President Yar'Adua And The Oath Of Secrecy

By Reuben Abati

Whoever advised President Umaru Yar'Adua to approve the decision to administer an oath of secrecy on all the staff in the Presidency has done him a great disservice. It is bad advice and a careless repudiation of what this President claims to stand for. Two mistakes have been made in Yar'�dua's name since his return from his still unexplained absence of three weeks: the closure of Channels TV, and now this nonsense of a stuff called oath of secrecy allegedly initiated by a zealous Permanent Secretary at the State House.

There is a growing culture of paranoia in and around Yar'Adua's Presidency which may prove costly in the long run. It can only fetch the President bad publicity and further alienate his Presidency from the people. It may be expedient to demand absolute loyalty from the seventy-something staff of the Presidency but the timing is unwise, suspicious and unintelligently chosen. Coming shortly after a spell of public exertion over the President's whereabouts for three weeks, and the state of his health, with allegations that there were too many persons in the corridors of power with mouths that run like water taps, it is right to conclude that the President and his handlers are seeking to gag the men and women who by their posiitons and the nature of their jobs are in a position to be privvy to happenings within the Presidential chamber.

What has now been slammed on Aso Villa staff is a law of silence, very much like the tradition of the La Casa Nostra, the notorious Italian Mafia and its law of omerta. Laws of silence belong to seceret societies, not to open governments. It is true that for purposes of national stability and security, countries usually categorise some kinds of official information as "Classified"; information relating to war, trade and foreign relations may also not be purveyed too publicly, but to impose a law of silence on Nigerian citizens is persecutorial. The biggest draw back of governance in Nigeria has been the running of government as a closed society, as a secret cult. In government, classified information is often later de-classified, but with the Mafia, the interest of the family is forever paramount.

By imposing an oath of secrecy on his staff, President Yar'Adua has taken Nigerian democracy further backwards. The oath may have been administered on the staff in the Presidential Villa, from Permanent Secretary to cook, and gardener but its impact goes beyond the Villa. The Presidency has just released a big signal to the effect that public and civil servants must treat the Nigerian people as outsiders, by refusing to tell them anything that is related to government. Such a Manichean dichotomisation of government into "them and us" is misplaced in a democratic context. It belongs to the era of colonialism, it belongs to the season of military rule.

A secret society so described operates on the basis of codes, signs, rituals and symbols that are known only to initiates and members. Since they are all bound by an oath of secrecy, Presidential staff now legitimately, and with President Yar'�dua's tacit endorsement now belong to a different order: "The Ancient and Secret Brotherhood of Aso Villa". This is not a White Brotherhood that preaches truth and humanity, but an order that promotes deception and alienation. For a government that had hitherto affirmed its faith in the Freedom of Information legislation, this is a terrible climb-down. This point has been made but it needs further adumbration as follows: if any President before now had raised the hopes of progressive Nigerians about the possibility of a Freedom of Information Law, it was President Yar'�dua. But the man suddenly comes under heavy scrutiny and criticism, a deserved baptism of fire, and he buckles. His government is no longer talking about openness but secrecy. What is the President trying to hide? Must he out of frustration with the saturated media scrutiny of his private life, subvert the common good by voting for secrecy? There is a challenge of character here. Soon, his example will be copied by Governors, Ministers, Directors-General, Commissioners, Local Government Chairmen and so on. The direct deduction is that if oath-taking is considered good by the President, it must be good enough for other public and civil officials as well. And where would that leave the objectives of transparency and accountability? When government is run on the basis of secrecy, the officials can do as they wish, steal public funds, promote inefficiency and hide under the oath of secrecy.

I wager that the administration of the Presidential oath of secrecy is fraught with conceptual and procedural errors. What does President Yar'�dua want to achieve? Loyalty? He won't get it. He must know that the people who took the oath do not believe in it. They reportedly swore on the Bible and the Holy Quoran. Nigerians are prepared to swear every day of their lives with these two Holy Books. Even when they do not intend to abide by their own affirmations. The Christian God is a forgiving God. After committing heinous crimes, the Nigerian Christian will seek penance and forgiveness. He will go to church for confession or sow a seed in a church, as the cliche goes, buy a four-wheel drive for the Pastor, or increase his tithe by a generous percentage. Some may even build a church. And they know that their sins will be forgiven.. Sinilarly, the Nigerian Moslem knows that the Almighty Allah is ever-merciful, and that he is the God of Love. So the Moslem knowingly commits sin, and pleads for forgiveness, he organises prayer sessions, and suddenly remembers his religious obligations, convinced that the Almighty will give him a second chance.

This is perhaps why none of the seventy-something staff in the Presidency serving the President and the Vice President and their spouses deemed it necessary to reject the oath. Nobody stood up for principle and country. Nigerians are very good cynics. They were definitely sure of the futility of the oath-taking, but they participtaed in the ritual all the same. President Yar'�dua should have taken them to the Okija shrine, or to the Ogun, Ayelala shrine, or to Shango and all those mercurial gods in the traditional pantheon. The average Nigerian knows that those local gods of the people's shrines in their villages are murderous and unforgiving. They wouldn't dare tempt those fiery forces with disobedience. After all since independence, Nigerian leaders have been taking the oaths of office and the oath of allegiance to the Nigerian state, using the two Holy Books and getting away with the forgiveness of their sins. IBB swore to an oath, didn't he, placing the Holy Koran close to his heart? Abacha also did. All those thieving public officials whose criminality has turned Nigeria into a giant with the feet of sawdust, 48 years after independence also took oaths of office, brandishing the Holy Books and claiming to be pious. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo not only took an oath with the Bible, he also wrote Chritstian books, and before the end of his tenure, he enrolled for an Open Univesity Course in Theology.

In terms of procedure, what exactly would be the punishment for violating Yar'Adua's oath of secrecy? Where is the Nigerian law that provides a basis for this oath? Under the General Orders governing the civil service, civil servants are required in the Official Secrets Act, not to divulge confidential, classified and state information to third parties. This particular law has its roots in the authoritarianism and insecurity of colonial authorities. In the light of calls for a Freedom of Information law and the move towards an open society, the Official Secrets Act should be abrogated, but the Presidency has now reaffirmed it. The Seventh Schedule of the 1999 Constituion oultines the kind of oaths and what category of officers that may take them. These are essentially oaths of allegiance, oath of office and judicial oath.

Nowhere are the oaths of secrecy and the declaration of secrecy which the Presidency came up with mentioned in the Constitution. Even cooks in the Presidential Villa took the oath of secrecy. Who is afraid that the Presidential cook may disclose the President's favourite menu and alimentary habits? And who on earth considers this to be a matter of national security? Even the Presidential laundry men had to line up and swear that they will be loyal to the President, his wife, the Vice president and his wife. Would the persons involved in the oath-taking be expected to remain faithful to the oath after they may have left the Presidential Villa? Some Ministers and Special Advisers who had already taken the oath of office under the Seventh Schedule of the 1999 Constitution also took the oath of secrecy. How does the Presidency intend to monitor fidelity to the oath? What it has done is to unwittingly encourage deception, blackmail and rumour-mongering. There is an odious ring to the idea of secrecy in a democracy. What constitutes this secrecy in real terms has not been defined? Who composed the oath of secrecy administered in Aso Villa? Which law-making authority gave it the effect of law? The Presidency owes Nigerians an explanation.

What President Yar'�dua needs is not necessarily the loyalty of Aso Villa staff but the confidence and loyalty of the Nigerian electorate. Confidentiality may be useful but it has already been taken care of in the Seventh Schedule, without a frontal concern about secrecy. The Nigerian people will protect the Presidency as well as other levels of government with their goodwill and loyalty if they see the government truly represents their interests. Much ink has been spilled on the moral and legal dimensions of the oath-taking ritual at the Presidential Villa but the under-currents are as important as the ritual itself.

Played out for our edification is the insecurity of political leaders. They are driven by fear. To remain relevant and retain their influence, they would go to any length. The Yar'Adua oath-taking was done in the open, journalists were even invited to it. In more bizzare examples, we have read stories about how politicians perform rituals in the cemetery at night, and other fetish practices. We have also seen one of the principal reasons why this country is yet to translate its potentials into opportunities for national greatness.

There is so much distrust at the top, and too much secrecy. Secrecy negates the culture of debate, and abbreviates the individual's right to free speech. Thirdly, the people who work in the place of power cannot be trusted to tell their bosses the truth if they know it. They will obey any directive, and quarrel among themselves as they strugg;le to please the master. Secrecy as a tool of governance must not be projected as a national ideology. The Yar' Adua Presidency is in urgent need of a mid-career reality check. President Yar'Adua must not act the victim, he should seize the initiative.

Robot  Villager

# 1 President Yar'Adua And The Oath Of Secrecy By Reuben Abati Whoever advised President Umaru Yar'Adua to approve the decision to administer an...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 28.09.2008 05:44

akuluouno  Villager

# 2 Dear Sir, I do think that the civil service rules and regulations (General Order) as well as the constitution has adquate provisions to cover the issue at hand. Every serious state sure has secrets that it wants to protect for very obvious reasons. However, if the oath was second thought by a maverick mandarin who wnts to turn Aso Rock into a secret society, then your article is very prudent to go unheeded. Nigeria is 48 and at this age even a man or woman should start counting some concrete achievements. Obama is only 46 and by the Grace of God may head the world,s most powerful nation. South Africa is still a teenager democracywise and yet the great Mbeki was shown the way out without any roforofo. Nigeria should wake up and operate globally for the sake of the black people of the world:(:(:( Posted by akuluouno| 28.09.2008 10:00

Holygenesis1  JJC

# 3 The problem with us, the ordinary Nigerians, is that we worry too much over nothing. I have long explained away the futility of the idiocincracies of our rulers. They are merely engaged is covering up the mess of their predesuccesors only to create new problems for themselves and on and on goes the stupidy, idiotic and bastardic merry go round, from one regime to another. Yaradua's regime is the greatest disappointment in Nigerian government since independence for so many reasons especially, considering the fact that he is the first "educated" person to assumed the high office, may be, now we have to consider very closely his academic claims Posted by Holygenesis1| 28.09.2008 12:14

isola  JJC

# 4 The very notion that an elected public official is asking his aides to swear to an oath of secrecy runs counter to the ideals of transparency, accountability and democracy. Our president seems to have the utmost contempt for the Nigerian people; he disappeared for over two weeks and returned in the dead of the night. No explanation offered, no address to the Nigerian people. Now he swears his political appointees to secrecy! The Nigerian Bar Association and NGOs ought to test the legality or otherwise of this act in a court of competent jurisdiction. This is the only way, this president can come to know that we the people ,in whose name he purports to rule, matter. When the actions of those who rule are cloaked in secrecy, democracy is imperiled. Posted by isola| 29.09.2008 01:59