When the imagination runs wild, one begins to think through possibilities that have become necessary. With what Nigerians have been through at the hands of politicians, since the First Republic, there is enough ground to argue for and insist on the creation of a council to regulate the affairs of politicians in such a manner that Nigeria regulates the affairs of engineers, legal practitioners, journalists, stock traders, bankers, medical professionals and indeed other professionals operating in the country.

When students qualify as engineers and move to practice the profession, they are required to seek certification through the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN). This means that such applicants would have to also undergo qualifying examinations and be properly certified before they are expected to practice and undertake engineering obligations. This is so because the outcomes of their services have a direct bearing on lives and properties. In other words, the outcomes of their work either negatively impact the economy or positively do so. I recall a Nigerian who wanted to develop his property in a swampy area. He was discouraged by the fact that all houses built there had foundational problems and were going under. The engineer he engaged gave him a bill that was huge. But it came with a 50-year guarantee. To further convince the developer, the engineer had to attach his COREN certification identification on the engineering design and on all contract documents with the assurance that, if the property developed any foundational problems like those before it, merely reporting the engineer to COREN would mean sanctions, which may include the possibility of de-certification and blacklisting.

I guess this is also why legal practitioners and those in the medical and accounting professions also attach their certification stamps and other forms of identification to jobs they execute. This practice has a way of assuring consumers of their services that these professionals are top-notch and qualified to render service. It means they can be trusted to render the service they are recruited to do. Often, we hear of disciplinary committees of such bodies like the Nigerian Bar Association, ICAN, Medical and Dental Council, COREN, etcetera, pronouncing sanctions on their members who err in the discharge of their professional duties. To a very large extent, these disciplinary committees have helped shape the professions and kept members within ethical limits. This trend has also helped sustain consumer confidence in the services they render. Even a group like the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), which many people blame for the menace of touts at motor parks and major bus stops, also has disciplinary committees that pretend to punish erring members even when they are not so serious about it. The summary of this is that wild flowers grow the way they like.

The irony of life here is that members from the professions that regulate and discipline themselves eventually graduate into a field known as politics and practice a trade, or vocation, that has a whole lot to do with the lives and properties of citizens unregulated. Many people think and believe that the graduating qualification to become a politician is the study of political science. While that may be the ideal, the reality, however, is that there is no graduating professional qualification to become a politician. This means that anyone is qualified to become a professional politician in so far as he/she desires and has the capacity to do whatever is required to become a successful one. The question, therefore, is: what is the essence of political science? What profession does the graduate of political science practice? Mechanical engineering? Wood joinery and metal fabrication? I will need graduates of political science to educate my ignorance here!

Get my drift! While many see politics as a vocation, most see it as an all-comers profession. It is one where professionals from every other field become experts even when they are not pre-qualified to practice it. So, when they mess with the lives of people through wrong policy applications and nasty decisions, they still walk home smiling while victims of their actions nurse their pain and agony. Perhaps, this is one reason a regulating council has become imperative to regulate the actions and activities of politicians as well as set limits on what they can engage in and what they must not engage in; and also create sanctions through indemnity for victims of their actions.

Related News

What do I mean? Imagine for a moment that such a regulatory council exists and holds politicians to indemnify society and direct victims of their pronouncements, actions and decisions against failure and losses. It would mean, for instance, that victims of herdsmen’s killing (or what our government prefers to call farmers-herders clash) can hold those who had promised to secure their lives and farms against such clashes to personally indemnify them over losses suffered in their farms, lives and homes when such clashes occur. It will also mean that the regulatory council will hold the politician to his word and ensure that he/she personally indemnifies such victims who had looked up to the politician to provide the security of life and property, as promised.

Or how about the regulatory council holding the politician who promised to build roads in your state, to indemnify you and all road users in the state who suffer any form of loss, including damaged cars, motorcycles, bicycles, etc., or loss of business as a consequence of the bad road, which the politician failed to fix after using such promise to extract your votes? Such indemnity will include payment for the financial losses suffered by users of the road that he failed to fix.

I think that the absence of such a regulatory body has been directly responsible for the decline in progressive politics. It has created a situation where political leaders in this clime see politics as a game where the life of society is tossed at will and without consequences. A medical doctor who faces a medical disciplinary committee for telling a lie or engaging in unethical practice, which cost a patient his/her life or more pain, could do exactly the same thing as a politician and get away with it. So, why do professionals who are guided by the strictest form of discipline in the conduct of their professional calling and rarely get away with unethical conduct get away even with the worse of conduct when they become politicians?

In summary, the reason professionals are certified to practice is to show that they are trained and can be held to the highest ethical standards in the performance of their professional duties. So, who trains the politician? Who certifies anyone to practice politics?