The Nation Newspaper

Tag: reform

  • Aremu opposes proposed Pension Reform Act amendment

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) chieftain Issa Aremu  has advised stakeholders to reject the proposed controversial bill seeking to exclude the Police, Customs, Civil Defenders, Immigration and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from the Contributory Pension Scheme.

    The bill, being sponsored by a House of Represtatives member,  Oluwole Oke, has passed second reading.

    In a statement in Kaduna, Aremu, also the chairman of the Interim Management Committee of First Guarantee Pension Fund Administrator, said Pension Reform Acts of 2004 and 2014, were outcomes of executive bills, which addressed the delicate interests of pensioners, government and the economy.

    He added that a private-member bill informed by “narrow and vested interest consideration” could not do justice to all.

    The labour leader also said any private-member bill, which seeks to erode the gains of the 13-year-old N7 trillion contributory pension scheme, in terms of coverage and resource pools, is “counterproductive” and should not be encouraged.

    He said pensions of the workers in security services were better secured in a national contributory scheme than the old “unfunded and unsustainable, discredited  Defined Benefits Scheme (DBS).”

    According to Aremu, until the recent contributory pension reform, all stakeholders bore witness to ugly features of corruption, inefficiency and share looting, which he claimed characterised  the old DBS.

    He added that to return to the old era means “bringing back corruption to pension administration through the National Assembly”.

    He advised the National Assembly  against what he called  ”the pitfalls  of frequent  self-serving out sourced amendments” of the Pension Act.

    He observed that the pension Act has just been amended through executive/all inclusive review two years ago, adding that with all it’s globally acknowledged successes the contributory pension covers only seven million workers. He added that to  further ask for exclusion of the security agencies only undermines the scheme with all the attendant negative implications for Nigerian economy just coming out of recession.

    Aremu, therefore, called all National Assembly members to reject the bill, saying it would not do any one any good.

  • Is this the reform they promised?

    If there are still lingering pretences about what is left of the restructuring of the electricity sector under the so-called Power Sector Reform Act 2005, two developments which emerged from the 18th Monthly Power Sector Stakeholders Meeting hosted by Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) may have finally sealed it. Not only did the outcome finally lay bare the bad faith of the government and its attendant hollow posturing as an impartial umpire in the process to midwife change in the sector, it also exposed the farce packaged as the liberalization.

    I start with the approval by the Federal Government of the tidy sum of N39 billion as loan to Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) for the supply of meters. On this, the minister would have us know that the gesture was part of power sector recovery programme aimed at ensuring that every consumer of electricity is provided with a meter. That ordinarily seems fine except that the government needed not treat the firms as another parastatal of the government subject to period bailouts. What then is the essence of privatization if after formally relieving the federal government of the burden of funding and operating the anaemic entities, the same government still has to make back door financial accommodation to keep them in business? And for how long?

    The second is the strange announcement by Minister Babatunde Fashola that the federal government “will not oppose the wishes of electricity consumers that are willing to pay for meters from their distribution companies based on agreement between both parties as endorsed by the power sector regulator”. He claimed that he had “been receiving several requests from the Discos that their customers still wanted to pay for meters”.

    Permit me to quote the minister extensively: “Please recall that government had in the past attempted to intervene in meter supply through CAPMI, which ultimately I decided we should wind down because of the distrust and disaffection it was creating between consumers and Discos with government caught in the middle with numerous petitions by customers who paid for meters that were not delivered within the approved time.

    “Some Discos have come back to say that their customers still want to pay for meters and they can reach agreements with them on how to pay for it. Government will not stand in the way of such an agreement. It is consistent with the intent of privatization envisioned by the Electric Power Sector Reform Act or at least it does not violate the Act.”

    And in what appears like a bid to take out the sting out of the abdication, the minister added: “What I will reiterate is that the Discos have the obligation to meter customers because they are the ones who charge for electricity which must be measured. If the customers and the Discos reach an agreement between themselves, where the customer assumes the responsibility of the Disco of his own free will and NERC sanctions this agreement, then so be it.

    “The difference between this kind of agreement and CAPMI is that it is not a government initiative. However, through NERC, government will monitor and regulate to ensure that Discos do not use this as an excuse to abdicate their responsibility to provide meters.”

    The minister, a lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria to boot, may feel entitled to his play on words or even seek to rewrite the rule books on power sector restructuring in whatever way that suits him; what he is not entitled to is the attempt to pull the wool on the eyes of the citizens.

    A quick recap of the exercise – that has since turned the mother of all deceptions – would help here. Nigerians will recall the story of how the power sector got stunted under successive nomenclatures – from ECN to National Electricity Power Authority – NEPA and of course, to the transitional holding company, the Power Holdings Company of Nigeria (PHCN); the years of corruption and under-investment that took the sector to the nadir, and how the efforts by successive governments to improve the situation yielded no respite leaving the country with a miserable 4,000MW of power generation, a broken transmission grid and a hopelessly incompetent distribution chain after some 130 years after the  first public power plants opened for business and 66 years after Electricity Corporation of Nigeria came into being via an Act of parliament.

    Flip over to the Power Sector Reform Act 2005 – the anchor for arguably the most ambitious attempt to restructure the electricity sector since independence. From the go, the exercise, as advertised, was designed to mobilize funds and expertise from the private sector, to modernize, upgrade its systems to deliver world class service. Twelve years on, the verdict is one of a dream aborted – whether of the much needed injection of requisite capital or of new technologies to turn things around, or of basic service delivery as one would imagine under a private sector, it has been an unmitigated disaster. Today, the story across the board is that things have fared worse than when the sector was under government control.  From the gas infrastructure that has remained shambolic to the antediluvian transmission lines right up to the patently anaemic Discos, it is increasingly difficult to find any redeeming feature on an exercise on which the country has staked much faith.

    Even for something as ordinary as the demand by the electricity consumer for meters to enable them pay only for what they consume, the government had to broker accommodation for the Discos through the so-called Credited Advance Payment for Metering Initiative (CAPMI) which allowed customers to pay for electricity meters through their respective Discos. Ironically, the exercise was bungled by the same Discos due essentially to their inability to supply the meters after payments were made. This was what made the minister to direct the regulator to wind up the programme in April last year. The mother of all ironies is that the same Discos that could not meet that basic obligation under government direct oversight are now being promoted by Minister Fashola as the guarantor of the public good and this under a novel notion of best practices.

    While I have written a lot about the botching of the power reform; of the abiku discos that would rather feast on our misery than give us light, and the inept regulator terribly out of depth with the breathtaking developments in the sector. What no one could have bargained for, at least from a government that rode into office on a banner of change is the latest act of surrender to a bunch of inept but no less, extortionate service providers. Talk about turning cycle – under the ancien regime, the electricity consumer is more often than not not, known to have supplied service cables, transformers and other vital materials. Today, we are apparently back to the same starting block where the consumer is being asked to provide supplementary capital to enable our much touted messiahs provide us meters. It seems only a matter of time before the electricity consumer is once again enlisted into the business of providing transformers, cables, couplings – and don’t rule it out – voluntary labour – by the their government.

    Whenever it happens – as I am sure it will somehow do at some point – at least we know who to thank.

  • APC happy over passage of Bill to reform oil and gas sector

    APC happy over passage of Bill to reform oil and gas sector

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday said the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill by the Senate was a clear testimony of the determination of the APC-led government to met the aspiration of the people.

    The party urged the House of Representatives to pass the bill into law as it will bring about reforms that would ensure greater transparency and accountability in oil and gas.

    In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary,  Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the Party noted that the bill had languished in the various chambers of the National Assembly for about 12 years but it took the purposeful and dedicated APC-led Senate to pass it.

    “We are very excited that the bill was passed today after about 12 years delay.  We specially commend the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, for his focused leadership of the 8th Senate, which has produced several legislative actions that have positively affected the lives of Nigerians, promoted good governance and advanced ongoing efforts by the APC-led administration to rebuild the country

    “The passage of the bill is an indication that our federal legislators are diligent and reform-minded, and are committed to fulfilling the promises our party made to Nigerians.

    “We call on the House of Representatives under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara to follow the example of the Senate by also promptly passing the PIB.

    “The APC calls on Nigerians to continue to support and cooperate with the President Muhammadu Buhari APC-led administration and the National Assembly as they continue to make laws and execute projects to improve the wellbeing of Nigerians.”

  • ‘Waste management reform’ll strengthen environment’

    The Lagos State Commissioner for the Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare, has said the on-going reforms in the solid waste management tagged the “Cleaner Lagos Initiative” it is a way to sustain the environment.

    Adejare spoke at the February edition of the monthly media parley of his Ministry in Alausa, last Monday.

    He pointed out that the implication of the reform was that residential waste collection and the supporting backbone would be concessioned to investors who would deploy modern equipment and machinery equipped with global information system (GIS) facilities.

    Adejare stated further that the Cleaner Lagos Initiative was aimed to protect the environment, human health and social living standards of Lagos residents by promoting a harmonised and holistic approach to environmental challenges and ensuring improved operational efficiency and addressing the lacunae in the existing legislation to expand the scope of Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) to enable it enforce, regulate and generate revenue from the waste management process.

    Other goals of the initiative according to Adejare are: identifying and harnessing wealth creation opportunities in the waste management sector and putting in place a proactive Flood Prevention Strategy (FPS) that will ensure all-year- round drainage maintenance.

    The Cleaner Lagos Initiative, he further explained, would also involve the development of new and rehabilitation of old facilities, such as Engineered Landfill Sites (Epe I & II and Badagry), Transfer Loading Stations (Agege, Oshodi and Simpson), Material Recovery Facilities with recycling, recovery and waste reduction efforts.

    The commissioner disclosed that the initiative would create 27,500 new jobs by engaging the unemployed youth and the existing 4,500 street sweepers and transforming them to Community Sanitation Workers (CSW) to carry out manual sweeping in all the inner streets in the 377 wards of the state.

    “The Community Sanitation Workers will be uniformly kitted, insured, paid above the minimum wage and equipped to tackle the challenges of their newly defined scope of work” he said.

    He stressed that the Lagos State Government was determined to give to Lagosians a sustainable and functional environment which they would be proud of since environment remained the bedrock upon which development and prosperity rest.

    Meanwhile, Adejare stated, while presenting the achievements of his Ministry in the Month of February, that efforts to regenerate the environment continued with the enforcement of compliance with sanitation regulations in  markets, eateries, toilets, car wash, event centres, filling stations and shopping malls across the state.

    He also stated that the Ministry supervised the construction of 19 drainage channels to de-flood various areas in the State, while it cleaned 1,960 meters of collector drains across the state.

    In the same vein, 748 tenements and 160 private facilities were monitored for wastewater compliance, while 547 abatement notices were served on tenements and private facilities respectively and poster removal was undertaken in 110 streets.

    On the beautification and greening programme, the State produced 4,472 plant seedlings in its nurseries in Ikorodu and Oko-oba, Agege

  • FRC and sundry reform matters

    It is no longer news that the Financial Regulatory Council of Nigeria (FRCN), through its executive secretary, unilaterally implemented a certain clause in the Corporate Governance Code, especially for Not-For-Profit-Organisations (NFPO), which necessitated fixing the tenure of the general overseers of religious organisations in Nigeria. One of the major consequences of that decision was the resignation of Pastor E. A. Adeboye as the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in Nigeria. The justification of the FRCN executive secretary was that he was upholding the relevant parts of the corporate governance code. If that were the case, then it would be within the legal purview of the organisation to do so. And this has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that the executive secretary, now relieved of his duty, was a former pastor at RCCG. But, as with most things legal, social and religious in Nigeria, the reality is much more complex than what we are presented. The outcry that has trailed the FRCN’s move and the reactions from several quarters, especially on the resignation of Pastor Adeboye, not only points at a complex situation, but also calls for a cautious but critical attention to some key issues concerning corporate governance, religious matters and the democratic functionality of institutions in Nigeria.

    Permit a caveat that should address all hints of prejudice. This is critical because I am aware of the enormous anxiety and anger that attend the perceived misadventure of religion in Nigeria. I am a Christian with strong conviction that the church is one and will best achieve its earthly mission if it remains one in spite of inescapable denominational imperative. Consequently, whereas I am a Baptist by birth and orientation, I was largely groomed into spiritual maturity by the RCCG as a full-fledged member. I, indeed like millions of others, holds Pastor E. A. Adeboye in the highest esteem for the tremendous grace upon his ministry of which I am direct beneficiary in a classical sense and for the achievements that the RCCG has garnered since he became the general overseer many years ago.

    But the issues at stake in this matter transcend my RCCG connection. It’s especially critical given the extent to which the legion of charlatans in the cloak of Levitical priesthood have infiltrated Christendom with diabolic and commercial mission and are daily denigrating the faith because they are provided umbrage by the absence of corporate governance codes and their enforcement.    These are issues of democratic surveillance, organisational integrity, institutional capacity and reform. In this regard, the FRCN constitutes a significant dimension of the ensemble of democratic institutions in Nigeria. And this is more so with regard to the monitoring of corporate governance matters. On its website, the FRCN outlines its mission as simply as possible: “To bring utmost confidence to investors, reputation to oversight and ensure quality in accounting, auditing, actuarial, valuation and corporate governance standards and non-financial reporting issues.” This is seriously commendable because corporate governance is a very significant aspect of democratic governance in Nigeria. Ensuring good corporate governance practices is a sine qua non for laying the foundation of an accountability principle in the national economy that will eventually devolve on the well-being of Nigerians. The Not-For-Profit-Organisations (NFPO) are equally part of this corporate governance accountability concern because they equally impact on the financial profile of the nation and of individuals and organisations.

    First thing first, every institution must react to its context and environment. With regard to the idea of corporate governance, the FRCN ought to have known that it was walking a very tight rope in its attempt to monitor a corporate atmosphere charged with complex practices. Religion is a crucial issue in Nigeria. And its mismanagement has led to critical losses for the Nigerian state. The Boko Haram insurgency that has cost many lives could be traced, in a significant sense, to some badly managed military and administrative policies. Stakeholders’ ownership is very critical in policy implementation success, and that translates into a due and meticulous diligence in ensuring that each policy issue makes the round of relevant stakeholders. The implication of this is simple: any policy arising from corporate governance issue ought to have gone through the entire stretch of policy assessment and even more. Of course, no policy is impeccable. But then the ripples and revelations trailing the corporate governance code, especially for NFPO, seem to demonstrate a sloppiness bordering on lack of professionalism and institutional hastiness. Suspending a policy in itself speaks volume about the appropriateness of such a policy for its intended purpose. Thus, as a commentator rightly notes, not properly deducing the intricate nature of this issue of applying corporate governance code to, say, churches amount to an overkill, an institutional excessiveness that poses the danger of heating up the society unnecessarily.

    But then, there is another side to the issue. And this involves the churches and other religious organisations themselves. While the FRCN is undergoing reconstitution, and the corporate governance code, hopefully, will be re-evaluated and reviewed, there is also a need for churches to look inward in the face of weak gate keeping that is undermining the Christian brand as the salt and the light of the world through the activities of charlatans in the guise of prophets-entrepreneurs riding on prosperity theology popular tendencies and vulnerabilities of a poverty-ridden and superstitious society and pervasive miracle mentality. The Federal Government has the right to instigate any policy that affects its citizens, and religion plays a huge role in this regard because whatever happens in the religious realms have extensive impact on the way people relate with themselves in the public spaces. Beyond this, the FRCN is right about the critical nature of corporate governance and why not even churches and mosques can be excused. Religious organisations owe the government an adequate compliance with regulations that probes accountability. This is even more so in a state that is attempting to increase its profile of democratic governance. A church or mosque may be theocratic but that does not preclude its legal response to certain democratic imperatives concerning structures and rules.

    On the other hand, the religious organisations owe their members a firm adherence to strict codes of accountability and other institutional structures that ensure not only spiritual adequacy but also financial openness. It would not be a sin if the financial transactions of a religious organisation are open within the bounds of regulation and best practices. Since the church or mosque is a custodian of morality, this institutional reform of its structures should not a big deal. Religious organisations are agents of development, especially within the environment of institutional incapacitation in Nigeria. From the Catholic Church to the RCCG and even several Islamic organisations, religious organisations play a dominant role in bringing the dividends of democracy to the doorsteps of members and other people alike.

    And development in this context of underdevelopment becomes a moral imperative which would not permit the organisations to champion a good cause while they are in themselves an emblem of institutional incoherence. A strong case can be made for the autonomy of religious organisations given that, for instance, some of their founding constitution sits incongruously with the legal requirements of the federal constitution of Nigeria. However, just as religious institutions have modified the way we think and rethink secularity in Nigeria, they must equally be modified by the imperatives of secularity and democracy. It will therefore be an act of good faith for religious organisations to firm up their institutional deficits in ways that will add to their credibility, spiritually and administratively. In many quarters, churches and mosques do not enjoy good public reputation. In fact, the reason why many lash out at them is the attempt to hide corruption behind the cloak of godliness to deceive the innocent.

    On the other side, and this is even more critical, it is high time Nigeria (and religious leaders would do posterity great service if they provide a lead in this rethinking and reform) commenced a deep institutional and administrative reassessment of religion and its corporate dynamics in a manner that will put to rest the debate around whether religious organisations ought to answer to corporate regulations. The review of the corporate governance code that jumpstarted the problem in the first place could be a wonderful opportunity to resolve it finally.

     

    • Dr. Olaopa is executive vice-chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP)

  • Nigeria’s political arrangement requires urgent reform

    SIR: The foundation of Nigeria’s problems is its obsolete political-economic system that sustains rent-seeking and nurtures corruption. The beneficiaries of this system have chosen to turn a blind eye to the folly of maintaining a tragically flawed system, choosing as it were to postpone the evil day. The chickens are already coming home to roost as exemplified by our current economic fortunes.

    This unitary system which was bequeathed to us by our erstwhile military dictators was crafted specifically for the purpose of weakening the then regional governments and the maintenance of a command and control structure in the aftermath of the Nigerian civil war. This system of governance was never intended to deliver the dividends of democracy to us, simply because it was NOT designed for that purpose.

    There are those who have in defence of our ex-dictators suggested that the motivation for the creation of this system was to ensure the unity of Nigeria and extinguish separatist fires. A noble objective at the time, yes, but today’s Nigeria faces an entirely different set of challenges and they require an entirely different set of solutions.

    Today, Nigeria is burdened with a mono-product economy that has given birth to a biting economic recession. It is also burdened with the practice of a political system that is destroying social cohesion and eroding our fragile national unity.

    To remedy the situation we today find ourselves in, we must begin by accepting the failure of the 1999 constitution. The 1999 Constitution ensures that states remain appendages of the federal government, in direct contradiction with the most basic tenets of political and fiscal federalism, which envisages that states/regions are to be free, economically self-sustaining, whilst contributing to the maintenance of the government at the centre.

    One of the primary causes of this aberration is captured by Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which provides thus:

    (1) The Federation shall maintain a “special account” to be called “the Federation Account”

    (2) The President…shall table before the National Assembly “proposals” for revenue allocation from the “Federation Account”, and in determining ‘the formula’, the National Assembly shall take into account, “the Allocation Principles”…

    (3) Any amount standing to the credit of the “Federation Account” SHALL BE DISTRIBUTED…”on such terms and in such manner” as may be prescribed by the National Assembly.

    The foregoing sections of the Constitution effectively rendered Nigeria’s erstwhile productive regions (now states) into dependants and ultimately stifled the economic development of Nigeria.

    It may be said also that the 1999 Constitution is also the cause of the poor leadership that Nigeria has been burdened with particularly at the state level, with politicians simply aspiring to get elected into office in the knowledge that no mental input or industry is required of them vis a vis the economic development of their states, because frankly speaking there is no incentive to think or to work, when there is free “oil-money” to be “distributed”, by Law.

    The politicians would rather focus their energies on “legacy projects” and grand schemes to attract a larger cut of the corruptly termed “national cake”. Hence, Nigeria may never achieve its famed great potential, IF it persists in practising an obsolete  political-economic system that stifles economic growth and political maturity.

    To correct this aberration, the government is humbly advised to see to the amendment of the 1999 Constitution along the lines of the recommendations of the 2014 National Conference Report.

    Whilst appreciative of the fact that not all the recommendations contained in the report may be perfect, its progressive and nationalistic thrust, leaves no one in doubt, and in its pages, we find an excellent template for the reconstruction of our national political-economic architecture for the attainment of growth and development, under terms that are JUST and agreeable to ALL Nigerians.

     

    • Ugochukwu Amasike,

    Lagos State.

  • No going back on reform, says NNPC chief

    No going back on reform, says NNPC chief

    The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National PetroleumCorporation (NNPC) Dr. Maikanti Baru, has said his management will stick to the ongoing reform in the corporation to ensure transparency and accountability in its operation.

    Baru spoke at the conference of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Lagos.

    He said his predecessor, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachiku, began  reforms in the NNPC, adding that the corporation’s businesses were opened to the public.

    Baru, represented by Mr Siky Aliyu, Managing Director, National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO) Limited, an arm of the NNPC, said openness and accountability were essential in the oil and gas industry because they foster growth and stability.

    The oil and gas industry, he said, has numerous stakeholders – the community who provide the resource for the oil companies; the government, investors, non-government organisations, financiers’, and security agencies, among others.

    “Therefore, when all stakeholders are open with one another and are accountable for every decision taken, issues such as infrastructure vandalism, environmental degradation, public mistrust, among others will not arise,” he said.

    Baru, on assumption of office, said he set out a 12-point agenda to push the on-going NNPC reform aimed at introducing transparency in its businesses.

    “My first concern was on security because without a secure environment, we stand the risk of losing our existing and intending investors. Hence, during my visit to the Chief of Defence Staff, l informed him of my intention of setting up an all-inclusive advisory council on security, mainly to address all security and host community agitations. The advisory council would be made up of all stakeholders within the oil and gas industry,” he said.

    According to him, NNPC’s  reform is predicated upon granting of autonomy to its Strategic Business Units (SBUs) while the autonomous business units (ABUs) formally referred to as directorates; provide relevant directions to the SBUs.

    Baru said: “This will remain as part of my agenda for incubating and growing the new business models. We are working round the clock to ensure that all outstanding cash call arrears are settled. As part of our resolve to settle this pertinent issue, we are also working towards creating a sustainable and long term funding plan to sustain our portion of the Joint Venture funding.

    “The national aspirations for oil production and reserve growth to a target of four million barrels of oil production per day respectively, which have been elusive over the years due to a combination of factors ranging from funding constraints, infrastructure vandalisation, security concerns, among others, are being worked on.

    “We are committed to ensuring restoration of oil and gas production to peak levels, and growing the production mix and portfolio of oil and gas reserves through very transparent processes.

    “Our exploration and production (E&P) arm, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) will form the nucleus of growth for the corporation. We have developed strategies for re-kitting NPDC and empowering it to compete favourablly with other E&P companies. All contractual arrangements with NPDC will be reviewed. As mandated, where contracts are discovered to be against the interest of the government, they will be terminated.’’

    Gas Development, he said, is imperative for economic development. “We are seeing a situation whereby by 2018, domestic gas demand will outstrip gas supply to our export projects. This calls for an aggressive development of gas resources along with the gas infrastructure to deliver the gas to end-users. We intend to leverage on NNPC equity and dominance in the industry to fast track gas development to meet both our domestic demand and export commitments, assist the Federal Government towards delivering it’s commitment of 10,000Mw by 2019 and ensure an alternative source of revenue for NNPC.

    According to him, the NNPC has the mandate to open up new frontiers  to enable production and reserve addition.

    He added: “NNPC is set to resume exploration activities in both the Chad and Benue Troughs. There is a high level of optimism, based on recent seismic processed data from the Chad Basin, that our sojourn this time around will yield successes.”

  • Can Ibrahim Idris reform the Police?

    SIR: On two occasions when I went to  police stations to seek bail for persons who had minor scuffles, I was asked by police officers on duty for money to procure ‘Izal,’ ‘Detol,’ and ’tissue paper,’ before I could see these persons.

    Aren’t the senior officers aware of this practice by their junior officers?  Do law enforcement officers work for the government and people of Nigeria or for themselves? Why do we seemingly have failure in security? Why is there a constant spike in crime and all manner of economic sabotage? I see policemen only interested in parking vehicles to extort money at check points. I hardly see or hear about police officers giving chase to robbers leading to apprehension, as happens in the movies.

    Our society can be safe only when there are effective partnerships between government and the police to fight crime in a 360 degree angle. There will be no security while state governors big-note themselves for presenting the police with vehicles to help fight crime. The vehicles cost a mere pittance of the huge security votes they collect monthly from federal allocations.

    The job of the police would be made easier if efforts are channelled correctly. For instance, a pool of informers should be set up and informers paid to report potential crimes before they fester. The state should have a Witness Protection Programme to protect whistle-blowers.

    The job of the police would be made easier if transportation for officers on duty is not restricted to sitting at the back of Hiluxes and Ford Rangers. What kind of strategy exposes law enforcement officers to danger? Have the authorities not heard of unmarked official saloon cars? And should the police go for covert assignments in a rented taxi?

    A policeman’s job would be easier when the state checkmates all those who openly denounce the Nigerian state with nefarious and self-serving intent.

    I shudder to think about the fate that might befall the policemen I see with guns only, in the middle of nowhere, without patrol vehicles when I travel on Nigerian roads. How would they escape without patrol vehicles if they are attacked by bandits?  Why does the state risk the lives of its police force in this way?

    I wonder at the kind of policing Nigeria hopes to provide when the rank and file only attend shooting ranges, buy their kits and no training is provided on democratic idealism so as to appreciate the concept of citizen rights in a democracy.

    All federal agencies should be mandated to contribute to a pool of funds to help the police, to free the over 150,000 police officers working in the homes of private citizens, because there are too few officers and too many crimes.

    What’s going on? It’s sickening to see a police patrol team more interested in pulling over a pickup van or truck carrying building materials, than giving chase and trying to apprehend robbers, car snatchers, kidnappers and child traffickers. Nigeria is drifting towards a dark and fearsome abyss.,

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt.

  • Achieving sustainable reform

    It is common for civil society organisations (CSOs) and groups campaigning for reforms to identify challenges with government systems and governance processes then suggest possible solutions. This can only bear fruit with governments willing to listen, and collaborate. Increasingly, such campaigns rarely achieve set goals as at when needed, consuming more time and resources in instances where any result is achieved.

    So do collaboration work? Can organisations and people advocating for change work collaboratively with government to achieve desired changes or reforms in line with the wishes of the larger population? I can say it is difficult when reform campaigners and civil society organisations begin trying to work with government, even though not an impossible undertaking. The difficulty is in part driven by the fear that the organisations’ credibility will be questioned by the very public they serve. There is also a problem if a lack of the capacity required to collaboratively work with government exists, as well as the moot point that governments change, more so with officials in selective posts who are changed at the whims of their principal.

    However, the challenges faced by the citizens leave no room for self-doubt or undue hesitation over these difficulties; we are required not only to speedily identify challenges and articulately suggest solutions, but to roll up our sleeves to put in the manual work towards reforming governments at all levels.

    Collaboration, in my experience, works best when government institutions are led by reform-conscious officials who will be more receptive when solutions are not merely mooted, but implementation frameworks and partnerships are simultaneously offered. It is that tangible leap from saying “this is the problem” to adding: “these are the exact steps we could take together to eradicate it” that puts the action in collaboration.

    For example, in 2015, BudgIT intentionally chose to broaden its adoption of this approach, working with the Kaduna State Government on Nigeria’s first Open Budget platform, with the Nigerian Police Force Intelligence Bureau on intelligence data gathering and analysis, as well as with several government agencies in the security sector (in partnership with Public and Private Development Centre as lead) on guidelines for classifying security information with respect to FOI and the Nigerian Police Headquarters on a mapping of Police Stations in Lagos.

    I am aware of the work that Public and Private Development Centre did with Open Contracting Data Standards using their recently built procurement tool www.budeshi.org which led to the recent announcement of government adoptionof Open Contracting Data Standards; and the collaboration between Right to Know Nigeria (R2K) and Bureau for Public Sector Reformto build an online FOI platformfor the bureau.

    For organisations looking to use these methods, it is critical to: identify a champion, ambassador or “face” within the government institution clearly looking to implement reforms; prove then communicate your clear and unbiased understanding of the solutions being proffered; evaluate your capacity to carry out the work and find the resources required to implement the ideas. Where capacity is lacking, it is important to find similarly-driven partners who can help. Collaboration is an opportunity to invest your resources, and it is advised that the only gain should be seeing tangible change take root.

    Reforming government through collaboration comes with organisational risks and is not — and should never be — an opportunity for financial gain from government. Regarding these risks, care must be taken to ensure that the values of the organisation are not compromised at any stage and the CSO must ensure it remains open about the collaboration at all stages of the project. Carrying the public along will ensure that their questions are answered, doubts cleared and the focus is persistently sharp, giving advocacy and reforms more bite.

    It is pertinent to seek donors; avoid the exchange of money, especially between governments and your organisation. This will ensure operational independence to implement relevant reforms to the best of your ability. Just as important is this: do not overstate what will be achieved. Rather, start with the simplest things to show what is possible, build trust and continue to improve on previous achievements, as project lifespans can be extended.

    Funding collaborations with government institutions can be challenging, so early planning during programme design with donors and funding partners is essential. Donors understandably always have ideas about what they want to fund and have restrictions on what their funds can be used for. Therefore, it must be reiterated that CSOs must carefully design programmes in such a way that it will meet donor conditions and simultaneously assist recipient organisations implement reform.

    This approach, of collaboration and working for the people with the right government champion can lead to positive and lasting reforms that outlive government officials. There is an assurance that is established once initial success is achieved. It wins over any individuals initially opposed to the reforms, opens the gate for more to be done, bags you a seat at the table and earns you a reputation as an organisation that gets things done.

    If there is one thing I must say from my experience of working on institutional engagement programmes it would be this: with collaboration, it is never about the CSO, but about the people they seek to represent.

    Therefore, in the name of democracy there can be no enemies when the goal is reform. If we must name one, then our collective enemy in the struggle for a better life for our fellow citizens should be: institutional opacity.

     

    • Achonucoordinates Open Alliance Nigeria – a group of CSOs working on Open Government Partnership. He writes from Lagos.

  • Ondo gets justice reform team  

    the Ondo State Justice Sector Reform Team (OSJRT) will be inaugurated today in Akure, the state capital.

    It will be a prelude to a three-day retreat for members that will end on Wednesday.

    Commissioner for Information Kayode Akinmade said the inauguration will take place at the State Development and Property Corporation (OSDPC) Event Centre, Ijapo Estate, Akure.

    The team, in partnership with the Justice for All Programme (J4A), will address some of the challenges in the administration of justice in the state.

    The programme will be carried out in conjunction with the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC).