Who else notices that many contacts with state agencies and their officials in Nigeria are always defined by transactions? These transactions cover the formal and informal engagements and sometimes borders on extortion. It is not about service, but discomfort to the citizens for the purpose of fleecing them, to the advantage of the state and its corrupt agents, or even private businesses whose owners are cronies to those in government.
Let us take a few examples. If you are a victim of a crime and you report to the police, some police personnel may require you to pay some indirect cost of documenting the case such as providing money for stationery or the cost of investigations.
The battered image of the police is notorious enough and society almost often expects them to act in transactional manners anyway, so also are their brothers in transaction, the Customs service. Customs transaction is mega. ‘Settle’ them and you get away with just anything.
This image of an extortionist or transactional agency cuts across virtually every law enforcement agency by whatever name called. Until the recent suspension of the park-and-pay policy in Abuja business districts, the agents involved in the ticketing were a pain in the neck. Drivers have had their tyres clamped for staying five minutes beyond the duration they paid for, with the agents refusing to accept payment for the extra minutes of N50 per 30 minutes, insisting that the driver goes to pay the penalty of N5,000. The truth remains that those who conceptualised the policy had transactional interest behind it; hence the implementation was outsourced to private businesses for the purpose of profiteering them, while also generating revenue for the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA). So, as long as government received its agreed revenue from their agents, it couldn’t be bothered about the transactions used by those agents against the society.
Take also the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), an agency set up to ensure safety on the roads. It has since expanded its mandate to include revenue generation as central to its operation.
The political class is equally involved in the transaction. It is a notorious fact how government officials, including parliamentarians, use their supervisory and approval powers to transact personal advantages. They pressure the agencies they are meant to have oversight on to sponsor their frivolous foreign trips; request slots in job opportunities and contracts for their nominees and footing of bills for their committee assignments, including oversight visits to the agencies.
How did we get into this bind? One reason this is happening is because citizens have left governance to all-comers who have little clue about what public office and duty are meant for.
The political space is one that citizens need to claim back to put its ‘best eleven’ on the field. We need to hold our governments to account on the basis of the constitution which makes the welfare of citizens the primary purpose of government.
Citizens need to be well-informed about their rights and insist on them, sometimes under difficult situations and not budge to pressures to compromise. We need to strengthen the mechanisms of oversight of regulatory and law enforcement agencies. Very importantly, we need robust, effective and properly staffed citizens’ re-orientation programmes.
The elite class needs to get out of its comfort zone by not seeing every obstacle foisted on it by the state as only requiring transactions to overcome or avoid. It needs, instead, to stand up to the state to do what is right in the interest of all.
