MEMORANDUM TO THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION ON A BILL FOR AN ACT TO MAKE PUBLIC RECORDS AND INFORMATION MORE FREELY AVAILABLE. ETC.

by Engr. F.A.O. Oseni

 

1.00     INTRODUCTION

 

1.01     First and foremost, I wish to point out that the flow of official information in a country depends on the political system operating in the country because it is the political system that gives the individual citizen the "locus standi", to seek and readily obtain information on any issue of concern to him (or her).

 

2.00     POLITICAL SYSTEMS

 

2.01     Politics dominate every thing because it governs the decision making process in any society large or small, from as large as the United Nations Organisation to as small as our traditional extended family. The political system in a country is therefore the most important force governing any activity in the country. It determines what resources are to be developed and the utilisation of available resources, including the most important resource of all, the human resources. The traditional African form of politics is the village square politics, which involves the direct participation of every dweller of a village in discussing issues and ending in consensus decision-making. This is not just simply a case of the people forming a majority always having their way, irrespective of the quality of the opinion held by the smaller number of people forming a minority, but that the individual member of the village more or less has the veto power on any issue he strongly feels about. The individual thus has the primary task of telling the society what he wants instead of the other way round in a system where representative form of politics is the practice.

 

2.02     There is a misconception that the European (including American) method of forming the government in a country by a political party, which has won an election, is the best form of democracy yet devised by man. There is no doubt that the participatory form is superior to the representative form of politics championed by Western European countries, where political parties form permanent warring camps searching for elusive compromises on various issues. Although these countries have tried to mitigate the adverse effect of this system on the individual citizen by allowing opinions to be expressed through free speech and lobbying, all the same decisions are taken by representatives on behalf of the individual. However, a country like the United States of America with a well­ developed Internet network is gradually moving towards the participatory form of democracy of the village square type.

 

2.03     The European form of democracy where elections are held at frequent intervals to elect representatives who form the government (the legislature and the executive) has many shortcomings. First of all, voting and running government along political parties creates permanent warring camps in a nation. Secondly, coercing representatives in a legislature to vote on major issues along party lines through the use of the party "whip" is definitely not democratic. Thirdly, voting at regular intervals of say four or five years to choose representatives who will vote along party lines is also far from being democratic, especially taking into consideration the fact that the actual voting process by an individual  only takes about a minute whereas there are 1,826 days or 2,579,440 minutes in five years!

The individual thus has no further control on his so-called representative until the next election. Fourthly the process of recalling a representative in between elections, if at all possible, is usually very cumbersome and can be very protracted. Fifthly, there is also the case of politicians in power often manipulating the electoral process to their advantage through: ­

 

(a)        deferred elections,

(b)        declaring their political opponents as non-citizens as in the case of Shagari and Sugaba in Nigeria, Chiluba and Kaunda in Zambia and lately Bedie and Quattarra in Cote D'Ivoire,

(c)        enacting new laws on the advent of an election to the disadvantage of other parties and individuals as in the Electoral law which was used in the year 2003 elections and tried, but for the Supreme Court, to (i) extended the tenure of Local Governments retroactively and against the Constitutional provision which makes the Local Governments to be responsible to the States; (ii) making it impossible for new political parties to be formed to serve at any level of their choice such as Federal, State, Local Government, Ward or even Neighbourhood level; and (iii) not allowing for Individuals to contest as Independent Candidates if they wish to do so under what is supposed to be a democratic system.

Sixthly, when the Legislature enacts an unpopular Law, it clams that:­

(i)         The Constitution allows the Legislature (hence its name) to enact laws under any matter as it pleases and that this is an absolute power that nobody can challenge. Subsequently the party with the majority in the Legislature by using its whip becomes arrogant and dictatorial in accordance with the saying that "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

 

(ii)        The Legislature also often hides under the doctrine of National Interest to force unpopular laws on the individual citizens who elected them into office in the first place. Unfortunately there is no agreed definition of what constitutes national interest, especially in a multi-ethnic society such as ours, which has thus become a weapon for dictatorship and tyranny.

 

Seventhly, there is no doubt that most of the people in partisan politics in Nigeria today are there to look after their selfish interests rather than to serve the individual citizens they claim to represent. Once they get into public service they allocate to themselves exorbitant salaries and allowances completely out of proportion to the average per capita income in the country. While the minimum wage is N5,000 per month and a Policeman earns N10,000 per month, the lowest paid elected political office holder is a Local Government Councillor who earns N120,000 per month! Globe trotting by all cadres of political office holders in all the three tiers of Government is the order of the day. A new term "dividends of democracy" is now in vogue and one wonders who is really collecting the dividends. Unfortunately, public office holders do not make declaration of their assets public; it is therefore not easy to confront them with the sudden increase in their opulence on their assumption of office.

 

Eighthly, the system of patronage is used by the ruling political party to transfer public funds to the party by appointing party members to various public offices without any regard for merit and expertise needed for the service to be rendered for the benefit of the whole electorate. The only qualification required is loyalty to the party. Similarly, contracts are awarded to party members or their companies on the same basis. This is said to be done to enable the party to have ample funds to campaign for the next and following elections so that they can continue the same way of enriching party members from public funds. This is despite the anti Corruption Law and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. 1ncidentaUy, the American 1ntemational weekly magazine, "Newsweek" in its edition for the first week of May 2002, focused on how the system of political patronage bas become endemic and a veritable vehicle for corruption in many countries of Europe and the USA, which are supposed to be the epitome of democracy.

 

Ninthly, political office holders regard themselves as masters instead of representatives and servants of the people who voted them into office at various levels of Government (Federal, State and Local). They assume that individual electors have abdicated all their rights by voting them into office. This is why they use siren blaring, club swinging, whip lashing and gun-totting escorts, acquired with public funds, to frighten, shock, terrorise, maim and kill innocent road users who are quietly going about their daily businesses. It is recognised that an individual must give off part of his rights in order to be a member of a society or nation so that the exercise of his rights does not conflict with the rights of another individual citizen, however this should not make him to become a slave of the society or nation and be trampled upon by pubic office holders as hitherto. Even our erstwhile colonialist did not go this far to physically humiliate individual citizens. Rather it may be recalled that the colonial imperialists, though not due to any altruistic motive but out of necessity, established a Civil Service to support their administration of the country. The Civil Service operated along well-estab1ished rules and regulations coded as General Orders, with emphasis on merit and justice without favour. There were no sacred cows and nobody was above the law. The Civil Servants were very good in following established procedures and keeping accurate records of their actions in order to ensure accountability and transparency. They were also very humble, dedicated and honest. They were prepared to subject their actions to scrutiny by any citizen. To this end, all correspondence to citizens began with "Dear Sir or Madam" and ended with "1 am your obedient Servant." Public Office holders therefore behaved like servants of individual citizens instead of lording it over them as of nowadays. A Government Printing Press was established to provide an outlet where any individual could obtain copies of publications giving details about Government activities. Some of the most popular of these publications were the Annual Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, Hansards recording proceedings in the Legislature and Weekly Gazettes.

 

2.04     It is now obvious from hindsight, that at the time we were negotiating for political independence nom the British, we did not pay enough attention to the form of politics we should adopt after independence. Our main preoccupation was with Nigerianisation so that even the issue of inter ethnic relations was regarded as the problem of so-called minorities in such areas as the Middle Belt, COR (Calabar, Ogoja and Rivers Provinces) and the Midwest. This sort of mistake was repeated in several other African countries. Allover Africa, the indigenous governments that took over from the colonialists behaved like surrogate imperial powers. Unfortunately, a colonial government is naturally dictatorial and brooks no dissen4 criticism or opposition. Any individual not accepting absolute obedience to the appointed ruler is severely punished. Traditional Rulers exist in many ethnic groups all over Africa to serve as the custodian, propagator and promulgator of their customs, laws and values. Those of them who tried, -in consonance with the wishes of their people, to defy the colonialists were at the brunt of the receiving end by being sent -into exile. Examples of such rulers were King Ovonramwen of Benin, King Jaja of Opobo and Seretse Kama of Botswana.

 

2.05     All over Africa, as the indigenous governments that took over from the colonialists were behaving like surrogate imperial powers, the traditional rulers were again           at the brunt of the receiving end. Examples of such traditional rulers are the Kabaka. Of Buganda in Uganda, the Alafin of Oyo, the Emir of Kano, the Olowo of Owo and theSultan of Sokoto (to name a few) who were exiled or deposed.

 

2.06     Since Independence, most of the governments in Africa have neglected the interests of the diverse et1mic groups, (each with its own culture, values and sense of judgment, etc) which have been forced by colonialism to cohabit as single nations. Furthermore, those who through elections or the barrel of the gun occupy political posts trample upon the interests of the individual citizens, They prepare one Constitution after another, with each new one getting worse than the one it is supposed to supersede, because they ignore the fundamental issue that the African form of politics is the village square form of politics, where everyone participates in taking decision on matters of concern to him. None of the Constitutions is geared to meeting the yearnings of the individual citizen with regard to his rights to participate in decision ma1cing and having political office holders who will be dedicated to serve individual citizens instead of lording it over them.

 

2.07     Today, there is widespread clamour for a new Constitution for Nigeria because the present Constitution has centralised a lot of power in the Federal Government so that the State Governments are subservient to the Federal Government while similarly, the Local Governments in turn are subservient to the State Governments.

 

2.07     Nigeria and other countries in Africa which have been subjected to military rule after colonialism have the heavy burden of purging their psyche from over centralisation of power and authority and they are finding it difficult to develop democratic practice of the "village square politics" of their ancestors. One evidence of the damage to our psyche is our inability to see the contradiction of "the uniform Local Government" system in the country, especially considering our over four hundred et1mk groups each with its own local government system. We are therefore forcing people to do what they don't want to do instead of helping them to do what they want to do. The better approach is obvious.

 

2.08     God in his infinite wisdom created races and ethnic groups of humans. Man should therefore accept race and ethnicity as facts of life and enjoy their existence. After all it is often said that variety is the spice of life. One wonders how monotonous life would have been without different races and ethnic groups. Perhaps we may soon begin to have an idea when cloning of humans and selection of embryos for procreation become the order of the day in the world.

 

2.09     It is hoped that the ongoing National Political Reform Conference will draw up a brand new Constitution for Nigeria which will recognise and emphasise clearly that the geographical area called Nigeria. today is inhabited by people belonging to various ethnic groups each with its own language, culture, traditions, aspirations, values, etc. Accepting this simple fact of life will eliminate the use of such euphemisms as federal character, quota system, catchments area, ethnic balancing, etc which we have devised to prevent us from truly admitting our diverse origins. A judicious arrangement should be established so that our various ethnic groups can first of all live safely and comfortably in the areas they have inhabited from time immemorial in accordance with their customs and then go on to interact with other ethnic groups cordially to their mutual benefit In this way we shall be giving a lead to other countries on our continent that are having similar problems in accommodating diverse ethnic groups in post colonial nations, as evidenced by the cases of Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda to mention a few of such countries.