In our last article on April 8, 2020 titled: COVID-19 pandemic and your Position in society, a very important point was made that a swift and impartial enforcement of laws by government effectively checkmates and minimises the reckless display of impunity by its citizens. https://sundiatapost.com/covid-19-pandemic-and-your-position-in-society-by-isaac-n-obasi/
The example of the swift response by the police in Lagos in arresting and eventual prosecution of a popular Nollywood actress Mrs. Funke Akindele-Bello and her husband was seen as a good deterrent measure against impunity. The case of the induced resignation of the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland Dr. Catherine Calderwood, who violated the social distancing guidelines she played key role in preparing and publicizing, was also mentioned as a good deterrence to acts of hypocrisy by those in higher position.
What is left now to be added is that Dr. Calderwood was advised by the Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to resign on the ground that her mistake would undermine public confidence in the government’s effort to fight COVID-19 pandemic. Even Dr. Calderwood herself realized that it would be ‘impossible for the public to have confidence in her official advice… if she remained in post’. (see The Guardian via https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/apr/05/…). Although, the First Minister wanted to retain Dr. Calderwood because of what she called her invaluable expertise and advice in fighting the coronavirus scourge, but the issue of betraying public trust could not be sacrificed on the altar of invaluable expertise and advice. This singular reason more than demonstrated the importance attached to the maintenance of public confidence by government officials in the implementation of policies not minding anyone’s expertise or assumed air of indispensability.
Public trust or confidence in government is therefore very essential for effective implementation of public policies. This is why the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (in a document titled: Trust in Government), says that: (a) trust is important for the success of a wide range of public policies that depend on behavioural responses from the public, (b) trust is necessary to increase the confidence of investors and consumers, (c) trust is essential for key economic activities, most notably finance, and (d) trust in institutions is important for the success of many government policies, programmes and regulations that depend on cooperation and compliance of citizens (see https://www.oecd.org/gov/trust-in-government.htm).
And to underscore the importance of trust in government, the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) held one of its regional conferences in 2010 in Abuja Nigeria, on the theme: Good Governance, Accountability and Trust. It was as if the organizers knew that trust-deficit has been a major hindrance to the effective implementation of government policies in Nigeria. The problem however is a world-wide phenomenon, for as an OECD study revealed ‘Only 43% of citizens trust their government’. It observed further that ‘trust in government is deteriorating in many OECD countries, not minding that ‘lack of trust compromises the willingness of citizens and business to respond to public policies and contribute to a sustainable economic recovery’ (see OECD as cited above).
Nigeria is one of the countries where trust deficit has been high over many decades. It has even grown to an all-time high. As we were writing this article, the Federal Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji. Lai Mohammed was debunking the news making rounds in the social media that members of the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19, are being paid N500,000 each per day. For us here, this demonstrates lack of public trust on officials who are even exposing their lives to great danger in fighting COVID-19 pandemic. Again as we were writing, the high level of distrust even among different arms of government reared its head once more. The leadership of the National Assembly had during the week dismissed the implementation of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) which it alleged gulped about N2trillion as a failure. For us here also, this is simply a case of some sgovernment officials distrusting other government officials probably because they were ‘not involved’ (i.e. taken along in the implementation of the programme). Although, we are not commenting further for now on the two allegations, the bigger issue of interest to us in this article is: why is there lack of trust by the people on their government in Nigeria?
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) again provides a general answer to the crucial question which is very much applicable to Nigeria. According to it, public trust is a function of reliability, responsiveness, openness, better regulation, integrity and fairness, and lastly inclusive policy making. Put differently, public trust is low in the absence of reliability, poor responsiveness by the government to the needs of the people, lack of openness, poor regulation, lack of integrity and fairness, and lastly lack of inclusive policy making (see https://www.oecd.org/gov/trust-in-government.htm).
Why would for instance, a people trust their government when they know from experience that its officials are not reliable, responsive, and open, or where they regulate discriminatorily, lack integrity and fairness, and are not inclusive in policy making? This is the basis of trust deficit in Nigeria. And again, why would one government institution trust another, when that government institution knows itself, that it lacks these indicators of good governance? Yet as another OECD (2017) report titled: Trust and Public Policy: How Better Governance Can Help Rebuild Public Trust, said ‘trust plays a very tangible role in the effectiveness of government. Few perceptions are more palpable than that of trust or its absence. Governments ignore this at their peril’ (see https://www.oecd.org/gov/trust-and-public-policy-9789264268920-en.htm).
In Nigeria, the management of COVID-19 pandemic has affected public trust in government in two understandably opposite directions. Management of COVID-19 is both increasing and eroding public trust in government. In Lagos State, while many are praising the efforts of the government in managing the ravaging virus, some others are expressing loss of confidence over the distribution of the COVID-19 emergency palliatives. At the federal level, a mixed bag of reactions is also following its handling of the pandemic so far. Initially, there was displeasure over the temporizing style of the administration in announcing appropriate measures to contain the spread of the virus. However, public trust started increasing following the President’s address on the pandemic. For instance, the government received kudos for its serious concern for the poor and the most vulnerable in the society who are the targets of its social investment programme, among other targeted interventions. Yet when the disbursement of the conditional cash transfers started (following the president’s directive), public confidence waned as people began to raise questions over the physical cash disbursement method that violated the social distancing order of the same government. Again, more serious issues of transparency and fairness were raised and the case of distrust among two arms of government began to manifest as we observed above. All these leave us with one lesson and that is – drawing from the OECD’s admonition – all levels of government should use better governance as an effective tool for rebuilding public trust.
•Prof. Obasi teaches Public Administration at the University of Abuja. Email: nnamdizik@gmail.com
