WHEN ACCOUNTABILITY BECOMES A SEASONAL COMMODITY

There is something fundamentally wrong with a society where accountability appears only in seasons. It surfaces after a national tragedy, erupts in the wake of a public scandal, accompanies election campaigns, or follows an explosion of public anger. Then, as swiftly as it arrives, it disappears, leaving little behind except official statements, hastily constituted committees and forgotten promises.

This is one of the gravest weaknesses of our public life. Accountability has gradually ceased to be a permanent obligation of governance and has become an occasional performance. It is invoked when circumstances compel it and abandoned once public attention shifts elsewhere.

That is not how accountable societies are built.

In every serious democracy, accountability is neither an event nor a ceremony. It is a continuous discipline. Public officers are expected to explain their actions, justify their decisions and accept responsibility, not because a scandal has erupted, but because public office itself is a public trust.

ADVERTISEMENT

Nigeria, unfortunately, has developed a different culture. We respond to crises rather than prevent them. We investigate after damage has been done. We promise reforms after systems have collapsed. We seek explanations only when outrage becomes impossible to ignore. Once tempers cool, accountability quietly retreats into hibernation until the next avoidable disaster.

The consequences are evident everywhere. Reports are written but seldom implemented. Panels of inquiry submit recommendations that gather dust. White papers are announced with fanfare and forgotten with equal speed. Public institutions move from one controversy to another without the discipline of institutional memory or the certainty of consequences.

This culture has exacted an enormous price. It weakens public confidence in institutions, encourages official complacency and gradually conditions citizens to expect that every scandal will eventually fade without meaningful resolution. Where accountability is seasonal, impunity becomes permanent.
The tragedy is that accountability is often misunderstood as punishment. It is much more than that. True accountability is a system of openness, answerability and responsibility. It protects the honest public servant as much as it exposes the dishonest one. It strengthens institutions because it compels them to learn from failure instead of merely surviving it.

A nation cannot build enduring institutions on temporary accountability. Good governance demands consistency. Every public decision carries with it a corresponding duty to explain, justify and, where necessary, accept responsibility. That obligation cannot depend on media attention, political convenience or public pressure.

The measure of a mature society is not how loudly it demands accountability in moments of crisis, but how faithfully it practises accountability in ordinary times. Until accountability becomes a permanent culture rather than a seasonal commodity, reform will remain cyclical, public trust will continue to erode, and the same failures will return in different forms.

The challenge before Nigeria is therefore not simply to demand accountability when something goes wrong. It is to institutionalise accountability as a daily habit of governance and citizenship. Only then will responsibility cease to be seasonal and become the enduring foundation of national progress.