“The phrase, public office is a public trust, has of late become common property“, Charles Sumner
The Code of Conduct Bureau
rightly admonishes Nigerians that “Public office is a trust, don’t abuse it!” In the same spirit, Article XI, Section 1 of the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, under the heading “Accountability of Public Officers,” declares that “public office is a public trust,” and that public officers and employees must, at all times, be accountable to the people, serve them with responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives. These laudable injunctions from two countries located in different parts of the world are not merely national precepts. They are universal aspirations. They speak to the same ancient and enduring idea that public authority is not personal possession, but delegated trust. They remind us that the state does not belong to those who temporarily occupy its offices, but to the people in whose name those offices exist. These are also the traits, habits and tendencies that I encountered throughout my years in the Nigerian Foreign Service as I travelled to different countries and observed how their governments worked.
