Leadership (Abuja)
Chioma Iyke-Ani
4 May 2008
opinion
For those who wish to go to equity, they should, or did you say must, go with clean hands? And for others who also wish to point accusing fingers on people, they should know that while one finger is pointed at their targets, the other four are comfortably pointed at them. There is nobody especially in Nigeria that you will sweep his house and not get sand, nobody. That is why when you live in a glass house, you learn not to throw stones. It is even in the Bible where Jesus demanded that those without sin should cast the first stone on the adulterous woman.
The battle line now seemed drawn between the people and our representatives who obviously have forgotten that they are holding the mandate, some stolen, in trust for us.
The fate that befell the freedom of information bill in the lower house, although expected, was shocking and disturbing. The bill that came up for consideration last week was shot down and perhaps killed. And the message is that majority of the members of the House of Representatives are not comfortable with the passage of the bill that would have guaranteed every Nigerian the right to seek and receive from any quarter, information on the running of the Nigerian nation or any other information as the case may be. It also means that the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Assembly, do not want Nigerians to know anything about how they are governed or how the resources and the nation's commonwealth are being managed on their behalf.
But I find it difficult to situate this latest development in the House with the recent mad rush to probe one thing or the other by the same House that has closed the door on the freedom of information bill. I am beginning to believe that all these probes have some under hand motives, some selfish interests, and that it is being used to either make money or to settle old scores and get even with some known and imagined foes. I know and many Nigerians also do, that the members of the House or Senate have no monopoly of wisdom to inquisition and should not see themselves as the only bunch that should have access to any information they want in the running of our government. I make bold to state that every Nigerian should have a right to inquisition. It must not be the exclusive reserve of the members of the National Assembly. Every Nigerian should have the right to walk into a government office and demand for any information he wants.
The bill which our representatives shot down would have made it a crime punishable under an act of parliament for any government official whether a public servant, political appointee or elected office holder to hoard or decline to provide information on request on his duties. With this Act in place, there wouldn't have been the need for this dance drama currently holding and playing out in several committee rooms of our National Assembly. But our "wise men" will not want to hear anything or have anything to do with this bill which will confer on Nigerians equal right to inquisition. In their wisdom, they are higher mortals who should enjoy such exclusive right and they voted to kill the bill merely on selfish grounds.
The on-going probe panels and the ones that are in the making have become a mere charade that is intended to confuse rather than achieve anything. Many Nigerians now know better that the intentions for the scramble to probe are not noble but selfish. How can a group in one breadth say no to a bill that will allow every Nigerian access to information and in another breadth call for information on the running of a defunct regime? These public hearings to me are just razzmatazz; they are largely predetermined and obviously meant to achieve little or nothing. If the architects of these probes believe in the outcome, they wouldn't be afraid to give the nation an Act on Freedom of Information.
With this Act, Nigerians wouldn't have waited till now to find out the monumental fraud in the power sector or the sleaze in land allocation in the federal capital territory.
I have watched the manner these panels have conducted their assignments and I believe that this exclusive right should be extended to every Nigerian through the freedom of information bill. There is already some disquiet on the integrity of the panel members and the intentions of the committees. I know the protestations that greeted the membership of the Senate Committee currently probing the administration of the federal capital territory from 1999 to 2007. I am also unease with the manner the House Committee on power are going about their own business. I can vividly remember that at the end of their public sitting in Abuja, it was obvious from the testimonies of the people that appeared before them that the major culprits in the power scam were former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his boy who is now the governor of Cross Rivers State, Mr. Liyel Imoke. I was shocked to no bound when few days after Imoke had testified, the Committee members were in Calabar to felicitate with him in the name of visiting the Independent Power Projects. It was funny to read in the newspapers where Imoke while receiving the Committee members at the government house Calabar was admonishing that those found wanting in the power sector probe should be brought before the law. You can imagine. But why did the Committee choose to go to Calabar first, and must they visit Imoke? I am not insinuating anything but just curious.
The new story is that the House of Representatives has already constituted another committee to look into the nation's cash cow, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Also remember that it was the same House members that went to NNPC for something I can't really remember now and because the Managing Director who was busy at the villa when they arrived was not personally around to" receive" them, ordered the police to arrest and bring him to face the committee. Many Nigerians had wondered whether they were in NNPC just to see the Managing Director or carry out their assignment. We all know the disposition or mentality of an average Nigerian whether in the National Assembly or not and that is why we are becoming apprehensive with the scramble to probe every thing under the sun. We are looking at the character and integrity of majority of the members of the House especially when majority of them are carrying a stolen mandate and some of these mandates have been quashed at the tribunal of first instance. Any body that can steal our votes and rig himself into office can do worse things with such stolen mandate. I believe this is why they don't want us to have freedom of information because with that we will be in a position to watch their back as they pretend to be serving the interest of the people while laying the foundation to line their pockets. If the freedom of information bill eventually dies, it is goodbye to accountability in office in Nigeria and if I have my way, nobody should henceforth respond or appear before these probe panels. The National Assembly must do the first things first. I have said my own.
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With these entire hullabaloo about probe panels etcetera and the approach and findings thus far, it is becoming clear that these charade is another waste of tax payers’ money that need to stop henceforth. The motive I can infer is nothing short of discrediting the past government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and everything he stood for.
When will Nigerians learn to criticize objectively without bias? When would we start to commend our past and present leaders when they do well while pointing out areas needing improvement/. In my honest appraisal of the government of OBJ, I would say he did… [Read Full Text]