Again, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, did not disappoint Nigerians. In fact, a great number of people would have been surprised had he reacted differently to the latest corruption perception index rating by Transparency International (TI) which ranked Nigeria 154th out of 180 countries surveyed and the second most corrupt country in West Africa.
The 2021 report which was released on Tuesday saw the country scoring 24 out of 100 points, a drop from 25 points from 2020 and falling back five places from the rank of 149 in 2020.
But Adesina, during a televised current affairs programme, said people should discountenance the report because it was a foreign statistic without much validity, adding that corruption is not peculiar to Nigeria, rather it is a universal problem. He claimed that statistics abound to show that the current government, through the various anti-corruption agencies has fought and is still fighting corruption to a standstill.
“We don’t need TI’s report to authenticate or validate what the government is doing. Government is working and anti-corruption is one of the key pillars of this administration. Globally, there is no place that has eradicated corruption. It is a national issue. This administration is fighting corruption and we are getting results,” he asserted.
Indeed, corruption is a global challenge. There is hardly any country that does not have some corruption issues to deal with. But what makes the difference between some of these countries and ours is the willingness to fight corruption and punish offenders and sincerity to do so. It is good that Mr Adesina pointed out that one of Buhari’s campaign promises was that he was going to tackle the problem of corruption headlong. With his reputation as a man of integrity, Nigerians trooped out to vote for him. But what do we have today? Corruption is now the order of the day in both public and private places.
Perhaps, we may need to look at some definitions of corruption in order to have a proper perspective of what we are talking about.
The World Bank provides a detailed definition of the act. It sees corruption as the abuse of public office for private gains as well as using public office for personal benefit even if no bribery occurs, through patronage and nepotism; it includes the theft of state assets or the diversion of state revenues.
The level of nepotism and favoritism seen in the current government is unprecedented. The norm now seems to be that people from the same ethnic group with the head of some ministries, agencies and parastatals should ‘own’ such organs. That is why you go to some offices and virtually everybody is from one tribe or ethnic group. There has been this continuous outcry that the majority of the federal agencies and parastatals are headed by people from a particular part of the country despite the federal character principle. Same goes with the appointment of service chiefs. Yet, nothing has changed.
The issue of the recruitment process is another thing. Merit has been thrown to the winds and favoritism and nepotism is now the order of the day. A very brilliant applicant may not secure a job despite his excellent performance at both written and oral interviews. But the job will be given to another person who may not have attended the interviews or may have performed poorly during the exercise just because he has a note from one senator or any other influential person in government. The issue of job racketeering is also there staring us at the face.
Yes, the current administration should be given credit for the sentencing of the former chairman of the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee on fuel subsidy, Hon. Farouk Lawan, to seven years imprisonment over the $3 million bribery charges preferred against him by the federal government, the sentencing of the former chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina, to eight years’ imprisonment for money laundering offences involving N2 billion in pension funds, the fight against internet fraudsters, and a few other cases. But we all, including those in authority, know that there is more to fighting corruption than this.
But I tend to agree with Adesina that the TI report should not be an indictment of the government alone but of all Nigerians. Corruption is not restricted to only politicians or those in authority. It has permeated all facets of the society, including the police, judiciary, business sector, the education and health sectors, the civil service, the military and so on.
A plumber tells you that a part of your water pumping machine that went bad will cost N30,000 for the original one and N15,000 for the substandard ‘Taiwan’ equivalent. You give him money for the original one and he buys the part and couples the machine. After a short while, the pumping machine parks up again, you call another plumber who finds out the first plumber bought neither the original part you paid for nor the ‘Taiwan’. What he bought was a refurbished engine part which did not cost more than N5000. 00.
Your house help cries to you that she just got a call from home that her grandmother has kicked the bucket, and that she needs to travel to her village for the burial. You take pity on her and give her money for transportation and some burial expenses. Later you find out that she was not bereaved and that she instead spent the time and money with her boyfriend in another part of town.
The list is endless. We recall how some people in a viral video on social media were allegedly vandalising the newly rehabilitated rail track of the Nigeria Railway Corporation along its Warri-Itakpe axis.
In all these cases, did we see President Buhari or any governor, lawmaker, minister or top politician or government official perpetrating the fraudulent act? No. They were all ordinary citizens engaging in dishonest, fraudulent acts which they feel will benefit them, not minding the consequences of such actions on their fellow human beings and the nation.
Therefore, the sooner we began to look inward and think of how we can fight this cankerworm starting from ourselves, the better.
The general election is around the corner and many candidates are already indicating interest to lead us both at the national and state levels, let us not shy away from this important civic duty. Let us get our voters cards ready to make the desired change. Nigeria is in dire need of a selfless, detribalised, visionary, committed, honest leader who will unite this great nation and put measures in place to tackle the numerous problems facing the country and lead a rebuilding process so that this country can grow. To achieve that, ethnic, religious and tribal sentiment should not be a major consideration.

By: Calista Ezeaku