WRITER'S COLUMN

Public Rights to Credible Governance

Hadiza Wada, DBA …February 5, 2011

If we believe that man is made in God’s image, then we realize that as a being he stands alone, united in individuality and identity.  Every individual is accountable for his intent, actions and the consequences of those actions.  As an individual, he is endowed with responsibilities he must account for.  That is why he is given a name at birth with which everyone who wants to summon him in particular, for service or anything else, must use to call him specifically.  If his name is used in the third person while speaking to someone else, a person is making reference to him in order for others to associate whatever is said to him.  That in short makes a complete individual and a person.

But as a social animal that, unlike God, begets and has been begotten, man also radiates out and projects himself into a network of relationships.  These relationships begin with the parents who gave birth to him, a mother and a father.  If after growing up he wishes to procreate also, he becomes a husband, or a father.  As soon as he begins that journey away from being a child of someone else, to being a parent to others, responsibilities begin to pile on him. Why, because that is a choice he has personally made, or agreed to if helped by parents or relatives in making the right choice, for example.  It is a decision he made in moving forward with his life.  So, first and foremost, among his personal responsibilities, are those that come from within his immediate household.  His wife has certain rights that she demands from him as a wife.  So also his children if he gets any.

Soon, his neighbors and coworkers outside of his immediate home become another group of people he must learn to socialize with.  And in so doing he has to maintain certain standard of respect for their rights, just as he expects from them respect for his.  He can’t, for example, demand any rights, respect for his wishes and needs, actions etc. from them that he is not willing to reciprocate.  That is the first rule he learns in dealing with the wider society outside of his family.  This is because as soon as step outside the threshold of his house, he mingles with people who have different families, wants, relatives, and circle of influence from his.  He is no longer within a territory (his immediate family) where he has a greater degree of control and respect.  The only rule there that will generally get him what he wants, is the rule of a greater society, do unto others as you would like others to do unto you.   When things get a little complex and confusing as he moves along in life, he seeks counsel from his parents who might have gone through the same situation before him.  Most of the time, between his parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents, he is bound to have good counsel and consequently get the issue resolved.

Our Complex World

But as societies evolve, the situation becomes more complex.  No longer will people rely on just anyone’s words or promise without some concrete means of recouping what might otherwise be put at risk as a result.  For example, if someone just walks over to you and demand some money on loan, but whom you either do not know, or else you know just superficially without any means of verifying his ability to pay you back, the person should not be surprised if you refuse.  It is only logical.  But if one operates today within a very complex society that has learned to co-exist and grow together, one can practically walk into a bank, identify himself using a government issued identity, which practically leads to information about him in particular, giving the required confidence to the banker to agree to loan the person some money.   The banker though has never seen the individual in his life, before he stepped in for a loan. 

Though that system is not 100% foolproof, it practically works very well in many societies today.  The question then one should ask is; why can’t the same processes, rules, and procedures be thoroughly thought out, and applied to all facets of life such that one could virtually track the activities of those in other positions of trust within the government in real time, so the public can put a stop to their illegal activities and prevent them from misserving, misappropriating and embezzling funds meant for important projects and institutions that serve the greater society.

Given the care applied to ascertaining trust and confidence in banking processes, one would therefore think that in other facets of life also, such as politics and political processes, rules of engagement will be clear cut and practical so that the public will find concrete and practical ways of getting their elected representatives held accountable to what they have sworn to hold in trust.  After all even secular courts of law take testimony under oath with the belief that people who do swear will be held accountable if they violate such oath. In politics however, that is not the case in a great majority of countries and communities.  In actual fact, and in many societies developed and the so called undeveloped, people have equated politics with lies. 

In Nigeria, when someone wants to politely tell you that he believes you are trying to cheat or lie to him or her, he may say “are you playing politics with the issues.” He may also say "what I am talking about is genuine, do not bring in politics."  And in the United States and other countries too, politicians are associated with lying.   I was once reading a joke about politicians on the internet where a rural farmer was said to have buried some politicians who were involved in an accident near his farm.  When the police arrived and asked whether he was sure the politicians were dead before he buried them; the farmer replied, according to the joke, “some did tell me that they were alive, but you know them politicians.”

Deliberate lying, especially when done to cheat, violate and or take away what rightfully belongs to a community and then squander it somewhere else where it was not meant to go, or does not belong is in itself wrong, even if the person who performed the act did not benefit from his wrong doing.  What makes it even worse on the moral and ethical continuum, of course, is when the actor or performer of the act comes to directly benefit from that which he took away, stole, misapply or embezzle.  This does not matter whether the action was performed by those given positions of trust in a developing country like Nigeria, or internationally using collaborators outside the country who have no interest in the overall development and health of the local population.

Financial corruption within governmental circles by any other name devised to sanitize it, should not be condoned by any community.  If such acts continue to get condoned, they snowball and gradually lead to decay and consequently the complete breakdown of any institution that depends on the funds to function.  That is what we witness in countries like Nigeria today.  Many key institutions have broken down due to a chain of corruption that begins at the top, and trickle down to the local government level. What is generally needed to stem the scourge is not more laws, but the enforcement of existing laws.  Because the nation agrees and seems to find no other way of enforcing their wishes for enthroning a respectable and responsible government, the problem has defied any solution.  Those interested in maintaining the status quo by force, have practically ensured the people no choice, virtually rotating the positions of trust and responsibility among themselves.

Spiritually, all teachers of religion tell us that someone with morally bankrupt background should not be assigned any position of leadership, for he cannot even be trusted to restrain himself from his own violation, let alone other people’s responsibilities.  And the analogy is, if you take a dirty person, i.e. literally dirty with soil and smelly garbage, then put him up on a pedestal at the apex of say a structure like the pyramid, then below him as you move down are other people of various degree of cleanliness, you should know what will happen.  Before you know it not only will the dirty person on top be washing down his dirt onto the people, as he is held up high, there is also the possibility that others may “look up to him” i.e. begin to copy his corrupted life style.  Because by electing or appointing him to that position, one is indirectly telling the greater community that the person’s background is what it takes to be judged a leader. 

Today in Nigeria, education is one of the most devastated of all public sector institutions, becoming a victim of incessant corruption, tied from head to toe, confined and held hostage by politicians, from federal to local government level.  If one does not have the means to seek alternative sources of education such as private schools run at a cost, his children are doomed to illiteracy.  They have no chance of acquiring the most basic education needed to just function on a subsistence level.  And the monster of them all lies at the federal level, where statutory allocations get held until states, and agencies of the federal government including local governments have agreed to bribe some government personnel first, or agree to have such bribes and kick-backs unofficially deducted.

Other institutions that have defied solutions because it lacks the funds to function due to corruption include healthcare, infrastructure, sustainable electricity and all, you name them. The situation is reaching alarming levels, while those at the bottom of the ladder are further burdened with insecurity for their lives and most especially property within their houses, offices, as well as on the highway.