Nigeria: Constitutional Democracy and the Use of Organised Coercive Force At the Disposal of the State

31 March 2015
opinion

Among the fundamental concerns of constitutional democracy is the protection, under a constitution as supreme, overriding law of the land, of the individual, his rights and freedoms, from the use of organised coercive force at the disposal of the state. It may be said that the liberty or freedom of the individual from physical coercion by force or violence, or, worse still, by armed force, is as fundamental to constitutional democracy, and needs as much protection by the constitution, as his right to vote in an election for the choice of persons to govern the affairs of the community, which is the thing primarily focused on by the generality of Nigerians as what democracy is all about, understandably perhaps, since that is what they readily perceive and appreciate. But democracy has a wider meaning that goes together with liberty; neither can exist in complete form without the other. Constitutional democracy combines them both.

The state is an organisation of power and force. As an organised force, the force at the disposal of the state is an awesomely mighty force, a leviathan, a huge monster, in the apt description of it made familiar to us by Thomas Hobbes in his book, Leviathan (1651), edited by Michael Oakshott (1960) - a force so mighty and awesome the individual cannot resist it, and which he will only defy at his peril. The force is all the more irresistible because it is in the exclusive monopoly of the state. Thus, by section 227 of the Constitution, as reinforced by provisions in the Criminal Code or Penal Code, "no association shall retain, organise, train or equip any person or group of persons for the purpose of enabling them to be employed for the use or display of physical force or coercion."

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