Mark Daggash: THE WHISTLEBLOWER IN NIGERIA!

Mark Daggash: THE WHISTLEBLOWER IN NIGERIA!: For the Nigerian youth watching his brother’s back, the Whistleblower Policy is snitching at its highest level; for the old and optim...

THE WHISTLEBLOWER IN NIGERIA!

For the Nigerian youth watching his brother’s back, the Whistleblower Policy is snitching at its highest level; for the old and optimists, it is a policy largely overdue; Wikipedia online describes a whistleblower (also known as a whistle-blower or whistle blower) as a person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization that is either private or public. ... Because of this, a number of laws exist to protect whistleblowers. In Nigeria, the federal government defines a whistleblower as a person who voluntarily discloses to the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Finance, a possible misconduct or violation that has occurred, is ongoing, or is about to occur with specific concerns which are in the public interest.  

The Whistleblower Protection Bill has twice failed to receive the necessary support in the 6^th and 7^th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is alleged that Senators of the two sessions blocked the passage of the bill based on the rationale that it could be used as a tool for witch-hunt. They argued further that the country was not ripe for such a law.

A former legislator, Ganiyu Solomon had sponsored the Whistleblowers Protection Bill first as a Member of the House of Representatives, and consequently as a Senator in 2008. Hon. Halims Agoda also sponsored a similar bill, Safeguarded Disclosure (Whistle Blowers, Special Provisions, Etc.) Bill, 2009. 

Interestingly, the Senate Bill sponsored by Sen. Ganiyu Solomon was among the 46 Bills passed by the past Senate in record time but was refused assent by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. With the coming of the President Buhari in the same year, it was thought that the bill, given its anti-corruption tendencies shall be considered expressly for executive assent. However, the proposed law did not get the necessary approval.

Recently, in the 8^th Senate, its members voted overwhelmingly in favor of two related bills in this regard, to allow their consolidation scale the crucial second reading. The two bills consolidated include, “A Bill for an Act to Protect Persons Making Disclosures for Public Interest and Others From Reappraisal” sponsored by Senator Abiodun Olujimi (Ekiti South) and “A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Establishment and Operation of a Programme to Enable Certain Persons to Receive Protection in Relation to Certain Inquiries, Investigations or Prosecutions and for Matters Connected Therewith, 2016” proposed by Senator Isiaka Adeleke (Osun West). 

The Bills generally seek to provide amongst others, the manner in which individuals may, in the public interest, disclose information that relates to unlawful or other illegal conduct or corrupt practices of others; to provide for the protection against victimization of persons who make these disclosures. The proposed law(s) defines the nature of an impropriety that qualifies for disclosure, the procedure for disclosure and the protection that would be given a whistleblower by government agencies.

On the 21^st of December 2016, the Federal Ministry of Finance launched the whistleblower programme to encourage anyone with information about a violation of financial regulations, mismanagement of public funds and assets, financial malpractice, fraud and theft to report it.  

                                       

According to the Mrs. Kemi Adeseun, anyone who has authentic information about violation, misconduct, or improper activity which can impact negatively on the Nigerian people and government should report it through one or the other of three channels: SMS -   09098067946 Email - whistle@finance.gov.ng  web - http://whistle.finance.gov.ng. Phone Calls can also go through on Monday - Friday (10:00am to 3:00pm) except on public holidays

The reward for blowing a whistle ensures that the whistle-blower will get between 2.5 per cent (minimum) and five per cent (maximum) of the recovered loot, provided that “there is a voluntary return of stolen or concealed public funds or assets on the account of the information provided”. 

According to the Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammed, the whistle-blower policy had started yielding fruits, with the recovery of US$151 million and N8billion. In his words, “the looted funds, which do not include the $9.2 million in cash allegedly owned by a former Group Managing Director of the NNPC (which was also a dividend of the whistle-blower policy), were recovered from just three sources through whistle-blowers who gave actionable information to the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation. The biggest amount of $136,676,600.51 was recovered from an account in a commercial bank, where the money was kept under an apparently fake account name, followed by N7billion and $15million from another person and N1billion from yet another.”

For you to be guaranteed as a whistleblower, initiators of this policy have put a caveat which says, before you blow that whistle and expect protection or compensation, it will be advisable to wait until the government has completed the process of enacting a whistle-blower policy that is backed by law. In other words, you must wait for the National Assembly, ever so conscious of its own self-protection, to enact a bill to that effect.

THE LEGISLATURE AND OUR MANDATE

For how long shall we continue to watch those we sent to represent us, forget what we voted them in to do and continuously engage all this time wasting strategies?

Remember, we voted them to represent our aspirations and petitions for our overall good but what we have received for over one month is a lingering crisis of leadership, with both sides accusing each other of personal interest and calling on the other group to regard national interest above individual interest. One worrisome fact is that these people are being paid sitting allowances and monthly salaries (for not sitting and rather acting an action film we never paid for!). Should this continue for another one month, what will be our gain as we seriously anticipate a new dawn in governance.

How do we let these people know that we are conscious of their mandate and roles? How do we let them know that we can recall them? Should we begin to amplify constitutional provisions such as Section 63 of the 1999 Constitution which states that, “The Senate and the House of Representatives shall each sit for a period not less than one hundred and eighty one days in a year"?

I am worried because i am concerned about the very important role of the legislature and how its activities affect the outcome of their product which is supposed to benefit US, Nigerians.

Just last week, President Buhari appointed Service Chiefs who will remain in acting capacity until the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria confirms them. In practical sense, there is currently no Committee with relevant jurisdiction constituted to accelerate such confirmation, but the Senate can inaugurate an ad-hoc committee to do so! The way and means may not seem to matter now especially if they are confirmed, however, the legislative committee is often described as the engine room of the legislature or the small legislature in the parliament.

I fear that if we continue like this, what shall be constantly obtained is the concept of doctrine of necessity in enforcing very important legislative roles. This wouldn't have been the case, if both Houses of the legislature were not wrangling over positions assumed to be in the enclave of "firsts amongst equals".

This brings us to the pertinent question of who checks the checker? Is it those who have elected them or the rules that govern the legislature. If they rules have failed and the powers lies with us the PEOPLE, what then can we do?????? I just thought out loud!!!   

THE OUTCOME OF THE 2015 NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA: LESSONS FOR OUR DEMOCRACY

 

Being a text of a paper presented on the 5^th May, 2015 by Mark I. Hirnyam (Senior Admin Officer) at the weekly seminar of the Department of Research and Statistics, National Assembly, Abuja.

INTRODUCTION

It is widely acclaimed that the legislature is the most unique feature of democracy. Since everybody in the society cannot sit to preside over their affairs at the same time, representative democracy suggests that specific number of persons is elected by the people to represent them in an institution known as the legislature. According to James Madison in Oko O. 2014, the essence of representative government is to refine and enlarge the public views by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations[1].

In Nigeria, the legislature comprises of the National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly and legislative arms of the Local Government Councils. For the purpose of this discussion, we shall dwell more on the National Assembly.

Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria vests the Legislative powers of the Federation in the National Assembly. In particular, Section 4, sub Section 1 clearly states that the legislative powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be vested in the National Assembly for the Federation which shall consist of Senate and a House of Representatives. The provisions of Section 4, sub section 1 show that the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has the responsibility of making laws for the good governance of the Federation and is bicameral in nature.

The 1999 Constitution (as amended) in Sections 47-51 provide for the establishment of the National Assembly, composition of the Senate, composition of the House of Representatives, offices of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives and offices for Bureaucratic Staff of the National Assembly. Sections 54-56 dwell on Quorum, Languages and Voting in the legislature.

The Constitution vests on the legislature certain powers and privileges to exercise its roles not only as a lawmaking institution but also empowers it to serve as check on the executive which to a large extent defines legislative autonomy and parliamentary supremacy. Under the 1999 constitution (as amended), the National Assembly has the powers to make all laws in Section 4(2);  power to create new states in Section 8(1); power of the National Assembly to prescribe the method of appointment of the Clerk of the National Assembly in Section 51; power to appropriate funds in Sections 80-83; power to receive the audited accounts of the Federation in Section 85 (2); power to remove auditor general of the federation from office in Section 86 (1 & 2); power of investigation into the activities of the executive in Section 88(1);  power to procure evidence in Section 89(1); power to impeach President and /or Vice President in Section 143; power to confirm appointments in Section 147 (2); as well as power to appoint and remove chairmen and members of federal boards in Section 154 (1) etc.

    

The legislature therefore serves as link between the people and those who govern them. Such elected representatives are saddled with the task of acting on behalf of their people, relating their concerns, issues and opinions to lawmaking and other legislative activities.

Since 1999 when Nigeria returned to the path of democracy, elections to fill the 109 Senate and 360 House of Representatives seats of the federal legislature are held every four years. Therefore, National Assembly elections have been held 5 times since 1999, the recent being the just concluded 2015 elections.

OUTCOME OF THE 2015 NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS

On March 28^th 2015, the National Assembly elections were once more held in Nigeria. Analysis of the election results shows the following:

Senate

61 of the Senators have been elected on the APC platform and 48 on the PDP platform.

Additionally, the result also suggests that the Senate of the 8^th National Assembly will still be dominated by men. Unlike the 6 we have in the outgoing Senate, 8 out of the 109-member Senate of the National Assembly are women.

House of Representatives

According to the INEC online portal the outcome of the March 28, 2015 House of Representatives polls shows that APC members are now 209, against the Peoples Democratic Party, which has 133 lawmakers. The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has 5, while the Labour Party, Social Democratic Party and Accord Party all have one each, bringing the total to 360.

Rate of Turnover in the National Assembly

It is common knowledge that from 1999, at the commencement of every legislative House in the National Assembly, a significant number of legislators do not return after elections. It is asserted that since the inception of democracy in 1999, the reelection rate of federal legislators in Nigeria has never exceeded 32%. The table below shows the rate of turnover of federal legislators from 2003 to 2011.

Senate

PERIOD/YEAR OF LEGISLATION	NUMBER RETURNED	RETENTION RATE
2003	33 out of 109	30.27%
2007	25 out of 109	22.93%
2011	34 out of 109	31.19%

House of Representatives

PERIOD/YEAR OF LEGISLATION	NUMBER RETURNED	RETENTION RATE
2003	102 out of 360	28.33%
2007	99 out of 360	27.5%
2011	108 out of 360	30%

Source: Study conducted by National Institute of Legislative Studies (NILS) in Oko O. 2014

The result of the 2015 National Assembly elections shows that in the Senate, out of the 109 Senators elected, only 30 of them got reelected. This shows a 27.5% rate of turnover.

According to the Punch Newspapers, about 302 out of the 360 members of the House of Representatives will not return to their seats when the 8^th session of the National Assembly begins in June 2015.[2] If we follow this assertion, we will observe that only 58 House of Representatives members got reelected. This also shows a 16.1% rate of turnover.

Table showing the Rate of turnover of reelected legislators in 2015

Senate

PERIOD/YEAR OF LEGISLATION	NUMBER RETURNED	RETENTION RATE
2015	30	27.5%

House of Representatives

PERIOD/YEAR OF LEGISLATION	NUMBER RETURNED	RETENTION RATE
2015	58	16.1%

The challenge of having a legislative house that produces an insignificant level of reelected legislators affects not only the level of experience in the area of lawmaking but also legislative practice and procedure. Lawmaking is a tedious art that requires painstaking rudiments which must be followed in order to avoid making ambiguous laws that would be vulnerable enough for mischief makers to take advantage. Going back memory lane to the First Republic were the entire legislature was comprised of new people who had no prior experience in the area of lawmaking or legislative practice and procedure, we will notice that during the entire four-year civilian term, only one bill was introduced and passed entirely by the Members, while all other legislation was initiated by the Presidency. The Assembly did not exercise significant oversight of the executive or other government operations[3].

Having gone through 16 years of democratic governance in Nigeria, it is expected that the gains of democracy include consolidating on democratic structures like government institutions. However, a low turnover rate of legislators does not depict the rate of positive change that our legislature in particular and country deserve; especially in this period were it is generally acclaimed that the voice of the people have spoken more, in terms of the 2015 election were the opposition APC has been voted in as the major party to constitute the central government.

In order to deal with this kind of scenario of possible large number of newly elected legislators without prior legislative knowledge, this paper attempts to briefly bring to note the USA practice of staggered elections. In the United States of America, Senators serve terms of six years each; the terms are staggered so that approximately one-third of the seats are up for election every two years. This was achieved by dividing the Senators of the 1^st Congress into thirds (called classes), where the terms of one-third expired after two years, the terms of another third expired after four, and the terms of the last third expired after six years. This arrangement was also followed after the admission of new states into the union. The staggering of terms has been arranged such that both seats from a given state are not contested in the same general election, except when a mid-term vacancy is being filled. Current senators whose six-year terms expire on January 3, 2017, belong to Class III[4]. This means that during every senatorial election in the USA, at least 67 Senators will be retained even if none of the 33 Senators whose tenure expire, as a result of staggered elections did not get reelected.

ZONING OF PUBLIC OFFICES IN NIGERIA

With a vast population of over 170m people, Nigeria is acclaimed to have over 350 ethnic tribes and languages demarcated into 6 geo-political zones, 36 states and 774 local government areas. Given this large population of people, it is often argued that a stereotype arrangement be put in place to guarantee that all sections of the country occupy leadership positions at different times.

Zoning of public offices in Nigeria therefore means that public offices are apportioned to various parts of the country for the same purpose of fair play and equity. Arguments against zoning are not far from the disadvantages of the federal character system in Nigeria which is adjudged in some quarters as promoting mediocrity and incompetence at the expense of quality and value.

Using the outcome of the 2015 National Assembly elections, where the All Progressive Congress (APC) constitutes the majority in both Houses; the party is expected to produce the presiding officers of both Houses i.e. the Senate President, the Speaker, and their Deputies. If the zoning principle is adopted this time round, one will assume that the APC, having elected General Mohammadu Buhari and Prof. Yemi Osibanjo from the North-West and South-West zones of the country respectively, will naturally allocate these four positions to the other remaining four zones. By virtue of the inability of the APC to produce (ranking) legislators from the South-East and South-South parts of the country, it is also right to think that legislators from these zones will not be included in the prediction of who become the presiding officers of the National Assembly. Hence, favoring the North-East and North-Central zones in the contest for presiding officers of both Houses of the National Assembly.

There is no gain overemphasizing the fact that there might have been a possibility of better qualified candidates for these positions in other parts of the country, but for the zoning formula which automatically screens them out of the race, the country’s lost, would be a geographical zone’s gain. Thus, out of the major contenders for the office of the Senate Presidency, lawmakers from Kwara State (North Central) may also be considered less likely to emerge since they could be regarded as coming from the same tribe as the Vice President, and not because they are less qualified or incompetent.

LEGISLATIVE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE: Ranking in the Legislature

Section 60 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), empowers the National Assembly to formulate rules for its proceedings. In accordance with this provision, the Senate and House of Representatives have formulated rules and orders that help to regulate their proceedings and activities. In this regard, the formal rules of the Senate are contained in the Senate Standing Orders, while the rules of the House of Representatives are contained in the House Standing Orders.

According to Prof. Okechukwu Oko, the Rules emphasize democratic governance, decorum and orderliness in the National Assembly. The major contents of the Rules include; election of Principal Officers, process of lawmaking, voting in the legislature, committee system, motions, resolutions, chamber proceedings, public hearing, oversight, powers and functions of principal officers and other activities carried out by both Houses in the course of their legislative duties. Since these rules are made by legislators themselves, they can be revised, amended, repealed or even put aside by the legislature at any time.

On assumption of the new legislature in June 2015, the first major legislative activity, both Houses of the National Assembly will undertake, will be to elect their Presiding Officers. In electing these firsts amongst equals, the Senate will rely on the Senate Standing Orders (2011, as amended) were it not jettisoned.  The Standing Orders of the Senate stipulates that any Senator who has been elected and has been reelected into the chamber has preference over a member who is newly elected into the chamber.

Chapter II (2) of Senate Standing Orders provides that, “the following order shall apply: (i) Senators returning based on number of times re-elected; (ii) Senators who had been members of the House of Representatives; (iii) Senators elected as Senators for the first time.”[5] Based on the Rule, only Senators who are reelected for further terms or are former House of Representatives may be part of the Presiding and Principal Officers of the Senate of the 8^th National Assembly. This also explains why, for example, Sen. Francis Alimikhena from Edo North may not be eligible to be a candidate for the Senate Presidency or even a Principal Officer (even though he hails from the South-South region) since he is only a new senator elected for the first time.

The situation is the same in the House of Representatives where the ranking rule is also prescribed in the House Standing Orders. Order II, Rule 4(a) provides that the election of Speaker shall be conducted in the following manner: a Member-elect, addressing the Clerk, shall propose another member-elect with legislative experience as member of the National Assembly to the House to be Speaker and shall move that such member…[6]

The United States where we copied our system of democracy also has the seniority principle in practice. According to the convention of Senate seniority, the senator with the longer tenure in each state is known as the "senior senator"; the other is the "junior senator". This convention does not have official significance, though it is a factor in the selection of physical offices. In the 114^th Congress, the most-senior "junior senator" is Barbara Boxer of California, who was sworn in on January 3, 1993 and is currently 11th in seniority, behind Dianne Feinstein who was sworn in on November 4, 1992 and is currently 10^th in seniority. The most-junior "senior senator" is Deb Fischer of Nebraska, who was sworn in January 3, 2013, and is currently 84th in seniority, ahead of Senator Ben Sasse who was sworn in January 3, 2015 and is currently 99^th in seniority[7].

If we compare the practice in the US with Nigeria, we will note that seniority or ranking is no doubt a common feature in both legislatures. This means that seniority is a very important concept in the legislature. However, the practice in the US suggests that it is a mere convention that does not have official significance but goes ahead to rank every individual Senator, determining their ranking positions, while in Nigeria, the principle of ranking is embedded in the Standing Orders of the Senate. For this reason, except where it is put aside, the rule on ranking will always guide the election of presiding officers in the legislature.

Recommendation/Way Forward

It is right to state at this juncture that the position of the legislature in a democratic setting is central to obtaining the dividends of democracy. Only the legislature is empowered to act directly on behalf of those they represent. Therefore, expanding the vitality of the legislature ought to be one of the gains of 16 years of uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria. However, political actions/output in recent times have shown that the legislature must be positioned in such a manner as to absorb whatever political situation or equation the country finds itself at any period in time.

It is equally not out of place to suggest that it is a good for democracy to see that the minority party in the just concluded elections has a significant representation in the National Assembly, depicted by 48 out of 109 Senators i.e. just 13 less than the majority party. In the House of Representatives also, the opposition parties are represented so far by a reasonable number of 141 Members i.e. approximately 31.1% composition of the House of Representatives. If the Court of Appeal upholds the verdict of the lower court that lawmakers, who defect from their political parties to other ones, vacate their seats, then it is expected that the number of political party representation in the legislature will remain as it is, at least for a while. The significant size of opposition parties in the federal legislature suggests that unlike the state legislature where most Houses of Assembly have overwhelming number of the majority party in the state, the very significant support of minority political parties especially the PDP in making decisions of the National Assembly will be beneficial to the overall good of the vast common Nigerians. A fresh case in mind dates back to 2011when the defunct minority ACN and CPC political parties teamed up with some PDP members to defy the zoning arrangement of the PDP for the election of presiding officers in the House of Representatives at the commencement of the National Assembly.

Hence, all things being equal, unless, the majority party does the right thing, it will not get the required support from the minority political parties to make certain important decisions, given a case for checks and balances between the majority and the minority. The negative effect of such situation is a possibility of legislative activities having to linger-on more than necessary, due to diverse positions of political party on issues that come up for deliberation in the National Assembly. Overall, it will be easier for Nigerians to know which party is pro-people oriented and which is anti-people.

I would suggest the US system to buttress the need to develop the capacity of legislators (even the newly elected ones). Like the vice president of the United States of America, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate does not normally preside over the Senate, but typically delegates the responsibility of presiding to junior senators of the majority party, usually in blocks of one hour on a rotating basis. Frequently, freshmen senators (newly elected members) are asked to preside so that they may become accustomed to the rules and procedures of the body. In this way, legislators tend to learn faster the practice and procedure of the legislature, just as a legislature which is increasingly informed is deemed to perform more in terms of its functions of lawmaking, representation and oversight.

In future, the legislature in Nigeria should develop ways of retaining a substantial amount of knowledge and experience, since these attributes contribute to the growth of the legislature and democracy at large. One will note that staggered elections in the US ensure that at every point in time, there is a substantial amount of legislators available to perform legislative activities in the country.

I am also of the view that if we curtail corruption and nepotism to a minimal level, the issue of zoning will not feature prominently in electing political leaders; since an individual is not elected to be Senate President of a particular zone but Nigeria. Acting on behalf of the entire nation with equity and justice will reduce the tensions created by being biased in decision making or the feelings of marginalization. This also means that purposeful representation and leadership will likely do away with apportioning positions which in most times, disregards the best fit and competent candidate from assuming such positions. Hence, people will begin to clamor for the best candidate and not candidates from their respective zones, states or even ethnic extraction.

 

CONCLUSION

Let me conclude by observing that democracy depends deeply on a constant improving legislature so as to enable it create new ideas, legislate adequate laws and policies that would ensure that citizens get absolute benefit from democracy. It is pertinent to observe that the growth of democracy in Nigeria has caused the legislature to also expand its capacity as an arm of government and could be seen in the reduced tensions between the executive and the legislature over time. One will imagine that the National Assembly was able to deal with the demise of a sitting President more because, it was characterized by informed and relatively experienced legislators who had the capacity to preside over the legislature during that time.

One aspect of the legislature that also requires improvement is in the area of disseminating information on the activities of the legislature. A lot of people are still not enlightened on how the legislature works. Only a system that is properly known, can receive adequate criticism and moderation; enough to put the growth and development of the legislature (in this instance) at par with other arms of government, having been missing for a long period in Nigeria.  

Further reading:

1.      Ameh J. (2015), Punch Newspaper, April 6^th. http://www.punchng.com/news/

2.      Lewis, P. (June, 2011) NIGERIA COUNTRY REPORT. Johns Hopkins University. School of Advanced International Studies.

3.      Oko O. (2014) Legislators in Changing and Challenging Times, An Analysis of the Nigerian National Assembly. Goldline and Jacobs Publishing, New Jersey, USA.

4.                                          http://www.inecnigeria.org/

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[1] Oko O. 2014 Legislators in Changing and Challenging Times, An Analysis of the Nigerian National Assembly Pg79.

[2] Punch Newspaper online. Assessed on the 21^st of April 2015

[3] Peter M. Lewis in his Nigeria Country Report June 2011

[4] Wikipedia online assessed on Wednesday 13^th April 2015

[5] Akinwumi Rotimi Old, New Senators Battle Over Ranking Rule. Article in the Daily Independent Newspapers, April 14^th 2015.

[6] Standing Orders of the House of Representatives, Eight Ed. Pg 3

[7] Wikipedia op. cit.