On good governance and accountability: Recipes for rescuing Nigeria (I)

“In each successive revolution, the patient herd becomes the property of its new masters”, Edward Gibbon   The methodology involved in rescuing Nigeria from its state of listless drift and self-inflicted disaster, is to bring Nigerians back to their senses and to respect the tenets of good and effective governance that are obtaining elsewhere, as […]

“In each successive revolution, the patient herd becomes the property of its new masters”, Edward Gibbon

 

The methodology involved in rescuing Nigeria from its state of listless drift and self-inflicted disaster, is to bring Nigerians back to their senses and to respect the tenets of good and effective governance that are obtaining elsewhere, as well as observing the principles of accountability of both elected and appointed officials of government. It is a sad indictment and a self-evident defect, that with each successive election, we end up becoming the patient herd that is the property of those we voted to be in power and exercise authority over us. All Nigerians, regardless of our places of origin, our ethnic or religious backgrounds, our social and economic situations, or our political persuasions, have been reduced to the condition of anonymity and uniform despair by the arbitrary power being exercised over us.

Although we are supposed to be practicing a democratic form of government, we have no practical means to effectively redress our situation of abject hopelessness and despair, but we are forced to resign ourselves to a dismal fate of unmitigated disaster and disappointments. We have become captives of an arbitrary rule of elected officials and a pervasive and unproductive bureaucracy that have sat on our progress and fortunes like an incubus for so long. There is no disputing the fact that what Nigeria continues to suffer from is the apparent shortfall in good governance at all the three levels of administration namely local, state and federal. This defect has fundamentally and manifestly affected the country’s development trajectories and even its democratic credentials adversely.

The consequences of this is lack of accountability to the electorate and the apparent disregard for the rule of law seemingly everywhere. These in turn, have bred a myriad of ills in our country ranging from insecurity, poverty, high cost of living, corruption, bloated cost of government, lack of democratic participation, apathy towards governance, immature political systems, to many other observable defects that have retarded the country’s progress. If we are to make any headway along the development trajectory and regain the opportunities that have been lost over several decades of misrule and bad administration, we as a people must rethink governance in our country and insist on the observance of the basic and unavoidable practices that make for good government everywhere.

Nigerians must realise that they are not alone in this world or an island unto themselves. There are 192 other nations beside us, therefore, we cannot allow it be seen that we have failed as a country or a people, or that we simply do not have the capacity and wisdom to rule ourselves competently like others are doing. Insisting upon having good government in our country therefore, at this point in time in our history, is the most rational and even the most patriotic thing that we can do. So what is good governance? There are various definitions or approaches to this concept, which have been globally accepted as the standards for the measurement of a civilised system of administration of a nation. The Brookings Institute and the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) conducted a project which studied 200 countries between 1996 and 2020 covering six dimensions of governance. These are:

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1. Voice and Accountability (citizens participation in the selection of their leaders and government, freedom of expression, association, of the media, etc)
2. Political Stability and absence of Violence/Terrorism (likelihood of the government becoming destabilised or violently overthrown and the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies)
3. Government Effectiveness (service delivery abilities, quality control and supervision, oversight of projects, quality of the civil service and the degree of its independence from interference and political pressures, the quality of policy formulation and implementation, the credibility of the government’s commitment to such policies)
4. Regulatory Quality (the ability of the government to formulate and implement policies that create conducive environments for private sector enterprises to thrive and for individual initiatives to succeed, and the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them)
5. Rule of Law (conduct of agents of the state and government, ability to enforce laws and regulations such as in contracts and agreements, respect for property rights, effective policing and administration of justice, control of levels of crime and violence)
6. Control of Corruption (the extent to which public power is exercised for private gains, abuse of the state power by elites in power and their associates in the private sector).

According to the WGI report, “governance consists of the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised”. The idea of the exercise of authority is, therefore, very crucial. This entails above everything else responsibility, transparency, control, inclusiveness, observance of rule of law, respect for laid down processes and procedures, self-control and discipline while in power, and transparency in decision-making. The report went on to note governance “includes the process by which governments are elected, monitored and replaced; the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement policies; and the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them”. We should remember that good governance is not an attribute reserved only for national governments. Even enterprises and private organisations are expected to imbibe and incorporate certain principles of governance. According to the Scottish Government Social Enterprise Strategy Governance Guiding Principles, governance is about following certain principles and rules that consist of established and approved systems and processes, as well as ensuring the effective and competent direction, supervision and accountability of an organisation. The Governance Guiding Principles noted that “governance is fundamentally about people and the way they perform their respective roles and responsibilities in order to achieve the outcomes of the organisation.

The report identified seven principles that are essential for effective governance namely Leadership, Ethics and Integrity, Stewardship, Accountability and Transparency, Effectiveness, Roles and Responsibilities and Participation. Moreover, from my study of the OECD Governance Guidelines Indicators (GGI), the following can be summed up as the essential requirements of good governance: Strong anti-corruption laws and enforcement abilities, efficient, transparent and accountable budgeting and public expenditure procedures and processes, strong infrastructure governance procedures, digital governance methods, innovative governance leading to efficiency in service delivery and accountability, open governance or transparency policies, policy coherence and sustainable development, public employment and management systems, strong, effective and transparent public procurement systems, strong and all round regulatory policies and supervision, emplacement of risk mitigation strategies in policies and programmes, gender, youth and inter-generational policy mainstreaming, and quality of leadership in government.

In the wake of the above indicators, it is logical to advance the preposition about good governance to include all attributes and possibilities that could be aggregated to bring about noticeable and incremental development of a country, and the establishment of conditions that conduce towards the attainment of peace, harmony, sustainable development, progressive increase in the quality of life of citizens, as well as enhancement of the prestige of the country. If a government is incapable or unable to provide such scenarios or possibilities, then the idea of its reorientation or replacement must be a choice to be made available to citizens of a country. This is what essentially democracy and elections are all about.