Laws are a necessity and a prerequisite in governance as they are very critical in the promotion of societal stability, harmony, efficiency and justice. They very much help in defining duties and responsibilities for citizens, organisations and government entities. There are thus consequences when laws are flouted or circumvented, and this buttresses why institutions established by laws must remain strengthened and above individuals and all those that created them.
I make bold to state that in Nigeria there is a growing culture to circumvent laws, and when this trend is not confronted, development and economic stability will remain elusive. Our laws established Local Governments [LGs] as the third tier of governance after the federal and state governments. We all know how the state governments have emasculated the LGs to the extent that their funds were subsumed by them. The present government of President Bola Tinubu made bold to establish, through the Supreme Court, the financial autonomy of the LGs. But what are we witnessing these days in LG elections? Every ruling party in a state is capturing 100% of LG chairmanship, surreptitiously leaving them to be tagged in the apron strings of the state governors. Definitely, this is a disingenuous circumvention of the LG Law. But as long as we remain favoured by this manipulation of LG elections, we merely look the other way.
Let us recall that in a bid to check and sanitise the excesses in the cost of governance, that ex-President Obasanjo was thoughtful enough to introduce a monetisation policy with regard to some benefits and perks of office such as for housing and vehicles. Beneficiaries in government and the National Assembly [NASS], in love with exotic vehicles have often turned around to acquire them as “project vehicles” and “oversight vehicles” respectively, in order to justify their procurement. But how and where do they all end up? You and I know, but we have all looked the other way as this circumvention for official vehicle acquisition prevails.
With regard to the provision of official residences, we know that statutorily it is Mr President and Mr Vice President who are entitled to such. What is the provision of the Law with regard to the headship of NASS, the judges and our ministers? Have we bothered to interrogate, because if they are entitled to housing allowances in their perks of office they are no longer entitled to the provision of residences by government. But just last week we witnessed the FCT minister offering C-of-Os to some judges for the parcels of land to the quarters to be built for them. Here is a minister, who is a representative of the Executive Arm, offering this to the Judiciary Arm, with the newly appointed Chief Justice of Nigeria [CJN] in attendance. Is it not the responsibility of the Judiciary to budget for this, if appropriate? We must begin to interrogate the wider implications of such gestures as they reflect on the independence of concerned arms of government.
At independence in 1960 we mimicked our colonial masters and copied their Parliamentary system, which we later dropped for the presidential, now copying the American system. The US is more populous than Nigeria, has more states than Nigeria, but less Secretaries [ministers] than Nigeria. Our constitution stipulates that every of our 36 states and the FCT must be represented by a federal minister, but does this Law justify our 50 ministers in an embarrassingly dwindling economy? Have we taken time to do the math of the financial and security implications of the new Law regulating the number of vehicles and security personnel attached to each of these government appointees? But do we bother to?
In the state of an unhealthy economic outlook, a country cannot afford to sacrifice prudence on the altar of the ego of individuals and collective national pride. And as we are primed to tighten our belts and make sacrifices, it is also incumbent on the leadership at all tiers of government and governance to lead the way and show the followership the light and the path to follow. Leadership is predicated on TRUST.
•Sir Jonas writes from Abuja, Nigeria
