By Angela Atabo/Emmanuel Olorniruha
Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, APC National Chairman and Bishop Mathew Kukah, Founder, The Kukah Centre (TKC),have attributed political corruption to weaker institutions in Nigeria.
The duo made this known at a High-Level Meeting with the National Executives of Political Parties and other stakeholders on Tuesday in Abuja, organised by TKC.
According to Ganduje, Nigeria needs strong institutions that will function to hold political parties and others accountable and assist democracy in Nigeria.
He said, “The major problem we have in Nigeria is that of weak institutions because we are just going on atrocious circle.
“Unless we break that circle and make our institutions strong, we are just blaming the politicians. Political parties are also weak and because of that weakness, corruption thrives.
“Let us not be blaming the politicians, office holders, those who win elections, yes we blame them, but let us look at the security system, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), that oversees the election.
“These institutions man the polling booths, so tell me, can you win election free?even the poor man is not honest ,if we are to go into details of what happens practically ,you will see voters saying they cannot vote until they are paid.’’
Kukah moderated a panel session calling for the need to learn from the mistakes of the past, and then build on it for stronger institutions and democracy in Nigeria through some processes.
He said, “Whether it is the judiciary or bureaucracy, all is a work in progress, and the most important thing is for us to learn the mistakes of the past and then develop the mechanism for ensuring that things don’t continue to repeat themselves.
“So, if you ask who built institutions?,institutions are supposed to be a mirror reflecting the aspirations, the fears, the hopes and the anxieties of an entire people.
“That means that for the police to become an institution, for the bureaucracy to become an institution, Nigerians must collectively and individually learn to say no to things going contrary to the principles of that institution.
“So, I think it is everybody’s business really for Nigeria to have stronger institutions.’’
Kukah commended the European Union for its support to strengthening democracy in Nigeria especially in developing the Political Party Management Toolkit (PPMT).
Some stakeholders at the panel discussion commended the Supreme Court’s judgment granting autonomy to Local Governments (LG).
The Executive Director, Development Space Academy, Prof. Okey Ikechukwu, said the LGs’ financial autonomy and development at the grassroots should be kick-started.
Ikechukwu said what has been happening was that the Governors put the local government funds in their back pockets, thereby stalling development.
He added that the autonomy now meant that the masses should step up and start holding LG Chairmen to account and know how the money would be spent to ensure good healthcare, schools among others.
“I think the ball is now squarely in the court of LG chairmen and we should be in the position of seeing who is playing the ball in the direction the people wants or who has continued to put the money in the pocket,’’he said
The National Chairman of IPAC, Yusuf Dantalle, said although the LG financial autonomy is a welcome development, but it has exposed some things not usually looked at .
He said, “We need to x-ray why our politics is all about money.We need to look at the remuneration of political office, the cost of governance in Nigeria and discourage money politics.
“By the time some of these things are discouraged, maybe it will solve some of the symptoms that we are seeing as the main problem.
“Yes, LG bo has financial autonomy but we need to look at other things like the process of electing the people, why is money central to our politics ?are we actually going to serve the people or we are going to make money ?”
Prof. Ogoh Alubo of the Department of Sociology, University of Jos, said the masses expece too much from politics and make demands thinking they were put there to enjoy on their behalf thereby making politicians money conscious.
He said the motive behind the local government autonomy was to compel good governance.
“I believe for the Federal Government has done is to reduce the amount of funds available to state governors, reduce their capacities for mischief because of financial muscle and then create a sub layer of access below them that can be leveraged,” he said.
A consultant at the Centre, Manji Wilson, while presenting the PPMT,said the toolkit was aimed at providing a robust framework for improving the management and operations of political parties .
He said, “The PPMT revealed that the influence of money on politics leads to disenchantment in democracy and elections.
“Respondents believed that the trend, if not addressed, could result in democratic reversals as witnessed in many countries in the region in the last few years.
“The PPMT recommended funding arrangements by the government for political parties to reduce opportunities for corruption and reduce the influence of ‘moneybags.
“It also recommended that political party should promote accountability and adopt a corporate governance approach to managing their affairs specifically among others.’’(NAN
