By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
In 2006, Nigeria ratified the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combatting Corruption(AUCPCC)- an instrument which has come to be an African solution to Africa’s problem. Although corruption is not peculiar to Africa alone, the impact and severity affects African countries due to lack of strong institutions to fight the menace.
Years after the ratification, the country has shown a great level of commitment to the implementation of Articles in the Convention to help prevent and fight corruption and has also put mechanisms in place to reduce the effect of Corruption. While there are still a few gaps in respect to compliance and full implementation, the country has taken steps to adhere to the Convention.
Article 12 of the Convention, focuses on the role of Civil Society and Media and the obligations on state parties to engage with them. The Article Provides that – State Parties undertake to: Be fully engaged in the fight against corruption and related offences and the popularization of this Convention with the full participation of the Media and Civil Society at large; Create an enabling environment that will enable civil society and the media to hold governments to the highest levels of transparency and accountability in the management of public affairs; Ensure and provide for the participation of Civil Society in the monitoring process and consult Civil Society in the implementation of this Convention; and Ensure that the Media is given access to information in cases of corruption and related offences on condition that the dissemination of such information does not adversely affect the investigation process and the right to a fair trial.
Also, Article (9) on Access to Information, clearly states that; Each State Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures to give effect to the right of access to any information that is required to assist in the Fight against corruption and related offences.
In line with Articles 9 and 12 (4), the Freedom of Information Act 2011 was passed into law by Nigeria’s former President, Goodluck Jonathan, on May 28, 2011. This Act makes public records and information more freely available, provide for public access to public records and information, protect public records and information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the protection of personal privacy, protect serving public officers from adverse consequences for disclosing certain kinds of official information without authorization and establish procedures for the achievement of those purposes.
Also, the FOI Act, demands that State institutions maintain a database of their activities and provide information about them to the general public; and the adoption of this Act plays an important role in the formation and development of democracy in Nigeria.
However, there are some official information that needs to be made private for the sake of security and so, to make certain data public, special procedures must be followed and permits obtained and also, not all data held by the authorities can be requested.
Furthermore, Nigeria joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in July, 2016. According to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) Nigeria Self Assessment Report 2016-2018, so far, Nigeria’s participation in the Open Government Partnership has provided opportunities for improving inclusiveness in decision making and horizontal communication among government agencies; strengthening relationship with civil society; and building stronger bonds of trust with citizens.
In May 2016, Nigeria’s President, H.E Muhammadu Buhari reaffirmed his commitment to strengthen anti-corruption reforms at the international Anti-Corruption Summit, organized by the government of the United Kingdom, through implementing programs aimed at: exposing corruption; punishing the corrupt and providing support to the victims of corruption; opening up the government, and driving out the culture of corruption.
In a recent interview, the Programme Coordinator, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development,Uchenna Arisukwu, revealed that, “Nigeria signed up to the OGP in 2016, as a result of the President’s commitments to fight corruption and to give the fight a big boost, corruption thrives where there is secrecy”. “The OGP seeks to open up the process of governance as a way of fighting corruption”.
There is also a National Action Plan (NAP)- which is the aggregate strategic action that reflects the core objectives of OGP with broad spectrum of four thematic areas which are; Promoting fiscal transparency; Access to information; Anti-corruption and asset disclosure; and, Citizen engagement and empowerment. NAP aims to deepen and mainstream transparency mechanisms and citizens’ engagement in the management of public resources across all sectors.
The NAP also has 14 Commitments and Commitment (1) seeks; To ensure more effective citizens’ participation across the entire budget cycle, it however has only a substantial completion level. Anti-Corruption, Commitment (9) Commit to taking appropriate actions to co-ordinate anti-corruption; improve integrity, transparency and accountability, it is also on substantial completion level, while Access to Information Commitment (10) is on improved compliance of public institutions with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in respect to the annual reporting obligations by public institutions and level of responses to requests. However, the completion level of this Commitment is limited.
In the Public Procurement Act 2007, Section 19 (ii) makes it mandatory that at least one representative of a Non-Governmental Organisation working in transparency, accountability and anti-corruption areas and a professional body observe the process in every procurement activity at the federal level of government, and submit their observation report to any relevant agency or body including their own organisations or associations, and this provides for substantial CSO representation in line with the AUCPCC Article 12(3).
Nigeria, joined the Global Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. This has resulted in the enactment of the NEITI Act 2007, which provides for CSO, labour and private sector representation in the National Stakeholders Working Group [NSWG], set up to ensure due process and transparency in payments made by extractive industries to government, and generally to monitor and report on payments and practices in the oil industry in Nigeria.
Also, in September 2018, the Federal Government constituted a 17-man Committee with a mandate to monitor and evaluate the implementation of its anti-corruption strategies, and the committee members were drawn from various government agencies and Civil Society Organisations, the National Anti-Corruption Strategy comprised five pillars – prevention, public engagement, ethical re-orientation, enforcement and sanction, and recovery and management of proceeds of crime.
However, the major Nigerian Anti corruption legislations except for the Public Procurement and maybe a few others, have no direct provisions supporting participation of society in corruption prevention, and monitoring of anti corruption efforts, except the general citizens obligation to report corruption and testify in such proceedings. Agencies are yet to create an environment that supports full citizen participation in the fight against corruption.
On the other hand, citizens have for a very long time, left the fight against corruption to the government and so, the role of citizens, media, parliament, political parties and academia are not seen.
“Citizens must put pressure on government to continue to address issues around contracting, procurement”. Ibraheem Sanusi, Citizens Engagement Lead, African Governance Architecture, emphasized. “It is not enough to sign up on the OGP, we must exemplify that in practice, access for people, the media, CSOs and individuals to have information on what is happening in our government as it relates to our budget, procurement and contracting issues”.
Although citizens, media and civil society monitoring of public procurement and budget processes is growing, it is not sufficient to prevent the diversion of public resources. Despite the Freedom of Information Act 2011, response is still low for public resources management. Also, as at August 2018, it was revealed that of the 36 states, only 7 have signed into the OGP; which means that 29 states are yet to sign. This makes it imperative for states to adopt the FOI Act and the OGP, so that these can be enforceable across the country.
The government needs to strengthen mechanisms in line with the AU Convention, to ensure citizens, media and Civil society participation in the fight against corruption and also, civil Society Organisations, must continue to support the fight against corruption, by demanding for accountability from the anti-corruption agencies.
1)https://au.int/en/treaties/african-union-convention-preventing-and-combating-corruption.
2)http://www.auanticorruption.org/auac/about/status-of-ratification-of-the-convention-on-corruption.
3)Freedom of Information Act 2011-Laws of the Federation of Nigeria
4)https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.legit.ng/amp/1136476-origin-freedom-information-act-nigeria.html
5)https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/29-states-yet-to-sign-in-to-open-government-partnership-in-nigeria-266278.html
7)https://www.opengovpartnership.org/countries/nigeria
8)https://www.opengovpartnership.org/sites/default/files/Nigeria_Mid-Term_Self-Assessment_2016-2018.pdf
9) Public Procurement Act 2017
10)NEITI Act 2007
11)https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/09/03/fg-inaugurates-committee-on-implementation-of-anti-corruption-strategy/%3famp
