“From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” – US President Ronald Reagan.
Election time is here again and party activists for the two major political parties NPP and NDC are debating about who is the competent man to govern Ghana. According to these parties a competent president is one who can successfully run all the affairs of the individual. This was also an issue during the 2016 elections which brought the then opposition party NPP to government. There was a campaign about how incompetent the incumbent president was for failing to run the life of the individual. The fact is that almost all governments in the world have failed to run the life of the individual. As it is impossible for one to live the life of another so it is impossible for government to attempt to run the life of the individual. Each individual is absolute capable of running his/her own life. All that the individual requires is the legal rights to do so. A government will protect individual rights if he is truly competent.
Do you want the government to run your life or you want to run your own life? The answer to this question will determine whether or not we need a competent president to run our lives for us. The government running your life means you have a very limited freedom over your own life. Having a limited freedom also means you are limited to the abundance which this world offers. In a free society it is the actions of government which are limited and regulated by a constitution so as to give maximum freedom to the individual.
A competent president as popular known is a bureaucratic government who will take away most powers from the individual and placed it into the hands of the state. In this case a competent president is a threat to our social and economic freedoms. We need a laissez president not a competent president. We need a president who will eventually limit the size, scope and power of government not a president who will expand government programs under the disguise of competency. A government cannot be competent unless it protects individual rights. Our Individual rights and freedoms are very crucial to our survival that is why we must not allow any benevolent dictator to violate our rights and freedoms under the pretense of taking care of us. We must value our individual rights enough if we really value our lives.
A misconception of the nature and function of government is one reason why most people think we need a competent president or a bigger government to run the affairs of the people. Government is not a benevolent institution that takes care of the weak and vulnerable in society. There are many private organizations and churches doing better benevolence projects than the government does. So long as the people regard the government as a benevolent institution so will it allow the few to govern with a divine right. In the democracy of humanity, government is not our master but a servant. The function of the government is not to take care of you from your mother’s womb to tomb. The job of a proper government is to protect your rights to life, liberty and property. It is not a responsibility of government to run your life for you. It is your personal responsibility to do so.
Most people have also been brainwashed into believing that rights are guarantee to things. So, they vote for politicians thinking they will somehow provide for them if elected into office. This is what they have been conditioned to believe is their inalienable rights. If our rights were tangible things then need no worry because all we need is to go to the polls and vote for a benevolent dictator to give us those freebies. Our rights require duties, our freedoms require personal responsibilities. We are not to count our needs and wants as rights. Politicians use this to increase power. More political power means more corruption as Lord Acton the English politician famously wrote: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” If we give politicians too much power to decide for businesses and banks what will be the end results – corruption.
True government is self-government. The idea that each of us owns our life and that it is our responsibilities to care for our own lives is a liberating philosophy. This will bring us to the last analysis why we do not require a bigger government to run our lives. Back in the 1960s when Ghana’s first president was busily carrying out huge infrastructure developments to the detriments of the social and economic freedoms of the Ghanaian people, J.B. Danquah popular recognized as the doyen of Ghana politics wrote to him saying: “people not things develop a nation.” While government developmental projects and investment are in some way needed in the economy, we must not loose sight of its dangers when individual rights and freedoms are violated whilst pursuing so called national interest. As the 2024 elections draw near our politicians should be reminded of the once famous motto: “Government is best that which governs least.” A competent president must not necessarily attempt to run all the affairs of free people but to focus on that which is important – protecting individual rights to life, liberty and property.
