In precolonial Africa, the societal values of honesty, respect and fairness were influenced by shared norms and beliefs which fostered healthy relationships. Everyone cherished the values and no one needed to be threatened with written sanctions in order to keep faith with the norms.
Perhaps, the most important factor which aided general acceptance of shared values was the fear of societal stigma for any breach. No one wanted to be known as a member of a family castigated by the entire community for any misdemeanour capable of instigating rejection by others. In those days, good name rather than wealth determined acceptability of people by other members of the same com- munity. Put differently, the best guarantor of a person for any subject was a credible family.
It was therefore difficult for any person to display a conduct that could tarnish the image of his entire family. Indeed, it may not be necessary to formally train a child on the subject because it was virtually self-explanatory from daily activities in the home. Some family members often told their younger ones who were embarking on a trip that all they wanted each traveller to buy for them was a gift called ‘good name.’ Unfortunately, the principle of accountability which the Europeans introduced in later years never gained the same traction as the African system that was built on naturally shared norms. The technicalities in the processes and procedures of sanctions for breach of accountability could also not rest on the same shared beliefs and norms.
It is against this backdrop that we situate the allegation by Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man that the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Engr. Farouk Ahmed, spent over $5 million on the foreign secondary education of his four children in Switzerland. Dangote made the issue easier to understand by not harping on the technical title of accountability. Instead, he was asking us all to take our minds back to the African system which forbids a man to live above his means. Aliko Dangote was calling for a greater impetus in the fight against corruption – a fight which has for long pursued shadows rather than substance.
There are analysts who are certain that there is nothing altruistic about Dangote’s advocacy. They probably have a point which is however insignificant. If a regulator wants to suffocate the man, should he die in silence? More importantly is the issue of public interest. Should any ordinary citizen support a regulator that is focusing at this point on importation which has always been Nigeria’s albatross? Second, does one need to be an economist to appreciate the efficacy of protecting local industries as well as the employment opportunities which such indus- tries offer to Nigerians? Third, why is the oil industry unable to see Dangote as a patriot; do they prefer wealthy Nigerians who invest abroad?
What makes Dangote’s allegation persuasive is the general perception of how our public services have degenerated into unethical jungle. Almost everyone is dis- gusted over the disposition of public officers who enthusiastically look forward to gratification. A second group does not just anticipate it; many openly demand instant reward. A third group is one step further down into the jungle. This third group uses aggressive extortion by holding back services until they get bribed. Quite often, such bribes are usually so high that one begins to wonder if one is dealing with a contractor instead of a public servant that already enjoys pay from the public treasury. In other words, citizens come across public servants who insist on being paid for doing a job for which they are ordinarily employed and remunerated.
The argument that the approach is encouraged by the fact that public salaries in Nigeria are inadequate is weak. This is because extorting a citizen is not a legal way to raise one’s pay. What extortion in the circumstance achieves is that it raises the general cost of living as those extorted find ways of getting back at society thereby up-turning the social system. The public servants who take so much from people as distinct from those who get gifted are however not readily aware that they are active participants in the hyperinflation in their environment. While it is true that other sectors are also contributors to the problem, efforts should be made to stop the trading going on in public offices in Nigeria because public offices are not markets just as public servants are not traders.
Whereas there is no evidence that much can be done to change the situation, we can at least start from the known. Painfully, although we are in a position to know what public officers are expected to earn, we see many in a life- style that their take-home pay cannot withstand and yet, we do nothing about it. Many public servants are no doubt involved in stealing. Quite often, ridiculous explanations are rendered for incredible wealth or occurrences. Mele Kyari, a former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), once said that a minority of elite Nigerians were responsible for stealing $3.6 billion from Nigeria’s crude oil annually. How can government know the amount and period involved as well as the perpetrators but never arrested anyone?
For long, monies earmarked for public expenditure always vanished from government with no one held. One story that would be difficult to forget during the Buhari years concerned some animals that ‘ate’ about N17bn. Until Ishaq Oloyede rescued the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) it was customary for animals to swallow the Board’s money. In one instance, a clerk in the organization alleged that snakes swallowed N36million which had been raised from the sale of scratch cards.
At the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) termites had allegedly eaten up vouchers that would have explained how the agency spent N17 billion. In Kano, the Zoological Gardens lost N6.8 million which a finance officer in the zoo claimed was eaten up by a gorilla. During the same period of havoc by animals the Northern Senators Forum lost N70million which Monkeys swallowed in the farm of their then Chairman.
Nothing in Nigeria’s posture suggests that much can be done about the disposition of many Nigerians to corrupt practices. Reports that huge sums of money were siphoned or misappropriated are not restricted to the previous government. It is therefore not enough to remember past reports. For example, like her predecessor, the immediate past Minister of Humanitarian Affairs was indicted and dropped. But why are highly placed persons in government accused of one infraction or another just asked to resign? Some say it is to give such people soft landing; yet government does not tell the public the merit of allowing criminally-minded officers to land softly. We can only hope that government will be persuaded to be more active in dealing with such people now that the richest man in Africa has assumed the role of a whistle blower.
If the truth must be told, government also uses its soft-landing strategy to encourage public servants to live above their means. One apt example is the idea of not applying the appropriate sanctions to insider abuses in public offices. Every time a piece of land is discovered to have been wrongly allocated or a building demolished for illegal approval, it is usually the owner that is penalized. Top officials remain silent on the colluding insider who should have been shown the way out. This needs a change of heart.
It is also hoped that government will take steps to give public servants better security of tenure. It is difficult these days to blame some public servants who now have divided loyalty in view of the politicization of bureaucracy by which some of them are superseded by unqualified party loyalists. While it is in order to appoint political loyalists to the boards of public organizations, it is irritating to allow political activists take over the job of techno- crats thereby destabilizing the career of some citizens whose only offence is that they remained faithful public ser- vants. When that happens, democracy illogically tran- sits from the government of the people to that of the party.
Many years ago, it was slightly difficult to find competent hands for all positions from different parts of the country. It is no longer so today. There is therefore no need to allow favouritism that en- courages the lowering of standards. Besides, persons whose appointments are renewed must be those whose excellent performances speak for themselves. Such persons in office will always be motivated by job satisfaction. If done differently, the system would inadvertently give birth to the urge to live above one’s means.
The post Dangote illuminates Nigeria’s abandoned values, by Tonnie Iredia appeared first on Vanguard News.
