In 2007, an attempt to significantly amend the Nigerian constitution was aborted presumably because of an insertion of a proposal for a third term for some elected public officials. Some Nigerians celebrated the “defeat of third term”. Others emerged as “champions of democracy” and even called for the resignation from certain public offices of some Nigerians who had supported the “third term” provision. I warned then and said in my article, “Nigerian Democracy: Matters Arising” that:
“We shall soon look back and agree that our emotions were too effusive to make a clear judgment. The beauty of democracy is that while the majority have their way and the minority their say, both partake in the consequences of the majority decision. I will be remiss not to point out that throwing out the whole constitution amendment exercise was foolish. We assume the next President, Governors and legislators at State and National levels will make constitution amendment their priority; they will not!”
Amendment of Nigeria’s constitution has been an issue that has been talked about since 1999 (when the current Constitution became operational). In deciding whether or not a country’s Constitution should be amended, certain questions must be asked:
1. Why is the amendment necessary?
2. What specific portions of the Constitution should be amended?
3. What is the general objective of the amendment?
4. Does the current Constitution contain good provisions that can bring about general growth and development of society; if so, how far has the political leadership gone in narrowing the gap between the ideal represented by those constitutional provisions and the reality existing in the social mix?
Every social condition existing in society is a benefactor of some social elements whose advantage will not simply be surrendered as a matter of altruism. Nothing happens before something happens. In any society, all people have neither the same responsibilities nor privileges. In the same measure, only a few Nigerians can amend those wasteful, contradictory, and egregious portions of the Constitution for the general good of the nation and on behalf of the people who own sovereignty and from whom they supposedly (ideally) derive their powers and authority [section 14 (2) (a)].
It is difficult to convince discerning Nigerians that the political leadership in Nigeria is committed to productive tweaking of the current Constitution in order to remove wastes such as we have in section 147 (3); to remove traps such as we have in sections 84 (3) and 124 (3);and to elucidate certain sections such as section 162.
Recently, the Electoral reform committee headed by Justice Uwais submitted its report for electoral reforms. The government of Yar’Adua demonstrated by its handling of the report that it is committed neither to a credible election in the future nor to respect for public opinion.
No society develops when the operations of government such as budget implementations, contract awards and evaluations, expenditure on government officials, and balances of accounts are all shrouded in secrecy. The perpetual refusal of Nigeria’s political leadership to pass the Freedom of Information bill, in complete disregard to public opinion only shows how terribly our situation has degenerated.
With 469 federal legislators who earn a whopping N 60.4 billion annually in salaries and allowances (besides other perks and “constituency project” allowances, which this year are valued at N 60 billion ), and 1, 152 state legislators who earn N 50 billion annually in salaries and allowances (excluding other perks of office, “imprest allowances”, and “constituency project” allowances, which they steal from), we still have been unable to put behind us the issue of amendment of Nigeria’s Constitution, Electoral reform, and Freedom of Information bill! But then, it takes a rare gem to blow up the rickety bridge on which he was ferried to power.
In as much as I agree that Nigeria’s Constitution needs amending, I hurry to assert unrepentantly that if provisions such as we have in chapter two of our Constitution were religiously implemented by Nigeria’s political leadership, the welfare of society would be much better. Take for instance section 16 (2) (d) which states that:
“The state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits and welfare for the disabled are provided for all citizens.” I don’t need to tell the reader that government (federal and state) is not doing any of these.
Anywhere I have had opportunity to talk to fellow Nigerians, and I expounded the provisions of chapter two of our Constitution, entitled “Fundamental Objectives and Directive principles of State Policy”, the reaction I almost always get is “We never knew about those provisions.”
The general ignorance in the land is what the selfish and callous Nigerian political leadership has preyed upon continually. I know no better way to provoke the people unto a holy change (anyhow the reader may define it) than to patiently teach them, using their nation’s Constitution as the text. Our resolve to do this has been religiously resisted by the Yar’Adua’s government.
Compatriots, it has become clear that the government of Yar'Adua has developed a phobia for rallies by Nigerians to self-educate about our situation and the right choices that would force necessary change.
The Nigerian police in Abuja have denied our request for them to provide security at the rally the Nigeria Rally Movement www.nigeriarally.org planned to hold at the Old parade ground Abuja. Government officials in charge of the venue had predicated giving us permission to use the place on a written letter by the police promising to provide security.
In spite of a standing judgment of the Court of Appeal (December 11, 2007) voiding the Public order Act, the government of Yar'Adua has continued to frustrate gathering of peace-loving Nigerians. This is a violation of section 40 of the Constitution.
Shortly after Yar'Adua's government sent the State Security Service (SSS) to stop our rally in Gboko Benue state on Friday December 26th, 2008, we applied to government officials in Abuja for permission to use the Old parade ground Abuja for a rally on January 13. They asked for a meeting with us on Monday January 16th! The date for the rally then became fluid and delay tactics followed. Eventually, we got a smaller venue at one of the gardens in Abuja (Name withheld here) and applied for provision of some policemen to provide security. The rally was scheduled to hold on the 27th of March (Friday). Shortly after our application, the FCT Minister gave orders to "seals off" some gardens in Abuja on flimsy reasons. Our venue was among those gardens closed down.
The Vice-President (Protocol) of the Nigeria Rally Movement, then went and retrieved from the police the earlier letter of application for provision of 10 policemen and submitted another for provision for the rally of a larger contingent of policemen for the Old parade ground , which is a bigger venue than the garden. After some delay, the police refused to provide security. They derisively asked us to “go to the IG of police”.
Why is the government of Yar’Adua afraid of public gatherings on Nigeria by even peaceful Nigerians? They know enough the power of education and public enlightenment. And I see no better way of forcing necessary change in Nigeria than massive sustained public enlightenment, using Nigeria’s Constitution as the text.
A friend of mine based in the UK asked me recently if I had taken a sabbatical lately from writing, since he observed I no longer wrote as frequently as I used to. The truth is that I am fully convinced that simply writing in the newspapers, especially online newspapers does not usually intimidate Nigerian governments (federal or state). When we take the message to the streets, gardens, college campuses, and neighborhoods, and thoroughly educate Nigerians both about their responsibilities and those of their political rulers as enshrined in the Constitution, and make them fall in love with those provisions like those in chapter two of the 1999 Constitution, then public opinion will carry the weight it deserves before the corridors of power.
But with so much frustration by the government of Yar’Adua, should we give up? In particular, should I give up and leave the country? Is there any use striving any further? Is there any state in Nigeria (at least the non-PDP states) that will offer us a venue for a mega Nigerian rally (or Democracy Forum) where we shall present speeches, discuss in a town hall fashion germane provisions of the constitution, distribute pamphlets on Nigeria’s constitutional provisions and what powers the people can exercise (see section 110)?
Recently, President Yar’Adua spoke at the convocation ceremony of the Federal University of Science and Technology, Yola. He said that he had given instruction that the largest chunk of money in the Petroleum Development Trust Fund (PTDF) should be used to train Nigerians for doctoral degrees in foreign Universities. My heart sank. Should a clear-headed and visionary president not rather spend money to enlarge the capacity of Nigerian Universities for graduate studies? Would a president worth the name not provide the necessary infrastructure, if not in all the federal universities, in some selected federal Universities for advanced studies and cutting edge research? Furthermore, his government announced certain amounts for some selected Universities without public details. And since Nigeria does not have a Freedom of Information Act in place, how can University professors, staff, and students monitor the use of such funds? Government must tie allocations to Universities to specific verifiable projects and infrastructure. Such allocations can then be traceable to finite destinations. This way, corruption by public officials in our Universities can be checked, otherwise government may boast it has given some few billions of naira to some federal Universities, yet nothing is accomplished. O yes, there may be “probe panels” thereafter, whose only accomplishments will be volumes of documents collected and the amounts they have spent on the members far in excess of the money whose expenditure they are supposed to “probe”.
I gave a talk on our University campus on Friday March 27th on “Reconstructing a Nation amidst global economic crisis”. Ya'Adua's laughable steps at "reducing" the salaries and allowances of Nigeria's public officials and refusal to increase the salaries of Nigerian workers (the minimum wage still remains 7,500-federal and 5000-state) indicate that Nigerians must get ready for the trenches if the change they desire must come. The increase to N32, 000 minimum wage for the Nigerian worker would have cost less than N500 billion a year. If Yar'Adua's government could successfully reduce the more than N1.2 trillion that 17, 474 public officials in Nigeria receive by 90 percent, do you know that the average salaries for each of those officials would be about N7 million? Now, the less than N500 billion needed to improve the quality of life of the Nigerian worker would be gotten from the over N 1 trillion saved, and we shall yet have a balance of over N500 billion to plough into infrastructural development. These are verifiable facts.
The scandalous salaries and allowances of the less than 18,000 public officials in Nigeria have contributed in breeding social violence and crisis. Those public officials can therefore afford to hire and retain societal miscreants for their nuisance value. They can pay outrageous sums (which they can afford conveniently, given the outrageous sums they “legally” receive in salaries and allowances) to influence election results, which in turn breeds violence. When the gap in salaries and allowances of public officials and the national minimum wage on the average exceeds 2000 percent, political violence and corruption are the results. The situation in Nigeria becomes scarier against the background that many of our public officials have no sustenance outside of politics.
I conclude by presenting some excerpt of my talk below:
EFA 2000 COUNTRY REPORT ON NIGERIA:
NIGERIAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL RECORD:1996-2002
Out of the population of children of school-going age in Nigeria in 1996, which stood at 21 million, only 64 percent (14.1 million) were enrolled in elementary schools. Out of the 14.1 million elementary school children enrolled in 1996, only about 9 million children (64 percent) completed elementary education, while transition to junior high school was only 43.5 percent or 6.1 million.
The EFA (Education For All ) country report (2000) on Nigeria said that :
There is overwhelming evidence that these vital literacy indicators have not improved. There are substantial shortcomings in Nigeria's institutional and personnel capacities for the delivery of a sound basic education for all citizens. There are also wide spread disparities both in quality and access across the nation. Available infrastructural facilities, teaching and learning materials as well as qualified teachers are grossly inadequate. For Nigeria to attain the desired 100 percent national literacy rate soon it is imperative that provisions be made and actions taken to universalize basic education, enthrone a conducive learning environment and improve quality and standards.
WHAT WAS FUNDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION LIKE WITHIN THE PERIOD (1990-2002)?
Let us consider federal government allocation to education in Nigeria (the largest black nation on earth) as a percentage of the federal budget between 1990 and 2002 (Source: Federal Ministry of Education (2003), Education Sector Report)
1990-5.45; 1991-4.62; 1992-4.60; 1993-7.20; 1994-14.86; 1995-11.50; 1996-10.81; 1997-11.53; 1998-9.61; 1999-11.13; 2000-8.70; 2001-7.00; 2002-5.90.
NIGERIA’S EXPENDITURE ON PUBLIC OFFICIALS:
Federal executive level: 472 officials earn N8.6 billion a year in salaries and N89.7 billion in allowances. TOTAL=N 98.3 billion.
Federal legislative level: 464 officials earn N6.2 billion in salaries and N54.2 billion in allowances. TOTAL= N 60.4 billion.
State executive level: 2,664 state executive officials earn N28.4 billion in salaries and N272.2 billion in allowances. TOTAL= N 300.6 billion.
State legislative level: 1,152 state legislators earn N5.1 billion in salaries and N35.9 billion in allowances. TOTAL= N50 billion
Local government executive level: 3,096 officials earn N16 billion in salaries and N234 billion in allowances. TOTAL=N250 billion.
Local government legislative level: 8,692 local government legislators earn N25.9billion in salaries and N317 billion in allowances. TOTAL= N 342.9 billion.
TOTAL NUMBER: 16540
TOTAL MONEY: N1.102 trillion.
*There are 934 federal and state judicial officers. Thus, when added, the number of public officials in Nigeria comes to 17,474. They earn N95 billion in salaries and N1.12 trillion in allowances. TOTAL=N 1.215 trillion.
*Besides, federal and state legislators receive billions of naira for “constituency projects”, which are hardly done or which hardly affect positively the lives of people in their constituencies. For instance, in the 2009 budget, N60 billion was voted as constituency project allowance for federal legislators.
* Furthermore, both legislators and other categories of public officials receive travel allowances each time they travel.
Nigeria’s bleeding can only be stopped by a constitutional review of remunerations of public officials.
Nigerians have become the prey while their rulers are the predators.
CONSTITUTIONAL PROBLEM: section 84 (3), section 124 (3)>>> No review of salaries of public officials mentioned under the sections can be reviewed in a way that is to their “disadvantage”.
The Nigerian people can make a choice today, if we shall only complain ceaselessly without action or stand up a protest this robbery. Power, we are told, concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Yar’Adua’s government has been forced to pick up the railway project (the 1, 315 km dual track from Lagos to Kano) which he had unadvisedly cancelled. Now, the complaint is “there is no money”. We have money; the truth is it is in the pockets of a few greedy Nigerians-the public officials. They must either be forced by us to vomit it or the bleeding continues. Even the little amounts that are voted for certain capital projects (usually over-inflated) are stolen, the contracts abandoned, and no one prosecuted and made to restitute. Consequently, a conservative estimate shows that more than two-third of budget revenues goes to the 17, 474 public officials-less than 0.012 percent of Nigerians!
Leonard Karshima Shilgba is an Assistant Professor of mathematics at the American University of Nigeria and President of the Nigeria Rally Movement (www.nigeriarally.org)
TEL: +234 (0)8055024356
E-mail: [email protected]
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