Under electoral regulations, various political parties are scheduled to hold party primaries around this time, and the loyalty of party members intending to contest elections for one position or another is being called into question by the generality of members under each party’s umbrella. Those who have held positions before, either at the state or federal level, have to account for their stewardship in terms of defending party positions during debates or discussions in the State Assembly, House of Representatives, or the Senate. Accountability determines whether one is entitled to go back or be replaced.
Governors are hardly replaced because they normally perform extraordinarily in the first term to secure a second term. It is in the second term that some of them bear their fang as emperors, becoming “something else”! Some of them, aspiring to go to the Senate, owe allegiance only to their Senatorial districts or zones. State resources are diverted to executing some key projects in the zone at the expense of other parts of the State. A state’s major or landmark project could finally be completed to give the impression of still working for the state. It is also the period to amass funds for personal after state service livelihood or for the election into the Senate.
Those who fall by the wayside during party primaries usually have the opportunity to minimise their losses and conserve some of the embezzled funds for future temporary luxurious living. But those who fall at the final stage of the election are often seen home and dry shortly after the election unless they are compensated shortly with ministerial or ambassadorial positions.
The issue of accountability should be made a special theme by non-governmental organisations or civil societies in the areas of electioneering enlightenment before and during the forthcoming election. The federal government told us, and statistics show that a significant proportion of the savings from the fuel subsidy removal and windfall from the currency devaluation, as well as huge returns from the more efficient efforts of the Nigerian Revenue Service, went to states and local governments, and to constituency allowances to legislators.
I always hold the view that generating revenues is not a major problem the federal government faces, but the application of the revenue. Sharing the revenue between stealing and legitimate spending, whereby stealing takes precedence over spending in accordance with the approved budget. It is very easy to detect missing hundreds when the amount is small, but these days, Nigerian civil and public servants steal billions before they are detected. It implies we have a huge amount to play around with. However, it started little by little but escalated with growing revenues. That is why it is possible for an Accountant General or a Minister of Justice or a governor of the central bank, and lately a Minister of Power, to steal billions of money undetected until after leaving office. Such an individual fund that can finance the budget of some countries in Africa! Yet Nigeria has not and cannot collapse.
Worse still, those people are pardoned after agreeing to surrender part of the money in the spirit of a conscripted legal term! That action actually portrays the morality of the government in power, granting such a request. Nigeria cannot collapse because the government can and do easily move to the credit market to borrow money to plug the holes created by the stealing.
In these coming elections, the electorate must start asking the governors what projects and programmes were executed with the humongous funds transferred to them by the Federal Government. Do those projects and programmes measure up to the funds released? Some lawmakers just collected the constituency allowances with nothing to show. Some even claimed that funds were not released for the constituency projects, while in the same breath, we saw some of their colleagues in the chamber empowering their people with workshops, equipment, and other income-generating items. A number of them are just executing projects when elections are near so that they can claim to live in the heart of their people. All these tricks must be exposed by those enlightened and empowered to do so.
By the time we start insisting on accountability at all levels of governance, the politicians will stop taking us for granted. The stealing and deliberate mismanagement of funds will reduce, and so also will be the need to borrow money. Borrowing has become a fashion, particularly for APC governments. Even this present government, which has a credible initiative for revenue generation and generates funds, also has the crafty method to borrow from both domestic and foreign markets. The end product is stalled development, persistent unemployment, increased poverty, and pauperisation.
The fact is that Nigerians have to take control of their lives and stop being manipulated by the politicians who derive joy from leading poverty-stricken citizens. Those who have the capacity, like NGOs, non-partisan academics, and journalists, must work on behalf of the citizen to promote good governance and put politicians on their toes. It should be a case of “if you know something, do something.”
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