By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
The public outcry against the bogus salaries and allowances being collected by public officials in Nigeria, particularly members of the National Assembly re-echoed on Tuesday in the report and responses of participants at an event held in Lagos.
In an interactive session, it was noted that as many Nigerians are suffering from hunger, many workers losing jobs, employers cutting salaries of their workers and many companies/businesses are either collapsing or reduced their production volume due to eruption of COVID-19 pandemic worldwide and it’s impact, Nigerian public officials still earn bogus salaries and allowances to the detriment of the nation’s economy.
Consequently, there are calls on Nigerian government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently direct the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in conjunction with other relevant ministries, departments and agencies to take immediate and concrete measures to reduce the salaries and allowances of all public officers.
Furthermore, the Nigerian government is urged to direct the reduction of other expenses and add the funds to the pool of fiscal resources for the purpose of countering the adverse effects of the pandemic, improve public interest and trust in the ability of public officials to act in the public interests, provide the much needed public goods and services to all Nigerians, especially the poorest and most vulnerable groups.
These are the position of a Lagos-based human rights and advocacy organisation, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and responses in its report made public on Tuesday
The report which contains 10-point programme of action on promoting transparency and accountability in COVID-19 spending in Nigeria was made public by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Akinseye George at an event in Lagoswhich featured an interactive session on the theme: “Addressing COVID-19 without corruption: Implementing safeguards against corruption in COVID-19 spending in Nigeria”, organized in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation.
According to SERAP’s 10-point programme, the Nigerian government and State governments should actively and openly condemn corruption in all its ramifications.”The FGN and State governments should evince zero-tolerance to all forms of vices involved in the COVID-19 context by investigating all allegations of corruption and upholding all laws relevant to countering bribery and corruption in all ramifications”
The report further tasked the Nigerian government and State governments to ensure that there is accountability for all corrupt public officials.
Other 10-point programme of action released by the report include; Ensuring access to information; Adoption and implementation of fiscal and budgetary policies to improve socio-economic rights of Nigerians; Obeying the rule of law by Federal and State governments; Ensuring openness of public procurement and Encouraging citizens’ complaints on corruption and follow-up on complaints.
Other points are: Respect, protect and promote human rights of everyone; Ensuring civil society participation and Engaging bilateral, regional and international partners.
While presenting the report, Professor Akinseye George noted that thehuge public funds and private donations committed to stop spread of COVID-19 and address its consequences have evoked questions about the ability and commitment of all tiers of government to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of the funds and donations.
With pressure from SERAP and other groups, Nigerian authorities developed Transparency Frameworks (TFs) in the context of COVID-19 , such as:*Framework on delivering a transparent food ration distribution for the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme;
*Framework for the Management of COVID-19 Funds in Nigeria under the Treasury Single Account by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation;
*Guidelines for the Conduct of Procurements that respond to COVID-19; and The Accountability and Transparency Mechanisms for Delivering Cash Transfers by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
The presentation of the report was followed by panel discussion on ‘ Government Transparency Framework in response to COVID-19 Challenges and Future Perspectives’
The panelists include Professor Yemi Akinseye George (SAN); Yemi Candide-Johnson (SAN); Olanrewaju Suraj and Mrs Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji.
During the interactive session, Professor Yemi Akinseye George posited that the Nigerian government has visible plan for majority of Nigerians.”We do not have a clear cut plan for the majority of the people in this country. Government must utilise the COVID 19 period to start the country afresh.
“The elites have nowhere to run to as the advanced countries with the best medical tourism facilities are on lockdown. We need a system that can take care of the greater majority of Nigerians.” Yemi Akinseye George said.
In his contribution, Yemi Candide-Johnson posited that most Nigerians are ignorant of government policies, adding that attempt to know the policies are snubbed by the government.
“People are not aware of the policies of the government and the leaders rebuff attempt to be questioned on their policies.”
“The beauty of what SERAP has done is the simplicity of government policies. An average Nigerian is only interested in the simplicity and not the sections or paragraphs.” He commenced SERAP for a good report.
Mr Olanrewaju Suraj said many Nigerian politicians and leaders profit from the misery of Nigerians.
“To know the consequences of government’s actions, we must measure the responsibility of the each of the government agency”
Also contributing on the topic, Mrs Toyosi Akerele- Ogunsiji opined that many people in government do not understand the high responsibility that comes with their position, stressing that the problem is created by bureaucratic bottlenecks deliberately created by public officials to corruptly enrich themselves.
“On the side of the government and private sector, there were communication problems during the lockdown. Victims were merely locals who are illiterate in English.”
She expressed optimism that the youths that Nigeria has refused to train would one day wake up and run down the country.
“We cannot as a country outsource our critical thinking to pastors and imams. We need a critical mass of people who are not hypocrites.”
“We need decentralisation of power within the system. One person cannot be approving, signing the cheque and transferring money.” Mrs Akerele-Ogunsiji stressed.
The event held in Lagos brought together media stakeholders including civil society organizations, the media, members of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), activists, ministries, agencies and departments (MDAs), anti-corruption agencies, and other stakeholders.
The report discussed issues on promoting transparency and accountability in the spending of COVID-19 funds and donations, and how to address the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on the socially and economically vulnerable sectors of the population, as well as to propose recommendations to authorities and MDAs that would ensure effective, efficient and satisfactorily response to the pandemic and its effects.
Recommendations in the report would be used to engage public institutions, authorities and MDAs, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the National Assembly, State governments, as well as to mobilise and encourage the citizens and civil society to hold governments accountable for spending on COVID-19, and to reduce the pandemic, save lives and promote socio-economic rights of the people.