Corruption as defined separately by World Bank, Transparency
International and Danish International Development Agency refers to the misuse
of entrusted funds, abuse of power and public office for private gain.
Wikipedia describes it as “a form of dishonest or unethical conduct by a person
entrusted with a position of authority, often to acquire personal benefit.”
Corruption is everywhere. There is no country in the world where
corruption does not exist. The causes, perception and tendency to engage in
corrupt practices only varies from one country to another as seen in the
Corruption Perceptions Index, usually issued by the international anti-corruption
organization, Transparency International (TI). For instance, Nigeria ranked
136th least corrupt country in 2015 out of 168 countries surveyed by TI. It was
rated 136th out of 175 in 2014, 144th in 2013 out of 177, 139th out of 176 in
2012, and 143rd in 2011 out of 183 countries.
The 2015 rating showed Denmark topping the perceptions index as the
least corrupt country in the world for the second consecutive year, while North
Korea and Somalia remained at the bottom as the most corrupt nations of the world.
It is expected that Nigeria’s rating will be improve as a result of President
Muhammadu Buhari’s current war against corruption, where some prominent
Nigerians are being investigated in the $2.1 billion arms deal scandal and
other ongoing probes to recover looted funds.
The scale of corruption in Nigeria has been so high. It is the greatest
of all the factors responsible for our backwardness and retardation in terms of
socio-economic growth. Despite the gigantic God-given human and natural
resources available to us as a nation, we have remained a crawling, stunted
giant after over 56 years of Independence – no thanks to corruption.
This hydra-headed monster and cankerworm that has eaten deep into the
fabrics of our society brought us to the level we are today where poverty,
hunger and starvation have taken a terrible toll on the Nigerian populace.
The magnitude of the damage done to our dear country through corruption
is quite unimaginable and mind-boggling. Over 80% of funds from oil revenue
which accounts for about 90% of the value of our exports had always found their
way into the pockets of just 1% of the country’s population. This was as
revealed at the 2012 Annual General Meeting, AGM, of Nigerian Bar Association
(NBA), by a former Minister of education and one-time Vice President of the
World Bank for Africa, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili. According to her, “an estimated $400
billion of the country’s oil revenue has been stolen or misspent since the
country’s independence in 1960.”
An independent investigative analysis done by the Natural Resource
Governance Institute (NRGI) last year, showed that over N6.4 trillion oil
revenue was lost to massive corruption that characterized oil sales by Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, between 2011 and 2013. The latest audit
report of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry carried out by the Nigeria Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative, (NEITI), made further revelations on how
N11.4 trillion earned as revenue from crude oil sales, taxes, royalties and
other incomes in 2013 was not properly accounted for.
At the beginning of his “national sensitization campaign”, meant to
implore Nigerians to join the fight against corruption in the country, the
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, disclosed that we
lost over N1.34 trillion to only 55 Nigerians through corrupt practices between
2006 and 2013. Some have argued that the monumental havoc wrecked on the
Nigerian people by this enemy of progress and development called corruption is
unquantifiable.
No nation can attain greatness, no matter the enormous resources at its
disposal, if corruption is accepted as a culture by the people and allowed to
go on freely without the needed resistance to curtail it. Joe Biden, America’s
outgoing Vice President had once said that “Fighting corruption is not just
good governance. It’s self-defense. It’s patriotism.” And so, it is important
that we put aside sentiment of any kind, to support the present administration
of President Buhari, in its effort to reduce to the barest minimum this
terrible menace that has crippled and rendered the economy of the supposed
giant of Africa comatose.
When we keep reading mean to every step taken by the government of the
day in its anti-corruption war, it will be difficult for us to succeed in
winning the battle to kill this monster which is obviously the biggest
challenge facing Nigeria. When people are called upon to answer questions in
respect of their alleged involvement in an act of corruption, we should not be
quick to see it as witch-hunting. Otherwise, we will only be giving the
impression that we don’t give a damn about the serious negative consequences
corruption have had on our nation’s development.
A report presented to the Federal government in February this year captioned
“Impact of corruption on Nigeria’s economy” and put together by a top
international professional services firm, PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC),
indicated that “Corruption has a dynamic impact, which is felt more by poorer
households and smaller firms with a long run negative impact on growth,
primarily through reduction in human capital and investment. And the damage
that corruption does is widely felt across the economy… Corruption is
associated with lower average standards of living, education levels and greater
income inequality.”
According to Dr. Andrew S. Nevin, chief economist and a partner at PwC
Nigeria who co-authored the said report, “Our results show that corruption in
Nigeria could cost up to 37% of GDP by 2030 if it’s not dealt with immediately.
This equates to around US$1,000 per person in 2014 and nearly $2,000 per person
by 2030. But if Nigeria can tackle corruption to bring it down to levels seen
in similar resource-rich countries, it could increase its GDP by $534bn in
2030. The boost in average income that we estimate, given the current per
capita income, could significantly improve the lives of many in Nigeria, should
efforts to tackle corruption succeed. The challenges for the government are
substantial but the potential benefits of tackling corruption are too great to
ignore.”
It is therefore left for us to decide whether we want to allow this
monster to continue to rare its ugly head and further ruin our country and deny
us of our collective heritage. Or, we want it dismantled to a greater extent so
as to pave way for the overall development of the various sectors of our
economy. I would think that supporting the current war against corruption
as being championed by President Buhari would do us a lot of good as a people,
regardless of our religious, ethnic and political affiliations. We should work
with him in his determination to ensure that it just can’t be business as
usual.
It is however gratifying that a good number of Nigerians have continued
to throw their weight behind the President in this war. Many have hailed him
for his political will, courage and commitment to fight corruption. Even
members of the international community have given a nod of support to the
President. John Kerry, America’s outgoing Secretary of State, Nick Hurd, the
immediate past United Kingdom’s Minister of International Development and Lin
Songtian, the Director-General of African Department of China’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, at different times applauded Buhari and declared the support
of their countries for his campaign to curb corruption in Nigeria.
Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, a member of the opposition
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had in a press release signed by his Chief Press
Secretary, Enyinnaya Appolos, said he will continue to support the
anti-corruption fight of Buhari’s administration, as according to him,
corruption, wherever found, was antithetical to peace and development of the
people.
Another PDP chieftain and a member of the National Assembly,
representing Egor/Ikpoba-Okha Federal Constituency of Edo in the House of
Representatives, Mr. Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, recently urged Nigerians to support
Buhari’s fight against corruption. Stressing that the wish of every patriotic
Nigerian should be for the war to succeed, he said: “Anybody that does not want
to support the fight against corruption does not mean well for the country…
People in the petroleum sector who constituted themselves as cabal robbing the
country of big income must be pursued and fished (out) and prosecuted.” The PDP
stalwart added that “Nigerians should not see the ongoing clampdown against
alleged corrupt judicial officers as witch hunt.”
The immediate past General Secretary of NBA, Barrister Mazi Afam Osigwe,
had also in a recent interview stressed the need for all hands to be on deck to
support the crusade against corruption. In his words: “Corruption adds to the
cost of doing business. Corruption has led to so many deaths. Corruption has
led to the dearth of infrastructure we have because people simply pocket the
money and work away. If we don’t fight it, there may not be a good tomorrow for
our children. But there must also be transparency. Recovered loot must be accounted
for and paid into the federal government treasury. The mode of fighting it must
be lawful. People must not be unnecessarily demonized or destroyed in public,
only for the affected agencies not to prosecute them or find out that they are
innocent.”
Michael Jegede, a journalist and public affairs commentator writes from
Abuja
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