Tuesday 24 September 2013
THE “TOOTHLESS” FIFTH SCHEDULE: PUBLIC OFFICERS’ “CORRUPTION LICENSE”
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Fellow Nigerians let me introduce to you the fifth schedule to the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. This schedule is supposedly the strongest anti corruption provision contained in the constitution, it forms part of the oath of office taken by public officers including the president, and it is expected to instill financial prudence, ethical conduct of officer during service and by the strength of its provisions, after retirement. Simply put it is the ‘police’ meant to arrest erring public officers. In this write-up, I will extract some parts of this schedule to help you understand my flow, but I advise you study the entire document yourself, you just might see something that I failed to notice.
Let me start
from the end i.e. part 2 of the schedule which defines who a public officer is
Part
II, Public Officers for the purposes of the Code of conduct
The President of the Federation. The
Vice-President of the Federation. The President and Deputy President of the
Senate Speakers and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Speakers
and Deputy Speakers of Houses of Assembly of States, and all members and staff
of legislative houses. Governors and Deputy Governors of States.
Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justices of the Supreme
Court, President and Justices of the Court of Appeal, all other judicial
officers and all staff of courts of law, Attorney-General of the Federation and
Attorney-General of each State. Ministers of the Government of the Federation
and Commissioners of the Governments of the States, Chief of Defence Staff,
Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Naval Staff, Chief of Air Staff and all members
of the armed forces of the Federation, Inspector-General of Police, Deputy
Inspector-General of Police and all members of the Nigeria Police Force and
other government security agencies established by law.
Secretary
to the Government of the Federation, Head of the Civil service, Permanent
Secretaries, Directors-Generals and all other persons in the civil service of
the Federation or of the State. Ambassadors, High Commissioners and other
officers of Nigeria Missions abroad.
Chairman, members and staff of the Code of Conduct
Bureau and Code of Conduct Tribunal, Chairman, members and staff of local
government councils, Chairman and members of the Boards or other governing
bodies and staff of statutory corporations and of companies in which the
Federal or State Governments or local governments councils.
All staff of universities, colleges and
institutions owned and financed by the Federal or State Governments or local
government councils. Chairman, members and staff of permanent commissions or
councils appointed on full time basis.
You will agree with me that this
definition captures virtually every persons working for federal, state and
local governments on full time basis, and
this of course includes the president, senate president, speakers, ministers, judges,
governors, etc and even the code of conduct tribunal/bureau
This code of
conduct tribunal is a three-membered body recommended by the judicial council, appointed
by the President, empowered by the National assembly. Paragraph 15(4) says the
National assembly may confer on this tribunal additional powers to enable it
perform its duties effectively, which to me also means conversely the NASS may
likewise withdraw such powers. NASS also by an Act determines the staff appointed
by this tribunal.
Now lets move
on to the most important part; the beginning. In the general provisions of this
schedule we see the expectation and express requirements which all public
officers must comply with. Of special and particular interest to me are
Paragraphs 4, 5 and 11, because these sections outline what a public officer
should do before office, while in service, and after retirement. As is the
sequence of this discourse, let me start from the last, Paragraph 11
11.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this
Constitution, every public officer shall within three months after the coming
into force of this Code of Conduct or immediately after taking office and
thereafter
- (a) at the end
of every four years; and
(b)
At the end of his term of office, submit to the Code of Conduct Bureau a
written declaration of all his properties, assets, and liabilities and those of
his unmarried children under the age of eighteen years.
(2) Any
statement in such declaration that is found to be false by any authority or
person authorized in that behalf to verify it shall be deemed to be a breach of
this Code.
(3)
Any property or assets acquired by a public officer after any declaration
required under this Constitution and which is not fairly attributable to
income, gift, or loan approved by this Code shall be deemed to have been
acquired in breach of this Code unless the contrary is proved.
This Paragraph is telling that public
officer that ”Mr. Public Officer, this
is your appointment letter, but as you are resuming on Monday, submit to the
code of conduct bureau details of everything you, your wife and children own, be
it properties, assets and even liabilities, this you must do every four years
as long as you remain in this organization. Secondly, when and anytime you resign,
retire or impeached, you must give this bureau a current evaluation/declaration
of your assets and liabilities. If upon investigation we find out that your
assets whose values are not fairly attributable to your income over the years, and
you are unable prove the legitimate source of the discrepancies, and then you
have a case to answer before the tribunal. And be informed you stand the risk
of forfeiting such assets to the state and also liable to a criminal
prosecution in the court of law .Do you understand?!
4.
(1) A public officer shall not, after his
retirement from public service and while receiving pension from public funds,
accept more than one remuneration position as chairman, director or employee of
-
(a)
A company owned or controlled by the government; or
(b)
Any public authority.
(2)
A retired public servant shall not receive any other remuneration from public
funds in addition to his pension and the emolument of such one remunerative
position.
5.
(1) Retired public officers who have held
offices to which this paragraph applies are prohibited from service or
employment in foreign companies or foreign enterprises.
(2)
This paragraph applies to the offices of President, Vice-President, and Chief
Justice of Nigeria, Governor and Deputy Governor of a State.
These
Paragraphs sound a bit harsh and strong, but I like it, it simply means as a retiree
collecting pension from government can’t at the same time be working for
government in several other remunerative capacities. I believe that Paragraph 5 is in anticipation that some
public officers may connive with foreign companies, divert funds while in
office and at retirement claim to be working for these foreign organizations, but
the second part I don’t understand why only these few officers? At least if
nothing at all, every high ranking public officer should be on this list.
Now to the
bombshell, the singular “HAMMER”
provision that breaks the teeth of the whole schedule rendering it ‘toothless’ and changes the status of
the code of conduct tribunal from “UMPIRE”
to “ALLY”. Ladies, and gentlemen,
meet the ‘neutralizer of justice’, the ‘soul of Nigeria’s corruption’, ’the
commander of public service impunity’, ’the grand-patron of gross and fearless embezzlement
of public funds’ :PARAGRAPH 14!!!!!!!
14.
in its application to public officers -
(a)
Members of legislative houses shall be exempt from the provisions of paragraph
4 of this Code; and
(b) The National
Assembly may by law exempt any cadre of public officers from the provisions of
paragraphs 4 and 11 of this Code if it appears to it that their position in the
public service is below the rank which it considers appropriate for the
application of those provisions.
This paragraph means that all senators, representatives
at federal and state levels can work in different and diverse capacities for
government, collect emoluments for as
long as they like, they are untouchable and unstoppable, not only that they
reserve the right to determine, choose, select, and favor whosoever they please to be exempted ,not
from paragraph 4 only but also from paragraph 11 which talks about declaration
of assets and liabilities and you can be sure that the first cadre they will
exempt is themselves followed by their cronies and allies in the lucrative
ministries, parastatals and agencies.
NASS
determines the scope of operation of the tribunal; FG appoints and pays the
tribunal. so what do you expect to happen in the public and civil services, yes!,
networking, compromises, backrobbings, because the ultimate police is the
National Assembly and it determines who is arrested and who is pardoned and
more importantly who is empowered, encouraged, and protected to inflict maximum
damage on the nation’s funds and resources. So now you know why there is so
much corruption in the system especially the public service from the presidency
to the local government council, from the president to the clerks, to the
cleaners, to the gatemen. now you know why most government officials are touts
cornering citizens and extorting money from them rather than doing the right
thing, now you know why there are so many fake drivers licenses, number plates,
certificates of occupancies, survey plans and all manners of fake certificates
and documents, all these are gotten from touts who are actually government
officials or working directly with or for someone in government. Now you know
why our borders are porous, why governors and their cronies can import arms and
ammunition without customs batting and eye. Now you know why contract quotation
are inflated by over 100%,now you know why number plate issued by FRSC at
N5,000 goes for N24,000 in the states, now you know why armed robbers, kidnappers
and terrorist are better equipped than the Nigerian police; now you know why public
officers flaunt luxuries that exceeds
their legitimate income. WHY?
Because the
corruption in Nigeria is “authorized”,
yes, signed, sealed by the National Assembly in conjunction with the Federal
Government powered by the 1999 constitution and delivered to public and civil
services. No wonder there are so many offices, agencies parastatals, so many
ministers of state, special advisers on trivialities, junior/senior special
assistants, office of the senate president, office of the speaker, offices of
first ladies and their children, so many elephant projects; sure-P, MDGs, so,
so many pipes plugged into the federation accounts and outlet into public
officers’ local and foreign accounts, sometimes in hard currencies. How else
can all these happen if it is not “AUTHORIZED”?
People the
days of slave trade are fast returning to this country, if we don’t act now and
let the day dawn and come upon us, it’s going to be more devastating than a
tsunami. If we don’t rise now….the future of our Nation, the future of our
children, our future is better imagined. At 53 we ought to have gone past the
stage, this is not the Nigeria we want, we have to change it!
I HAVE SPOKEN!!!
I HAVE SPOKEN!!!
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