To be accountable is to give you the option and prepared to reply when known as upon to provide an account of 1’s conduct to a different who has the proper and obligation to demand that such account be rendered. From all indications, the reply could be within the destructive if one have been to inquire whether or not we now have a accountable management in Nigeria. And that’s harmful. Successive governments—federal, state and native—exhibit incapacity and or unwillingness to reply with honesty when known as upon to provide an account of their stewardship. And that will not change quickly.

Whether or not we’re ready and prepared to see and acknowledge it, the essence and defining options of accountable management are absent from Nigeria. Government is an omnipresent, omniscient, all-powerful and lawless Leviathan compelling everybody to obey legal guidelines which can be ordinances of the desire, not of cause, of the legislating Leviathan.

In any polity that lays legitimate claims to democratic credentials, management is an expression of the desire of the folks. But right here, it’s an open secret that the electoral course of seldom displays the desire of the folks however the will of the ruling elite.

Every 4 years, the ruling elite decides on whose flip it’s to sit down on Nigeria’s oil wealth. And, to keep away from or no less than decrease intra-elite violence, members of the ruling class strike offers, forge alliances and coalitions, deciding on who sits on and shares the wealth, whose flip it’s, amongst its factions and personalities, to rule. As a results of this association, the electoral course of seldom displays the desire of the folks. Precisely as a result of the result of the method doesn’t mirror the desire of the folks, all manners of candidates emerge from celebration primaries. Credibility and competence don’t matter. Packaging does.

Since the result of the election just isn’t for the folks to resolve, those that emerge in management positions hardly see themselves as obliged to converse with the folks they declare to characterize. Neither understanding nor prepared to grasp that they must be accountable, they’re distant from the folks they declare to characterize. Given this distance, defining options of democracy—a reputable election, illustration, session and accountability—are absent from what we name democracy in Nigeria, obviously and pitiably absent from Nigerian management choice course of and political proceedings. They are absent due to a decision by the ruling elite to separate politics and morality on this nation. Whereas the aim of politics, rightly understood, is the frequent good, it has change into trendy to separate politics from the frequent good. Politics is lowered to recurrent and associated actions on the service of the egocentric curiosity of the politician.

Our electoral course of is violated earlier than we go to the polls. Violation begins in and with the absence of intra-party democracy. Primaries are “won” by whoever is ready to bully and outspend different candidates. The extra you spend, the larger your possibilities of “winning”. Your arsenal should be made of cash and thugs. The steadiness of cash and the steadiness of terror should be tilted in your favour.

Then there may be absence of illustration. If a candidate is asserted as having received in an election missing in transparency, which is the case in virtually each election in Nigeria, such a candidate can’t be in truth stated to be representing the folks. He represents himself and the faction of the ruling elite to which he belongs.

Absence of illustration is absence of session. Supposedly elected to characterize me within the legislative or government arm of presidency, courtesy, civility and morality demand that you simply seek the advice of with me earlier than you make selections that may have an effect on my life. But we can’t contact our representatives. We thought we employed them with our votes. But, as quickly as he’s employed, the worker turns into the boss of the employer on this land of African Big Man Syndrome.

Accountability is the hallmark of accountable management. If you actually characterize us, not solely should you seek the advice of with us, you should be accountable to us. You should temporary us on what you’re doing. But we now have a scenario the place political workplace holders conduct themselves as in the event that they owned the land and the folks. Masters they’re, not servants. They know that, within the absence of a reputable electoral course of, whether or not or not we vote for them, they are going to be declared winners.

In the absence of a reputable electoral course of, illustration, session and accountability, a democratic ethos is missing, and that could be a risk to peace, stability and growth. And so, we should urgently retrace our steps.

If we demand accountable management in Nigeria, which we ought, we should topic ourselves to a two-fold interrogation. First, what’s the goal of management? Secondly, what are our core values as a polity?

The goal of management is to steer the affairs of an affiliation or polity within the course of its core values. A accountable management directs the affairs of the polity in direction of the attainment of its core values. Any nation that lays claims to democratic credentials should have an enlightened management that emerges from and thru enlightened residents, residents who’re enlightened as to the core values of their affiliation, residents who know the criterion to use within the management choice course of, not oppressed cheerleaders of the oppressor.

What then are the shared core values of Nigerians other than the Super Eagles? We have to collectively agree on these earlier than we will verify the standard or lack of high quality in our leaders. Without collectively acknowledged core values, we’re condemned to selecting and evaluating leaders by way of the lenses of ethnic, regional and spiritual affiliations, condemned to dwelling in a land the place the oppressed eulogises his oppressors as a result of they’re of the identical ethnic or regional or non secular affiliation.

If we really want accountable management, we should, legally and virtually, set up and shield the independence of the electoral fee, safety companies and the judiciary. We can’t have a reputable electoral course of if heads of those supposedly impartial organs are employed or fired, instantly or remotely, by the President, who himself is both a contestant or member of a celebration contesting the election. That will probably be like asking one of many two groups in a recreation of soccer to decide on the referee and his assistants.

In a nutshell, if we’re to have a accountable management in Nigeria, we urgently want: an enlightened citizenry as a result of an train of the desire on the polls should be preceded by cultivation of the mind of the voter; an impartial electoral umpire to make sure credibility of our electoral course of; impartial safety companies to safe the electoral course of; and, an impartial judiciary working, in methods which can be clear, to make sure that everybody performs based on the principles. Without these, a accountable management will stay elusive.

*Rev. (Professor) Anthony A. Akinwale, O.P. is Professor of Systematic Theology and Thomistic Studies; Pioneer Vice Chancellor, Dominican University, Ibadan, Oyo State.