The realisation of the danger corruption
poses to the economic and social development of a country ought to prompt the
present administration to embark on a persistent fight against it, in a manner
reminiscent of WAI by the Buhari/Idiagbon’s regime of 1984.

Nigerians have been having brainstorming
sessions to come up with a solution to the corruption question. Indeed, many
Nigerians have identified corruption as the nation’s Achilles’ heel.

Corruption thrives as a result of the
structure of Nigerian government and the country’s laws, which ultimately give
the menace of fillip.

The march of corruption is a consequence of
the system of governance that willingly provides an enabling environment for it
to thrive.

The existing anti-corruption agencies like
the EFCC, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau, which are constitutionally
sciddled with the onerous task of ganging the ill have failed.

The Code of Conduct Bureau in particular
which has the task of determining the state of health of public officers before
their assumption of office, has failed to make their records accessible to the
public, thus creating an escape route for dubious public figures.

One way of solving this problem is to
discard some portions of the constitution. For instance, the immunity clause in
the constitution, which protects certain categories of public office holders
from being prosecuted while in office has to be expunged. Many Nigerians have
come to the conclusion that there is something fundamentally wrong with a
system that easily lends itself to being an open sesame to  fraud and unscrupulousness in public office.

Yet, this conclusion as it is, rather than
solve what has become the paradex of the Nigerian nation only succeeds in throwing
up more questions. For instance, the country patterned its political system
after the United States of America (USA). That raises the question of why the
Amernica system works and the Nigerian system does not. Indeed, would it be
correct to say that the country’s problems stem strictly from a supposed
jaundiced structure of government and defective grundnorm, which promotes
corruption?

If the constitution which the retreating
military bequeathed to the nation in 1999 has been faulted in several respects,
it will nonetheless be an untenable argument to say that the country’s laws
Ipso  facto promote corruption.
Corruption has remained endemic in the country simply because the criminal
justice system simply does not work especially with regards to the nefarious
activities of the rich and powerful.

The consequence of this willful subversion
is that many public office holders live a life unfettered by legal restraints.
Such state of anomie is a huge incentive for corruption. Therefore, it is the
practice of the law, which most often prevents the spirit and letter of the
constitution itself that has proved quite injurious to the health of the
Nigerian society.

I am particularly angry at the manner some
high public officials hide under the canopy provided by the immunity clause in
the constitution to commit outrageous crimes against the people and the state.
It seems that the immunity granted them blocks accurate investigation and to
that extent makes the anti-corruption drive a mere fluke.

Yet, this is a classic example of where a
willful perversion of the spirit and letter of the constitution gives
corruption a shot in the arm. The immunity clause was intended to shield some
public officers from frivolous petitions and suits in law courts which could
distract from the daunting task of governance. That law is neither peculiar to
Nigeria nor does it preclude the investigation of a President, Vice-president,
governors and deputy governors who commit crimes while in office.

That the immunity has been abused and perverted
is a function of the practice of the law rather than the law itself. Though
there is a sense in which it could be said that a system that is so prone to
manipulation leaves much to be desired, but to expunge the immunity clause from
the constitution or resort to a wholesale condemnation of the laws of the land
and structure of the government is tantamount to the axiomatic throwing away of
the bath water with the baby. If laws that work in other countries fail
woefully in this country, it may suggest some fundamental flaws in the practice
of the law.

To focus on corruption in the public
service is not to gloss over the equally perverse values and corruption in the
private sector. Truly, corruption in the private sector often acts as a
lubricant and  locomotive for the
corruption – drenched public sector.

Corruption remains an entrenched symptom of
misrule which takes place when incentives for it are great and sanctions are
weak or non-existent, and it occurs when economic opportunities for it prevail
and poltical will is lacking. Therefore, it can be checkmated only if there is
a reduction and checking of the discretionary powers of public office holders
and a greater integration of the main actors of the country to monitor and help
enhance accountability of those in power.

It is by so doing that rampart can be
erected around the structures of government and laws of the country so as to
strengthen them and give incessant abuse short shrift.

This
is the most plausible way to shrink the malignant tumour of corruption
and give the country and its much abused and besieged institutions a new lease
of life.

Arnold Alalibo