Corruption no doubt is one of the major problems bedeviling our nation. In fact, it’s a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabric of our national lives. It has retarded our developmental and transformational agenda and has dented our image in the global arena.
The creation of the ICPC in 2000 and the EFCC in 2004 to combat corruption, other related offences and financial crimes respectively by the past administration was heralded with joy and optState Houses of Assembly like never before, are on the quest for improved legislation, no matter how hard they seem to acquire. In pursuant of this, the Lagos State House of Assembly recently held a 5-day parliamentary tour and study programme for lawmakers in the United Kingdom. TAIWO OGUNMOLA reviews their activities in the UK.
Recently the leadership of the Lagos state House of Assembly organised a 5-day parliamentary tour and training programme for members and staff in its desire to build a parliament in Lagos state that will compare favorably with any other parliament in the world. It was designed for them to have a firsthand feel of how parliaments work in the oldest living democracy, learn and come back home to apply the knowledge gathered.
The programme was conceived to acquaint members and staff with best legislative practices through shared experience and building of parliamentary network. The workshop which is the first major international workshop organised by the Assembly was designed and packaged with incisive and inspiring lectures, it was highly interactive, inspiring and educative, focusing on vital areas such as budgeting, oversight, parliamentary procedure, including a guided tour to the British parliament to observe their lawmaking process. In addition, the team had an interactive session with MPs on a wide range of issues. The programme held at Greycoat Place, Victoria, London and was facilitated by Good Governance Consortium led by FM and T Consulting.
Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji stressed on the need to build a parliament in the state that will compare favourably with any parliament in the world, sating that despite the fact that Lagos Assembly is number one in Nigeria, it is however still far from its destination, and the 5-day training is part of the journey to that destination.
According to him, UK is the oldest democracy among the living ones from which Nigeria has borrowed so much and thus remains “a place we will always go for further exposure”. He expressed added that Assembly remains one to be beaten by every other Assemblies because he desires that “the 7th Assembly get us to the destination”.
The choice of London, according to the Clerk/Permanent Secretary of the Assembly, Taiwo Olatunji, is because it is unique to Nigerians in a number of ways. He said, “Our choice to have the programme in London is premised upon our ardent quest for knowledge and legislative excellence as well as the side attractions. The UK has a long and admirable history from which we have a lot to learn and ours being a knowledge based legislature we have continued to invest on capacity building to sharpen our transformative skills and equip members with knowledge and skills required to position them to be in good stead to contribute maximally to efficient service delivery”, he said. Olatunji stressed on the need for legislators to remain relevant, vibrant, efficient and effective in the discharge of their duties to the people through continuous learning and exposure to right values and shared experience.
The first visit to the British Parliament was for a session with a member of the House of Commons, Diane Abbot, the first black woman MP who is spending 23 years in the Commons and was only reelected in January. She represents Hackney North and Stoke Newington and has been a shadow Minister for Public Health since 2010. She went into details explaining how legislative business is conducted in the Commons. The interactive session with her was on a wide range of issues.
According to her out of the 650MPs 100 are women. She praised Lagos government for all the good works it is doing saying Britain would like to see more of such governments in place in Nigeria adding that Nigeria is a hot cake in the investment World. Described as an MP with a lot of passion for blacks and minority, she said there are two Nigerian (Ibos) MPs in the Commons from Newcastle and Maidstone.
The team also was in attendance at the meeting of the Energy and Climate Change Committee of the Commons with Charles Hendry MP, Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, discussing foreign policy in relation to energy demands for Britain. The unique thing every participant took away from that meeting was that though we are in 2011 they were discussing energy needs, sources and funding for UK in 2015, 2040 and 2050. One thing you cannot fail to notice at the parliament complex was the tight security arrangement.
The team also watched the House of Lords in plenary. The House is made up of senior citizens who have made their mark in major sectors of the country’s economy. One of its major task is to examine and pass legislation, it also plays a key role in revising legislation sent from the Commons; it initiates legislation also and so shares the burden of the legislative load. It also acts as a check on government by scrutinizing its activities which it does by asking questions, debating policy and through its select committees, taking evidence from ministers and others.
The lawmakers also had lectures and interactive sessions with Mrs. Roni Ajao, a Nigerian born and bred in the UK, she was one of the coordinators and works with MRL Public Sector Consultant Ltd.; Mark Ashton, a councilor representing Cherry Hinton in Cambridge and a renowned and foremost Professor of leadership, Prof. John Adair. Lectures and Issues discussed included; ‘Comparative Legislative Practices’ ‘The Parliamentary leadership question’; ‘The Parliament and promotion of good governance and development’; Code of Ethics and parliamentary privilege’; ‘Legislative oversight’: ‘A comparative review of best practices’ and ‘The challenges of a transformative legislature and the Executive-legislative relations’.
Adar said, Lagos needs to set standard for the rest of Africa because it is the best in democratic development and good governance. To the lawmakers Adair said, “remember that as a leader your position does not give you the right to command others, it only lays on you the duty of so living your own life that others may receive your orders or direction without any sense of being humiliated. The value of the leader is seen in his follower”. Ashton spoke on local council administration and how it can impact on the people’s welfare and development of the community.
In the communiqué issued at the end of the programme, among other things members were told to endeavor to continuously acquire and seek knowledge for better service delivery to their constituents and state at large; the lawmakers also resolved to engage consultants and experts when necessary to critically analyze bills and other documents in order to enrich members knowledge and understanding; to involve the media and civil organisation in the House activities in the consideration of bills when necessary and that the standing committee of the House should as a matter of urgency ensure that the MDAs adhere strictly with the provision of the appropriation laws through adequate monitoring.
Commenting on the programme, Speaker said, “We are all excited with the experience we have gained here. The session with the councilor was an eye opener; you will agree with me that at the end of the day, some of the deficiencies we have in our local councils were sort of made clearer to us, which of course will help the House when it comes to updating ourselves and improving on the laws on local government administration. The programme has been worth it and my colleagues have confessed that they enjoyed it.
Deputy speaker, Hon. Kolawole Taiwo said, “The resource persons have been wonderful and I can assure you that we have gained a lot which we are going to implement back home because that is the essence of the whole programme. This will further enhance our ranking as the best legislature in Africa.”
Other lawmakers who were at the workshop spoke about their experience.
The Chief Whip, Hon. Razaq Balogun said, “the programme has been very rewarding, it has opened our eyes to comparative legislature even though we practice a different system but we saw how the British system operates. And the key for us is to implement the things we heard and learnt here. I think we should also be able to assess ourselves if we have been able to impact on the society we come from”
Hon. Ipoola Omisore Ifako Ijaiye 1 added, it is one of the best we ever had in terms of human development, leadership quality building and we never had it so good. It has been power packed both in theory and practice. With this none of us will be the same again”.
According to Hon. Wahab Alawiye King (Lagos Island 11), “no doubt it has been very exciting and rewarding and I know it will go a long way to improve our performance as lawmakers for betterment of Lagosians. The experience has been worth it.”
Hon. Saka Fafunmi (Ifako Ijaiye 11) said, “It has been so insightful, it gives us a new insight into how legislative practices should be done and we have been shown every area that we need to improve on. We have been able to grab as much as we can to improve our legislative skills.”
imism. No doubt the anti-graft agencies have been trying their best to combat this hydra–headed monster and steady progress is being recorded in the crusade.
Nigerians and the international communities anticipate a lot of results from the anti-graft bodies especially in the area of prosecution. In particular, what majority of Nigerians are interested in is, that any corrupt Nigerian, no matter how highly placed, must not go scot-free to enjoy their loot/booty but rather convicted and sent to jail.
In order to add more bite and vigour to this crusade, the call for the establishment of anti-corruption special courts by some prominent Nigerians and members of civil societies to try solely corruption cases is very germane. Without casting aspersion on our conventional courts, it is a general knowledge that due to avalanche of cases they receive, dispensation of justice becomes very cumbersome and time wasting. No thanks to the delay tactics employed by some lawyers who cash on defects in the technicalities of our laws to seek for frivolous injunctions and adjournments. The implication of this is that, cases linger ad infinitum.
The gains of establishing a special court to handle corruption cases is far reaching. It will among others concentrate on purely corruption and financial crimes cases and as such, cases brought before it will be treated with dispatch and alacrity. The anti-corruption special courts if set up will save cost and time as well as reduce the work load of our conventional courts. The arguments in some quarters that the anti corruption special courts if established will give rise to agitations for more special courts does not hold water, considering the devastating effect of corruption on our nation and coupled with the fact that the menace has gone very sophisticated, the government should stop short at nothing that will help in reducing corruption and one of such is the establishment of anti-corruption special courts.
Countries that established anti-corruption special courts are making steady progress in the war against corruption and they are better off for it.
Meanwhile, I wish to call on President Goodluck Jonathan to initiate an executive bill on the anti-corruption special courts to the National Assembly for enactment into law. By so doing, Nigeria will have joined the league of countries like Pakistan, Philippines, Kenya, France, South Africa, Ghana to mention but a few, who have very functional and active anti-corruption special courts that are doing very well.
With the Freedom of Information (FOI) and the Evidence Acts which are now operational after the President assented which has demystified government businesses from being shrouded in secrecy, there is now hope. Evidence can now be provided and obtained from other sources such as computers, phones etc which can now be tendered and accepted as evidence in any court of law. If the anti-corruption special court is established there is no doubt that Nigeria’s rating by the Berlin–based Transparency International (TI) (which has consistently and persistently called on countries to establish anti corruption special court of repute to try corruption cases, the nation Corruption Perception Index CPI) will surely improve positively.
It should be reiterated that in establishing the anti-corruption special courts, machineries should be put in place to ensure it lives up to expectation. The mode of its operations which is a prerequisite for its success, should amongst others include: existence of and compliance with a tailor-made national strategy (so that the courts are part of a comprehensive anti corruption strategy and do not operate in a vacuum), government commitment and political will, adequate legal frame work with inclusive offence definitions, enforcement provisions, impartiality, independence from political influences, transparency, effective accountability mechanisms, credibility, public trust, appropriate expertise, specialisation, high level of ethics and code of conducts, adequate resources and funding as well as appointing people of proven integrity into the court.
Instead of some Nigerians dissipating unnecessary energy calling for the merging of the ICPC and the EFCC or even the scrapping brouhahas which is a distraction to the anti graft-bodies, rather the ICPC and EFCC should be further strengthened, reinvigorated, empowered with adequate manpower and funding to discharge their respective mandate as enshrined in their enabling laws.
In conclusion, the National Assembly has a very critical role to play in the fight against corruption. I call on the lawmakers to expedite action on the amendments of the ICPC and the EFCC Acts before them. The media as the fourth estate of the realm, civil societies and indeed all Nigerians should take advantage of the FOI Act to fight and expose corruption wherever and whenever.
The fight against corruption is a collective responsibility of all. Therefore, all hands must be on deck to combat the scourge and the need for anti-corruption courts cannot be over-emphasised and should be supported by all to ensure it comes on stream soon for the voice of the people is the voice of God.
Monday, a commentator on national issues wrote in from Plot 802, Constitution Avenue, Central Area, Abuja. ?
