Nigeria's Need for Transparency and Accountability
9 December 2023 By Abiodun Kareem Giwa
Lamido Sanusi belongs to Nigeria's ruling class as a former Central Bank governor and Kano's titular head. He wrongly said President Bola Tinubu, as minister of Petroleum, could make accountability impossible. He got it wrong because no one should be above openness and results. Accountability is about people knowing what you are doing as a public officer, that you have not done anything wrong against your oath of office, and that your work positively impacts the people. Every leader should be transparent and accountable; failure should lead to public rebuke.
Leaders in a sane climate should know the importance of obedience to the oath of office. When an organization is assumed to be above accountability because a particular officer manages, they are God and above questioning. People will ask about the public policy process, the missing accountability guidelines, and the role of the media in holding the government accountable to the people.
However, one should not belabor Sanusi's statement about Nigeria's president as the minister of the NNPCL - Nigeria's golden egg as the petroleum ministry. His reference may be to an insane society where the accountability process is redundant. The United States Democracy presents an example of where the leadership is held accountable through the White House media hearing and the Government Accountability Office linking the White House to Congress for improvement in efficiency and effectiveness.
Nigeria presents a different setup. It is Africa's giant with a vast population, educated and uneducated adults, and a large economy. It is unclear if the country's Democracy follows an acceptable public policy process. History shows a nation gradually declining after political independence. Its parliamentary Democracy crashed after barely six years of practice with the army at the helm following a mismanaged coup that manifested a corruption of tribal domination. However, the military said it came to fight the corruption of money grabbing to save the country from imminent doom. The army's tribal domination fight caused a civil war and the subjugation of one of the tribes. The army failed to save the country from doom.
No winner or vanquished was declared to close the war's wounds. And there was quietness. No one was accountable for the 30 months or so of fighting and killings to keep the nation one. But there was a winner and vanquished. Somebody covered up the truth to avoid accountability. Nigeria's return to popular Democracy did not eradicate the role of traditional rulers, viewed as second to the creator and above questioning whether they care about people's welfare. Nigerians' welfare was never on its leaders' agenda until General Murtala Muhammed said Nigeria's welfare was sacrosanct. Holding public officials accountable was necessary and should begin with addressing people's needs. Those before and after him only cared about filling their accounts abroad with oil money and maintaining their public ego. Muhammed lost out less than six months. General Olusegun Obasanjo, whose preoccupation was currying an international image as one who transferred power back to the civilians, took over. He ensured the Sokoto Caliphate regained its lost leadership in his transfer of power from the 1966 coup, aimed at purging the country of financial corruption.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo's election loss and the foisting of Alhaji Shehu Shagari was the cancellation of accountability in Nigeria's schemes. Shagari led a corrupt political party of the first order, and all the military leaders - Muhammed Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, and Sanni Abacha were all corrupt but came camouflaging in corruption fighter's garb. Nigeria's first destruction began with the tribal struggle between the regional leaders' plan to take everything to their people in the regions and not develop the country, favoring an entrenchment of ten percent corruption schemes to please cronies. The second destruction began in 1979 by Obasanjo. He ensured power returned to Sokoto and disallowed Awolowo, the only leader who showed accountability from gaining power. The destruction completed by the trio of military leaders - Buhari, Babangida, and Abacha- all came after Shagari's misrule to stop the drift but failed.
Lamido Sanusi's statement as a former titular head represents what is acceptable in the palace and not in a community with entrenched ways to be transparent and accountable if the policy is adhered to. Accountability in the NNPCL is not impossible with President Bola Tinubu as its minister if Nigerians are serious about making the country sane.
Does Nigeria have a Government Accountability Office? Does the Aso Rock hold frequent media briefings? Sanusi would have made a significant impact in his speech had he spoken about the need for Nigeria to follow the process for public office holders' accountability as allowed in a democratic process and that Tinubu would earn public rebuke if he failed to make where the money goes transparent.
Leaders in a sane climate should know the importance of obedience to the oath of office. When an organization is assumed to be above accountability because a particular officer manages, they are God and above questioning. People will ask about the public policy process, the missing accountability guidelines, and the role of the media in holding the government accountable to the people.
However, one should not belabor Sanusi's statement about Nigeria's president as the minister of the NNPCL - Nigeria's golden egg as the petroleum ministry. His reference may be to an insane society where the accountability process is redundant. The United States Democracy presents an example of where the leadership is held accountable through the White House media hearing and the Government Accountability Office linking the White House to Congress for improvement in efficiency and effectiveness.
Nigeria presents a different setup. It is Africa's giant with a vast population, educated and uneducated adults, and a large economy. It is unclear if the country's Democracy follows an acceptable public policy process. History shows a nation gradually declining after political independence. Its parliamentary Democracy crashed after barely six years of practice with the army at the helm following a mismanaged coup that manifested a corruption of tribal domination. However, the military said it came to fight the corruption of money grabbing to save the country from imminent doom. The army's tribal domination fight caused a civil war and the subjugation of one of the tribes. The army failed to save the country from doom.
No winner or vanquished was declared to close the war's wounds. And there was quietness. No one was accountable for the 30 months or so of fighting and killings to keep the nation one. But there was a winner and vanquished. Somebody covered up the truth to avoid accountability. Nigeria's return to popular Democracy did not eradicate the role of traditional rulers, viewed as second to the creator and above questioning whether they care about people's welfare. Nigerians' welfare was never on its leaders' agenda until General Murtala Muhammed said Nigeria's welfare was sacrosanct. Holding public officials accountable was necessary and should begin with addressing people's needs. Those before and after him only cared about filling their accounts abroad with oil money and maintaining their public ego. Muhammed lost out less than six months. General Olusegun Obasanjo, whose preoccupation was currying an international image as one who transferred power back to the civilians, took over. He ensured the Sokoto Caliphate regained its lost leadership in his transfer of power from the 1966 coup, aimed at purging the country of financial corruption.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo's election loss and the foisting of Alhaji Shehu Shagari was the cancellation of accountability in Nigeria's schemes. Shagari led a corrupt political party of the first order, and all the military leaders - Muhammed Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, and Sanni Abacha were all corrupt but came camouflaging in corruption fighter's garb. Nigeria's first destruction began with the tribal struggle between the regional leaders' plan to take everything to their people in the regions and not develop the country, favoring an entrenchment of ten percent corruption schemes to please cronies. The second destruction began in 1979 by Obasanjo. He ensured power returned to Sokoto and disallowed Awolowo, the only leader who showed accountability from gaining power. The destruction completed by the trio of military leaders - Buhari, Babangida, and Abacha- all came after Shagari's misrule to stop the drift but failed.
Lamido Sanusi's statement as a former titular head represents what is acceptable in the palace and not in a community with entrenched ways to be transparent and accountable if the policy is adhered to. Accountability in the NNPCL is not impossible with President Bola Tinubu as its minister if Nigerians are serious about making the country sane.
Does Nigeria have a Government Accountability Office? Does the Aso Rock hold frequent media briefings? Sanusi would have made a significant impact in his speech had he spoken about the need for Nigeria to follow the process for public office holders' accountability as allowed in a democratic process and that Tinubu would earn public rebuke if he failed to make where the money goes transparent.
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