I was under the impression that the handing down of Divine Revelations to some chosen people on mountain tops ended several centuries ago. That is, until I read a news report last Friday about what Governor Martins Elechi said in Abakaliki on Thursday last week at the swearing-in ceremony of six new commissioners for Ebonyi State.

You see, it was not difficult at all to see how the protocol, security, pomp and paraphernalia around a Nigerian state governor at a point made Mr. Martins Elechi to see himself as Moses, climbing up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, written on a slate, from the Almighty Himself.

In his brief speech at the swearing in ceremony, Governor Elechi handed down to the commissioners and to all officials in his government a set of do's and don'ts that, in structural composition and in spiritual essence, closely resemble the Ten Commandments. He also added, not illogically, a warning that failure to adhere to them will attract a sanction equivalent to 40 years in the political wilderness of Ebonyi State's yam fields.

No member of his cabinet, Elechi said, should attend any meeting with, associate with or otherwise fraternise with anyone who belongs to any political party other than the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

"Should not hold any meeting with," was what he said. To call this law Draconian is to be unfair to the 7th Century BC Athenian legislator Draconia. If a commissioner in Ebonyi State meets with a market woman who happens to be a PPA member and discusses with her the supply of newly harvested Abakaliki yam to his country home in preparation for his taking the Ozo title, he would clearly have broken Elechi's Law and would be liable to instant sack and political ostracism.

In handing down this law, I could not help but think that Mr. Martins Elechi arrived at prominence on the Nigerian political scene three decades late. He should have been here in the Second Republic. Back in 1978-79, in the run up to the take off of the Second Republic, the five political parties of the time mobilised their supporters so intensely that NPN landlords began to throw out PRP tenants from their houses. GNPP fathers-in-law withdrew their daughters from the homes of NPN sons-in-law. In Kano and Kaduna, some PRP butchers refused to sell meat to NPN men even with money in their hands.

Some of the most colourful politicians of that era encouraged that trend with fiery oratory. There was the speech, for example, that former Kano State Governor and then NPP gubernatorial candidate Muhammadu Abubakar Rimi delivered in 1983 to a delegation of [to use United Nations' language] Women of Easy Virtue who paid him a visit. Rimi said, "You, the women of Kano, who are known for your beauty, your elegant dressing, your mesmerising walk, your heavy chests...It will be disgraceful for you to allow a PRP Mai Tabo supporter to talk to you, or allow him to chase you, or allow him to go to bed with you..."

Under the terms of St. Elechi's gospel enacted last week, members of the Ebonyi cabinet cannot attend a town union meeting, a Parent - Teacher Association, a social club, a literary society or even a Church, so long as some PPA, APGA or Action Congress members are sitting in there. In other words, this Latter Day Saint Elechi intends to construct a social Berlin Wall in Ebonyi State between PDP members and all others.

No member of his cabinet, Elechi said, should "sign any advertorial with any other person." This is to say, if the members of a commissioner's social club, community association or church require him to sign any statement on any issue to which all the members are agreed, he must refrain from doing so because the meaning of "advertorial" could include a notice pasted on the wall or circulated in a night club.

Elechi went further to hand down another, even more curious law. He told the commissioners, "Let me remind you that your loyalty is not 99 percent. It is not 99.99 percent. It must be 100 percent." This law is not original to Elechi, because in late 2006, while swearing-in some Federal permanent secretaries, then President Olusegun Obasanjo did say something very similar to this.

It is a refrain often heard in military barracks, that loyalty must be 100%, but how does it translate on the political terrain? A commissioner is appointed into a cabinet for one of many reasons, including to represent a geographical territory, a political faction, an ethnic or religious community, a professional group, a gender or age group, a certain political godfather, or even a secret society. In all cases it is impossible to accord to the governor 100% loyalty without betraying the constituency that you are representing in the cabinet. Only last week, three commissioners resigned from the Edo State cabinet because they were appointed to represent Chief Tony Anenih, and in recent times, the PDP godfather fell out completely with AC's Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

Anyway, Governor Elechi handed down another law last week, saying all cabinet members must strictly observe the oath of secrecy. According to him, "the idea of government service is to allow complete action to be taken on a decision before it is revealed to the public." Where did Martins Elechi get this "idea"? He was saying, in other words, that a government is no better than a secret society; it mulls over and arrives at its decisions secretly, and then springs them upon the electorate.

If that is the case, why did we chase them military men out of the State Houses to make room for men in red Ozo caps like Elechi? You mean, when the 1999 Constitution was making elaborate provisions for cabinets and parliaments and elections and judiciaries and newspapers, it actually had a Supreme Military Council in mind? Why didn't it just say so, and save us the entire charade called information, enlightenment, debate, consensus, committee hearings, Assembly plenary and even general elections?

Anyway, this story out of Abakaliki had a very fitting conclusion. After playing Moses for several minutes, St. Martins Elechi finally saw it fit to play the Almighty. He handed down one more law to the commissioners, and in this one he abandoned all pretence and climbed up unto God Almighty's throne.

Elechi told the cabinet members, "I am a jealous God. I am the God that brought you out from the land of Egypt. You have no other God beside me."

Very good. A state governor in Nigeria said this, in a written speech, and his Special Assistant on Communications made no effort to consult a Thesaurus and find other words with similar meaning. Indeed, the newspaper report that I read did not say that Governor Elechi acknowledged the copyright on these words, since the Almighty had said the same words in the Book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 2-17 at least 3,000 years ago. The Nigeria Copyright Commission must now determine whether the Almighty legally transferred His patents to St. Elechi and whether any royalties were paid, in Heaven's own polymer currency notes.