Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO)-Americas, on Wednesday, urged African leaders to deploy best practices in strengthening governance institutions as adopted by the U.S., to move the continent forward.
The Chairman of NIDO-Americas, Mr Obed Monago, gave the advice in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Monago was speaking on the lessons African leaders could draw from the U.S. government’s move to investigate ex-president, Donald Trump’s tax activities in his businesses.
The Supreme Court in the U.S. had ordered Trump to hand over his tax returns and other financial records to prosecutors in New York that consist of a jury of about 23 people.
“What is happening with Trump is the product of an instrument of governance that espouses ‘rule of law’, ‘checks and balances’, as well as ‘accountability and transparency’.
“He had prosecutorial immunity while in office, but the law was in the background documenting everything.
“Whatever they may have documented seems to have enough facts that warrant sitting grand jury.
“The facts and evidence must have been overwhelming to have taken that next step.
“State attorneys general here have, in most cases, 90 per cent assurance before they take that next step.
“They do not want to lose in court.
“Lessons African Leaders can derive from this is a difficult question because the environment is different.
“We should strengthen our governance institutions, make the three tiers of government truly independent, and hold them to account,” Monago said.
He said that it was the adoption of such strategy in the U.S. that enabled Trump to allege that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
“Each county here is equivalent to our local government is responsible for organising its own election, be it presidential or otherwise.
“Do we have that in Nigeria? No! So a lot of structural changes will first have to take place in Africa before we can start comparing and contrasting,” he added. (NAN)
