Nigeria: The accountability deficit and transparency question, By Dakuku Peterside

The rot of fiscal and financial abuse in the system runs deep. This is a different time for business than usual. We must challenge the status quo and fight for a new financial accountability and transparency regime. I will advocate for a renewed zeal by state and local government chief executives to be transparent and accountable. It is not enough to profess to encourage public participation and accountability in governance, which to the average officeholder is a PR stunt…

In August, the federal, state, and local governments shared N1.26 trillion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), the highest in our history. In July, they shared N966 billion, and from June till date, FAAC has distributed almost N3 trillion. By Nigerian standards, this can be described as jumbo allocations. Compared to the revenue of many West African states, the recent allocations to many Nigerian states has surpassed their conventional annual budgets. However, can these jumbo allocations translate into concrete developments devoid of transactions for personal benefits? How can citizens ensure a higher level of fiscal and financial discipline, responsibility, and accountability across the country? Knowing that the monstrous problem of bad governance is real and present at the state and local government levels, how should citizens hold the chief executives of states and local governments to account for these resources availed them?

There are two broad areas of public accountability at the level of state governments. The first and most apparent aspect is the assumption that the completion of some infrastructure projects necessarily ‘accounts’ for funds budgeted for capital expenditure. Accordingly, governors go ahead to build flyovers and roads that lead to no economic destinations, in addition to other such structures. It becomes challenging for a mesmerised public to question a governor’s accountability, as he is considered the ‘action governor’ who is getting things done. Yet, these ceremonial commissions say little about the accountability issues involved. The public cannot know the actual costs, how much borrowing supports the projects, or how much funds were misappropriated.

The second aspect concerns the development of public accountability as integral to a democratic culture. In a proper democracy, public officers are responsible for rendering accounts to the public through regular periodic audits. They also have an ethical responsibility to account for their private life expenditures as a function of their statutory incomes. In the US, public officers are barred from receiving favours from private interests, either in cash or kind, which is above $20. Our states are far from this type of transparency and accountability.

We may be deceiving ourselves if we think that the increase in physical resources will automatically translate into increased public goods and services by the various states and local governments. History does not support this thinking. We have seen the contrary, where more resources actually translate into more opportunities for squandering such resources with impunity. This sudden huge revenue flows can create significant appetites for corruption or mismanagement without institutional controls and checks. Some of our elected leaders are ill-equipped to handle this kind of funds. Lacking vision, experience, and managerial capacity, the tendency to channel the resources into things that do not serve the public interest is high.

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The matter is even worse due to the lack of robust public scrutiny and surveillance of state resources. The existing public trust and intelligence infrastructure seem inadequate for such scrutiny, or they have been encumbered by legalistic and mundane practices that make up the Nigerian factor. Our media seem not to be doing enough on this too. As the watchdog of society, they have looked the other way from holding public servants accountable for managing public resources and instituting transparency in the system.

We need to strengthen the existing infrastructure of accountability and transparency in the states. The quality of most state legislatures could be better. This is because the executive arms have hijacked the state legislatures. Most legislators at the state level are handpicked and, often, they do the bidding of the state’s chief executive. Passing the annual budget is a mere ritual, and the oversight functions of state legislatures are almost non-existent in most cases.

Past governments have put in a few measures to provide transparency in revenue allocation. Former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala introduced the publication of the details of monthly allocations to states. This practice of publishing the FAAC revenue distribution details to the three government tiers has been sustained by subsequent administrations. The aim is to keep Nigerians abreast of the revenue generation and distribution efforts of the Federal Government and help them balance government performance with revenue inflows at all levels. This measure is insufficient to curb corruption in the government revenue regime.

Many extrapolated that states and local government areas would already be publishing the details of all that they receive monthly and their expenditure profiles by now. But that has not been the case. The revenues and expenditures of states are still shrouded in secrecy. Only 10 out of 36 states have their detailed budgets on their websites, which is another measure of transparency. None has its budget performance report on the its website. Less than 20 states publish their audited annual financial statements. To publish monthly financial inflows and outflows is wishful thinking at the state level. The infrastructure and framework for transparency and accountability are just not there.

The second measure implemented by the last administration is the Treasury Single Account. The government brought in this system to harmonise the revenue and payment system. Sadly, only about 20 of 36 states operate the whole bouquet of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), meaning that others are averse to financial accounting reforms. Some analysts also think that implementing the TSA should be followed by the passage of a “Fiscal Sunshine Bill”, which will open up the government’s financial activities in the budgetary process and its implementation. There have also been calls for solid legal sanctions where money is being spent outside its appropriated purpose.

The rot of fiscal and financial abuse in the system runs deep. This is a different time for business than usual. We must challenge the status quo and fight for a new financial accountability and transparency regime. I will advocate for a renewed zeal by state and local government chief executives to be transparent and accountable. It is not enough to profess to encourage public participation and accountability in governance, which to the average officeholder is a PR stunt, but matching words with actions is more critical. Notably, most public officeholders today loathe accounting for public resources or even their decisions. This is anathema to growth and development.

We need to strengthen the existing infrastructure of accountability and transparency in the states. The quality of most state legislatures could be better. This is because the executive arms have hijacked the state legislatures. Most legislators at the state level are handpicked and, often, they do the bidding of the state’s chief executive. Passing the annual budget is a mere ritual, and the oversight functions of state legislatures are almost non-existent in most cases. Virtually all the state institutions are weak and seem fascicle in the face of the mighty chief executives who bestride the states like colossuses without accountability. The conditions of the state judiciaries leave much to the imagination.

While there is a growing awareness of the need for accountability, civic engagement and participation in governance processes remain relatively low in many Nigerian states. Citizens are not fully engaged in demanding accountability from their elected representatives. A panoply of reasons suffices for this anomaly.

The phenomena of state capture by godfathers and “polititractors” is prevalent and has become the new elephant in the room. Budgets, project selection and initiation, contractor choice, approvals, and payments are all done outside the routine government processes. Some chief executives are more of symbols of power than sources of authority, or more like furniture in the state house. The chief accounting officer in the state is only accountable to his godfather and no one else. How can there be transparency and accountability when chief executive officers are equally mere puppets in the hands of selfish, self-centred puppeteers who see the states as their extended estates for plundering?

Elections, which citizens could use to punish lousy behaviours, are few and far between, and even when they occur, there is no guarantee that chief executives with bad records of transparency and accountability will be voted out. Our electoral system is still maturing, and we hope it comes to a point when state leaders will fear losing elections because they cannot stand public scrutiny and the demand for accountability. However, there is need to construct other forms of the continuous enforcement of accountability, by which elected and appointed government officials can be held accountable or even punished for the abuse of office.

While there is a growing awareness of the need for accountability, civic engagement and participation in governance processes remain relatively low in many Nigerian states. Citizens are not fully engaged in demanding accountability from their elected representatives. A panoply of reasons suffices for this anomaly.

First, some citizens have become disgruntled and disenchanted with the political system and have lost hope. An average Nigerian believes that corruption is still deeply rooted in our system, so the possibility that the commonwealth will be fretted away is real. It is unreal how it has become normal that citizens have given up fighting for accountability in the country.

The second is the structural lacuna in our constitution that has made it impossible for citizens to hold their leaders accountable for their socio-economic rights. The non-justiciability of Section 6(6)C of the Nigerian constitution makes it difficult for a successful judicial challenge to hold leaders accountable for not providing citizens with their socio-economic rights. In plain language, citizens cannot sue the government for not providing them with these rights, therefore shielding the leaders from the public challenge of accountability for the state’s resources. This is our albatross!

Dakuku Peterside is a policy and leadership expert.