By Emmanuel Taban Peter
Everyone must obey the state authorities, because no authority exists without God’s permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God. Whoever opposes the existing authority opposes what God has ordered, and anyone who does so will bring judgment on himself. The book of Romans 13:1-7 states that.
For rulers are not to be feared by those who do good, but by those who do evil. Would you like to be unafraid of those in authority? Then do what is good, and they will praise you because they are God’s servants working for your own good. But if you do evil, then be afraid of them, because their power to punish is real. They are God’s servants and carry out God’s punishment on those who do evil.
For this reason, you must obey the authorities — not just because of God’s punishment, but also as a matter of conscience. That is also why you pay taxes because the authorities are working for God when they fulfil their duties. Pay, then, what you owe them; pay them your personal and property taxes and show respect and honour for them all. Be under obligation to no one — the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law.
All of us have sinned and have come short of God’s Glory nobody is exceptional in this and is said to be perfect, do to others what you expect them to do for you. There is a good way of letting our leaders know their mistakes because mistakes are human and common. Even if you ascend to the leadership position today, you will not be different to your predecessors, though it will not be the same common mistakes you will commit, however, most probably you will commit a different one. Hence, what are we talking about here? We should be a responsible citizen who helps our leaders to know their problems, mistakes and advise them on how to correct the mistakes.
We should be able to point out their strengths and successes first, and that is where we should begin approaching any mistakes, appreciate the success and even the effort done to do the little, and then follow the weakness, in this way, we shall be friendly to our leaders and they will respect us and we will also equally respect them because they will obviously listen to us in this approach. They will feel safe and secure while in power, and they will do the right things expected by us the citizens, and therefore, the nation moves forward.
But provoking them through angry words, insulting articles, instigating riots, rebellions, and hate speeches will never change the situation, but can only provoke a leader to become defensive, and protective and remain in power until one submits. Use of force though can bring a change but at a cost either beyond repair or at a huge cost that includes loss of lives, loss of infrastructures, total destruction and both the Country and the citizens shall begin everything from zero again. Then, what kind of change is that?
The reason why leaders click to power to me is just that they are often threatened with all kinds of threats, they don’t feel safe after their tenure, threats to be taken to all kinds of courts in this world, ICC warnings, and eventually some of them for sure ended up been taken to court, so how do you expect someone who is well protected while in power to just leave power and be arrested to court? he will always choose to die in power rather than be taken to court. Or he/she will influence or force or bring the next leader either from his/her relatives or the immediate family member, to protect him/her from being taken to court after stepping down from power, and anyone can do that in revenge.
As responsible citizens, we should be wise and be able to analyze an approach that fits us well and according to the context of our nation, according to the culture of our people, never look at what a neighbour does and you want to practice it in your house, no it doesn’t work like that. You will only bring trouble at home, be a responsible citizen. Though we are watching this around the world, leaders of their own have never been taken to either local or international courts, only in Africa. We Africans though are learnt people, but we are not wise enough to think of own ways on how to resolve our national issues and address them wisely and maturely to leave the nation in peace. We are being deceived always to create chaos, rebellion, and insecurity in our nation. Because of poverty, we are deceived and promised lucrative money to put our Country underdeveloped, under starvation, in war, with no peace and even to put our own lives insecure.
A leader can always step down at a convincing approach, at a peaceful advisory if approached in a very well convincing strategy, not by force, and of course it will take time and process, it is not just overnight and you want a leader to step down immediately NO, it involves preparation and justifications outline in order to be communicated to the people, a leader is accountable to his people, and these people are both those who like him and those who do not all of them are in this same Country.
There are a couple of good things that our leaders have done in this country that have gone unseen, and unnoticed by those who have their own interests, but we are so quick enough to see and notice one mistake of a leader, one error of our leaders, we take them as the order of the days, the nights, the weeks, the months, the years and years criticizing the leaders. But if I am to ask, what about the good ones the leaders have done? Why can’t we also go around doing the same for the good ones? Let’s give credit to where it belongs does it mean our leaders have not been doing well in some areas in this Country? This is where justice and maturity are failing deliberately among the citizens.
To our leaders: The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom, if you click on this formula you will ever and always be a successful leader in everything you do wherever you will be leading. King Solomon did that and became successful in leading the Israelites.