day, as far as the villager was concerned, government came into existence.
Although this conception of government is partially in order, at least in the sense of an "over-arching" authority, its consequences were to be very unfortunate. The various communities did not realize or perhaps appreciate the fact that they had government before the coming of the whiteman. This confusion is perhaps ,understandable. As indicated already, before the whiteman came, each community was almost like an island. It was self-sufficient and ordered its affair the way it saw fit. It did not take instructions or dictation from any other communities. The only major contact it had with other communities, and which often had both political and economic implications was the market. Whenever members of one community went to buy and sell in another communities' markets, they were invariably bound by the rules of those markets. Otherwise each community possessed its own government. There was no single government for all the communities. So from the perspective of all the communities there was no government. But viewed from perspective of each community, there was government.
Here then, lies the unfortunate legacy. Any association or relationship involving two or more communities conjures up the abstract or remote notion of government typically of the whiteman. in other words in dealing with any other community or group outside of themselves, government becomes remote, impersonal and alien. But in dealing among themselves, members of a given community exhibits a remarkable sense of commitment to the identification with common cause.
These two differing notions of government constitute the bases of Nigerian modern political process because they give rise to different legitimacies, and consequently bring tension and conflict into the processes of modern government these certainly have been exploited by unscrupulous elements. For example, because of the idea of government as the whiteman, all government property is treated with careless abandon. public officials are ready and in fact anxious to appreciate government property and embezzle government funds. Anything government is foreign, alien and reminiscent of the white man and must be exploited. In fact he is a hero who can successfully defraud the government. At the same time, these very public officials while acting in their private capacities as functionaries of their organization show a remarkable sense of responsibility and accountability. They guard the community property or fund with meticulous zeal and would never be privy to their appreciation or embezzlement.
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