UNDERSTANDING THE 5TH COLUMN

Politics is a naturally occurring element in all human settings. There is clearly no room for perpetual inertia in human social relations. At all times, choices must be made for adoption.

In as much as the dynamics of social interactions necessitates the adoption of choices, conflicts often occur since, like it or not, preferences will abound inevitably, with no one willing to give in or made to appear docile.

From the perspective of present human political understanding, evolution over time has led to realities wherein, a tripod known as the three arms of government became a norm that we too in African settings have adopted, talking of the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary.

Generally speaking, however, for modern democracy to thrive, freedom of speech by way of a multiple choice of print and electronic broadcast of news and opinions means the PRESS is a fourth estate, so that meaningful and perpetuated political intermingling may persist and remain.

To define the role of the fifth column, we need to see for real, with no room for illusion that informal groups exist, made up mostly of disgruntled aggregations of persons in society. Like a valve that takes the heat off in tense times, if handled dexterously, fifth column elements could perform a useful societal function.