Unlike the optimism of voters for change and enthusiasm of President Buhari to return a sense of order to the polity, civil servants and others in political office do not seem to be in a hurry to change from looking for excuses to mute irresponsible behaviour in government.
One feature of the country’s culture of corruption is finding excuses not to do the right thing. This culture of impunity was not created by former President Jonathan; it just reached its pinnacle (or nadir?) under his presidency. Finding excuses not to do the right thing is also part of the culture of all categories of workers-from those in the formal sector to those in the artisanal and informal sector. Unlike the optimism of voters for change and enthusiasm of President Buhari to return a sense of order to the polity, civil servants and others in political office do not seem to be in a hurry to change from looking for excuses to mute irresponsible behaviour in government.
The latest demonstration of excuses in our new government of change pertains to failure of over 300 MDAs to act in compliance with the presidential order that accounts of all government agencies be transferred to the Treasury Single Account in the Central Bank. Let us hear from the Accountant-General of the Federation who should know about the latest development on the presidential order: “As at today, I can tell you about 600 out of about 900 MDAs have keyed in. For the number of accounts I cannot categorically tell you because even the MDAs and indeed the federal government never knew the number of accounts. However the accounts are going on to the Central Bank of Nigeria and I believe very soon a position will be made available on the number of accounts that have been swept up.”
Is there any better or worse way to illustrate resilience of poor governance than the statement from the Accountant-General? The AGF may have some excuse for not knowing how many MDAs there are in the country, because he is new on the job. But it is absurd that the MDAs and the federal government do not know the number of accounts. What the Accountant-General implies is that departments and agencies that keep public funds are not even sure how many accounts they have. The Accountant-General’s use of “about 900 MDAs and about 300 MDAs” in the quotation above indicates, if anything, the lack of seriousness in public service delivery. What does it take for our public servants to be able to talk in exact terms? A similar fear of exactness was displayed during the announcement of the last presidential election when one of the Returning Officers from the Eastern States had to be asked by the former INEC chair, Professor Attahiru Jega, if the man was reading from the text in front of him. Government officials, especially senior ones, should be able to talk in exact terms when and where figures are involved.
But the uncertainty of the Accountant-General about the exact number of MDAs is not the focus of this piece on excuses. Today’s interest is about the Accountant-General’s need to convince MDAs that the presidential order on closure of multiple accounts is not directed against MDAs but for the purpose of increasing efficiency, days after the deadline to carry out presidential directives had passed. Of course, the order is directed at (and designed against) all government agencies that chose to open deposit accounts that nobody, not even the federal government has been able, according to the AGF, to count or verify.
In normal polities, it should not have been necessary for the Accountant-General to plead with erring MDAs, days after the deadline for closure of multiple accounts: “The policy was never intended to impair the operations of MDAs; rather, it is intended to make them more efficient and to make cash available to government in a very centralised and consolidated manner. So, operations of MDAs are expected to move on as expected but MDAs must come forward in line with the directive and deadline given of Sept. 15 which has already expired. We are expecting them to come and enlist, enrol and identify users that will participate and key into their individual sub-accounts so that they can utilise their resources based on their budgets.” The president gave reasons for calling for a return to the Treasury Single Account when the directive was first made. It is important for heads of agencies to note that in a presidential system, the buck stops at the desk of the president. Heads of MDAs that are uncomfortable with the directive or unable to respond to presidential directives on time should be given the choice to resign. Nigerians are ashamed of a system that allows departments and agencies to open bank accounts the number of which may be too numerous for owners of the account to count or know.
The claim that some MDAs are experiencing difficulties in following the presidential order is reminiscent of what many citizens believe is a staple of financial managers in the public sector: the tendency by those in charge of MDAs to keep public funds in many bank accounts, most of which are to yield personal interest for the privileged civil servants. In the era of Sani Abacha, some senior public servants including governors were believed to have put public funds in Finance Houses to produce interest for them. Some governors were even warned by Abacha against joining NADECO on account of having illegally deposited public funds in private bank accounts for personal interest. It is dangerous for the federal government to be shifting deadlines. To instil discipline in governance, the president needs to read the riot act to MDAs that had failed to meet the deadline to move all public funds in their care to the Treasury Single Account.
Still on excuses, citizens are no longer in the loop on whether the police had finally submitted the investigation into the allegation of forgery (in the senate at the first meeting of the current senate) to the Ministry of Justice. A few weeks ago, the media was agog over the play of excuses between the police force and the ministry of justice. The former claimed to have sent to the justice department the full report of the investigation while the latter claimed that the first report sent to it was incomplete and was sent back to the police. The police shouted back that it had sent the final report back to the justice ministry. No reference was made to the mode of sending the report. But in the last three weeks, no information has been made available to the public about the location of the report of the said police investigation. As no reference has been made in the last three weeks to the existence of the report, the media may need to ask both arms of government about the whereabouts of the report of a very important investigation by the police.
Police men on highways have again started to ask motorists to produce licence for tinted glass on vehicles imported into the country and for which owners had paid customs charges. I was stopped on Sagamu-Ore road last week. I told the policeman that the matter of tinted glass had died a natural death long ago. He told me he was not aware of any change in the position of the police on tinted glass, adding that the new Inspector-General had not made any new pronouncement on tinted glass. Should the IGP need to reassure his field officers on the highways that most countries imported to the country come with factory-built tinted glass, he should add a sentence on tinted glass to his post-confirmation speech on his policies to turn the police force around for the better. Voters for change are tired of having to live with the culture of excuses by government agencies.
Even months after the exit of a government that did not care about laws and rules, persons accused of violating the law of the land are eager to accuse the current administration of witch-hunting or political persecution. What has happened in our country to the principle that every action has a consequence and every responsible citizen has to be ready to accept responsibility for his or her action? Individuals accused of unwholesome behaviour are encouraged by their supporters to cry foul, not about the substance of the allegations levelled against them, but solely about the involvement of their political enemies in drawing attention to their unlawful conduct. Mobilising men and women to engage in solidarity visits to courts says as much about the morality of those accused of wrongdoing as it does about supporters who choose to abandon their own jobs to accompany individuals accused of corruption or any other violation of the law to courts.
Citizens who are used to corruption and impunity are likely to always find excuses for whatever they do. It is the levers of power in a paradigm-altering administration that will have to remain firm in their resolve to end impunity by not listening to excuses from citizens who are used to being above the law.
NATION
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