Peer review for regimes and politics?
The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is a mutually agreed instrument voluntarily acceded to by the Member States of the African Union (AU). One of the movers was former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo (who was also one of the founders of Transparency International).The APRM report on Nigeria has been released a year after the scheduled release. Will anyone listen? Will anyone act?
How would your students evaluate the contentions of the report?
Abuja, Executive Branch Have Too Much Power, Says Peer Review
A major review of Nigeria compiled by its African peers says too much power is concentrated in the central government, inhibiting "true federalism," and that the executive branch of government has excessive power compared to the legislature and the judiciary.
The report also says that "corruption remains the greatest and most troubling challenge to realising Nigeria's huge developmental potential," making it unlikely that the government will achieve its objective of becoming one of the world's 20 largest economies by the year 2020.
These are among a host of findings published this week in the African Peer Review Mechanism's Country Report No. 8 – Federal Republic of Nigeria – a 514-page study compiled on the basis of a joint effort by Nigerians and a "country review mission" comprising experts from around the continent appointed by the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)...
Sketching the background to its review, the APRM report on Nigeria says the country's main challenge is "the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty." It asks: "Why does the biggest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa [at the time the report was drawn up] have the world's third-largest concentration of poor people?"
Dealing with the issue of democracy and good governance, it says the country has "excelled" in promoting the peaceful resolution of disputes in West Africa. But internally, it has been "embroiled in military and intrastate conflicts."
Despite the return to civilian rule in 1999, "an over-concentration of power in the central government inhibits true federalism. The excessive powers of the executive vis-à-vis the legislature and judiciary – a legacy of the long period of military rule – curtail the realisation in practice of the principle of separation of powers with its inherent checks and balances."...
It calls corruption "endemic at all levels of society" and says bodies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are under-resourced and "sometimes seen to be influenced by the executive."
Find out What You Need to Know
posted by Ken Wedding @ 12:19 PM
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