Investigating agencies should always inform the parliament or national assembly and the public of Senators and House Representatives charged with felony offenses and the outcome of the cases, especially the convicted ones. In no other democracy can public officials, like Senators, Representatives, or other members of the government, be charged, indicted, and/or convicted of felonious crimes and not receive ethical referrals regarding the conduct of an official. As a matter of practice, in the case of sitting House Representatives and Senators who are under criminal investigation, formal notice from law enforcement and investigating agencies should be sent to the House and Senate Ethics Committees, which have jurisdiction over Representatives, Senators, officers, and staff of the House and Senate.
Across Africa, responsive and accountable institutions such as the legislature can only be strengthened by ethically conscious public officials who are equally accountable to the law.
Let’s look at a few examples through the Nigeria lens. At the time of this writing, the Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), an anti-graft agency, has filed serious fraud charges against Senators Orji Kalu, Stella Oduah, and Rochas Okorocha. Each of these public officials is involved in a separate fraud investigation. Yes, it is a fact that these officials are currently under indictment or have active cases in court. For these reasons, it is extremely important that the investigating agency formally writes to the National Assembly that a legislator (Senator or Representative) has been charged in connection with a criminal probe and wrongdoing.
Once the House or Senate, not through the media, validates the wrongdoing with the anti-graft agency and/or the court, its ethics/disciplinary Committee can in a timely manner carry out an investigation, followed by a possible call for action by the full House or Senate, which could include a temporal suspension amid ongoing criminal inquiry and/or trials.
In a Nigerian like manner, one may ask, but the lawmaker has not been convicted yet, so leave him or her alone, or in the local vernacular, “nor worria am”. Or let him or her go to the court and shop for a judge that will stop the parliamentarian ethics investigations or recommendations.
Well, these unsettling approaches only help to promote an unhealthy democracy. A lawmaker is supposed to adhere to a broad series of moral values that must be fundamental in public service within a democracy.
As such, the Ethics committee and the House or Senate do not need to wait for a conviction before censuring, suspending, or expelling a lawmaker who is staining the hallowed floor of Parliament. Lawmakers with some degree of shame should resign on their own accord in honor of their constituents, their community, and the country. Those that acknowledge errors in judgment make continued service as legislative members untenable. On a more fundamental and progressive note, there is a need for updated federal/state statutes or rules of the House of Representatives/Senate that directly affect the status of a legislator who has been charged and/or convicted of a felony crime; their rights or privileges should be forfeited if found guilty of a felony under the Constitution, statutory law, or the Rules of the House/Senate. Those under an indictment should be prohibited from leadership roles and be temporarily asked to step aside from leadership or chairmanship positions. Those with felony convictions must automatically forfeit their offices, be barred from reelection, and lose federal pensions, retirement annuities, and salaries, especially for convictions for felony offenses relating to public corruption.
From the point of legal or moral psychology, the purpose of the ethics proceeding was not to ascertain whether a crime had occurred; more accurately, committee members were tasked with deciding whether the conduct of an erring lawmaker like the ones named above was unbecoming for a member of the National Assembly. Clearly, the answer is yes.
The Nigerian public should understand that lawmakers have no general immunity from criminal prosecution and are subject to prosecution and/or conviction for violations of criminal laws.
No matter how troubled Nigeria is, in a representative democracy like Nigeria, the citizens must have trust in and public confidence in their institutions, especially the People’s House and Senate.
The question we should always ask ourselves is why the House or Senate should be a place for unethical or criminal behavior. How does public officials’ unethical and bad behavior help boost public confidence in the work of the national assembly? Instead, these acts put Nigeria’s democracy in peril.
In an environment where we allow active offenders to remain on sacred ground like the House or Senate, anger and frustration set in, which psychologically could trigger in some people dramatic, impulsive, and alarming wrongdoings like domestic terrorism, beheading, rape, embezzlement, swindling, scheming, larceny, cheating, robbery, subversion, banditry, kidnapping, arson, murder, sodomy, incest, domestic violence, and adultery.
Again, parliamentary misconduct without accountability negatively affects people’s psyches and, unfortunately, can lead to multi-dimensional devastation in societal functioning. The ethical move here in terms of anti-graft agencies’ formal notification to the National Assembly of officials under criminal probe and facing criminal charges should equally apply to the two other branches of government.
In Nigeria and other African societies, chaos could get worse with almost all lives at risk, and one vital way to heal the environment is to start from the top, meaning restoring sanity to the place where laws are made, and in turn reducing confusion in public and private spheres across Africa, in Nigeria especially.
In a working democracy, the rule of law should apply to all and reflect the path to progressive institutions. Africa needs this political sanity now.
John Egbeazien Oshodi, who was born in Uromi, Edo State in Nigeria, is an American based Police/Prison Scientist and Forensic/Clinical/Legal Psychologist. A government consultant on matters of forensic-clinical adult/child psychological services in the USA; Chief Educator and Clinician at the Transatlantic Enrichment and Refresher Institute, an Online Lifelong Center for Personal, Professional, and Career Development. He is a former Interim Associate Dean/Assistant Professor at Broward College, Florida. The Founder of the Dr. John Egbeazien Oshodi Foundation, Center for Psychological Health and Behavioral Change in African Settings In 2011, he introduced State-of-the-Art Forensic Psychology into Nigeria through N.U.C and Nasarawa State University, where he served in the Department of Psychology as an Associate Professor. Currently, a Virtual Behavioral Leadership Professor at ISCOM University, Republic of Benin. Founder of the proposed Transatlantic Egbeazien Open University (TEU) of Values and Ethics, a digital project of Truth, Ethics, and Openness. Founder of Psychoafricalytic Psychology. Over forty academic publications and creations, at least 200 public opinion pieces on African issues, and various books have been written by him. He specializes in psycho-prescriptive writings regarding African institutional and governance issues.
Prof. Oshodi wrote in via info@teuopen.university
