What The Papers Say
Code Of Anarchy
The somnolent Code of Conduct Bureau, amazingly, appears to have managed a second wind. It wants political appointees in the out-going governments to declare their assets or else........ Or else nothing.The political appointees in question are in the autumn of the life span of their appointments. In only a matter of two days, they will be out of their jobs but many, no doubt, will not be over anxious about where the next meal will come from even in these days of grumbling, and in many cases, loudly protesting stomachs.
The Code of Conduct Bureau is, of course, a chip off the Nigerian block of administrative asphyxia and inertia. Nigeria is a country without a code of any thing, not least that of conduct.
A Code is variously defined as "a collection of laws arranged in a system" and "a system of rules and principles that has been accepted by society."
But which law has ever been respected by the rich and powerful in Nigeria? The constitution forbids Nigerians to operate foreign bank accounts but is it not common knowledge that many public figures who should lead by impeccable behaviour, operate these account in many European and American banks?
Does even the village idiot not know that many political appointees who did not live better than local government clerks in 1978 are now owners of jets and that they employ expensive foreign aviation personnel?
Elections are supposed to be conducted along certain guidelines or code, but did the 1983 general elections satisfy even the most primitive of universally recognised electoral rules?
The sad truth about Nigeria is that the country is in a perpetual state of controlled anarchy. Those who are charged, or change themselves with the responsibility of overseeing the affair of Nigerians, are the country's Job's comforters.
The President has rightly identified moral decadence as the "root cause" of the country's problems but it will take much more than misdirected homilies to re-orientate the country. The President, like all Nigerians, must know those who have brutalized this country's psyche.
— Daily Sketch - Nigeria
Lawless Lawmakers
No institution can be purer than the society from which it emerges. Hence the rationale for the aberrations that have pervaded our public establishments.Instances of corruption and abuse of office are manifestations of our decaying society.
Based on these realities, it will be utopian to expect our lawmakers to be all Saints and Angels.
But, at least by their very role, lawmakers are expected to be the custodians of all that is noble in society.
They are to guard and guide societal norms, and formulate laws essential for an organised society. They as the conscience of the people are expected to rise above the level of the ordinary. But one needs a big mask to cover the face at the shameless acts of some of our lawmakers.
Some small men in this highly respected institution have reduced the exalted position they are occupying to their mean level.
A mere glance at the activities of these men both in their public and private lives will reveal a catalogue of unprintable atrocities unbecoming of even ordinary citizens not to talk of highly respected lawmakers.
All the evils afflicting our public establishments are replicated in the National Assembly.
Barely one year after their inauguration, many members are reported to have been drawing salaries for ghost workers. A typical example is a Senator said to have caused a voucher to be made in the name of his wife, the ghost confidential secretary and his brother, the ghost legislative aide.
Another group of lawmakers sent to investigate allegations that the SGS company had been playing a fast game on the country, was on its own caught up by one of the kick-back scandals in the history of the country.
It is shocking enough that the exalted Senate has during the same period recorded a case of a member convicted for a criminal offence.
A worrisome manifestation of this public eye-sore is the manner with which members of the Assembly have handled cases of impropriety among members.
After raising public expectations about the SGS scandal, the accused members were cleared in circumstances that spoke loudly of our decadence.
The same applies to the Wash Pam panel set up to probe the criminal payment of salaries to non-existent legislative aides. Nothing has come of it since it was set up in 1981.
It is part of the injustices in our society that the police I have watched unconcerned why these crimes go on unabated under their nose.
Unless we can punish the powerful affluent for their atrocities, we shall have no moral justification whatsoever to sanction the poor even for a crime as grievous as armed robbery.
— Punch - Nigeria
The Hypocrisy Behind Ethical Revolution
Virtually every Nigerian head of state has at one time or the other declared publicly his intention to fight corruption and other forms of moral decadence. It is a standard inclusion in several public addresses to the nation.We may, on the first of next month, hear President Shehu Shagari denounce corruption and restate his administration's commitment to combating the evil practice. President Shagari dubbed his crusade against improbity and general moral laxity, 'the ethical revolution'. Unfortunately the revolution has not gone far beyond its naming ceremony.
A year ago, the president set up an ethical reorientation committee. Its task was to make recommendations on how the nation's moral malaise can be cured. About one year later, the President has now set up a task force to look into the recommendations contained in the report of the ethical reorientation committee.
We may have to wait for some time for the result to surface. We hope that by the time an action force gets into gear, the nation shall not have reached a stage of moral bankruptcy.
The Shagari administration has to create an impression of a deep desire to usher in an ethical revolution. That impression is not there yet.
Revolutions are not carried out in committee rooms, but by facing the ugly reality and taking swift action to root out the disease and its carriers. By diddle-dawdling with committees the President gives the impression that he is either incapable of confronting or unwilling to confront, the issue.
The Federal Government does not need an ethical reorientation committee, or a task force, to tell it how to combat corruption. There are laws already in existence which deal with different forms of moral turpitude.
The government only needs to ensure that these laws are implemented in relation to all sections of the society. Punishment for crimes of corruption can be made stiffer if need be, so as to act as a deterrent. Such corrupt practices as inflation of contracts should not be too difficult to deal with. The government knows the people who give out government contracts, it does not require a detective agency. It should establish a system of checking the award of contracts and dealing ruthlessly with those involved in the nefarious practice of contract loading.
Without doubt the most serious incidents of corruption are those perpetrated by members of the upper echelon of the society. These crimes can only be committed by people in decision-making situations, people whose job description includes the award of contracts.
Whatever happened to the Code of Conduct Bureau? The last we heard of it was its published list of government functionaries who have refused to declare their assets. The list read like Nigeria's who is who. President Shagari surely does not need an ethical revolution committee to guess why top government officials are reluctant to declare their assets. The truth is that those who do not wish to declare their assets have something to hide.
There is a great deal of hypocrisy about the government's attitude to corruption. Often we hear a sermon from the mount on the evils of the practice, yet when cases of embezzlement, inflated contracts and other acts of economic sabotage are publicly revealed, nothing is done to bring the culprits to book.
Some newspapers, including the Concord, have published stories of financial deals and impropriety in government, and if those concerned care to reply at all it is a bland, unconvincing statement of denial in which they leave the substance of the charges and chase the shadow of the motives behind such publications.
Any meaningful clean-up of the society must be seen to start from the top. As soon as the big man who jacks up contracts and dumps the excess in coded bank accounts abroad or in fictitious names in Nigeria sits erect, the traffic policeman who collects fifty kobo illegal 'toll' from motorists will also stand erect.
At that point a true ethical revolution has begun. For now the campaign is simply hypocritical.
— National Concord - Nigeria
Mobutu's Bitter Medicine
President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire has warned that democracy, freedom and human rights in the country should not serve as excuses for anyone to establish anarchy and irresponsibility in the state.He said that as the constitutional guarantor of peace and unity of the country, he will put an end to any kind of agitation that will arise in Zaire at all costs.
President Mobutu was addressing the closing meeting of the Mouvement Populaire de la Revolution (MPR) Central Committee's seventh ordinary session in Zaire.
"I think the time has come to call on the patriotism and on the revolutionary discipline of all MPR militants taking into consideration our performance in the first half of this year and of the possibility of signing another agreement with IMF, which has led to a series of economic and financial measures being adopted and announced by the executive council meeting early in September."
He acknowledged that the terms of the IMF agreements are tough, although, it is true that the programme is only for 15 months "In the meantime I acknowledge that the medicine is bitter but there is no alternative.
