Yes , government is imaginary institution, meaning that it exists only in our mind or at best in law books . The matter is made more complex where, like Christian God is one God but exists in three parts (God the father, son and holy spirit). Government in our clime is one but has the executive, legislature and the 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 gives 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 which people in government have appropriated to themselves and under it, 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, the company and it’s owners are separate entities so we must begin to separate government from the people in government in order to hold people in government accountable for their misdeeds while in office.
If one may ask, why is it 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 government because there is no law holding people in government accountable.
We claim that people in government only have social contract with the people. Social contract is a moral contract which is unenforceable on people in government which 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 has brought Nigeria to it’s present miserable situation. We continue to blame it on past governments with no consequences.
Nigeria became an independent nation on October, I 1960. The build up to independence was characterised by conversations among the ethnic nationalities leading to 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 Awolowi, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa . Others are Anthony Enahoro, Eyo Ita, Dennis Osadebey etc. They represented their people.
That all agreed that given the multi ethnic characteristics of Nigeria, the best form of government is a federation of the various indigenous people. Under this arrangement, each region had a degree of autonomy as well as control their resources. The arrangement was codified as a constitution, the final one being the 1963 Republic constitution. Under this arrangement every part of Nigeria, East ,West and North were relaxed and happy running a Regional government in healthy competition with each region developing at their own pace independently. They were more or less mini countries.
Like all nation building process, 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 military coup and toppled the government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. They subsequently suspended the people’s constitution relying on power acquired through the barrel of the 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 will be an understatement.
The military officers had a field day, staging coups and counter coups and capping it up with military engineered constitution in 1979 and 1999. These constitutions are an amalgamation of military decrees which were imposed on the people of Nigeria.
Because government as defined above is an artificial institution, there were no consequences born by the coup plotters or the people that reshaped Nigeria away from what the indigenous people agreed upon from the very beginning. We are having myriad of 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 that caused the character of Nigeria to be distorted through successfully executed coups are still alive and walking the streets free without consequences. In fact, two of the active participants have been rewarded as President and commander in chief of Nigerian Armed forces for a combined period of sixteen (16) odd years. Others were and are still rewarded as Heads of parastatals, national assembly members and other juicy 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 trial of 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 be breaching the constitution. This motive should be inquired into and stiff penalties imposed on convicts to act as deterrent to those that will 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 impunity on the part of people in government who are acting that way because there is no law to hold them accountable to the people. The time to act is now. Let us establish constitutional court to try governors, presidents and other executive that engage in expenditure without budgetary appropriation, establishment of office of first lady not captured in the constitution. We can go on and on.
Enyinnaya is a Fellow, Chartered Institute of Bankers. He can be reached via:
[email protected]
