AN OPEN LETTER FROM AN ORDINARY NIGERIAN TO PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
BY: DAYO AKIN-BALOGUN @dayo_speaks ispeakforng@icloud.com
BL, MBA.
27 JUNE, 2016 THE VICE PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO.
YOUR EXCELLENCY,
IF YOU WANT TO WIN THE WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION, UNLEASH CITIZENS I write in response to a statement credited to you which implied that the ongoing anti-graft war cannot be won without elite support. You were quoted to have said; “If we, as the elite, accept certain forms of conduct because it comes from people who we know or are our friends – unethical conduct, corrupt conduct and all of that – then our society is not going to go anywhere,”. (Source: The Nation Newspaper of June 24, 2016 available at: http://thenationonlineng.net/anti-graft-war-cant-wonwithout-elite-says-osinbajo/) In the same publication, Mr. President was reported to have “urged elites to be more patriotic”. His Excellency was quoted to have said; “So, at this age, at the position we are, more demand is made on us to PERSUADE those we know, the elites to please pity this country and make more sacrifices.
At whatever forum, please persuade our fellow elites to be more patriotic because which kind of country are we leaving for our children and our grandchildren?” emphasis mine (Source: The
Nation
Newspaper
June
24,
2016
available
at:
http://thenationonlineng.net/patriotic-buhari-urges-elites/) Your Excellency, one obvious shortcoming of this approach is the attempt to change people. This is one anti-graft war strategy that has failed many times in the past. A more concrete approach to tackling this issue of corruption could be to “Change the context – not the people”. I understand that sometimes winning a war requires that you acknowledge that you are fighting against a superior force and therefore must decide on a subtle way to handle such a force. I am also well-aware of the popular practise among ‘change managers’ which involves mapping stakeholders on a power grid in order to identify the power blocs which need to be properly managed if change must be achieved – all these I know. What is unacceptable is the hint that “corrupt minority elites” have become a force that is superior to the will and power of the Nigerian people or that elites have sufficient power to thwart the desirable change we are all “biting the bullet” to achieve. Your Excellency, let us not mislead the leper into thinking that avoiding a plague means we fear him. This sort of thinking is a product of wrong political philosophy. The political philosophy that created this problem in the first place. Need I say that we cannot solve a problem using the same methods or by depending on the people that created them in the first place? We need to shift to the right political philosophy. That political philosophy so clearly enshrined in Section 14 (2) (a) and (c) of our dear Constitution that;
(2) It is hereby, accordingly, declared that: (a) sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its powers and authority; (c) the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution. It is a widely held view that elites have benefited too much from the corrupt practices of the past. It is possible that some of these elites have seen the light and are willing to repent but then again, we all know that “he who comes to equity must come with clean hands”. In my opinion, the current anti-graft approach provides no route for repentant sinners to cross to the good side – those who are skilled in the “art of war” (politics) know too well not to press too hard against the forces of a vulnerable and desperate opposition. We must provide an escape route for the enemy to surrender and retreat. The current arrangement seems like a request for the repentant to submit their heads to the gallows. I believe we can achieve more if we try this alternative approach. Let us create the type of anti-corruption legacy that can outlive your tenure in office. Let us start by asking ourselves questions we really need to answer; 1) How do we change the context and not the people? 2) How do we make it difficult for the greedy to steal our money i.e. How do we create a context in which corruption becomes increasingly difficult? 3) How do we ensure even distribution of our commonwealth?
4) How do we harness the abundant talents of our people in a way that it helps government to do things better and cheaper?
SOLUTION
Promote the right political Philosophy – Enable Citizens to participate in the fight against corruption.
Reinforce the Freedom of Information Act by passing an Open Government Act.
Collaborate with Citizens and Civil Society to stimulate more constructive and accessible Citizens Engagement Initiatives.
PROMOTING THE RIGHT POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY – ENABLING PARTICIPATION The right political philosophy is to return power to the people by opening up government data and creating the enabling environment for people to participate in their government. Enable us to access information more freely, to use this information to take action and provide both solicited and unsolicited feedback to government. Citizens Engagement experts call this closing the feedback loop. Changing the context means government must provide unfettered access to both solicited and unsolicited information about the activities of Government. A context where it is possible for citizens to access
and
process
public
information
into
well-informed
contribution, whether this is solicited or unsolicited.
“Information is no longer power… Power now comes from how you share information”
If Government can make public information more freely available, citizens and civil society groups can use such information in five ways; (1) MONITOR THE BUDGET, GOVERNMENT SPENDING AND UPCOMING
CONTRACTS
(2)
ANALYZE
INFORMATION
AND
UNDERSTAND THE CHALLENGES OF GOVERNMENT (3) DETECT AND BLOW THE WHISTLE ON CORRUPTION (4) DISCERN ILL-INFORMED AGITATIONS and, (5) MOBILIZE RESOURCES TO MAKE INFORMED AND PRACTICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. An example of how to change the context could be to ensure that budget, government spending, tenders and upcoming contracts are posted on the FOIA portal. This portal is currently scanty but it can be a powerful tool. The existing collaboration with “systemsspec” can be leveraged in this regard. This sort of openness has the potential to make corruption more difficult. Government officials will be more accountable when they know that Nigerians are watching or that they can audit their services just at the click of a button. Also, better informed citizens can lead to more constructive contributions. Lapse of time is a clog in the wheel of the anti-graft war. Often, the business of government is conducted in secrecy before people have access to information and the bureaucracy of requesting information makes pursuit of justice frustrating thereby strengthening the position of the evil doer. Perhaps an open source government can even reduce insurgence as people can easily channel their grievances so that such grievances can be addressed before it escalates into the kind of challenges we see in the North East and the Niger Delta today.
WHERE WE ARE NOW The day Hosni Mubarak resigned as president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Wael Ghonim, Google’s Middle East marketing director and Egyptian activist, told CNN: “If you want to liberate a society, just give them the Internet” A variant of this statement could be;
“If you truly intend to liberate a country, give them information”. In
even-better
parlance,
management
experts,
academics,
development organisations and advanced Governments have since upheld the idea that the world has moved from the era where “hoarding information was power” – “Information is no longer power… Power now comes from how you share information” (Dalton 2015: 83). We live in an era of people control in which massive ICT possibilities have enabled people to organise and lead desirable change. The era of central control faded with the last millennium. In this new age, governments understand that it is impossible to monitor all the activities of government from the centre (Aso Rock). There is greater opportunity than ever to keep people adequately informed and empowered to participate. Nothing has made participation easier than the enormous potentials offered us by ICT. It enables citizens to lend a voice. There are some signs that the Nigerian government is gradually migrating towards this people control era. One of such signs is embedded in the slogan of the Federal Ministry of Communication – “leveraging ICT for National Development”. ICT
could be a powerful tool if properly used. However, it is important to note that; ICT is a Meditative Mechanism not a solution in itself…. Technology is not a panacea or a magic bullet… one big mistake is to see technology as a solution in itself…. It can serve as a mechanism for inclusion and to reduce the cost of participation making it easy for people to participate but, it could also exclude the vast majority amongst us who do not have access to a particular technology solution- this makes accessibility a crucial matter. Secondly, there is the ongoing Third National Fadama Development (Fadama III – A USD450Million initiative of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in collaboration with World Bank approved in 2008 to close in 2019). This initiative enables local farmers’ organizations to answer satisfaction surveys, send in grievances,
and
respond
to
follow-up
questions
from
state
governments via SMS. The SMS tool is also being used to communicate information such as program processes and events, best practices in farming and local weather conditions back to farmers’. The feedbacks gathered from this process is then integrated into the project’s monitoring and evaluation efforts. This a short route to engaging citizens. It is an exchange between a service provider (FADAMA) and Citizens who use the service (Farmers). This is commendable but the current issue requires a strategy that is effective on a National Scale. Lastly, it is now common trend for politicians and public officers to have social media accounts, “special adviser on new media” is now an actual job role, there are more town hall meetings, feedback meetings, press briefings and roundtables such as the economic summit and Aso Rock Pitch Day initiative.
The question is whether these mechanisms of Citizens’ engagement are effective in enabling citizens to participate in the serious business of governance. Perhaps with the exclusion of the FADAMA case, the issues with the current mechanisms are as follows;
They are mostly tactical and rarely strategic (differentiated in figure below)
Information provided by government is on a “need to know basis” and not on the basis of “right to know” (there is a big difference). Information provided “after the fact” – what this means is that people are mostly informed about “what will happen” or “what has happened” and not provided useful information with any real intent for citizens to participate in decision making or policy formulation.
They are more expensive.
They are mostly top-to-bottom with no significant opportunity for contribution from bottom-up.
They are subject to elite capture and not effective means of engaging the ordinary citizen.
The communication channels which allow feedback are not effective means of participation – for instance friending someone on Facebook or posting a link on twitter is not strategic enough to gather solutions to the daunting challenges of governance. This also applies to town hall meetings, roundtable sessions and feedback sessions when it comes to scale and sustainability.
A formidable Citizens Engagement strategy is a combination of thick and thin methods of engagement which are both strategic and sustainable.
Tactical Vs Strategic Approach – Source: World Bank Group MOOC Resources
REINFORCING THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT Many will argue that public information is available in Nigeria or that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has been passed since 2007. Yes, this is true, but my theory is that returning power to the people means providing UNFETTERED ACCESS to public information as opposed to availability that is fraught with inadequate access as we have it today. When you visit the FOIA website you cannot miss the slogan “to provide unfettered access to public information”. Yes, but then again, “unfettered access” does not mean merely making information available to be obtained. Under the current arrangement, the FOIA requires that anyone seeking public information must request for it. What this implies is that information is available but costly when it is assessed from the Rational Choice Theory standpoint. A typical example of this is seen in the Presidential media chat with The President on 30th December, 2015 where in his response to question asked by the Premium Times representative about asset declaration, Mr. President said;
“I have declared my assets four times in the past. You have the constitutional right to go to the relevant government agency to ask for it”. Quite right. Information is available and the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) covers anyone who can follow through the bureaucracy to request and obtain it. The question is how accessible is this piece of information. Beyond availability, information ought to be;
Accessible – Without barrier, whether it is solicited or unsolicited
Accurate – correct and not misleading
Clear – understandable to the vast majority, especially the ordinary citizens
Useable – available before and after the fact when citizens can still convert the information to actionable intelligence
Up-to-date – Not outdated
I find this excerpt from the United States Open Government Act of 2007 very helpful in driving home my point: “as Justice Black noted in his concurring opinion in Barr v. Matteo (360 U.S. 564 1959); "The effective functioning of a free government like ours depends largely on the force of an informed public opinion. This calls for the widest possible understanding of the quality of government service rendered by all elective or appointed public officials or employees." (2) the PEOPLE firmly believe that our system of government must itself be governed by a presumption of openness;
(3) the Freedom of Information Act establishes a "strong presumption in favour of disclosure" as noted by the United States Supreme Court in United States Department of State vs. Ray (502 U.S. 164 1991), a presumption that applies to all agencies governed by that Act; (4) "DISCLOSURE, NOT SECRECY, is the dominant objective of the Act," as noted by the United States Supreme Court in Department of Air Force v. Rose (425 U.S. 352 1976); (5) IN PRACTICE, THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT HAS NOT ALWAYS LIVED UP TO THE IDEALS OF THAT ACT; AND (6) PARLIAMENT should regularly review THE FOIA in order to determine whether further changes and improvements are necessary to ensure that the government remains OPEN AND ACCESSIBLE TO THE PEOPLE and is always based NOT upon the "NEED TO KNOW" but upon the fundamental "RIGHT TO KNOW" (Source: A MOTION REFERRED TO 110TH COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM CONGRESS – 1ST SESSION
S.2488
UNITED
STATES
HOUSE
OF
REPRESENTATIVES DECEMBER 17, 2007) – emphasis mine. This holds true for the FOIA in Nigeria. What needs to be done if we must win the Anti-Graft war is to develop and implement deliberate strategies aimed at promoting accessibility, accountability, and openness in Government. This is how government may unleash the power of citizens to participate in the anti-graft war. Your Excellency, let the people help to bring corruption to its knees. EMPOWER the citizenry and you will not have to worry about support from “the elites”. Let us not waste more time waiting till we can
cleanse the leper, rather, let us provide a quarantine and pray he gets healed so that he may be fit to live amongst us. One can sense the need for change, the willingness to accept change amongst ordinary Nigerians and a low resistance to change amongst the so called elites – we can build on this. Talent is ubiquitous in our society. There are well meaning Nigerians who have ideas and are willing to assist in winning this war. All you need to do is to open up government to us and you will have unleashed the force of informed citizenry on corruption. The force of resistance to change on the part of elites cannot withstand this force. We stand a better chance to win this way. Yours Faithfully,
D.A-B Dayo Akin-Balogun Nigerian Citizen
BL, MBA