3 laws we need right away

There is an intensely exciting phenomenon going on – our political campaigns are becoming more sophisticated - politicians are being held accountable for their utterances. No longer the easy pass which politicians had to say one thing today and a totally different and opposing thing the next day. The pronouncements of General IBB and President Jonathan on June 12 and MEND’s involvement in the October 1^st bomb blasts respectively, have been used against them over and over again. And lately, since he emerged as the PDP consensus candidate for the north, Presidential aspirant Atiku is getting a good dose of this medicine. Last week there was a full page advert in one of the daily newspapers reminding us of Atiku’s lacerating words in 2006 when he shredded PDP for being a lawless party. Now four years later, those words are following him around like bees on honey and he will have to account for them.

Wonderful. How can we maintain this momentum and ensure that we continue along this track to keep politicians and those in positions of authority on the tips of their Italian made shoes? I think we should legislate. There must be a few laws which our National Assembly can enact which will help regulate the behaviour of office holders as well as the behaviour of the public as we act as ‘accountability officers’. However, these laws have to start as bills before they become laws and since there are hundreds of bills in the National Assembly, to make life even easier for our overworked legislators maybe we can replace some of the existing bills with new bills which will help foster accountability.

One of the very first laws we need in order to hold the politicians accountable is the Bill to Ensure that Nigerians Remind Politicians of Past Promises. This can safely replace the Witness Protection Programme Bill of 2008 because with the track record of our police and law enforcement agencies, I doubt if any Nigerian would want to risk being part of this programme. This new bill which will make it compulsory for all Nigerians to carefully record the utterances of politicians and use it against them at the right time. This is something the public can easily participate in and it would be fun too. Just think: sometime in 2014 when politicians remember that they are supposed to owe their positions to their constituencies and they hop onto the media wagon, we can call into a program and remind them of their failures and repeat to them verbatim what they said in the past. Then we can sit back and watch or listen to them as they squirm and try to wriggle their way out of their words.

Next I think we should replace the Transportation of Animals (Prohibition of Undue Pain and Suffering) Bill, 2008 with the Receipt of Money, Food, Assistance or Favours from Politicians (Prohibition) Bill. This replacement does not mean that I do not care about animals, on the contrary. It is just that as long as the major means of transportation in Nigeria remains ‘okada/achaba’ and buses built for 20 but packed with 40; then it is hypocritical for the suffering of humans to be ignored for the suffering of animals. This bill would make it a grievous offence for any Nigerian to collect money, food, assistance or any favours from politicians; this way we will never owe them and we can hold them accountable for what rightfully belongs to us without feeling bad. This will mean that we change our orientation from one where we go to them expecting them to solve our financial or procedural problems to one where we expect them to build institutions and processes where we do not need them to personally deal with our issues. The current practice is that when the unexpected happens e.g., we cannot meet financial obligations, we run to the government officials we know and beg them for money. The question we should ask is ‘how are these civil servants able to carry our unexpected costs as well as theirs and everybody else that they know?’ When we get into trouble in the office and our employment is threatened and someone we know in a position of authority ‘sorts it out’ for us, we should ask ‘have they abused their position in working out this deal for us?’ Because every time we ask those in power to compromise themselves to meet needs which should be met not just for us, but for all Nigerians, then we compromise ourselves too. There are hidden costs to expecting our brothers, aunts, grandmothers, fathers, in-laws or friends to use their office for our benefit. One such cost is that when they start we cannot ask them to stop and then the system breaks down and suddenly we can no longer look our friends or family in positions of authority in the face and say ‘you are cheating us’.

Another bill that might be controversial but which all well meaning Nigerians should support is the Prohibition of Politicians, Ministers, Civil Servants and other Officers of Government (including those who have retired) from Acting as Chairpersons of Weddings, Burials and other Ceremonies Bill. Just think of it – this would be a heavy blow and would serve three purposes. The first purpose is that this Bill will help us to become accountable to ourselves and then we become more effective accountability officers. Once we no longer owe these chairpersons for gracing our occasions and giving us expensive gifts such as cars and houses, then we have freed ourselves from the hypocrisy of always defending ‘our own’ government officials from the stain of corruption and mismanagement but constantly pointing at others. In the end every single government official has someone who will defend him/her until the bitter end – so who is guilty of corruption? The second purpose of this bill will be to deflate the egos of these office holders and thus reduce their desire to take so much from government coffers. Face it; what would be the point of that new bulletproof jeep or those five million dollar diamonds if you cannot show off at a party? And the third purpose of the bill would be to replace the National Automotive Design and Development Council Bill, 2008…because if we are still importing toothpicks, then a bill to force people to design a car is simply, pointless.

(Published in ThisDay's 'The Lawyer' December 7 2010)