[b] THE current expenses scandal in the UK House of Commons throws up useful lessons about decorum and accountability for lawmakers and legislatures in all parts of the world. The incident should bear special resonance with particular reference to the legislature in Nigeria where scant attention is often paid to issues of probity and accountability. [/b]In Britain, for the past month or thereabout, members of Parliament have had to resign their positions, or offer apologies to the state and the people, party leaders have expressed disappointment and the people, shock and outrage - over disclosures and admissions that members of parliament in making expenses claims, had cheated tax payers.

Such outrage as has attended this incident is uncommon in Nigeria where attempts at instilling discipline in official corridors are often overtaken by ethnic, religious, or emotional considerations. In Britain, the authorities did not have to set up a committee or adopt any bureaucratic strong-arm tactics to draw out confessions and regrets. The Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin has since resigned his position. There have been talks about far-reaching reforms of parliament. On display is so much character and leadership, and a resolve to restore trust in public politics. These are much needed values in the Nigerian society.

Many of the British MPs insist that they obtained the approval of the parliamentary fees office, but still public concerns about their expenses claims, beginning with disclosures by the Daily Telegraph and Sky News have yielded not a spate of arrogance but contrition. [/b]Some of the unjustified amounts at issue are about £50 or less. In some cases, £250 or more. One MP was accused of cheating the taxpayer to buy sacks of horse manure, another submitted a claim for clearing the moat at his country home. In all 340 MPs including cabinet ministers and bank benchers have been accused of misconduct.[size=14pt][b] Many of the MPs have since returned money to the fees office.[/size]

In Nigeria, all of this could have been regarded as a storm in a tea cup. But the main lesson is that public officials, no matter how highly placed, are not expected or allowed to use the system for purposes of self-enrichment. It is equally noteworthy that the leadership of both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party as well as other political parties - the Liberal Democratic Party, the UK Independence Party and the British National Party - have been unanimous in condemning the abuses. They do not see this as an opportunity to protect party members, but as a wake-up call to clean up the political system. In addition, the Queen has expressed concern that the sordid revelations could damage Parliament.

[size=15pt]This sort of leadership is what is conspicuously missing in Nigeria despite the brazenness with which Nigerian officials abuse the system. For example, criticisms of the obsession of Nigerian lawmakers at state and national levels, with jumbo salaries, perquisites and constituency allowances have often fallen on deaf ears. Besides, the professional political class, particularly the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is fond of covering up the iniquities of its members.[/size]

Britain has raised the bar by its current handling of the parliamentary expenses scandal, which indicates that to strengthen a political system, no individual can be above the law. In addition, the two main political parties have initiated internal party inquiries. Nigerian politicians might wish to emulate this attitude both for their self-esteem and as a genuine attempt at developing the country. Public officials require a sense of probity; they must be able to differentiate between what is right or wrong.

[size=15pt]The British media deserves commendation for the determination and thoroughness with which it has reported and analysed the scandal so far. The Daily Telegraph which broke the story has in particular done great public service. [/size]This has been a fine advertisement of the bounden duty of the media as the watchdog of society, the conduct of the British media is equally a triumph of investigative journalism. This has been made possible partly by the open and free access to information in Britain. But despite the environmental and legal constraints which restrict access to information in Nigeria, the local media can also invest more in investigative journalism as a means of checking impunity in government.

The numerous vices being perpetrated by public officials and their cohorts in Nigeria should be subjected to closer scrutiny. Corruption is the bane of the governance process in Nigeria. It is sad that our political leaders are often indifferent to disclosures of grand corruption and that the political parties lack integrity. The lessons of the current situation in the United Kingdom should not be lost on the local leadership elite: the character, integrity and conduct of public officials are central to the making of a good and just society.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/editorial_opinion/article01//indexn2_html?pdate=030609&ptitle=Lessons%20of%20the%20UK%20expenses%20scandal

So we should be more Britanically corrupt? what happened to originality?

very stupid comparison - a thief is a thief, wether in Nigeria or in Britain. What is wrong with these Nigerians trying to say what the British politicians have done is right when the entire Britain is saying they have done very bad?

Allow me to point out that majority of the pple who were fingered in this misdeed havent done anything wrong.
however, they may have quesions to answer based on their moral standing.

Let me also point out that, i do not believe Jaquie Smith's story about her partner watching porn movies. Had it been any other pay per view program it would have been a different ball game.

AjaraEwuro:

very stupid comparison - a thief is a thief, wether in Nigeria or in Britain. What is wrong with these Nigerians trying to say what the British politicians have done is right when the entire Britain is saying they have done very bad?

There is nothing wrong with the comparison. The fact that the British politicians are supposedly repentant is what Nigerians are saying is right and not the fact that they 'stole' the public's money. Nigerian politicians do these things everyday and yet, ARE NOT CALLED TO ORDER. To make matters worse, they are re-elected and re-re elected into higher offices over and over again, without their past being brought to the fore.
Taking a cue from the british politicians, many are coming on air to say that THEY ARE SORRY - and this is besides the fact that they may or may not mean it. Some are volunteering to pay back some monies, while others are resigning. Are these not good and honorable things? What have our Nigerian 'thieves' done so far? Has Ibori payed anything back? Has Odili been exposed by the media? Has any one of them ever resigned from office? NO, they have not

Fact still remains that we have a lot to learn from our former colonial masters.

Of course they regret when they'll be getting £200,000 after they resign. Please these people are no different from the Nigerian Govt, I bet there is more things they have done that won't be published.

@KnowAll

Thank you for telling them - you are realy Mr KnowAll.