“It’s not a question of investigation, we should get men and women of integrity in the place and the president should be very vigilant, whatever should not pass should not pass.”

Below is a couple of key observations regarding political accountability between countries like Nigeria and most African countries, and progressive nations like the US and Western European countries. In countries with political and societal accountability:

1. There is a recognition that humans are not born with “integrity”. It is the “accountability mechanisms” in the society – that is – the set of laws and their enforcement, that creates “integrity” in people. Therefore, you cannot have people of integrity anywhere unless people that violate laws are punished according to the law.

2. To prevent subversion of justice, “obstruction of justice” is a crime that applies to the President on down. That means that anyone that obstructs justice, such as preventing the EFCC or the police from investigating or prosecuting a crony, has committed a punishable offense under the law. This ensures that the president or people in positions of power cannot be compromised to prevent justice from being carried out; if they did, they would have committed punishable crimes themselves.