Accountability in government!

“Where there is no law, there is no offence.” – Legal Principle

It is often said that after God, the next in power hierarchy is the government. This mode of thinking comes from a school of thought that defines government as the “God of the day” (G.O.D.). The difference between God Almighty and government (God of the Day) is that while God Almighty is real, the God of the Day (government) is imaginary.

Yes, the government is an imaginary institution, meaning that it exists only in our minds or, at best, in law books. The matter is made more complex because, like the Christian God, who is one God but exists in three parts (God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), the government in our country is one but has the executive, legislature, and judiciary. Each arm of government is independent.

We can see that the more we seek to understand this being called government, the more complex it becomes. It is this complexity that creates an aura of mystery around people in government. Therefore, if we must get people in government to be accountable, we must demystify government by knocking off the sovereign corporate veil that people in government have appropriated to themselves. Under this veil, they commit all manner of constitutional breaches against the people of Nigeria and get away with it.

They get away with it because they are in government, and there is no law making it a chargeable offence to breach the constitution. This is where we got it wrong. Like in company law, where the company and its owners are separate entities, we must begin to separate the government from the people in government in order to hold those in government accountable for their misdeeds while in office.

If one may ask, why is it that, unlike in China and other Asian countries that hold people in government accountable for their misdeeds while in office, the same is not applicable in Nigeria? Here, we blame everything on the government because there is no law holding people in government accountable. We claim that people in government only have a social contract with the people. A social contract is a moral contract, which is unenforceable on people in government. This is why they go scot-free even after breaching the constitution.

If we go down memory lane, we will see a lot of atrocities and constitutional breaches committed by people in government that have brought Nigeria to its present miserable situation. We continue to blame it on past governments with no consequences.

Nigeria became an independent nation on October 1, 1960. The buildup to independence was characterised by conversations among the ethnic nationalities, leading to a conference in London by representatives of the indigenous people of Nigeria. The principal actors, in no order of importance, were Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, and Tafawa Balewa. Others included Anthony Enahoro, Eyo Ita, Dennis Osadebey, etc. They represented their people.

All agreed that given the multi-ethnic characteristics of Nigeria, the best form of government would be a federation of the various indigenous peoples. Under this arrangement, each region had a degree of autonomy as well as control over its resources. The arrangement was codified as a constitution, the final one being the 1963 Republican Constitution. Under this arrangement, every part of Nigeria—East, West, and North—was relaxed and happy, running a regional government in healthy competition, with each region developing at its own pace independently. They were, more or less, mini countries.

Like all nation-building processes, it was not a smooth sail. There were rough edges here and there, but not rough enough to threaten the life and existence of the country. Then, in January 1966, some military officers staged a coup and toppled the government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. They subsequently suspended the people’s constitution, relying on power acquired through the barrel of a gun, and imposed a unitary system of government.

They ruled with military decrees in place of the constitution. But this is not the form of government that the indigenous people of Nigeria agreed upon when coming together. To say that this is an illegal government would be an understatement. The military officers had a field day, staging coups and countercoups, capping it off with military-engineered constitutions in 1979 and 1999. These constitutions are an amalgamation of military decrees imposed on the people of Nigeria.

Because the government, as defined above, is an artificial institution, there were no consequences for the coup plotters or the people that reshaped Nigeria away from what the indigenous people agreed upon from the very beginning. We are experiencing myriad problems in Nigeria today because the Nigeria we are operating is not the Nigeria we got from the British at independence.

Some of the people who caused the character of Nigeria to be distorted through successfully executed coups are still alive and walking the streets free of consequences. In fact, two of the active participants have been rewarded as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces for a combined period of sixteen (16) odd years. Others were and are still being rewarded as heads of parastatals, national assembly members, and other lucrative political positions.

The time has come for us to stop paying lip service to accountability by people in government. Where there is no law, there is no offence. The House of Assembly should pass a law establishing a constitutional court for the trial of the political class—both elected and appointed—who breach the constitution for personal or group benefits. There must be a motivation for the political class to breach the constitution. This motive should be enquired into, and stiff penalties should be imposed on convicts to act as a deterrent to those who aspire to breach the constitution for personal or group benefits.

Finally, engaging in #EndBadGovernance will not solve the problem of accountability in government because of the impunity on the part of people in government who act this way because there is no law to hold them accountable to the people. The time to act is now. Let us establish a constitutional court to try governors, presidents, and other executives who engage in expenditure without budgetary appropriation, and the establishment of the office of the First Lady, which is not captured in the constitution. We can go on and on.

Chris Enyinnaya; Fellow, Chartered Institute of Bankers: [email protected]