National Conference and the elusive search for civic conscience

Akatakata lan sise oba  Aki sise oba lagun

(You don’t put all your  energy into government work. There is no need to go the extra mile while doing government work)

 – Yoruba Proverb

After a bumpy start and a sensational threat by the Lamido of Adamawa, Alhaji Muhammadu Barkindo Mustapha, to secede from Nigeria if his views were ignored, the National Conference appears to be settling down to business. One issue that continues to resonate however is that of the allowances put at between N10m and N12m paid to each delegate.  The allowance is expected to take care of accommodation in Abuja, two meals a day among other conveniences.

Focus was given to the matter by two contrasting responses from the delegates, namely, the sacrificial forfeiture of the allowance by Pastor Tunde Bakare, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN)  and Kabir Yusuf on the one hand; and the demand for extra allowances for their aides by some other delegates on the other hand.

There was another group of civil society activists including Femi Falana and Mike Ozekhome who said that they would take the allowances and donate them to charity; since in their judgment, they could not be sure that even if they did not take the allowances that they would be returned to the Federation Account.

Typical of the widespread lament and biting diatribe concerning the size of the allowance, bordering on jumbo pay in the opinion of some, is the view expressed by the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah.   Kukah raised the alarm that the allowances are “scandalous” observing that as Secretary of the National Political Reform Conference during the Olusegun Obasanjo years, he could confirm that every member received N20, 000 a month.     In Kukah’s words, “I am not talking about whether it was enough or not, that is not the issue, but I know the sacrifice people have to make because this is about our country.”

Another strand of the criticism against the beefy allowance has it that many more delegates, especially the ranks of former governors and captains of industry, some of who have houses in Abuja could do without the pay with some critics maintaining that the conference may have lost the moral right to take on the National Assembly for its sundry and unrealistically high emoluments or even the Executive for its famed footloose spending habits.  In order not to cast an undeserved slur on the body, it should be clarified that it did not fix delegates allowances and that there are several of them who cannot afford to do what Bakare and others did.    Having said that, the question can be raised why there are not many more turning down the allowances and why some even agitated for their aides to be paid.

The Yoruba proverb cited in the opening portion of this essay offers a clue to the sociology of official prodigality and why government work is seen as an opportunity to relax and yet be paid handsomely. Let me clarify that there are other proverbs in Yoruba and other Nigerian cultures which admonish hard work.  A ready example is Ise logun ise (hard work is the remedy for poverty). It is true, nonetheless, that either because of the bonanza culture introduced by the petroleum-driven economy or because of the disconnect between state and society, government continues to be viewed as an arena of windfall gains or stupendous largesse.

In this context, praise must be given to those Nigerians who publicly parted with the prevailing mindset of viewing the public space as one from which to draw fast gains or indulge one’s appetite.  We have talked long about corruption and official squandermania, but we have said little about those men and women who stand up against them, not rhetorically, but by practical examples.

In the 1990s, to give an instance of such moral valour, the late Mr Tunji Oseni, Managing Director of the Daily Times, used his own personal car to run errands for the company and promptly returned unspent money to the company’s coffers, when he made official trips. More recently, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) not only denied himself the perquisites of the office of the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University of Ibadan, but donated a law auditorium to the university to remedy some of its infrastructural deficits.

In the judgment of this writer, Bakare and others belong to this hall of inspiring fame for taking the struggle against official extravagance a notch higher than the familiar denunciation of the syndrome. To them and their tribe belong the possibilities of reforming Nigeria. Is it not of interest that the politicians have been rather silent on this aspect of the debate? Is it because they have taken for granted that such high rise remuneration is a part of the political order in Nigeria?

Perhaps, another reason why many do not make those kinds of sacrifices has to do with the interesting argument of Falana that on one occasion when he returned a gift of rice and other items sent to him to celebrate Christmas by one of the state governors, the gifts were diverted along the line and never reached their destination. On the lighter side, one can ask the activist-lawyer whether he expected that those items would be sold and the money refunded to the treasury or whether the state governor to whom he presumably sent them would have himself consumed them? The underlying point made by Falana is well taken however, that in a monumentally corrupt system such as ours, it might sometimes make more sense for individuals to take charge and ensure that such amenities actually reach the poor who need them.

By the same analogy and while not doubting the integrity of Falana and Ozekhome, it is suggested that they should make public their donations of the allowances to charity since obviously they are comfortable enough to forfeit them. The other point that arises from Falana and Ozekhome’s gestures pertains to the debate whether principled rejection of such gifts has any point since usually what is forfeited by the right hand is sure to be stolen by the left hand of those who make it their business to turn such loopholes into an industry of pilfering. This of course is an open-ended debate that does not admit of easy answers; however, conscientious objection to official prodigality by individual crusaders goes to build up a civic conscience which can eventually form the basis for reforming a thoroughly rotten system.

The dearth of such edifying gestures and posturing point to a fundamental problem in the way we have hitherto combated corruption and ostentation in public life.  Had more delegates who have the wherewithal committed themselves in the same manner as Agbakoba and others, the conference would have demonstrated the kind of gravitas and moral purpose that is appropriate to the urgent business of national reform.

In choosing, however, to do business as usual, they have committed no offence but nonetheless have passed up an opportunity to flash the redemptive possibilities of individual and systemic heroism as well as self-denial in the bid to reform and to re-order Nigeria