No to transparency

Despite appeals by the Federal Government, civil society organisations, and Nigerians’ call for states to pass the Fiscal Responsibility, and Public Procurement bills in order to strengthen accountability, only 11 states have complied, according to a June report at the Nigeria Governors Forum secretariat.

Development partners, donor agencies and anti-corruption crusaders in the country have maintained that the two laws would engender prudent management of public resources, secure greater accountability and transparency in fiscal operations, and ensure macro-economic stability in a country, where bribery and corruption are widespread.

The last National Assembly (2003-2007) passed the federal government’s version of the laws shortly before the expiration of its tenure in June 2007, with President Umaru Yar’Adua assenting to it in July 2007. The 36 states were then requested, through their governors, to pass them in their various states.

The National Economic Council, led by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, which includes the 36 state governors as members, has repeatedly appealed to the state helmsmen to urgently pursue the enactment of the two laws that are crucial to government’s alleged war against corruption. The secretariat of the Governors Forum has also consistently lobbied the state chief executives to make the passage of the laws by their houses of assembly “a topmost priority”.

Talking to the deaf

It does appear that those making the appeal have been talking to the deaf. Two years after the battle began, only 11 states have so far passed the legislations, fueling peculations that most politicians at the state levels are “completely at home with corruption and arbitrariness”.

The states that have enacted the Fiscal Responsibility Law are: Abia, Bauchi, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Gombe, Kaduna, Kogi, Kwara, Ondo and Osun. In Lagos and Bayelsa States, the bill is at the third reading in the houses of assembly and at the second reading in Anambra, Adamawa, Benue,Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara States. The bill has just gone past the first reading in Kebbi, Oyo and Sokoto States. Four other states – Akwa Ibom, Borno, Edo and Ekiti States – are yet to introduce any of the bills into their houses of assemly and it is unclear when they will do so.

“Our own will come, legislative matters take a process,” was the response given by the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah, when asked why his state was yet to commence the process of passing the two crucial laws. Mr. Umanah said his state currently has a Finance and General Purposes Committee that scrutinises contracts, vets tenders and handle issues of appropriate pricing. “It is an extra-ministerial committee that has helped us tremendously in our spirited war against corruption,” he added.

As it is with the Fiscal Responsibility Bill, so it is with the Public Procurement Law; only 12 states have also passed it into law. They are: Abia, Bauchi, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Ondo, Osun and Rivers. In Bayelsa and Lagos States, the law has passed third reading while it is at the second reading stage in Anambra, Adamawa, Benue, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Katsina, Nassarawa, Niger, Ogun, Plateau, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara States. The proposed law is still at the first reading stage in Kebbi, Oyo and Sokoto States and is awaiting passage at the houses of assembly in Kwara and Enugu States. The process for the enactment of the law is yet to take off in Edo and Akwa Ibom States.

The Director General of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Asishana Okauru, who has been lobbying the governors to pass the laws, however, said that the state chief executives “have demonstrated commitment to getting the laws passed in their various states. The process is on in all the states and we are confident that all the states will be through very soon.”

Playing to the gallery

Shehu Sani, a human rights campaigner, observes that most of the states that have passed the two legislations have merely done so for “showmanship”. “Twelve states have passed the laws quite alright, but what have they done to implement them?” asks Mr. Sani, president of the Kaduna-based Civil Rights Congress.

“Nothing,” he adds. “So, you can see that they are merely playing to the gallery. They have passed the laws just for showmanship and not necessarily for the attainment of the goals and objectives for which they were meant.” To him, the governors are skeptical about putting in place legislation that would in turn be an obstacle to them if they want to plunder the resources of their states.

“The fact is that the governors and the state assemblies are more concerned with how to use state resources for the 2011 elections and they are, therefore, reluctant to put laws in place that would stop them from stealing public funds with reckless abandon.”

Eze Onyekpere, the director of the Centre for Social Justice, a civil society organisation that monitors the disbursement of public fund by government agencies, said both the federal and state governments are hypocritical in the implementation of the accountability laws.

“We have always maintained that the political will to implement the fiscal responsibility law is not there,” says Mr. Onyekpere, whose agency is planning to release a report on the implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act at the federal level.

“They are paying lip-service to the matter because they know that such laws will not allow them to continue to dip their hands in the public till with reckless abandon.”

Many of the speakers and attorneys general of the states that have not passed the laws were not available for comments last week when NEXT On Sunday sought their views. Ahmad Hassan Jumare, the Speaker of Kaduna State House of Assembly, bluntly denied that he was the one on the phone. “I say wrong number,” was his response immediately he heard the question.

Adejare Bello, the Osun State House of Assembly Speaker, however, declared: “We have passed the law since last year and the council that the law requires to be inaugurated was done yesterday (last Monday). It was passed around October last year and the government signed it into law in November or there about.”