joshua
Ayo Ola
Chairman, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre), Mr Olanrewaju Suraju; a judge of the Appeal Court, Justice Habeeb Abiru, and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), have canvassed that Nigeria should return to a society where justice, dignity for human life, rule of law, fairness, and integrity are upheld.
They spoke in Lagos on Friday during the 4th annual Gani Fawehinmi Impact and Integrity awards. The awards were organised by HEDA, with the support of MacArthur Foundation.
Twelve distinguished personalities across Nigeria and the Diaspora, were honoured after a five-month public process of nominations, shortlisting and voting.
Late Mohammed Fawehinmi; late Olanrewaju Fasasi (Sound Sultan) and and late Dr Ayotunde Alao worn Life Time award for Impaxct and Integrity.
Channels TV Judiciary correspondence, Shola Soyele and Mr Emmanuel Eluu, a staff of Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited and driver at Muritala Muhammed Airport, who found and returned $40,000 belonging to a passenger, were also honoured.
Suraju said, “Today is the climax of the 4th edition of the Gani Fawehinmi Awards which started on July 13, 2021 with a public call for nomination following which 271 nomination entries were received; of this number, 21 persons were shortlisted for voting in the four categories of the Awards: six for Outstanding Impact, eight for Outstanding Integrity, four for Valuable Whistle-Blower and three for Nigerians-In-Diaspora Integrity Ambassador.
“Finally, the top three nominees in each category were honoured today as follows: The Outstanding Integrity Award was won by Mr Olasupo Abideen Openyemi, an Alumnus of Harvard Business School, United States of America. The runners up are Dr Tonye Clinton-Jaja, former Chairman of the Governing Board of the Nigerian Copyright Commission and Acting Head, Bills and Legislative Drafting Division of the National Institute for Legislative Studies; as well as Mr Molik Sherifdeen, a member of the Junior Chamber International (JCI).
“The Valuable Whistle-Blower Award was won by Mr Paul Alaba Lawani, a winner of the Global Town Crier Media Award; while the runners up are: Mr Akinyemi Ojo Adebayo, Chair of the Board of Trustee, International Organisation for Human Rights Development and Environment, Nigeria; and Mr Tukur Muazu.
“The Outstanding Impact Award was won by Mr Baba Muhammad Dzukogi, former National Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Authors; while the runners up are Ambassador Chineke Cajethan Goodluck, founder of the United Organisation for Education and Sports Development; and Professor Nwaocha Ogechukwu, a Professor of Religious Studies and 2022 Nominee for Nobel Peace Prize”
He added, “The Nigerians in Diaspora Award was won by Ms Onuike Ifeoma Chinenye, a passionate girls’ rights activist who has also displayed the attributes of distinction when she graduated as the best student and valedictorian in the Girne American University securing a first class degree in law and repeated the same feat in her Master’s degree.”
Other prominent personalities at the Awards ceremony include members of the Board of the Award Comrade Achike Chude, Barrister Nurudeen Ogbara.and Mr kule Adegoke, SAN.
He further said, “The overall objective of the Awards is to take the fight against corruption beyond the usual naming and shaming, and to step outside the box by ensuring that those who notwithstanding the attractiveness of corruption, bribery and other forms of sharp practices have taken to a life of transparency, honesty and integrity are identified, duly recognized and honoured, as a form of inspiration for greater number of people to follow.” This is why HEDA, with the Support of MacArthur Foundation, launched the GFIIA in 2018 to recognise these forthright individuals.
Suraju also lamented the recent travel ban on Nigeria because of the report of very few people who were said to have been detected of Omicron variant of COVID-19.
He stated that there was no basis to impose such a restriction on Nigeria when there are many other countries with worse records of Omicron and yet with no travel restrictions on them.
Suraju said, “One of the things we have resolved to do in HEDA is basically, not only bring people who we have seen as the epitome of integrity and honour in areas where we can technically say it is really with people of some not too upright either background or practise but also to ensure that those who will be recognised will be people of integrity. That took us to some of the few that we have identified, even at the bench.
“We also congratulate all those that were selected. At HEDA, except for providing the platform, we never ever influence any of the outcomes. We do not even see how it is done, where it is done, and who did it. We have deliberated contracted the experts, to conduct the process of allowing the public to nominate people they consider worthy of recognition for impact, integrity, and whistleblowing. After sitting, to be sure that some of them are nominated in compliance to the guidelines that were sent by both our organisation and our board, we then bring them out for the election. The election is always done online within a time frame. The only that we do is, sometimes, those we can recoginse and some of them you will see, it is just to recognise them and give them the certificate of recognition, For us at HEDA, those we think were not nominated and that includes a staff of MMA who actually saw $40,000 in the shuttle bus and returned it to the owner. That was a remarkable act. That actually is the true sense of Nigerian ethos that we want to promote. We should promote this act so that they can change the narrative about Nigeria. The negative ones that are making headlines are not just sensational enough locally but they also affect the perception of our image abroad.
He added, “Unfortunately we have a government that is not responsible and responsive. There was no basis for Nigeria to have been suspended or our travel ban to Canada or the United Kingdom, but because there is no response from the government, there is no articulation, the only thing that is there is: we have Omicron already in Nigeria. The first place for it to be located was in The Netherlands. Nobody is talking about banning traveling from The Netherlands to anywhere. Yes, you can say it is there in South African because there has been the prevalence and the caution but that of Nigeria, the number of death, the number of cases are nothing compared to all the Europe and European countries and also America.
“But because there is no articulation from government, there is no plan of action, there was no response to the development and the cases and reports are ongoing every day about the fact that either people are forging the vaccination certificate or using expired vaccines, or selling them.
“The whole news for anyone to look on in Nigeria are just negative reports and the consequences are when the international community responds to those reports. They do not have any spiritual means of knowing what happens here. They do not gather any serious intelligence, they just simply get some of the news reports and make judgement based on some of the things that are reported. So this is why it is important for us and that is one of the reasons why these awards were instituted not only in honour of Gani Fawehinmi but at the same time to also honour people who are in their little corners making efforts to ensure that some of the traditions that are associated with Nigeria during our good old days. As much as possible, we will continue to provide this platform and recognize those who are due for recognition so that those who are doing the bad things will have a rethink.”
Justice Abiru, who was the guest lecturer called for a just society.
The topic of his lecture which is reproduced below is, ‘Towards ensuring a developed just society: The role of transparency, accountability, and integrity in public office.’
Justice Abiru said, “Let me start by expressing my profound gratitude to the organizers of this event, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Center) for inviting me as a Guest Lecturer at this event organized in honour of late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN. I understand this is the Fourth Edition of the event.
“Now, what to say about late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN? A few days ago, while still battling to put together this paper, I came across a post in a WhatsApp group I belong to and it was from a renowned paediatrician who shared the same time and space with the late Chief Fawehinmi. I will reproduce a portion of the post to share the thoughts of some people on the person of Late Gani Fawehinmi, SAN:
‘“Gani Fawehinmi was the best legal mind of his time. But he was not even the best in his University days; truthfully, he had ordinary pass in his Law Degree, not even a Third Class Degree. He could be classified as ‘Let My People Go’ in those days.
“After Gani left the University and passed out of Law School, there was nothing ordinary again in his life. He became the best in everything he touched. He wrote lots of legal books and journals in Nigeria. He visited courts more than those who made First Class in the same school with him and those who became SAN before him.
“Gani’s presence in any court was big news to the press and the nation. He was delightful and reassuring to watch, he spoke the language of his profession like an angel, and every Judge knew him as a man of integrity. Gani was the most honorable lawyer Nigeria ever produced. To most Nigerians, particularly the poor or middle class, he was their hope and epitome of graceful expectations of how to prosecute cases. He made the legal profession honorable.
“… Gani was a friend of the sick and poor, a philanthropist with special attention to education where he noted his own weakness. He gave Nigeria his all, energies and commitment to the Rule of Law and love for humanity. If his profession were to be the Military, Gani would be more than a four star General …”
“I consider it a rare honour to be asked to be a Guest Speaker at an event organized in honor of a personality who is thought of in such high regard, even if it is by a few persons. The topic I have been given is rather long and it sounds somewhat esoteric, conceptual and intangible, but it is one that is very relevant and topical in the present times.”
Definition of Concepts
He added, “I believe it is essential for us to deconstruct the topic of discourse by defining and understanding the concepts embedded in it. These are the concepts of public service, transparency, accountability and integrity.
“Public Service: The co-existence of any group of people anywhere in the world requires some form of governance administration and division of labour in order to maintain the existence of the group. The concept of public good also indicates that there are some services that are utilized by all members, which are efficient and effective when provided for centrally. The provision of these types of services requires the full attention of some members of the group. This in a nutshell is the basic theory of public services. Public service organizations deliver services to the people. The public service consists of the civil service at federal, state and local government levels, the National Assembly service, the Judiciary, public officers in the military, police, paramilitary services, employees of parastatals, educational and health institutions, and, in our instance, political office holders.
“The public servants are responsible for the provision of safety and welfare of the members of the public. Public service is the agency of government saddled with the responsibility of implementing the community will. Now, if delivery of social services is the chief reason why there is a public service and development is the function of amount of social services that a State can provide for its citizens, then public service is the tool by which development is attained. Therefore, development of a nation is tied to its public service. The public service reflects the state of a nation and no nation has been able to develop beyond its public service. No nation can attain sustainable development for the enhancement of the living standard of the people without a properly organized public service to implement government policies.
“Transparency: In general, transparency implies openness, communication and accountability. With regard to the public services, it means that holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions they take, they should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest demands it. Radical transparency in management demands that all decision making should be carried out publicly. All draft documents, all arguments for and against a proposal, the decision about the decision making process itself, and all final decisions, are made publicly and remain publicly archived. A commentator, in his book, “What is Transparency”, opined that transparency has come to mean active disclosure.
“Other scholars have defined government transparency as the publicizing of incumbent policy choices, and the availability and increased flow to the public of timely, comprehensive, relevant, high-quality and reliable information concerning government activities. Transparency has been generally supposed to make institutions and their office-holders trusted and trustworthy. Transparency International (2015) defines transparency as shedding light on rules, plans, processes and actions. It is the knowing why, how, what and how much. Transparency ensures that public officials, civil servants, managers, board members and business men act visibly and understandably and report on their activities, this therefore imply that the general public can hold them accountable. Transparency is one of the surest ways to guard against corruption.
“Accountability:The term “accountability” often serves as a conceptual umbrella that covers various other distinct concepts such as transparency, equity, democracy, efficiency, responsiveness, responsibility, and integrity. The term has come to stand as a general term for any mechanism that makes powerful institutions responsive to their particular publics. Accountability, as a concept, has been variously defined and classified as a way of being answerable or liable for one’s actions and/or inactions and, conduct in office or position. It has equally been defined as the process of making elected officials and other office holders accountable and responsible to the people who elected or appointed them for their actions while in office. Accountability also connotes the state or quality of being liable and required by a specified person or group of people to report and justify their actions in relations to specific matters or assigned duties.
“Accountability is the obligation to demonstrate that work has been conducted in accordance with agreed rules and standards and the officer reports fairly and accurately on performance results vis-à-vis mandated roles and plans. It is all about being answerable to those who have invested their trust, faith, and resources to you. Public accountability is an essential component for the functioning of our political system, as accountability means that those who are charged with drafting and/or carrying out policy should be obliged to give an explanation of their actions to their electorate
“Integrity: Integrity is one of the most controversial concepts among virtue terms. It is also perhaps the most puzzling as there is no generally accepted definition for it. The concept of integrity has to do with perceived consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcome. When used as a virtue term, “integrity” refers to a quality of a person’s character. Some people see integrity as the quality of having a sense of honesty and truthfulness in regard to the motivations for one’s actions. Persons of integrity do not just act consistently with their endorsements, they stand for something; they stand up for their best judgment within a community of people trying to discover what in life is worth doing.
“Some commentators stress the idea of integrity as personal honesty: acting according to one’s beliefs and values at all times. In the context of accountability, integrity serves as a measure of willingness to adjust value system to maintain or improve its consistency when an expected result appears incongruent with observed outcome. Some regard integrity as a virtue in that they see accountability and moral responsibility as necessary tools for maintaining such consistency.
“Another commentator defines integrity in terms of moral purpose. He describes integrity in terms of a person’s dedication to the pursuit of a moral life and their intellectual responsibility in seeking to understand the demands of such life. He asserted that persons of integrity embrace a moral point of view that urges them to be conceptually clear, logically consistent, appraised of relevant empirical evidence, and careful about acknowledging as well as weighing relevant moral considerations. Persons of integrity impose these restrictions on themselves since they are concerned, not simply with taking any moral position, but with pursuing a commitment to do what is best.
“Integrity requires three steps – discerning what is right and what is wrong, acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost, and saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong. It is doing the right thing even if no one is looking, or even if others are not doing the right thing.”
Abiru further said, What does the interplay of these concepts produce? The presence of operational transparency, accountability and integrity are critical for the efficient functioning of a modern society and for fostering social well-being. In most societies, many powers are delegated to public authorities. Some assurance must then be provided to the delegators – that is, society at large – that this transfer of power is not only effective, but also not abused. Transparency ensures that information is available that can be used to measure the authorities’ performance and to guard against any possible misuse of powers. In that sense, transparency serves to achieve accountability, which means that authorities can be held responsible for their actions. Without transparency and accountability, trust will be lacking between a government and those it governs. The result would be social instability and environment that is less than conducive to economic growth.
“When these concepts are applied in public service, they lay down certain minimum set of principles that civil servants and public officials must adhere to in carrying out their duties. These are:
Serving the Public Interest – Civil servants and public officials are expected to maintain and strengthen the public’s trust and confidence in government, by demonstrating the highest standards of professional competence, efficiency and effectiveness, upholding the Constitution and the laws, and seeking advance the public good at all times.
Transparency – Civil servants and public officials are expected to use powers and resources for public good, under government policy. They should be accountable for the decisions they make, and prepare to justify their actions.
Integrity – Civil servants and public officials are expected to make decisions and act solely in public interest, without consideration of their private interests. Public employment being a public trust, the improper use of a public service position for private advantage is a serious breach of duty. They must concentrate primarily on serving the community and the government, and in so doing to put possibilities for personal advantage to one side.
Legitimacy – Civil servants and public officials are required to administer the laws, and to exercise administrative power on behalf of the Government, or the National Assembly, or other authority. That power and authority should be exercised legitimately, impartially and without fear or favour, for its proper public purpose.
Fairness – Civil servants and public officials should make decisions and act in a fair and equitable manner without bias or prejudice, taking into account only merits of the matter, and respecting rights of affected citizens.
Responsiveness – As agents and employees of the elected Government, Civil servants and public officials are required to serve the legitimate interests and needs of all citizens in a timely manner, with care, respect and courtesy. Unnecessary administrative impediments to effective service delivery, (bureaucracy or red tape-ism) should be identified and removed.
Efficiency and Effectiveness – Civil servants and public officials are required to obtain best value for public assets deployed in or through public management, and to avoid waste and extravagance in expenditure and use of public assets.
“These minimum standards of operation guide against maladministration. Maladministration refers to the making of an official decision in a manner which is contrary to law, arbitrary, unreasonable, without proper justification, lacking in procedural fairness, or made without due consideration for the merits of the matter, or made corruptly. In one respect at least, maladministration may be no more than simple incompetence. The other aspects of maladministration shade into ‘abuse of office’ – misusing public office for private gain – which is the standard definition of corruption.
“The concepts of transparency, accountability and integrity also impose responsibilities on all citizens in dealing with public bodies. They require all citizens in their official dealings with public bodies, civil servants and public officials to observe responsibilities of good citizenship in relation to, for example, honesty, lawfulness and the prevention of corruption. They encourage citizens to refrain from acting corruptly or unlawfully by offering inducements to civil servants and public officials improperly; to refrain from deceptive, dishonest or fraudulent conduct, to report any actual or suspected corruption, or misconduct to a proper authority, to refrain from making frivolous or vexatious complaints or demands and to give an honest account at all times of any dealings with a civil servant, public official, or public body.
“To a put a context to this whole discussion about how a public service governed by the concepts of transparency, accountability and integrity should operate, I will relate two stories, one fictional and the other real life. Permit me to be biased in my choice of stories; they both relate to the functioning of the justice system.
“The fictional story is from the book, The Incorruptible Judge, written by D. Olu Olagoke and published in 1962. It was the story of a Judge who was faced with the official dilemma of presiding over the charge brought against a corrupt character called Agbalowomeri who was standing trial for bribery. (Agbalowomeri is the Yoruba euphemism of a bribe taker who uses all the influences he can muster to ensure that he perverts the cause of justice.) There was a character in the play, a young school graduate called Ajala who was seeking for a job in a government department. Ajala had an interview with Mr. Ade Agbalowomeri who informed him that he was qualified to take the job but that he must offer the sum of Five Pounds as “kola” to get his appointment letter.
“Ajala reported the demand for Five Pounds by Mr. Agbalowomeri to the Police. The Police used Ajala as an agent provocateur to nab Mr. Agbalowomeri in the act of receiving bribe. Knowing that he was destined to be convicted, Mr. Agbalowomeri leveraged his relationship with the father-in-law of the Judge to compromise the trial and set himself free. In his response to the compromising entreaty of his father-in-law, the learned trial Judge in the play asked: “if the citadel of justice is corrupt, what will happen to the body politic?” The Judge firmly stood his ground and ensured that justice was served accordingly.
“The story in the Incorruptible Judge played out in real life a few years later in the experience Hon Justice Kayode Eso while serving as a High Court Judge, as detailed in his seminal memoir titled The Mystery Gunman. Against the rampaging tornadoes of politicians who wanted to stampede him into bending the scales of justice to favour certain interests, Hon Justice Kayode Eso upheld principles and ‘failed the principalities and powers’ to set Wole Soyinka free, while holding the firm conviction in his heart that ‘the Rule of Law knows no fear.’
“The second story is from a reported Supreme Court case of Njovens & Ors Vs State. Patrick Njovens, Y.L Bello, Alhaji Amusa Abidogun and Chief Samuel Taiwo “ST” Oredein (a famous political figure) were tried and convicted for abetting the commission of a robbery and of receiving stolen property; the 1st (Njovens) the 2nd (Bello) and the 3rd (Abidogun) were convicted of accepting gratification and of failing to arrest persons known to have committed offenses of armed robbery. All the four accused were convicted of harbouring known offenders. The offense took place on 13 April 1971 at a place between Ilorin and Bacita in Kwara State. The case, including the appeal to the Supreme Court, was concluded within two years and one month, by the judgment of the Supreme Court delivered on 3rd of May 1973.
“The men who made history possible are the police prosecution witnesses who were not afraid to investigate and testify against their superiors and a politically connected fourth accused. The first second and third accused persons were police officers. But that did not matter to men like Jacob Abiodun Shangobiyi, the superintendent of police who testified for the prosecution and described the first, second and third accused persons as follows:
“I know accused one he was my immediate senior officer at the State’s C.I.D., Ibadan. I know accused two he was the officer I/C in Crime Section, State’s C.I.D., Ibadan. I know accused three, he was attached to the Provincial Crime Branch, Central Police Station, Ibadan”.
“There were other testimonies by police officers like Jacob Olaniyonu Olarinde, Assistant Commissioner of Police (9th prosecution witness) Michael Oshineye Showale, Deputy Superintendent of Police (13th prosecution witness.)
“These are stories of professionalism, dedication to duty and a resolve not to be compromised. The common thread that runs through both stories is that the public officials involved acted ethically, professionally, honestly, efficiently, timeously, and they were fair, just, dispassionate and carried their duties in the interest of the public good. This is what happens when transparency, accountability and integrity are fused into the operation of our civil servants and public officials – justice and fairness pervade the polity.
“Where is our Public Service at presently? The truth is that we presently have a dysfunctional public service system that has been bastardized by the ills of favoritism, partisanship, greed, corruption, tribalism, nepotism and other primordial considerations. Our public service is inefficient and is beset with massive capacity collapse which is brought by its being populated largely by unqualified and incompetent staff. Its personnel have a negative/poor attitude to work, lack initiative, act irresponsibly a lot the times and are generally ineffective. The public service hardly any longer operates under the core values of integrity, meritocracy, discipline, professionalism, patriotism and impartiality. Speaking of the public service as far back as 2004, the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo, was reported to have observed thus:
“Public Officers are the shopping floors of government business. Regrettably, Nigerians have for too long been feeling short changed by the quality of public service delivery by which decisions are not made without undue outside influence, and files do not move without being pushed with inducements. Our public officers have for long been show cases for the combined evils of inefficiency and corruption, whilst being impediments to the effective implementation of government policies. Nigerians deserve better.”
“The position of the public service today, I believe, is far worse than it was in 2004 when these comments were made. In my interactions with our public service sector and discussions with its personnel, the major problem that I see is that majority of civil servants and public officials have no understanding of the standards expected of them, they lack the technical competence to recognize an ethics problem and they do not consider it to be in their interests, personally or professionally, to take a stand for integrity and against corruption.
“The persons who populate the public service are from amongst us and they live in our communities and society. The present deficit in ethics, morality and integrity that pervades the public service is but a reflection of the prevailing malaise in our environment, society and communities. Now, while ethics can be taught as a subject, morality and integrity cannot be so taught as subjects. Morality and integrity are, to a very large extent, intuitive. They are personal values, codes of behavior, which are ingrained in every individual by the family, school and environment and which values the individual chooses to retain as a personal standard of behavior.
“The ethical and moral character as well as the world view of every individual on the concepts of probity, honesty and uprightness is shaped largely by family background, educational background and the environment or society of the individual’s upbringing. Religious leanings also play a part for some people. Thus, a child who grows up seeing his father slapping or chastising his mother every other day will most probably grow up to believe that slapping a female companion is a moral obligation or that it is part of the physical exercise he must undertake often.
“Therefore, the failings of the public service and indeed the major problems plaguing the Nigerian society at every level, public and private, can be traced to a common denominator, namely: our poor value system. We had become a materialistic society that celebrates mediocrity in place of merit, quick wealth without work and glorifies ostentation. A society of everything goes where the end justifies the means. A society defaulting to the Hobbesian state of nature, where there are no enforceable criteria of right and wrong. A society where what amounts to right conduct as opposed to wrong conduct is being blurred at an alarming rate.
“What is prevalent today is that it is people with questionable ethics and moral character that occupy the high offices, even within the traditional set up. They are the ones appointed as Baales, and in some instances as Obas, and they are those awarded chieftaincy titles, honorary degrees and national honors. People with questionable sources of wealth are celebrated and courted. It is common today to see situations where people gather to publicly demonstrate in support of persons accused of criminality, even of heinous crimes, on the basis of ethnicity, religion or of his being their benefactor. People now announce and boast of their criminality and flaunt resources acquired from criminal actions without any sanction.
“We have abandoned our social, moral, legal and cultural norms that were focused on encouraging good behavior and excellent character. For example, the Yoruba philosophical and cultural concept of “Omoluabi”, the summation of the Yoruba moral code, which signifies good character, hard work, integrity, respect of the rights of others and of the community and of everything good in the human person, is nothing but folklore today. Also, the Yoruba principle which is epitomized in the song “ e ro ju ole e omu, ero ju ole e omu o, omoyin o se agbafo o’n kaso wale, o ro ju ole e omu o” and which acted as a deterrent against stealing, corruption and other bad and deviant behaviors is completely lost. The poem, Ise l’ogun ise, by J. F. Odunjo in his famous book, Iwe Alawiye, which was thought to children from primary school to encourage them to be “omoluabis” is lost to history. I do not know how many of you present here remember the poem:
Ise l’ogun ise
Mura s’ise, ore mi
Ise la fi ndi eni giga
Bi ko ba r’eni f’eyin ti
Bi ole la n’ri
Bi a ko ba r’eni gbekele
A te ra mo se ni
Iya re le lowo lowo
Baba re le lesin lekan
Ti o ba gboju le won
O te tan ni mo so fun o
Se ohun ti a ko ba jiya fun
Iyen kin t’ojo
Ohun ta ba f’ara sise fun
Iyen lo n’pe lowo eni
Apa lara, igunpa ni ye kan
B’aiye ba fe o loni
Ti o ba lowo lowo, wa tun fe o lola
Abi ko wa nipo atata
Aiye a ye o si terin terin
Je ki o d’eni tin ra go
Ko ri bi won ti nyin mu si o
Eko si tun so’ni d’oga
Mura ki o ko daradara
Bi o si r’opo eniyan
Ti won fi eko s’erin rin
Dakun ma f’ara we won
Iya be fomo ti ko gbon
Ekun be fomo ti n’sare re kiri
Ma fowuro sere, ore mi
Mura sise, ojo nlo.
“With this kind of society, it is totally hypocritical to expect to see a public service that thrives on transparency, accountability and integrity. No matter the number of reforms done to revamp the public service, things will not change. It is a simple law of nature; you cannot plant maize and reap millet, no matter the amount of fertilizer used and the most careful tendering of the maize plant.
“What To Do? My take is that we need to go back to the basics. There must be a concerted effort to restore our values of moral uprightness, integrity, probity, transparency, accountability, fairness, equity and justice in our ways of doing things. This was the very point made by Professor Tomori, a Consultant Virologist, in his recent emotional laden speech delivered at the Covid 19 Summit. A paraphrase of the speech reads thus:
‘…I am what I am today because Nigeria, my utopia country, provided an enabling environment for me to thrive and to excel. I give glory to God and thank the great citizens and parents of this country who loved the country more than they loved themselves. But soon an outbreak occurred which later became endemic. It came surreptitiously, slowly killing our nation. It was a disease that affected the three pillars of our nation, touching every stratum, damaging every fiber of our nation. The disease slew good governance, murdered societal sanctity and eradicated individual integrity. The disease annihilated the good in our culture and elevated to prominence the ugly in that culture. The disease came in three forms – greedy self interest, blatant lack of patriotism and an unabashed shamelessness. Today we lie to each other. The Government lies to us and we reciprocate with bigger lies. Telling the Government that it is doing well when we know it is not. We clap our hands loudest with ovation for a non-performing leader. We acclaim in pretended joyous ecstasy those who should not be celebrated.
We must start by building back better those aspects of our cherished culture that revered honor, that treasured integrity, that prized probity, that appreciated accountability, that valued transparency, that embraced honesty, that practiced fairness, that ensured equity, that dispensed justice fairly and which cherished patriotism. The first epidemic we must address is the one affecting our culture and true Nigeria-ness. We must have a nation where national interest buries self interest.’ (underlining for emphasis)
“Conclusion: I believe in this country. The country has the resources for greatness; both human and material; the necessary potentials for greatness. We must find prominent positions for the positives in our shared values, cultural, moral and social norms within our communities and society. This task must be undertaken quickly and with all seriousness so as to bring about a renewal in our socio-political system. It is this communality of positive values that keeps the ethics, morality and integrity of the members of such society strong, virile, able and capable. This point was made many years ago by Lord Devlin in an essay entitled, Morals and Criminal Law, when he wrote:
“Society means a community of ideas; without shared ideas on politics, moral and ethics, no society can exist. Each one of us has ideas about what is good and what is evil; they cannot be kept private from society in which we live. If men and women try to create a society in which there is no fundamental agreement about good and evil, they will fail; if having based it on common agreement, the agreement goes, the society will disintegrate…
For society is not something that is kept together physically; it is held by the invisible bonds of common thought. If the bonds were too far relaxed, the members would drift apart. A common morality is part of the bondage. The bondage is part of the price of society; and mankind, which needs society, must pay the price.”
“Lord Delvin re-emphasised the point in the book, The Enforcement of Morals, thus:
“Societies disintegrate from within more frequently than they are broken up by external pressures. There is disintegration when no common morality is observed and history shows that the loosening of moral bonds is often the first stage of disintegration, so that society is justified in taking the same steps to preserve its moral code as it does to preserve its government … the suppression of vice is as much the law’s business as the suppression of subversive activities.”
“It is a society that is ethically and morally sound that can birth a public service that is high on transparency, accountability and integrity and this will translate to peace, justice and fairness in the society.
“Once again, I am grateful to the organizers for this opportunity to contribute to the debate on the subject of nation building. I congratulate all the awardees of today and I implore them to see the awards as a call to duty and for them to re-invest their time and energy to the rebuilding of this nation.
“I thank you all for listening.”
Falana lamented the degeneration of good values in the society and called for a return to sound moral values.
Falana said, “People in government in Nigeria are no longer thinking of those values. Even if your parents are rich, do not depend on your wealth.It is in your interest to work hard and be a man or a woman of integrity, of attainment in life. If you depend on your father’s fortune, yours is likely to be a wasted life. Get to be very busy from the start and that everyday you must ensure that you live a life of integrity. Fortunately, the worship of money or material possession has taken over our country.
“Unless there is a revolutionary change, it is going to extremely difficult to have a new society.Chief Gani Fawehinmi dedicated his entire life towards having a Nigeria of his dream, a Nigeria of rule of law, a Nigeria of seeking justice, a Nigeria of humanist and a Nigeria where everybody will live a life of dignity.
“I am happy my Lord moved a very importantand very moving speech of Prof Tomori which has been circulating.
“What is important in that speech is that he would not have gone to school because he is one of the 39 children of his father. Infact he was No.29 of the list. And there was no way his father could have afforded sending him to school but because of the free education policy of Awo which was also compulsory, he had to go to school because his father did not want to risk going to jail.
“He went to school free of charge, he is also got part scholarship for his secondary education at Federal Government College, Oghene, and full scholarship for his university education. So he was saying that the society made him.So he was in tears,crying that this same society has lost its moral value and therefore, how can we bring back that Nigeria of his dream, the Nigeria of old.
“I had lost my father before going to university education but the bursary I was paid by the Ondo State Government was enough for to sustain me for four years and even at the Law School. Those who were a bit earlier than us, were also getting Federal Government loan. Before you wrote your final year examinations or completed your degree programme, employers of labour will invade the campuses to interview final year students, not graduates. During the youth service year, more employers of labour will come. So by the time you were completing your youth service, you had about three or four jobs in your hands. You then sit down, which one is likely to give me a car loan? Or a housing loan or both? You then sit down and pick. At that time, it was unthinkable for a graduate to get involved in any kind of criminality because the society took care of us.
“I remember when I was going for my Youth Service, I had an uncle who had a Beatle but six months earlier, he now got promotion and graduated to Mazda 929. Then I said, “Elder, why not give me this Beatle, I am going for Youth Service. We were earning N200, I could pay N100 per month. And he said ‘Ok, no problem.’ So I went with the car.I was serving in Ibadan, to fill my tank was N5 and that will bring me to Lagos and take me back to Ibadan. After three months, my uncle said I should forget paying for the car. That was the society we met, that same society has turned against our people and that society now promotes criminality.”
He added, “Imagine the government saying: ‘Yes, we are going to increase fuel price.’ With all the implications, they just don’t border. When you are in that kind of environment, it is difficult to live the type oflife that my Lord is advocating.
“So the government has to go all out of its way to ensure that we create an enabling environment for decency,integrity and a corrupt-free society to operate.
“Right now, I will commend organisations like HEDA, for attempting to fight corruption. Very very difficult!!
“The most corrupt set of people are hardly noticed by us. They are civil servants. Majority of those buildings in Abuja are owned by them. Now, we hear that the pad the budget, they know what to do with the budget, and at the end of the day, nobody talks of these people when we are talking abour corruption. It is all about politicians. But many of the politicians, what they steal,is infinitesimal compared with what the civil servant steal. They also teach the politicians. So we must tackle corruption from the root. Again, I asaid, only a system that takes care of the people can fight corruption.
“In the West, and that is the difference between us and the western countries, or advanced capitalist country. The west is very corrupt, more corrupt than us because the entire money stolen here and other countries are warehoused there.
“But pray you are not caught! Once you are caught, the law deals with you, whoever you are. That was the point Lord Delvin was making.’No matter how high you are, the law is higher than you.’ But here, you deal with the law if you are high.
“I thank HEDA for the good job you are doing. You just have to keepit up. Your struggle is like, if you are being pursued by the masquarade, keep us trying, just like you are getting tired, the masquarade is also getting tired.”
