‘President should give biennial stewardship’
The former chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and related offences Commission, Justice Emmanuel Olayinka Ayoola has called for the adoption by Nigeria, the United States’ accounting model which makes it mandatory for the U S president to render a mid–term account of stewardship to Americans two years after being elected as president.
Justice Ayoola who spoke in an interview with The Guardian said the same obligation should also be made bidding on the 36 states governors as well as the political leadership in all the country’s 774 local government councils.
After the adoption Justice Ayoola said in order to accord it the necessary legal status, the National Assembly should be compelled to enact a law to back it.
The jurist however suggested in the case of Nigeria instead of making it a two yearly ritual, it should be biennial because of the fact that Nigeria is not yet developed as the U S where the culture of transparency and accountability is very high. According to Ayoola, “for me, I think it’s a good idea.
Mid-term is even too long, because mid-term is every two years. Why don’t we have a lesser period? We should develop the system where the head of any government briefs the citizen every six months if not every quarter.”
I think the governor for instance should be able to meet the people every quarter, if not everybody, there should be selected people from every community that makes up that state to ask the governor or even the president the state of the nation in terms of infrastructure, education and so on like that.”
The judicial icon cited some sad cases of abandoned or delayed projects which relevant authorities have never deemed fit to give explanations on the state of such infrastructure, to back his call for the inclusion of the provision in the country’s statute books.
His words, “Take the Lagos-Ibadan express road for instance. This project has been on since almost ten years, the same for Ibadan-Ilorin express road which has remained un-completed for about 14 years.
For me, I think it’s a good idea. Mid-term is even too long, because mid-term is every two years. Why don’t we have a lesser period? We should develop the system where the head of any government briefs the citizen every six months if not every quarter. I think the governor for instance should be able to meet the people every quarter, if not everybody, there should be selected people from every community that makes up that state to ask the governor or even the president the state of the nation in terms of infrastructure, education and so on like that.”
Now, shouldn’t somebody really make it a duty to explain the cause of the delay? Is it due to lack of funding or whatever is the cause of the delay shouldn’t somebody explains to the general public the cause of the delay?” The former Supreme Court justice described as contemptuous the attitude of politicians and political parties which failed to deliver on their electoral promises and manifestoes when seeking votes from the electorates.
He again called for a law that would give the electorates the power to challenge in court when a political party or a politician failed to deliver on its manifestoes.
“I delivered a lecture sometime ago, where I said manifestoes should be regarded as a contract between the citizens and the political party and I suggested that, that contract must be actionable.” “If you promised to give priority to education and you failed to do so, then it should have a legal consequence.”
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1 Comments
Thank you, Sir. A very good idea indeed. The National Assembly members who should be making, discussing and passing these laws are at the moment fighting over positions of power among themselves.
At the end of the month, their respective bank accounts will be credited with their salaries. But wait a minute, they haven’t done a day’s job yet apart from squaring up for a boxing match in the hallow chambers. Is that part of their duties?.
Since 1999, there has been improvements all over the place in Nigeria. The truth is, these improvements were carried out by those who are not noise makers. What are we going to expect from this 8th Assembly?. Do they read newspapers at all and work on recommendations from seasoned men like yourself.
We will review and take appropriate action.