The Catholic Men’s Guild of the Church of Assumption, Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos has St John the Baptist as her Patron Saint. The birthday of this great saint, the 24th of June, is usually celebrated by the Guild. This year, however, since the CMG could not bring people together physically because of the COVID-19 lockdown, a Webinar was planned for Wednesday the 24th of June, 2020. The theme of the Webinar was “Can there be Good Governance Devoid of Faith
and Justice?”

The Webinar featured Rev. Fr (Prof) Anthony Akinwale OP, Vice-Chancellor, Dominican University, Ibadan as the keynote speaker. Rev. Fr Pius Omofuma, Parish Priest of the Church of Assumption and Matthew Egbadon Esq, the CMG President were Chief Host and Host, respectively. The 

Chairman of the event was Prof. Pat Utomi, founder, the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), Lagos. A total of 239 persons registered for the event while about 123 were active during the 2-hr long lecture/discussion. Participants at the event included persons from Nigeria, the United States of America, Spain, UAE, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Ghana. The meeting promptly took off at 7 pm with opening prayers by the Parish Priest who doubled as the Chief Host followed by opening remarks by the Chairman, Professor Pat Utomi.

The Chairman gave his definition of Public Life or Politics and public service. He drew attention to the separation of powers between the Judiciary, Legislature and the Executive. He stressed that participation in public life, politics or public service requires public virtue, not the lack of it as we find today among many people operating in the public space. He spoke about leadership and the essence of virtue and morality in leadership. In his view, the ultimate leader is the transforming leader who is committed to the service of his people as exemplified by the likes of Abraham Lincoln of the U.S.A. He described most of the leaders that we find in our country as “transactional leaders”, who in many cases are totally unqualified for the positions they aspire to occupy. He spoke of the “complicit middle”, the group that includes the academia, students, the elite and other people with knowledge and considers their silence and unwillingness to take positive action as dangerous to society.

The keynote speaker, decided to answer the question posed by the theme of the conference by addressing three sets of questions: What is good governance? What is the role of faith in good governance? What is the place of justice in good governance? He defined “Government” as “a collection of institutions established by law, usually a constitution, to regulate the common life of citizens towards the common good. In the case of Nigeria, the constitution provides for three arms of government, namely the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

According to the keynote speaker, there is good governance if and only when the government conforms to the objective for which the government has been established. Governance is the totality of actions of government institutions and their agents. In simple terms, therefore, the purpose of government is the common good. There is good governance when agents of government perform their functions in such a way that these institutions are operated to serve the citizens, not just the political elite. Where institutions do not operate in favour of the common good of citizens, what you have is not a government in the real sense of the word but a band of brigands. Simply put, good governance is about representation, consultation and accountability, which means that the institutions and agents of government are working for the people and the common man and not against the people.

Having explained in some detail the meaning of good governance, the lecturer went on to discuss the role of faith and justice in good governance. Beginning with the former, he defined faith as “a disposition to have confidence in or to trust a person or institution or thing”. This means that it could apply to faith in God, as true to religious teaching as well as faith or trust in the institutions or agents of the government. As to whether faith in God and faith in the teachings of a religion as coming from God is necessary for good governance, the lecturer posited such faith though relative and necessary, it is not absolute. He challenged his audience to recognize that there are men and women outside our community of faith, or non-Christians, who perform better than some of our fellow Christians. So, while there can be good governance without faith in God, the possibility of good governance is strengthened by our adherence to faith.

The lecturer’s answer to the question as to whether there can be good governance if the people have no faith in the institutions and agents of government is that this is not possible. Where the government is not trusted the government loses credibility, and this seems to be the case in our country. Nigerians have little or no faith in the institutions of government as they are perceived not to be working in the interest of the people. Where the democratic norms of representation, consultation and accountability have been found wanting, there cannot be good governance.

Next, the lecturer addressed the question of Justice and good governance. He defined Justice as the “right relationship between parties”, where the parties could be human beings, communities, nations, institutions or any subject in interaction with another subject. In terms of good governance, “there is justice when there is the right relationship between the government and the citizen, where the institutions and tiers that compose the government and agents of these institutions and tiers operate in favour of the common good.”

The lecturer reminded his audience that our experience in Nigeria is such, that in the relationship between government and the citizen, the former is more powerful than the latter. Instead of protecting the land and riches which belong to the citizen, the citizen is deprived of the land and its riches in the name of a Land Use Decree promulgated by the military and surreptitiously included in the 1979 Constitution and in the 1999 Constitution. In this and other instances, the relationship between the citizen cannot be said to be just. Where the government is more powerful than the citizen and the citizen becomes a tenant in his own land, there cannot be good governance.

He also spoke about the relationship among the arms, institutions and tiers that make up government as well as the principle of separation of powers. In this regards, he asserted that “In the absence of the right relationship among the arms, institutions and tiers of government a polity lapses into either tyranny or anarchy “ – neither tyranny nor anarchy fits into the definition of good governance.

On the question of whether there can be good governance and justice without faith in the institutions and agents of the government, his view was that presently, there is no such faith on the part of an overwhelming majority of Nigerians. He concluded by saying that good governance and justice are moral issues, and as moral issues, they do not depend entirely on faith in God or adherence to the teachings of religion presented as supernatural or divine in origin.

This brilliant presentation by the keynote speaker was followed by a question and answer session in which the participants showed much enthusiasm. The questions and comments gravitated towards a conversation on the “state of the nation” with issues ranging from Education curriculum and educational qualification of persons aspiring for political positions to Federal character issues and the need for appointments to the public and civil services to be based on merit. Also discussed were INEC and the need for more transparent elections. It was felt that the Chairman of this body should be elected and that INEC should be accountable to the Legislature as is the case in other countries. The EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies of government also came under review. It was felt that only when they become more independent and transparent in the performance of their functions will they succeed in engendering public confidence. Most of the contributions were really aimed at attempting to determine the way forward for the country.

As the meeting drew to a close the President of the Catholic Men’s Guild, Matthew Egbadon, an erstwhile Speaker in the Edo State House of Assembly, came in with his own presentation. He spoke about the need to restructure the polity, with more powers devolved to the states. According to him, “This will make the Centre (Abuja) less attractive and the fight to grab power there less acrimonious.” The Legislative powers in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) are skewed in favour of the Centre. He argued that Nigeria requires a new Constitution in which people will make their inputs through either a referendum or a plebiscite. He holds the view that the structures and cost of governance must be reduced and suggests that the bicameral legislature, i.e. Senate and House of Representatives, at the Centre be scrapped and replaced with a unicameral legislature (one chamber only) to be composed of a maximum of 5 members per state and 1 member for the Federal Capital Territory, as this will free resources for developmental projects. He also suggested that a single term of 5 years should be adopted for the offices of President and Governor. The CMG President closed by reminding the audience, Catholic Laity and other Nigerians alike, to endeavour to each play their part in the democratic process and be agents of the change that we all desire.