Monitoring & Supervision; The Human Element in the Fight against Corruption

Monitoring & Supervision; The Human Element in the Fight against Corruption

Onakpoberuo Onoriode Victor

Wednesday, February 09, 2022

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If you are fighting corruption, it means you are doing everything you practically can to ensure there is monitoring and supervision over processes, operations and programmes of Government. Monitoring and supervision does not implying handing unchecked powers to a few who will become demigods. It is a social and scientific process of safe guiding institutions such that the establishment goals of these institutions are actualized within expected timelines. This means, operational systems will have to be modified in conformity with anticipated targets; attitudes and beliefs of the human drivers will also have to change. It is not enough to have a properly designed work process; the human element in the running of these systems will have to be carefully considered.

????????i.???????????Who are these people?

??????ii.???????????What are their beliefs about the system?

?????iii.???????????What kind of conditions did they grow up in (frame of reference)?

????iv.???????????What are their hopes/aspirations?

??????v.???????????What conditions are they living in right now?

????vi.???????????What are their levels of faith in the system? ??????

These issues are best dealt with at the recruitment or selection stage of the design of a system.

You would have noticed the silence on academic qualification; this is because academic qualification alone without the right beliefs and attitude is like having a great car with bad driver. If the best fit for available job roles are not identified and recruited, the workforce may continue to increase numerically, but that may not translate to increase in productivity or efficiency in the running of the system. Recruitment is therefore a vital aspect of the fight against corruption. Once you tactically downplay monitoring and supervision; making scoring more important than having a disciplined team, and by that, not minding shifting the goalpost, the imperfect human inclination for self-indulgence, ease and immediate gratification will become untamed and the result will be more and more people finding it convenient to break the rules of the system, whatever that is.

There is therefore need for the training of monitors, people who will have the right beliefs, attitude and allegiance to the system, who will be firm enough to ask the right questions at the right time, painstakingly review records and promptly call for sanctions where the need arises. Naturally, that is what the policing institutions of every society is designed to do. However, having policing institutions is one thing and having persons who can actually police is another thing. In previous civilizations it was common to have special persons called eunuchs. Being a eunuch implied that such a person had greatly suppressed his need for pleasure and immediate gratification. These were the secret service of ancient times; they were the ring around the king. The point being made here is that, to be a P-O-L-I-C-E, ?M-O-N-I-T-O-R ?or ?a S-U-P-E-R-V-S-O-R ?demands huge personal sacrifices. The selection process to these institutions should therefore be a meticulous sieving process, where every bean is known by its name, colour and size and it should be more of a life calling than just being a job. ?

Any society where corruption is pervasive is a society where monitoring and supervision hasn’t been given a proper place. It is a natural tendency for all humans to seek ease and pleasure, to avoid difficult or noxious situations. This avoidance is for self-preservation. Therefore the manifest occurrence of corruption in a place is not indicative of a unique cultural affinity with corruption by the people in that place. In the absence of sustainable checks and monitoring systems, any human society will easily slide into the easy ways and that is where corruption emerges from.

For any human society to thrive with significantly low levels of corruption, someone must have it as his duty to ask questions, to pry into things, to check others in line with the norms and values of that society. So, Nigeria is not uniquely corrupt, we are essentially suffering from the effects of our collective unbridled human inclination for ease and pleasure. We can literally wake up to a corrupt free Nigeria by tomorrow if every monitor decides to do his job without any sentiments whatsoever. ?

Read it again, and then read it again, and then read it again, and then talk to someone about it.

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God Bless Nigeria.

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