Part of the reason President Buhari was elected to office was his antecedent as a military man who fought corruption via decrees and very stiff jail sentences. For most of us Nigerians very eager for change, we were not to realize that fighting corruption by throwing people off planes the way the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte is doing is not the same thing as fighting corruption in a real democracy. In a democracy, a president cannot decree his way through. A civilian president needs the backing of the two other arms of government. Also, as a civilian, the president needs the people.
By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku
News that seized the public space for the most of the dying convulsions of 2016 was the nomination and rejection of Ibrahim Magu as EFCC chairman by the Senate.
We all know that certain twin brothers – corruption and mismanagement of resources have been our albatross as a nation. Both twins have held us hostage and pundits have quipped that if we do not kill them, they would kill us.
Therefore, there is an understandable interest both in Nigeria and abroad, in anyone who occupies the office of corruption-fighter-in-chief. Part of the reason President Buhari was elected to office was his antecedent as a military man who fought corruption via decrees and very stiff jail sentences.
For most of us Nigerians very eager for change, we were not to realize that fighting corruption by throwing people off planes the way the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte is doing is not the same thing as fighting corruption in a real democracy.
In a democracy, a president cannot decree his way through. A civilian president needs the backing of the two other arms of government. Also, as a civilian, the president needs the people.
Whether or not the people need the president is what four years will determine. But there cannot be any other ally in the fight against corruption than the people – ordinary people. If the people are behind you, let the lawyers and scribes be against you but it would be to their peril.
But if the people do not trust you; if they perceive that there is double-mindedness in your desire to kill corruption and mismanagement, you can arrest all the judges and lawyers to no avail.
When we talk about the people, we really mean the people. These days it is usually a very difficult thing to draw that simple line between who really represents the people, and that is in spite of the abundant provisions made for one whole arm of government to represent us the people.
And to that extent, because we realize that it would be really hard for Mr. Buhari to finish off the twin demons of corruption and mismanagement all by himself, we have entered into a plan with the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, with support from the EU, to promote the ability of civil society and members of the media to help Mr. President fight against corruption.
The plan involves building the capacity of representatives of the people and the media to understand concepts like the Open Governance Partnership, OGP.
The OGP is a multi-stakeholder enterprise. It focuses on improving government transparency, accountability and responsiveness to citizens using skill and non-traditional techniques.
It was launched in 2011 when the 8 founding governments – Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, South Africa, the UK and the US – validated the Open Government Declaration and announced their country action plans.
Since then, as much as 62 additional governments have signed on. Nigeria became a member in July 2016 at the London Anti-Corruption Summit. At that meeting, Nigeria did not have an Action Plan but it is to the credit of this administration that a plan for January 2017 – June 2019 has been developed with a lot of effort from civil society and the business community.
This plan was launched in Kaduna and also presented in France last year. One of the key deliverables of the OGP is the open contracting platform which the Bureau of Public Procurement is currently working on.
We have also come to the understanding that there are certain frameworks and mechanisms within international bodies like the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, UNCAC, which can support the thrust around the advocacy issues on corruption in Nigeria.
One of the UNCAC frameworks which can help pursue politically exposed persons who have dipped their hands in the common purse is the non-conviction based approach. In other lands, there are measures in place like the voluntary disclosure program, VDP, which our people erroneously associate with plea bargaining.
Under that scheme, there are well-spelt out sanctions if a politically exposed person comes forward to return what he or she has taken from the common purse. What makes the case for the plea bargain difficult is that they have put the system through the rigour, have been convicted and therefore may make a plea before the courts for some sort of bargain.
Our organisation ANEEJ has already held an inception meeting in Abuja. Among other matters, we will bring focal persons involved in the implementation of OGP and UNCAC review process to interface with CSOs and Journalists.
This is an important aspect of the advocacy tool to fight corruption. We find that a great many Civil Society organizations and journalists have certain challenges with the procurement process, even though it is generally known that it is at the points of award of contracts that pressure to circumvent the processes sets in.
What we hope to gain is progress with the processes involved with fighting corruption. If journalists and CSOs know where to go to at the Federal Ministry of Justice or the Presidency to ask relevant questions related to Open Government systems, perhaps we would be getting somewhere.
For the UNCAC, Nigeria signed on to it in 2003. It went on to ratify it the following year. Nigeria has been actively involved in the negotiations leading to the review mechanisms since the convention came into force.
The review process comprises two five-year cycles: the first cycle (2010–2015) covers chapter III on criminalization and law enforcement and chapter IV on international cooperation. The second cycle (2015–2020) covers chapter II on preventive measures and chapter V on asset recovery.
Etemiku is manager of communications, ANEEJ, Abuja
@bobaneej
