Building Efficient, Transparent and Accountable Governance System through Citizen Empowerment and Participation and Harnessing Social Capital for National Development
I am very much
delighted to be here today to give a statement on this all important topic
namely, Building Efficient, Transparent and Accountable Governance System
through Citizen Empowerment and Participation and Harnessing Social Capital for
National Development. I must confess that the topic is quite demanding, but I
promise to do my best to share with you the little I know on it. Therefore, for
the sensitivity of this theme and all that it entails, I crave your indulgence
as I break the theme down into manageable bits. I will begin with a brief
discussion of the prevailing atmosphere. Next, I will dilate on what I have
ventured to label as ‘Harnessing Social Capital for National Development’ and
then relate this concept to “Building Efficient, Transparent and Accountable
Governance System through Citizen Empowerment and Participation”.
I should hasten to
mention that the main focus of my deliberation is on The Gambia. However, I
shall, when necessary, factor in parallel situations in Africa, south of the
Sahara.
As living
witnesses, we have seen an Africa, The Gambia not being an exception, where the
poverty of public provisioning, absence of good (enough) governance, and the
sluggish pace in the institutionalization of democracy have become a normal
abnormality before public eye. It is probably relevant to note that during the
22 years of dictatorship in this country, majority of the country’s
intellectual community either fled from persecution or seemingly demonstrated
no commitment to grasp the basic concepts of the theory of democracy, or more
crucially, the concept of democratic governance. Thus, it is important to
observe that our country is still struggling to redress the moral turpitude
left behind by the 22 long years of dictatorship.
My deliberation
today shall be a response to this deficit. I argue that a society where
governance and public institutions are glued together with social capital, that
society is likely to develop in an organic way.
As members of
society who have seen yesterday, and living today, we are in a privileged
position to make prescriptions and proscriptions for a better tomorrow.
Therefore, I strongly believe that this august assembly of ladies and gentlemen
of integrity and wisdom would bear me witness that this is what is needed to
move The Gambia forward.
We must first of
all begin with a review of the concept of social capital in the context of
public governance. Social capital refers to the internal social and cultural
coherence of society, the norms and values that govern interactions among
people and the institutions in which they are embedded. Social capital is the
glue that holds societies together and without which there can be no economic
growth or human well-being. Without social capital, society at large will
collapse. For the purpose of this discussion, we might analyze the theme under
civic engagement, political equality, solidarity, trust, tolerance, and
associations as social structures of cooperation.
In Sub-Saharan
Africa, politics has been largely organized hierarchically and is often more
narrowly shaped by personal advantage as well as tribal inclinations. Thus, it
appears safe to argue that the culture of personal rule and bureaucratic
despotism is yet to be fully discarded in favour of generative politics. It is
this generative politics which has made the West, since the Second World War,
practise public governance as a form of collective deliberation on shared
concerns or issues at stake in society.
This concept of
civic engagement is broadened to include individual and collective actions
designed to identify and address issues of public concern. Given this
definition, it is apparent that not all public affairs stakeholders are, in a
manner of speaking, civically engaged. A parent joining a school governing
board, a citizen actively participating in the mayor’s public budget speech,
voting in local and national elections, and so on, would be good examples of
civic engagement in this regard. Equally important to the concept of civic
engagement is the feeling of belonging to and ownership of the political,
social and economic communities.
The Gambia, like
many other Sub-Saharan African countries, appears to need a lot more of
systematic civic education exercises than are currently available largely through
the efforts of NGOs and religious organizations. It is worthy to note that the
core mission of civic education is to develop competent citizens who have the
knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to participate responsibly and
effectively in the political and civic life of a democracy. Such citizens often
participate in their communities through membership in voluntary civil
associations like the one we are witnessing today.
We are all living
witnesses to the fact that there is no evidence that the growing body of
educated Gambians is being trained especially in the virtues of collaboration
beyond the basic bonds of ethnic communities. Even today, there are
speculations that some major political parties in Sub-Saharan Africa are
organized around tribal lines and are more reflective of regional
groupings rather than ideological stands.
So, what should be
done to curb this malaise? It becomes paramount for society to be structured in
such a way as to create closure in the social network. This will ensure that
all actors are connected in a way that facilitates the imposition of
obligations as well as sanctions on all members. It is evident that this
becomes practically impossible when communities are divided on ethnic, regional
and religious lines.
Although many will
claim that political equality is not an issue in The Gambia, it is important at
this point that we conceptualize political equality beyond the more commonly
accepted liberal notion of frequent and regular elections held under universal
suffrage. Whereas the legal provisions enabling this kind of political
participation is important, it is argued here that more is needed to encourage
genuine political engagement amongst the citizenry that would supersede the
undercurrents of ethnicity and other social norms that might threaten the
workings of a full-blown universally accepted-type of democracy. For example,
violent conduct during elections often serves to disenfranchise the vulnerable
such as women and thus denies them political equality in practice.
Overall,
Sub-Saharan Africa has had stable and reliable support for the executive. But,
on other measures of political effectiveness such as voter turnout, political
rioting, and political deaths, the performance has largely been found wanting.
In the new era of multiparty politics, Sub-Saharan African political
entrepreneurs have mostly failed to organize citizens beyond tribal lines into
coherent political parties with succinctly articulated ideologies. In fact, in
many instances, the politicians have intentionally retreated to their ethnic
cocoons to garner support and supplement political organizations.
Many scholars
today, hold the view that other than the political party organization
structure, there is no substantial difference in the manifestos of the variety
of major political parties; and that, it is easy to see that religious
affiliations and tribal backgrounds of the political party top bras have
political ramifications in sub-Saharan African political parties.
Colletta and
Cullen (2000) argue further that even when these ethno-political parties give
back their differences to remove a common enemy, they soon fall apart as a
result of internal conflicts, making the mobilization of national unity very
difficult if not impossible to attain. In the course of these conflicts, norms
and values essential for collective action are destroyed, thereby making
post-conflict reconciliation increasingly difficult.
By all
indications, the social capital debate places civic society on a high pedestal.
The main function of social capital in this case will be to facilitate the
exchange of information via social networks to lower individual transaction
costs and hence produce an aggregate surplus value at societal level.
Thus, the
relationship between community solidarity and transaction costs becomes quite
evident. Communities that are close-knit due to the abundance of social capital
would tend to develop low transaction costs as most expenses that would be
incurred as exchange costs are mediated by the existence of reciprocal trusts.
On the contrary if the elite were corrupt, the ordinary people resorted to
contraband trade and other informal trading activities that evaded the ravenous
appetite of the appropriative state.
As argued earlier,
tribalism is another major bane to the effective accumulation of social
capital. It is deleterious (harmful) to national well-being since tribal
movements thrive on ethnic group conformism and loyalties that pulverize
horizontal loyalties crucial to young nations. Moreover, where tribal loyalties
entail implicit attachments to traditional values and institutions, these may
at times be irreconcilable with the requirements of modern social progress.
Civil associations
contribute to the effectiveness and stability of governments in many ways. It
is necessary for the efficient functioning of democracy to have institutions
that serve to: reanimate its beliefs, purify its mores, regulate its movements,
and modify them according to circumstances.
It becomes
unfortunate that at the height of single party dictatorship in certain
Sub-Saharan African countries, many intellectuals were forced to seek refuge
abroad either to escape imprisonment or for dear life. Those who could not be
convinced to join the ruling elite often sought and found refuge abroad. This
has led to the brain drain that has culminated in the emergence of a civil
society bereft of effective organizational capacity.
To be continued