Relying on a paper published by Kevin Avruch and Beatriz Vejarano entitled Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: A review Essay and Annotated Bibliography, nearly 73 truth and reconciliation commissions have been established since 1973. Some have been set up by the United Nations, non-governmental organisations and transitional governments. Of them all, more have been set up by transitional governments “seeking to end cases of violation of crimes and civil, human rights abuses”.
Most as well seek ‘restorative’ rather than retributive justice based on African values of healing, so as to promote social and economic relations at the expense of retribution and vengeance. The formula, according to Avruch and Vejarano, is based on criteria wherein a perpetrator acknowledges that a crime was perpetrated against a victim by the perpetrator who asks for forgiveness, and forgiveness actually granted to the perpetrator by the victim.
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established from June 14, 1999 to May 2002 against the background of a military government’s notoriety for the violation of human rights and many cases of corruption. Therefore, in 1999, after the inception of a democratically-elected government that brought in Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military head of state, the government introduced a series of reforms, including Nigeria’s first Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) known as the “Oputa Panel”.
Sixteen of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) civilian administration, there do not seem to be any obvious cases of human rights abuses comparable to the cases recorded with the military junta of Sani Abacha. But there are indeed.
There were many cases of corruption and corrupt enrichment involving very many serious members of the Goodluck Jonathan administration that need to be analysed, and seen from the point of view of their strengths and weaknesses. For instance, there was the petroleum subsidy, the pensions, employment scams together with misappropriation of funds from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The explanations for these incidents are still hazy and shrouded in the kind of official secrecy that has no room in a government that follows the rule of law and is transparent.
Quite apart from these as well, more than 365 days ago, over 200 school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists. Government’s seeming inability to rescue the kidnapped girls, irrespective of Nigeria’s superior firepower against a ragtag army, and against the huge amounts already budgeted for the military remains a key talking point worldwide. A report submitted to the United States Congress by the Secretary of State, John Kerry, in 2013 alleged massive corruption at all levels of the Nigerian government.
The document entitled ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012’ states that “massive, widespread and pervasive corruption has affected all levels of government and the security forces in Nigeria”. The report chronicled some major financial scandals within the period under review and how the issues were handled by government. It specifically mentioned the report of the House of Representatives Committee that investigated fuel subsidy regime from 2009 to 2011, the outcome of which revealed massive fraud, corruption, and inefficiency in the operation of the programme. The report alleged misappropriation of nearly half the subsidy funds, with poor or nonexistent oversight by government agencies.
The report estimated that government money lost to “endemic corruption and entrenched inefficiency” amounted to N1.067 trillion naira ($6.8 billion). It recommended reform of the oversight and enforcement mechanisms and further endorsed investigation and prosecution of culpable officials. It cited the stealing of N32.8 billion Police Pension Fund, which led to the arraignment of six suspects, including a director at the Police Pension Office, Atiku Kigo, who later rose to become permanent secretary in the Ministry of the Niger Delta, and the criminal charges against former Governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva, for laundering close to N5 billion ($32 million) of funds belonging to state.
Other corruption cases cited in the report were the arrest of former Minister of Works and Housing, Hassan Lawal, for 24 counts of fraudulently awarding contracts, money laundering, and embezzlement of N75 billion ($480 million); the arrest of former Ogun State Governor, Gbenga Daniel; former Oyo State Governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala; former Nasarawa State Governor, Aliyu Doma; and former Gombe State Governor, Muhammed Goje for allegedly misappropriation or stealing. Their trials began in December 2011, the report noted.
We believe that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission akin to those that had been set up since 1973 should examine the 16 years of the PDP as a democratically-elected government. Though the objective is not to seek retribution for these many cases of impunity, graft and theft of public funds, it would be a platform to minimise the risk of a repetition of these flagrant abuses and restore Nigeria to her pride of place as economic powerhouse of Africa.
Nigeria is at a critical stage where looting of public funds and abuse of public interest for private gain must be interrogated. Nigeria has gotten to the point as well where the concept of change must be seen beyond the mere sloganeering for the sake of capturing power. Change begets change. Change is painful. Change takes root with innovativeness. Change is not a newness of a way of doing things. We cannot as a nation continue to build on foundations of corruption.
Therefore, if there is any time in the life and history of Nigeria when genuine change must come, the incoming administration must not toy with the idea of a Reconciliation Commission to be headed by a respected jurist. Its terms of reference must include giving public officials who have served Nigeria in the past decade a chance, live on national television, to give an account of their stewardship. That platform will provide the opportunity for those Nigerians and their foreign partners who have in one way or another milked the resources of Nigeria, to come clean. The incentive behind this idea is that a former government official or private person who has colluded to steal from Nigeria has the opportunity of the commission to ask for amnesty if those highly-placed people who stole from the public purse provide eloquent testimony that would lead to the recovery of Nigeria’s monies stashed away locally and internationally.
Part of the terms of reference of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of the in-coming administration would be to look at ways of empowering whistleblowers. There are many atrocities being committed in government under the obnoxious practices of secrecy in government. The commission must also investigate the tax collection system in Nigeria. Civilised countries that survive on an efficient tax system and structure do so on the premise that an efficient tax structure reduces the changes of external borrowing that monies realised thereof is ploughed into formulating an efficient social security network on behalf of the teeming army of unemployed youths in Nigeria.
If the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is to address the endemic issues of corruption in Nigeria within a stipulated timeline of 12 months, it must be completely removed from the person and office of the in-coming president. We propose that while the commission is on-going, Mr. President can set up an anti-corruption court independent of the law courts that should look into the untoward activities of any public official within the last decade. We are of the view that to strengthen the fight against corruption in Nigeria through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, this body should work closely with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate individuals and corporate institutions that have not participated in the economic reconciliation commission and returned monies they have stolen.
• Etemiku and Edemhanria work with Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ).