THE GUARDIAN, Friday, April 26, 2013
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Opinion Of change and accountability trivial. Having a strong, change-driven leader is is considered a taboo and absolute balderdash. non-security documents? Alas, the elusiveness. certainly a good step to start off with, but realisti- The lack of accountability is what venality Regardless, these budget proposals could still be HE concept of change is one that has no outcally speaking, the system of governance is so rot- thrives on and is the primary reason we find un- scrutinized. right definition. Change is affiliated and arten and malformed that it makes the idea of one precedented levels of corruption in every one of Many ministries propose hundreds of millions guably inseparable with factors like subjectivity, man changing Nigeria overly optimistic and to a our institutions. From the top tiers of governfor ‘on-going projects’ in different areas of the opinion and intellectual capacity. The nebulous great degree, fictitious. ment to the lower ranks, funds are squandered country. A citizen’s report on the progress of categorisation of change into positive change and Well, at the moment we remain victims of boor- and siphoned, projects abandoned, inflated con- these so-called projects in your states could shed negative change is still subject to what one con- ish politicking. We are tugged into political war- tracts awarded and power abused. All these ille- light on the effectiveness of their implementasiders positivity and negativity to be. Like many fare, armed with nothing but ethnic and religious galities pass through either undetected or tion. things in this world, Change is basically opinion. sentimentalities, ready to pounce on each other. unpunished and even worse, considered cusThese are a few simple steps that could emHowever, for Nigerians, the nondescript charac- Even though it is painstakingly obvious that those tomary. power us and provide us with resources to hold teristics of change are attenuating. A debate or handling the reigns of power exploit our lack of public officials and institutions accountable. The introduction of the Freedom of Informadiscussion that is guaranteed to spring up contogetherness and our tendency to be The final part of this article discusses the fountion bill passed in May 2011 made Nigeria only sensus agreement between Nigerians is that of ethnically/religiously biased, we still choose to do the second country to pass such a bill in West dation stone and root cause of most, if not all of ‘Change in Nigeria’. Between us, we have develnothing about it. We do not have to look far be- Africa. Nigerian civil rights groups battled tire- our problems. The average Nigerian is stereooped a unique emotional understanding, which yond our thresholds to see how much our minds lessly for over a decade to see the bill come to typed to want to ‘get rich doing the least work ensures that even without speaking to each other have been sullied, besmirching our supposed possible’ or in more conservative terms ‘to make fruition and give Nigerians the chance to unabout the type of change needed in our country; oneness. The seriousness of this off-putting reality earth facts and fight corruption. Not surprisit, the Nigerian way’. Coupled with widespread we intuitively agree that we are all seeking the is reflected in our everyday affairs. ingly, Nigeria remains the most corrupt country mis-governance and meager transparency, pubsame thing. We are ultimately seeking changes • It is evident in the disheartening comments that in the region. lic offices are seen as opportunities to enrich that would create a peaceful, fair and just nation follow online newspaper stories. Regardless of the A system with very little transparency is an in- oneself and getting oneself to such position is for all Nigerians and awaken our sense of pride content of the story or how unrelated it is to eth- centive to shady and fraudulent practices and is nothing short of a do or die affair. In Nigeria, the and being. nicity or religion, the comments would signify bank account proclaims the man. You are as a destined route to failure and further melanThe issues arise when we start thinking about otherwise. choly. Due to pitiable levels of accountability, we good as your money is. how to bring about these changes or in common • It is evident in our media coverage where stories witness the ‘disappearance’ of billions of naira The youths are left with no examples to emuNigerian terms, ‘Who would be the messiah’ to (mainly tragic ones) are given a direct religious or right under our noses (as seen in Printing and late apart from those of ‘Big Manism’ and bring about these changes. This is where our ethnic inclination. Journalists seem to ignore pompous wealth flaunting. They are left with a Minting last year); we witness mind-blowing aforementioned emotional covenant breaks ethics and their responsibilities towards non-in- swindling and immeasurable looting (such as voracious desire to make it to the top, not on the down. This is where various opinions and senti- citement and opt to twaddle instead. the police pension and fuel subsidy scams); we basis of merit or altruistic public service but on ments come into play and we totally forget/ig• It is evident in the mutterings of prominent reli- witness the degeneration of public institutions that of ‘connection’ and malpractice. They are nore that we are all seeking the same changes. We gious and political leaders, which often ignore and infrastructure (such as the dreadful police left with vivid memories of how amassed wealth completely overlook our individual and collective any form of political correctness and regionalise colleges, educational institutions and state and has been and still is used as a potential safeselves as those who need to change or push for issues of national concern. For example, the insur- federal roads). The list is interminable. guard against prosecution, regardless of one’s change; instead, we meddle and drown ourselves gency problem has so often been regarded as a What is the way forward? To rely on the govern- blatant criminality. They are left with the chalin political muss. Northern problem (not just geographically) and ment alone to bring change is to genuinely say lenge of rescuing a society that, if left unSome get under the Umbrella of the ‘Pointed it is therefore up to the North to “put its house in that we want to continue witnessing this politi- changed, is guaranteed to plunge into anomie agendas’ or the more recent ‘Transformation order”. cal Tiki-Taka and blame game (such that is going and unthinkable lawlessness. agendas’ (PDP); Others adopt the Broom as a sym- These are just few instances that signify the grav- on between Ezekwesili and the FG) and to surIn the words of Barack Obama “Change will not bol of ‘sweeping change’ (ACN); Others symbolize ity to which we have been disillusioned and how render our future. Our folded-arm approach has come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait and believe the Pen is the solution to ‘write off’ dirty politics is molding our society towards eth- so far yielded no results. As concerned Nigerians for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been our past (CPC); Others believe the Corn is neces- nic and religious bigotry. For us to even have a aspiring for change, little steps such as finding waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” We sary to ‘feed the nation’ in its conquest for the rev- chance to push for better governance, we would out how much is allocated to your local councils, are the only ones that can change our nation. Inolution for real change (ANPP); Others believe the have to reverse this ugly trend. states etc. and enquiring through the Bureau of dividually and collectively, we have to make an Cockerel’s crow would ‘wake us all up from our Another cardinal issue affecting the Nigerian effort. Public Procurement what the funds are being slumber’ (APGA); and so on. Regardless of what polity and one that needs to be imperatively tack- used for etc. could make a significant impact to- Finally, in the words of Dr. Ahmed Musa, “Nigepolitical party or leader we believe has the anled is the lack of accountability. This is perhaps ria is the proverbial cat with 1000 lives”. We have wards the push for transparent governance. swers, there are certain critical success factors the greatest limiting factor to our positive devel- Via the Nigerian budget office, you could also undoubtedly exhausted 999 of those lives and that we need to take into consideration. opment as a nation. Accountability is the only look at the nation’s budgetary allocations and are clinching unto the last. Regardless of who We seem to believe, rather stalwartly, that our way we can ensure actions and decisions taken by proposals. It is worth noting that details on the leads Nigeria, our collective success as a nation problems lie solely in our leaders and not so public officials are subject to oversight, so as to budgetary proposals are very vague. An example solely relies on our ability to push for accountamuch in the system of governance. Therefore, a guarantee that government initiatives meet their is one from the Ministry of Youth Development bility. Everyone must be held liable for his or her good, honest, change-driven intellectual should stated objectives and respond to the needs of the 2013 budget. For its NYSC scheme, N180 million actions and governance should be transparent be able to row us through the rivers of corruption community they are meant to be benefiting. In and N203 million were proposed for ‘printing se- and fair. and reeking mis-governance and take us to the Nigeria, transparency and accountability are God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. curity documents’ and ‘printing non security Promised Land. Sadly enough, the case is not that jinxed and execrable words and to mention them documents’ respectively. What are security and • Dabo wrote from Preston, UK.
By Al-Amin Dabo
T
The scramble for amnesty By Anthony Akinwale LTHOUGH I first read it 22 years ago, the book Atonement and A Incarnation: An Essay in Universalism and Particularity provokes renewed interest. Authored by Anglican theologian Vernon White, its seventh chapter searched for a morally adequate response to evil. This is quite pertinent to the ongoing debate on amnesty for Boko Haram insurgents in Nigeria. While White believes reconciliation must be a central ingredient to whatever be the reaction to evil, he does not fail to recognize two different but interrelated moral and theological questions that arise. First, “what sort of criteria constitutes a morally adequate response to evil?” Secondly, “granted that reconciliation is at least one of the important part of the answer, how do we specifically understand reconciliation in a morally (as well as theologically adequate way)?” In an attempt to grapple with the question, White found inspiration in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov. In it can be found the answer provided by Alyosha, one of the characters in the novel. For Alyosha, the moral response to evil is “forgiveness” and “reconciliation”. But for Ivan his brother, in the face of horrific torture visited on innocent children, to ask a mother to reconcile with the torturer is to make a morally repulsive proposition. And so, said Ivan to Alyosha: “I do not want a mother to embrace the torturer who had her child torn to pieces by his dogs! She has no right to forgive him! If she likes, she can forgive him for herself, she can forgive the torturer for the immeasurable suffering he has inflicted upon her as a mother; but she has no right to forgive him for the sufferings of her tortured child, those she has no right to forgive, she dare not forgive, even if her child himself forgave him!” (The Brothers Karamazov, Book 4 “Pro and Contra”). Alyosha rejects Ivan’s proposition because the mother “has no right to forgive”. She has no right to forgive because the consequences of evil immeasurably transcend the sensibilities of one injured party. Thus, she can forgive for herself but not for the child. Alyosha’s words challenge us by placing before our eyes the stark reality of our helplessness before the evil we commit
against one another. Human beings cannot heal the wounds they inflict on one another. White explains Alyosha’s position: “if we grant that forgiveness and reconciliation involve something like the will to accept the evil consequences, and the effort to recreate the situation for good, then we can grant that it is possible (in principle) to forgive for ourselves, but we cannot forgive for all the others affected...this means that all human forgiving is necessarily deficient. It is not just that, through weakness of the will, we do not bring ourselves to forgive; it is also that, through our finitude, we cannot, for we cannot enter into the experience of another to accept the pain and make the effort to recreate for them. Therefore we have no right to claim to forgive” (Atonement and Incarnation, 89). What Alyosha has done is to make his point by way of negation. Facile reconciliation provides no response to the problem of evil. But by so doing, he pointed to how adequate reconciliation is to be envisioned. White put it succinctly. A morally adequate reconciliation “must involve universal scope of action”. In other words, “if we could enter into every interlocking situation and experience, accepting the pain and effort involved in forgiving and creating good, then we can adequately forgive in any one particular situation.” This is where the deficiency of human forgiving is deeply felt. It is inescapably particularized. It is incapable of application in every situation because it bears the marks of human finitude, incapable of blotting out sin because it bears the marks of the sinfulness of the one who offers it. Ivan saw the problem clearly: if there is no forgiveness there is no harmony. But the stakes are high. “Is there in all the world a being that could forgive and have the right to forgive?” he wondered. And in a way that shows how pain and frustration can make us blind to things we need most, he continued his protest: “I do not want harmony, out of a love for mankind I do not want it. I want rather to be left with sufferings that are unavenged. Let me rather remain with my unavenged suffering and unassuaged indignation, even though I am not right. And in any case, harmony has been overestimated in value, we really don’t have the money to pay so much to get in.” Boko Haram has tortured our psyche, maimed and killed our
loved ones. We are in dire need of harmony. But it has become very expensive, some say unaffordable. The Federal Government is considering making an offer of amnesty. Boko Haram responds: “keep your amnesty. We don’t need it. You need it.” But it is not an either/or situation. Amnesty in the current situation is a piece of cake to be shared. Boko Haram needs amnesty for killing innocent Nigerians; the government needs amnesty for failing in its primary responsibility to protect lives and property; the political elite needs it, for sponsoring militias north, south, east and west of Nigeria in an effort to win or rig elections, and for promoting a culture of graft that has left Nigerians in poverty, despair and insecurity. And, lest we forget, it is not just Boko Haram that kills in this country. Armed robbers, kidnappers, dangerous drivers, merchants of fake drugs: these too kill innocent Nigerians. They need amnesty. Amnesty takes the form of reconciliation, and reconciliation is itself a process which reaches its goal only when it is well directed. The government has a responsibility to identify those who kill innocent Nigerians as well as their sponsors. Nigerians do not believe they are ghosts. If they show remorse and if they renounce violence they may be pardoned. If not, the law should take its course. The alternative would be a morally inadequate amnesty. To Ivan’s question, “Is there in all the world a being that could forgive and have the right to forgive?” Alyosha answered: “that Being does exist, and It can forgive everything, everyone, man and woman alike, and for everything, because It gave its innocent blood for all things and for all men and women. You have forgotten about It, but on It the edifice is founded, and this it is that people will exclaim to It: ‘Just and true art Thou, O Lord, for thy ways are made plain.’” In other words, the only Being who can forgive adequately and who, for that reason, can provide an adequate response to evil, is the Sinless One. In a deft theological move inspired by Alyosha’s pious postulation, Vernon White recognizes Christ as the only being who is able to offer forgiveness with universal scope. He is the Sinless One. • Fr. Akinwale teaches Systematic Theology and Thomistic Studies at the Dominican Institute, Ibadan.