Nigeria: Beyond Anti-Corruption Anniversary

Recently, Nigeria joined other countries of the world to mark the annual global Anti-corruption Day. It is a day set aside by the United Nations, primarily to sensitise the global community on the debilitating effect of corruption on national development and for the assessment of efforts aimed at combating the scourge.

The theme of the 2010 World Anti-corruption Day is aptly chosen “Don’t Let Corruption kill Development” but more than any other factor, corruption has remained the major albatros militating against meaningful development in Nigeria.

In the language of the Political Bureau established in 1987, corruption takes many forms including: “…the inflation of government contracts in kickbacks, frauds and falsification of accounts in the public service, examination malpractices in our educational institutions including universities; the taking of bribes and pervasion of justice and various henious crimes against the state in the business and industrial sectors of our economy, in collusion with multi-national companies such as over-invoicing of goods, foreign exchange swindling, hoarding and smuggling”.

The celebration of the Anti-corruption Day was usually championed by some non-governmental organisations, such as Transparency International, but various nations support it through their anti-corruption agencies and institutions.

This year’s celebration was not different, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Code of Conduct Bureau among others were all represented and as usual reeled off statistics indicating progress in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

These statistics, however, neither reflect the dept of the scourge nor the perception of the average Nigerian who now sees corruption as part of our national public life, especially, because of the fact that those indicted for corruption hardly get any commensurate reprimand.

A clear case in point was the recent negotiated conviction of former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, after she agreed to forfeit a fraction of her loot.

Though the main institutions in the vanguard of Nigeria’s anti-corruption enforcement have continued to take the opportunity of the annual ritual of Anti-corruption Day, to give themselves pats on the back, they are not generally known to have improved their results.

Over the years, Nigeria has, indeed, maintained several legislative frameworks and policies for fighting corruption. Some of them include the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, the Money Laundering Act No 3 of 1995, Failed Bank Act No 16 of 1996, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related offences Act of 2000, the Economic and Financial Crimes Act, 2004 and the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligent Unit. All are aimed at helping the anti-corruption agencies function effectively but there don’t seem to be any significant progress being made. 

The Nigeria Police Force, the Code of Conduct Bureau, the ICPC and the EFCC are continuously perceived as standing still if not increasingly becoming ineffectual. And sure, the corruption ranking of Nigeria by the Transparency International based on such perceptions has not improved by any considerable margin since 2008 when the country was ranked 121st out of about 180 countries.

Since then, and in different parts of the world, a number of companies including Halliburton, Siemens, Wilbros, Nigeria LNG, and even officials of  a Nigerian bank have been indicted for infractions, bribes and corrupt advantages in Nigerian business dealings.

But the silence of the Nigerian institutions that ought to co-operate with originating bodies and bring to book the Nigerian counterparts or accessories to crime in this regard, has not encouraged public trust and confidence in them.

On the other hand, the monumental corruption in our political life does not seem to be abating such that at both the executive and legislative bodies across the states and local government areas more havoc is being committed. Governors believe they are doing the people a favour by deciding who gets a chunk of juicy and overbloated contracts and who does not benefit and with the myopic connivance of the legislators who also share in these contracts through “oversight” committees and constituency project allocations, corruption reigns. At the local Government level, but for a few Chairmen that have tried to distinguish themselves in the way they try to address some basic needs for their localities, the entire tier of government may be turning into a statutory scandal with little or nothing to show for the average N100 million monthly allocation to the 774 local Government Areas in the country.

While tribalism remains a sign post of our national politics, corrupt practices and graft in the management of our national economy, have remained a uniting force because it seems all are agreed that the only way to justify ones presence in any public institution is to cut a chunk of the ‘national cake’ large enough to last for the tenth generation of one’s family members.

This tacit connivance by the generality of Nigerians accounts, no doubt, for the continued manifestation of corruption in our public and private lives and by extension for the absence of sustainable infrastructure and social amenities across the nation. It also accounts for the massive unemployment and the incremental poverty which over 80 percent of the Nigerian populace might be experiencing. Official corruption accounts for youth restiveness, illiteracy and all forms of social crime. It is to be blamed for the general state of insecurity because it is only when the nation’s resources are productively engaged that crime can be abated.

A look at the corrupt practices that rage in some Nigerian Public institutions such as the Nigeria Police Force, the Customs Service, Power Holding Company of Nigeria, (PHCN) the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and even at the nation’s educational institutions, gives little hope for a better tomorrow and calls for drastic and concerted action beyond the rhethrorics of annual celebrations.

The current realities call for intensification of pace in the war against corruption. Government and its agencies must move beyond slogans and talk shows and ensure intrepid investigations, diligent prosecutions and speedy but fair trial and punishment where deserved.

We say so because, no nation that hopes to develop and find itself among the developed nations of the world, as Nigeria is aspiring, will  continue to condone leakages of its resources through avoidable corrupt practices.