igala day san speech

8/4/2019 Igala Day San Speech

1/14

Governance and Accountability in Nigeria

BY

ALHAJI ABDULLAHI ffiRAHIM, CON, SAN, FNIALS,FCI arb.

BEING A LECTURE AT THE IGALA V I( ANNUALGENERALMEETING IN LONDON ON THE 3RD OF SEPTEMBER,

2011


2/14

- 0 clarifv

1

What is Governance?

BEING A LECTURE BY ALHAIT ABDULLAHI IBRAHIM, CON,SAN, FNIALS, FCI arb. AT THE IGALA UK ANNUAL GENERAL

MEETING IN LONDON ON THE 3RD OF SEPTEMBER 2011

Governance and Accountability in Nigeria

It gives me great pleasure to share my thoughts with thisdistinguished audience on a topical issue as this. I thank theorganisers for giving me yet another opportunity to contribute myquota to their noble quest for a better and more humane societythrough improved governance and accountability. I am delighted tonote that despite the fact that the members of this Association arebased in the UK which is thousands of miles away from ourhomeland, Nigeria, your commitment to the cause of good andaccountable governance at home remains emphatic and unmistakable.This IS not at all surprising. Your daily experience of good and

::o:mtaDle governance in a developed society as this cannot but- .: : :- . roved gO\'ernance at home.

- nn ~ man I e -ami iar. i - e Im n or si t l an eappears to have been lost to many in our country, especially the elitewho wield governmental powers for the time being. In the same vein,the term 'accountability' equally seems to have lost its meaningdespite being frequently mouthed by politicians and other governmentofficials in public speeches and official statements. It is thereforenecessary that I define my terms.

Governance is simply the process of governing or controllingthe affairs of a country or any other socio-political entity. Governanceis not an end in itself but a means to an end. That end is to secure thecollective well-being and security of the populace. The body of


3/14

.- - -.;:r.... ....=

concept is well described by the Constitution of the Federal Republiof Nigeria in chapter 2 which lays down the 'FundamentalObjectives and Directive Principles of State Policy'. I shallconsider these briefly anon.

2

What is Accountability?Accountability refers to the obligation of public officials and

institutions to submit their activities to scrutiny by the members of thepublic, and by the organs and institutions of government vested withthe power to carry out such scrutiny. It demands compliance withprocedures that will deter and detect wrongdoing. A government isregarded as accountable if its activities are exposed to the searchlightof public scrutiny, including that of the opposition. The concept is

individuals and institutions that carry on governance is known as thegovernment. The government is a product of a social contract with theelectorates who instituted it for the good of the community. Theconcept of representative democracy is a pragmatic response to thefelt need for effective governance. As all the people could not rulethemselves directly, they settled for elected representatives who arevested with governmental powers to control the affairs of the country.It follows therefore that the powers of the government must be used toadvance the welfare of the people or ' the greatest good of the

1greatest number', to borrow the popular phrase of Jeremy Bentham.Any government or ruler that fails to do this loses legitimacy and isnot entitled to enjoy the support of right-thinking members of thesociety. Governance for its own sake is meaningless unless it carrieswith it the notion of good governance. Therefore, a government thatadvances the welfare of the general public is generally referred to as

-ernment'. The concept good governance has in recent times'on and support. As Thomas Frank has

r=",,-;-..- - - ~ . a global entitlement


4/14

closely linked with the concept of responsibility, which means that thegovernment, being a creation of the people, must be subject tocorrection, control and eventual removal by the people. Transparencyis a key component of accountability. It simply connotes that publicofficials and institutions must be answerable and accessible to thegeneral public. The government must be ready to provide answers toquestions about its activities unless it is in the interest of peace andsecurity to withhold such information. Both transparency andaccountability are indispensable to good governance.Constitutional Framework for Good Governance

Right from its Preamble to the substantive provIsions andschedules, the Nigerian Constitution harps on the importance of goodgovernance. Indeed, this objective runs through the Constitution asimperfect as it may be. I personally believe that no matter how good a

itution may be on paper, the attitudes, values, education.-. e l ' 0 le who are expected to implement it matter

Id still make progress if its: :1- _ - ;. " e right vaIu ,

wh n a ocietv with-~ o o d laws is not blessed with good and honest leaders who can makethe laws work. This perhaps explains why our country continues toexperience underdevelopment, insecurity, abuse of office, lawlessnessand other symptoms of bad governance despite possessing many wellcrafted legal and constitutional provisions. Take for example, thefollowing provisions of our constitution:

The Preamble to the 1999 Nigerian Constitution underscores theimportance of good governance in these words, '...And to provide fora Constitution for the purpose ofpromoting good government andwelfare of all persons in our country on the principles of Freedom,Equality and Justice, and for the purpose of consolidating the unityofourpeople:... '

3


5/14

4

Constitutional and Legal Framework for Accountability

-.=

Similarly, Chapter Two enshrines a wide range of social,economic, political, educational, environmental, foreign policy andother objectives of the country aimed at promoting the ideals offreedom, dignity, justice, equality, rule of law and development.Although these objectives are non-justiciable, they are to be observedand implemented in governmental programmes. It has been suggestedthat these principles set a parameter for the attainment of goodgovernance.3

. . 'in." ' O -mas es and the government is made a countable to the electorates forits acts and omissions.

Furthermore, Chapter Four provides for an elaborate set offundamental rights including the right to life, human dignity,expression, conscience and worship, non-discrimination and so on.The existence and respect for these rights will promote goodgovernance in the country.

Unfortunately however, the existence of these rights appears to'e made only a minimal impact on the lives of the majority of_ .,.... 3.Se of our country makes clear that merely

doe no nece aril ....

Our Constitution and laws are not short of provisions formaintaining transparency and accountability of government. A few ofthese may be highlighted. Firstly, the doctrine of separation of powersis incorporated into sections 4, 5, and 6 of the constitution. It positsthat in the exercise of its legislative functions, the National Assemblyand the Houses ofAssembly are accountable to the courts of law. Theexecutive is made accountable to the legislature which could be aneffective platform for mobilising public opinion against abuse ofpower by the executive. However, a legislature that is deeply


6/14

enmeshed in corruption and influence peddling can hardly serve as acredible check on the executive. The situation is even worse at thestate level where some houses of assembly are completely suppliantto the executive. Such legislatures that have sold their independenceto the executive cannot demand accountability from that arm ofgovernment. The situation is worsened by the fact that in manyHouses of Assembly, the Governor's party often controlsoverwhelming if not full majority. The absence of effectiveopposition in our Houses of Assembly does not augur well for goodgovernance and accountability. Strangely enough, several Houses ofAssembly reportedly voted against constitutional amendmentproposal that was intended to strengthen their financial independenceof the executive arm.

Our legislative assemblies have much to learn from the maturityand independence of the advanced democracies which effectively

- . r .d he k the tendencies of the executive to fall belowa .,oi i l l and creativity of the legislative

~ - = of e,eral- -=-:.-.:' - -: -- ~ ....-- - r -e of ro\iding

more e e ti,oe O\oersight oyer the pending of gO\ernment funds andexercise of governmental powers.

The presidential system of government seems to accordconsiderable primacy to the executive. It places the President in aposition to co-ordinate both the executive and legislative processes ofgovernment. Care must be taken to ensure that the executive powersdo not undermine accountability and constitutionalism. The danger ofabsolutism heightens when the President or Governor enjoys total anduncritical support of the members of the legislative body. In somecases the Houses may be bought over with favours which ought to beused for providing communal needs. Unfortunately, this seems to bethe case in many of our states where the executive and the legislatureare occupied by members of the same political party.

5


7/14

Institutions ofAccountabilityThe Constitution establishes a number of institutions for the

purpose of ensuring accountability by public officials. Theseinstitutions include the Code of Conduct Bureau which is vested withpower to receive declarations of assets by public officers and examinesuch declarations in order to ensure compliance with the code. TheCode makes provisions for monitoring the personal integrity of allpublic officers who must, immediately after taking office and atstipulated intervals, submit to the Bureau a written declaration of theirproperties, assets and liabilities and those of their wives andunmarried children under the age of eighteen. Further, it prohibitsbribery and places restriction on loans, gifts or other benefits toan public officials.

:5......... 0 ...

- e Coee ofCondu t Tribunal which is empowered.- - C - :-Cnd:. t and to impo sanctions upon

a ropna e.The Office of the Auditor-General is established for the purpose

of auditing and reporting on the public accounts of the Federation andof all offices and courts of the Federation to the National Assembly.An equivalent office exists for the states. The Auditor-General isvested with the power to conduct periodic checks of all governmentstatutory corporations, commissions, authorities and agencies. It maybe observed that successive governments (whether military orcivilian) have not taken the question of financial accountabilityseriously. The political office holders and civil servants seem to sharethe same attitude in this regard. Consequently, government accountsare often not audited for years. This negative attitude has further beencompounded by the prevailing poor standard of accounting practice.

6


8/14

All these must be corrected as a matter of urgency so that auditedpublic accounts can be promptly made available for open scrutiny anddebate by the legislative branch. However, a legislature that isenmeshed in fmancial mess would not be able to summon the moralcourage required to provide oversight ofpublic spending.

The judiciary is yet another institution of accountability. Overthe years, the judiciary, although made fairly independent bysuccessive Nigerian constitutions, remains a weak and ineffectivecheck on corruption because of outdated and inefficient procedures,delay in the determination of cases, court congestion, poor workingconditions of judges and lack of moral courage on the part of somejudges. However, some of the delays and inefficiencies in theadministration of justice are due to the attitudes of the prosecution andthe defence alike who sometimes seek unnecessary adjournments.Recent events in the judiciary show that the judiciary itself must be~ " ' r , . : ~ e t to mechanisms of accountability. The recommendations

Eso Panel (of which I was a member) for the. :0 L mm as Judicial

- . -- -- o ~ - i r d as a wa . of further--r ngthening the judi iary and making it accountable. I will say nomore on this as the recent conflict between the former Chief Justice ofNigeria and Hon. Justice Salami is now subjudice.

Other constitutional provisions for accountability include themulti-party system, the conduct of periodic elections, the recall oflegislators and impeachment provisions though a few of these have sofar been used by the voters.Factors Inhibiting Good and Accountable Governance

Despite the above provisions the emergence of good andaccountable governance remains a dream in the country. The factorsresponsible for this include lack of leadership by example, lack ofcommitment by the political parties to values of integrity and

7


9/14

accountability; ignorance and pervasive illiteracy which makes it easyfor politicians to manipulate the electorates for selfish political gains,greed on the part of the political elite and the resultant rat race for theprimitive accumulation of ill-gotten wealth. Many of these factors aretraceable to the quality of individuals who occupy the public offices.Most political office holders are people who could afford to spendhuge sums of money on election campaigns right from party primariesto the main elections. When such people win elections, can they bestopped from recouping the money spent and helping themselves to asmuch more as possible in preparation for subsequent elections? Thistherefore becomes a vicious cycle and one hopes that the cycle will besnapped one day. This also makes it impossible for them to trigger theaccountability mechanisms in the Constitution and other laws.Similarly, the 'money bags' or 'political godfathers' who sponsorcandidates for elections often expect to be given juicy contracts andI ra i\'e political appointments which would enable them to recoup

e ,-', This group is joined by young persons sometimes,..,_.' ~ t ' -ome ase, put bluntly thugs

-,.., ri' - e mie. These=5 5:


10/14

countries worldwide that are ye t to overcome the epidemic o fpreventable polio. It is disheartening that our country remains part o fthis unenviable league.

:\igeria continues to incur huge economic and financial losses asa result o f poor infrastructure such as bad roads and epileptic powersupply. The most basic o f all transportation remains the road. Badroads increase the rate o f wear and tear o f vehicles and worsenpoverty as goods cannot be easily transported from on e part o f thecountry to another. It can take as long as eight hours to travel fromLokoja to Abuja owing to vehicular congestion and high rate o faccidents on the road. It has been argued that thousands o f commutersdie gradually or have their lifespan reduced as a result o f daily stressoccasioned by deplorable roads. 'This is beside the wanton carnagethat results from ubiquitous pot holes, bowl-holes and craters on ourroads. ,5

........f;..... .....r

9

Pervasive Insecurity-Tongues are wagging and eyebrows are raised about the state o f

insecurity o f life and property in the country. Ranging from the recentgroup called Boko Haram in the North East and FCT, Ethno-religiousmayhem on the Plateau, Kidnappers and Armed Robbers in variousparts o f the country, bomb explosions in Abuja and environs, there ishardly any safe haven in the country now. Many have rightly arguedthat the root causes o f all these consist largely in joblessness and drugabuse by young school leavers who feel disappointed and frustrated.While recourse to criminality and other anti-social behaviour may notbe an acceptable response, many youths lack the moral fibre andamily upport that could restrain their exuberant tendencies and

-- 1- --imperative that families play some important roles in- o f [amil." -alues once more.


11/14

SuggestionsAt this juncture, let me make a few suggestions for bringing

about good governance in our country.Devolve More Resources to the States and Local Governments

Revisit the revenue allocation formula. A major bane of thenational economy is the lopsided character of the annual FederalBudget which commits a huge proportion of budgetary allocation torecurrent expenditure while leaving a small part to capitalexpenditure. There is also the concentration of too much funds at theFederal level where the capacity to utilise these funds is limited. Thesituation is not helped by the growing expenditure profile of theNational Assembly. It has lost the moral stature to call any othergovernment agency to order. The much publicised power sector probe:: ," " ,-a:ional As embly has not yielded a single successful; - , j } ! ~ t : t i a - : ; - - 'ere 0 d "an ing. Indeed. some of

H'..1.,,,CC: rc" their s ats in;20 - ......"-: - . - - -

Although the Constitution provides for representation of states in thefederal cabinet, there is the fear that the cabinet may become overbloated with the possibility of overlap in responsibilities. One also hasto take into consideration the fact that Special Assistants and otheraides can be and are appointed in the offices of the President, VicePresident and even Ministers. It is worrisome that this trend is copiedeven at the state level where Governors appoint all sorts of SpecialAssistants and Personal Assistants in unbelievable numbers.Accelerate Efforts toward Implementing the MillenniumDevelopment Goals (MDGs)

10


12/14

The Industrial Training Fund should be strengthened to fulfil itsandate of inculcating skills in young Nigerians.

In Yiew of the fact that Agriculture contributes a large proportion ofthe GDP, the agricultural sector should be revived. It will be recalledthat agriculture used to be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy priorto the discovery of oil. The government should provide socialamenities in the rural areas in order to reduce the pressure to abandonthe farms in preference for the urban centres. Efforts should beheightened to make agriculture more attractive so it can absorb andretain millions of the nation's unemployed youths. The governmentshould address the challenge of storage of perishable agriculturaloutputs.The on-going restoration of the railway system should be sustained asa means not only of moving people but also of transportingagricultural outputs.

diYersified in order to steer it away fromx - i "e d pendence on oil.

n-e ., ~ , ould

It is necessary for all hands to be on deck in mobilising effortstowards the implementation of the global poverty eradication andsocial development targets of the MDGs before the 2015 deadline.These targets include reducing extreme poverty and hunger, infantand maternal mortality, disease, and promoting universal access tobasic education and health care. While g o v e r n m e n t ~ a t all levels haverightly taken the lead in this direction, it should be clear by now thatthe efforts of government alone will not suffice. Other stakeholderssuch as civil society organisations, community based associationsought to step into the arena of action towards achieving these targets.It was recently revealed by no less a public official than the MinisterofWomen Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina thatfour million Nigerian girls between the ages of six and eleven do notattend school.6

11


13/14

Reform the Electoral SystemWhile significant progress was achieved in the conduct of the

2011 General elections, there are still numerous aspects of ourelectoral system calling for urgent reform. These include the use ofviolence or threat of violence to influence the outcome of elections,non-prosecution of many perpetrators of election violence (althoughthe INEe seems to be taking some steps to change this now) and otherelection-related offences, excessive use of money for politicalcampaigns and lack of internal democracy within political parties.These factors have alienated many credible Nigerians from the arenaof politics which is still dominated by people of questionablecharacter and shady background. The electoral system must be totallyreformed. Many of these outstanding matters are dealt with by therecommendations of the Hon. Justice Uwais Electoral Reform Panel.These recommendations should be adopted in very many cases.

It is clear from the foregoing that accountability is central to goodgovernance. Therefore, the various legal and constitutional provisionson accountability must be given practical effect so that our countrycan reap the benefits of development at all levels of government. Theenthronement of good governance at the federal, state and localgovernment level will go a long way in solving many of the problemscurrently facing us as a people. It will ensure the consolidation ofdemocracy, security of life and property, provision of socialamenities, reduction of poverty and unemployment and generally helpto raise the standard of living of our people.My brothers, sisters and children, I want to thank you for the

opportunity you have given me to address you once again. I wish to12


14/14

thank our brothers and sisters from back home who are here present. Ithank you most sincerely. God bless every one of us and grant us asafe journey on our trips back home.

1 See Freeman, M.D.A., Lloyd's Introduction lo Jurisprudence, (Eighth cd. , Sweet and MaxwelI, London,2008) pp.269-2732 Thomas Frank, 'Democracy, Legitimacy and the Rule of Law: Linkages' in Dorsen and Gifford, eds,Democracy and the Rule of Law (CQ Press Washington, 200 I) p.176.3 Bolaji Owasanoye, 'Transparency, Accountability and Good Governance Under the Constitution'(paper presented at the National Conference on Issues in the 1999 Constitution) NIALS p.34 See Nasir El Rufai, 'Nigeria: Rich Country, Poor People' This Day, Friday 19th August, 2011, back page.s Idowu Abraham, 'Ogun State and Federal Roads', The Nation, Monday August 8, 2011, p.22.6 This Day August 25, 2011 pA7

13

igala day san speech

Documents