|
 Daily
Independent Online.
* Wednesday, June 30, 2004.
Royal fathers as government auditors
By Mike Ikhariale
For some time now, our royal
fathers have been grumbling, albeit mutedly, about having no befitting
roles in the new dispensation: They neither legislate nor execute
government policies. Beyond presiding over puerile matters of culture and
seasonal festivities in their domains, there is not much to engage them,
no thanks to the combined effects of our republican ideology that tends
to question their relevance and the presidential system that is laid
firmly on the doctrine of separation of powers which does not have much
room for princes and princesses. Once in a while, nonetheless, they are
called in to assist in quelling some local uprisings after the government
would have been overwhelmed.
They lament the current political
situation that seems to repudiate the past in which they were the
sovereigns of their lands in the true sense of it. No doubt, they
strongly desire a piece of the action and if the constitution is the
obstacle, it has to be changed, and as a result, they have been adding
their weighty royal voices to the call for the document’s amendment. So
idle have they become these days that they have resorted to the wholesale
regurgitation of their historicity and ancestral mythologies with intent
at generating controversies.
It is not quite clear if the dust that
trailed the recent acrimonious trado-historicism, which pitted two
blue-blooded titans in the persons of the Ooni of Ife, Sijuade, and the
Oba of Bini, Omon N’Oba Erediawa, has abated. As the story goes, one
claims that his premier ancestor dropped from the sky with a chain
lowered from the heavens. While the other counters by averring that the
man who started the dynasty of the other’s kingdom was indeed a condemned
man who was put in chains and sent away. About the credibility of these
fables, those who have staked their cultural and ethnic prides over them
have expended so many printed pages and endless verbal commentaries. The
angst and rage are still on.
It seems, however, that the only point
that has been established from the conflicting cacophonies, so far, is
that there is something about a chain in the two averments. There is the
probability that someone having something to do with a chain actually
relocated from one place to another. The only point that is not yet clear
in the conflicting myths is whether he came down from the sky or arrived
from somewhere else. Without trying to vitiate the veracity of either
claim, it would seem that the one about dropping from the sky sounds too
unreal to warrant any serious intellectual evaluation. But I am aware
that common sense and logic are not always welcome here as with most
mythical formulations.
No matter the stridency of these
advocacies, I am not going to tell my kids that someone, somewhere, once
dropped from the sky with a chain because they are too smart for
that. The tragedy here is
that both sides of the myths are getting so much enthusiastic
followership, in spite all.
And it would seem as if Mr. President has also adopted their logic
as he too has been spreading some interesting myths, including those
about public accounting and fiscal probity, lately. A good example of
this is in what he told a pantheon of Obas recently.
They were sumptuously fed with their own
staple by the President inside Aso Rock. On the occasion of the visit by
Obas from Ekiti land which was officially led by the state governor,
Fayose, the President, to the surprise of their Royal Highnesses, said:
“As traditional rulers, you please help us to be finding out what local
governments are doing with the allocations being given to them. Ask them
always what they do with their money because they are receiving
appreciable amount from the federation account. How do they use it? Help
us to monitor and say, ‘Chairman, how are you doing, how are things going
on? Chairman, it was published that you collected so and so millions of
Naira last month, did you spend it judiciously?’ And he should explain to
you.” This is truly a crucial assignment.
If they understood the President, they are
henceforth to serve as auditors of the accounts of local government
councils in their domains. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of
Nigeria (ICAN) needs not worry about the imminent invasion of its
member’s professional terrain as this is coming purely as ‘job for the royals’.
But do they know anything about modern accounting methods? The procedure
is simple: FG publishes the figures and the Obas would then ask the
Councillors, “we saw the published figures; how did you guys spend the
money? Tell us, or …?” The Royal Fathers would not need to carry bulky
files or leaf through cumbersome ledgers as traditional charms and
esoteric invocations of the powers of their respective deities would do.
It seems as if the war against corruption
is being waged outside of the normal framework of official fiscal rules
and regulations. From the tone of the President’s request, it sounds as
if he is really helpless: “… you please help us to be finding out what
local governments are doing with the allocations being given to them.” Is
it that the regular mechanism for accountability in government has broken
down or this is another aspect of the reforms he is talking about? Under
normal conditions, government accounts are audited, verified and
published periodically. But for as long as Nigerians can remember,
nothing is heard about such processes. After hearing Governor Makarfi and
others’ scathing interpretations of the little that are being
“published”, not many people will believe them again until they start
seeing “the truth and nothing but the truth” as far as the FG's king-size allocations and “oil
windfall accounts” are concerned, in the “spirit of transparency”.
If professionally trained auditors in the
nation’s public service are unable to unravel the fiscal duplicity of our
government, what makes the President think that it is the Obas that would
now do a better job? Again,
for a man who once openly requested the deployment of Sango to combat the
apartheid system in South Africa, Obasanjo’s new preference for Obas as
auditors is quite understandable.
When our royals complained, it was not
because they did not appreciate the occasional largesse in the form of
limousines and cash gifts that came from those in government whenever
they need them to further their political ambitions. What they seemed to
have been saying is that they too want to be in official positions where
they can also dole out materials favours because the spectacle of a
hungry Oba is an anathema.
So, I am not sure if the unrewarding position of local government
auditors is what the Kabiyesis trooped to Abuja for. But as
‘beggars’, they have no choice.
If ours was a truly accountable
constitutional democracy that is exactly the type of questions every
taxpayer and labour union ought to routinely ask the government officials
without risking being teargased, reminded of their idiocy or, in the case
of labour, proscription, because they are “provoked”. So, why task the
royal fathers with such an arduous, if not risky, assignment, knowing the
shortness of our leaders temper? More importantly, IBB and several others
who have ruled Nigeria are now multi-millionaires and it is a fact that
by their legitimate earnings such would never have been possible except
through mindless lootings. Knowing this much, the local government chairmen
would just take the President’s interest their accounts as simply
vindictive as the big fishes are still out there, waxing stronger with
their loots and untouched.
Beyond serving as auditors of local
government, I believe our royal fathers still have considerable
relevance. Take for example, the great feat performed recently by the Oba
of Benin when he successfully reconciled Chief Anthony Annenih, “the
Leader”, with Gov. Orji Kalu, something the ruling party and its
officials and even the law courts, could not do. That was a monumental
achievement by the Benin monarch. By the way, can I by a Slok Airline
ticket now?
|
