Dr. Good luck Jonathan is a
young but vastly experienced politician who rose from the ranks to become the
President of Nigeria in 2011 by popular mandate in a toughly contested national
poll.
When he assumed office, one
item that confronted his presidential attention was the hydra-headed monster of
official corruption and economic crimes.
Criticized stridently for
not paying enough attention to confront and defeat the menace of corruption
which has frustrated all attempts to institutionalize good governance,
President Jonathan decided to appoint a minister to take charge of the Special
duties and inter-governmental affairs whose mandate covers the national
assignment of bridging and effectively stopping all the leakages that
encourages corruption in the execution of federal projects across board. Also,
this Special Ministry is to institutionalize a people-driven ownership process
of governance so as to compel Nigerians to imbibe the attitude of embracing
government as their own.
One of Nigeria's foremost
anti-graft campaigner and a former Police officer who headed the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] at inception Mallam Nuhu Ribadu summed up
public apathy towards governance as follows; "Nigerians have massive
tolerance. They don't even see it. They don't seems to look at government money
as their own...there is a total disconnect with government money and the
people. That is why it is easy for people to go into government to steal...In
Nigeria, if someone is caught stealing [from another person] they can even burn
him. But when you steal government money nobody seems to connect it and say it
is my money that was stolen..."
On February 28th 2014, the
Bureau For Public Procurement claimed [without any shred of empirical data]
that it helped government to save N95.79 billion that would have been stolen by
rogue contractors. The imperative for the creation and sustenance of the
ministry of special duties and inter-governmental affairs can not therefore be
over emphasized.
The lot fell on the Kebbi
state-born widely experienced lawyer and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria Alhaji
Kabiru Tanimu Turaki who is also a distinguished fellow of the prestigious
chattered institute of Arbitration.
Named the minister of
Special Duties and Inter-governmental Affairs a little over a year ago, Alhaji
Turaki’s job is clearly cut out for him given that there is a general national
clamour for bridging and effectively stopping all noticeable leakages in the
implementation and execution of government projects especially those
categorized as constituency projects from which large scale corruption takes
place.
The mandate handed over to
the current Special Duties ministry by President Jonathan are as follows;
Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Constituency Projects; monitoring
and Evaluation of the implantation of Federal Executive Council approved
policies and projects by other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and
report back to the President in Council, conducting, coordinating, promoting
good and harmonious relationship amongst the Three Tiers/Arms of Government and
relevant International bodies.
The Special Duties ministry
is expected to drive the process of providing leadership in the
development of risk reduction measures and disaster management, extending Fire
Service facilities to the Grass-roots, providing leadership for a safer
sustainable and resilient society, intervening in specific areas as directed by
the President.
The Special Duties Ministry
is to oversee the implementation of Government policies on Anti-Corruption
Crusade, handling all functions of Ad-hoc nature, handling specialized requests
for assistance such as flooding.
By the way not much has
been heard about the billions collected from private sector donors to assist
the thousands of victims of floods disaster in 2012 because majority of the
victims have surely been shortchanged. Alhaji Aliko Dangote charged with the
supervision of how these contributions are redistributed to the affected
citizens ought to regularly brief Nigerians on how the donations are used.
As a researcher in the
human rights sector concerned about how to effectively institutionalize good
governance at all strata of governance in the country, I have decided to
investigate what the federal government has put in place to curb corruption
associated with the implementation of what is called constituency projects all
across Nigeria.
The decision is derived
from the groundswell of allegations by constituents who are represented at
the National Assembly by elected members that these representatives have
collectively failed to deliver the specific projects identified as constituency
projects in over a decade that democracy staged a come back. This is one of the
reasons for the widespread poverty all across Nigeria.
Even as ordinary Nigerians
cry out that they are being short changed in the execution of the so-called
constituency projects, one of the principal leaders of the National Assembly
and the speaker of the federal House of Representatives Alhaji Aminu Waziri
Tambuwal shifted the blame to the executive branch of government.
Speaker Tambuwal who was
the guest speaker at the 2013 International Anti-corruption Day organized by
the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja also alleged that the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was very corrupt, saying the anti-graft body
never accounted for huge sums of money it received from donor agencies.
Specifically, this writer
will return to analyze the allegation of ineptitude and corruption against the
hierarchy of the anti-graft bodies, but the scope of this piece is on the strategies
being put in place by the Nigerian State to seal up the observable leakages in
the execution of the constituency projects which are seen as some of the most
prized grass roots oriented developmental projects.
The current minister of
Special Duties in a document sent to this writer based on request, clearly
defended the central government’s anti-corruption strategies.
Reading through the 9–page
position paper handed to me, the major points highlighted as strategies for
stopping all leakages in the execution of the constituency projects will be
discussed shortly.
Primarily, the minister of
Special Duties and inter-governmental affairs said President Jonathan in an
effort to check leakages has ordered that contractors handling constituency
projects will only be paid upon authorization by his office to the Federal
Ministry of Finance currently headed by the coordinating minister for the
Economy-Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The other strategies are
that; the ministry is collating data from participating government departments
and ministries on all projects and programmes from 2009 till date,
and is compiling a list of abandoned projects/programmes and updating
submissions received from government agencies and ministries.
So far, this investigative
campaign by the Special Duties minister is said to have yielded some results
even as the ministry has identified a list of Two Thousand, three hundred
and ninety nine (2399), Constituency Project/Programs in the 2013 Appropriation
for implementation by the Nigerian Federal Government. Government is said to
have named specific government coordinators for each of these projects to
ensure transparency.
Also the government held a
Stakeholders Forum on the 5th September 2013, at which the following
resolutions were reached, that the widely held misconception that Constituency
Projects are conduit pipes for members of National Assembly was wrong,
Constituency projects are conceived and allocated by members of National
Assembly in accordance with their envelopes and implementation is done by
ministries with supervisory oversight from members of the National Assembly
whose role is key in identification and location of projects.
However, participants at
that conference clearly disclosed that there are a number of abandoned projects
spread throughout the Country as a result of the way contracts are awarded to
Contractors who in some cases do not know the terrain where these projects are
sited and at times, some of the projects do not get awarded largely because of
non-release of funds and non-compliance with due process by
some ministries.
Importantly, it was
generally accepted that Constituency Projects provide Rural dwellers the
dividends of democracy since most of the projects have quick-win effect and
impact positively on the developmental indices of the Nation, there is the need
to look into and establish a legal framework for implementation of Constituency
Projects.
To achieve the above noble
objective, a Bill is already being processed by the National Assembly and has
gone through its second reading by the senate and so the prayer of Nigerians is
that the National Assembly passes this legislation on time so the President can
sign it into law to ensure that the poorest of the poor among the citizenry are
provided good governance at the grass root.
To stop the menace of
abandoned or substandard projects, the ministry of Special Duties has taken it
upon itself to ensure that the financial capacity of Contractors handling
Constituency Projects is properly assessed.
The office of the minister
of Special Duties and inter-governmental Affairs saddled with the task to
effectively supervising and implementing the constituency projects is not
sufficiently funded to carry out these objective therefore the need to seek
alternative transparent source of funding is imperative.
From my extensive
observation, I think what the late historian Dr. Yusuf Bala Usman stated in one
of his seminal lectures on widespread disregard for human rights is important as
we discuss the necessity for ending the leakages that give rise to corruption
in the delivery of constituency projects to Nigerians.
Writing under the title; “Some
observations on the historical context of Human Rights in Nigeria: 1966-1999”, Dr.
Usman had written thus; “The enactment and the exercise of, and the abrogation
and violations of human rights in Nigeria, took place within a context
primarily shaped by the country’s political economy. A key and largely
neglected aspect of this political economy was the subordination of the public
realm and the public services, where human rights provisions of the
constitution, and other laws, are to be upheld, to private interest and the
private accumulation of wealth by those in public office”.
Looking at the provision of
the constitution in section 14(2) (b) which provides that "the security
and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government,” it is
clear that there is the need for the ministry of Special Duties and inter-governmental
affairs at this point of our national life especially as Nigerians
continue to raise alarm of widespread corruption in the execution of the
constituency projects.
The mechanism being put in
place by the ministry of Special Duties for a frame work to necessitate the
following up on the impact, benefits and sustainability of the constituency
projects through community ownership should be supported by all and sundry because
if good governance fails to trickle down to the marginalized, there is really
no good governance in such a society that exclude the poor.
The Nigerian Constitution
has clearly legalized the participation of the people in the governance of
their affairs.
*
Emmanuel Onwubiko; Head; HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA; blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com;http://www.huriwa.org./
28/4/2014
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