Participants of Course 31 of the National Institution for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) yesterday gave a damning report about the goings on in the polity, calling for urgent action to save the country from further descent. The participants who were led on a courtesy visit on President Umaru Yar’Adua in Abuja by the institute’s director-general, Prof. Danfulani Ahmed, dismissed the level of accountability and responsiveness of government officials as low and the institutional framework put in place to ensure strict compliance as very weak.
They said all officials in the country who were directly in charge of programmes needed to be frequently audited and mandated to be more open, pointing out that “lack of transparency aids corruption, slows down progress, destroys morals and promotes violence”.
As a way of promoting good governance in the country, the group said the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill which had been in the National Assembly for three years should be passed without further delay.
The report presented by two members of the delegation, Col. Ubari Gidum and Mr. Remi Desalu expressed disappointment that despite the billions of naira expended on road construction and rehabilitation in the last 10 years, most federal roads in the country had remained in a deplorable state.
“Sustainable developmental projects are veritable engine of economic growth and development. Public utilities in most parts of the countries visited were inefficient. It must be told that no amount of foreign trips would attract investors if the critical infrastructures are lacking,” they contended.
They told the president that the recent ranking of Nigeria as number 35 in terms of good governance in Africa by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation index for Africa was a clear indication that a lot needed to be done by government.
The participants called for the repeal of the immunity clause in the 1999 Constitution, arguing that the removal of the clause from the constitution would not only enhance the rule of law, but would also ensure transparency, accountability and responsiveness essential for good governance.
Advising government to take concrete steps to strengthen anti-corruption agencies in order to enhance their effectiveness, they suggested the merger of the EFCC and ICPC to avoid overlapping of functions as well as stripping the police and other security agencies of the responsibility of fighting corruption.
While also calling for the establishment of special courts to handle economic and financial crimes and other cases of corruption to make for faster adjudication of corruption cases, they advised that only judges with proven integrity and track records should be appointed in the country.
On the electoral issue, the participants advised the Federal Government to put a mechanism in place to ensure the emergence of political leaders through a transparent and credible electoral process as well as to do away with the culture of ‘winner takes all, which, they contended emasculated the opposition in the country.
They threw their weight behind the call for the creation of state police for a more effective policing of the country, saying state governments should be allowed to establish police service commission to handle the recruitment and training of the personnel.
As a means of engaging the former Niger Delta militants, the participants suggested the setting of a security outfit for the monitoring of the oil pipelines and installations across the country with the ex-militants forming the bulk of the body and the rest parts of the country forming between 20 and 30 per cent.
President Yar’Adua, in his reaction, commended the group for putting up such a thought-provoking paper and promised to present it to the Federal Executive Council for discussion.
Saying the document will assist the country in the quest for transformation from an under-developed to a fast emerging economy by 2020, he assured “we will look at the recommendations and include them in our policy formulations and also get in touch with you in terms of the implementation and feedbacks.”
The president challenged them to do something similar in other areas of the economy, assuring .that the present situation in the country would soon be a thing of the past.
Sun News
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