On Thursday August 20, 2014, the power gladiators in the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) set their Abuja Secretariat, the Glass House, on fire to burn old memories and bury their iniquities. We thank God that they remembered to remove the African Nations Cup AFCON and FIFA U-17 world cup trophies to save us the embarrassment. The incident has reawakened the call against corruption in Nigeria.
Corruption is an English word. It is a cancer which ravages every society on earth. A European Parliamentary Working Paper on corruption in 1998 referred to archaeologists finding an archive naming corrupt officials who had taken bribes at an administrative centre in Assyria in the 13th century BC. World Bank’s definition of corruption as abuse of public office for private gain is not exhaustive.
There are other indices for defining corruption. Electoral corruption, for instance, abuses the integrity of the ballot by party apparatchiks or by buying votes while international sporting corruption permits match-fixing or the use of banned drugs. With corruption’s greater organizational power and speed of action due to modern technology, what we choose affect our future.
Nigeria is a country where corruption is deeply embedded. Corruption has become a culture. A good servant in Nigeria is one who carries out what he is bribed to do. A bad one simply takes bribe and does nothing. Those who fail to take do not deserve habitation in the land.
It is nothing entirely surprising that the United States Government in the controversial submission to the United State Congress early this year described as massive the endemic corruption that pervades the country Nigeria. The John Kerry’s report was said to have been lifted from a document entitled “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012”. The document prepared by the US State Department, was a conglomerate of information sourced from US embassies and consulates abroad, foreign government officials, non-governmental and international organizations and published reports.
The report is not surprising; it is rather government’s denial that is worrisome. At the heat of government’s tongue-lashing of the report citing successes being recorded in electoral reform, the endemic corruption that is embedded in war against insurgency has emptied government claim of any content. Our movement is a little to the right, deep to the left. For those close to Nigeria project, the submission of the US government has not added insight to what we know to be true. Protesting a report that depicts real fact is not patriotism. This is not a matter of washing our dirty linens outside.
Prior to Kerry’s report, the 2012 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index released early December 2012, placed Nigeria as the 135th out of 176 countries surveyed in the report. According to the report, Nigeria shares the position with Pakistan and Nepal, to remain one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Though few people have queried the report as not a true representation of facts, those in better position to know saw truth in it. The Nigeria Economic Summit Group in its meeting in Abuja shortly after the release described the report on Nigeria as “a wake-up call” to the fight against corruption. The Director-General, NESG, Mr. Frank Nweke Jnr., at a news conference to mark the 18th summit of the Nigeria Economic Summit said, “This figure merely serves to remind us that we need to keep working on the issue of corruption in the public and private sectors. Even if we are ranked 20th out of 176, I still feel that government must continue to redouble its efforts to really address these issues.”
While one agrees with the ex-Central Bank Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, that no country is immune to corruption, Nigeria has a peculiar case. The citizens have generally lost sight of the importance of merit. Ordinary citizens are corrupt. Even a motor mechanic has a way of pushing forward his cheat!
As the John Kerry damning report noted, while Nigerian laws provide criminal penalties for official corruption, government has done little or nothing to implement the laws effectively. The visible lack of will to implement anti-corruption laws due to political concerns has enthroned an air of impunity which sees public office holders behave in a way that weaken their own institution.
At various times, I have taken a swipe at the Nigerian judiciary. It is no longer news that justice goes to the highest bidder. The innocent are meant to suffer and the just are discouraged from standing up for the cause of justice. Nobody wants to be a litigant again because waiting for justice in Nigeria is akin to the-soon-coming of Messiah Jesus.
If the report is faulty, it is an under-estimation fault. For instance, it is estimated that Nigeria lost about N1.067 trillion ($6.8 billion) to what it calls endemic corruption and entrenched inefficiency. While I cannot arrive at an accurate figure, there is no doubt that the figure is higher. The estimated figure is not enough for senate probe committees to take home as sitting allowance.
Facts on ground suggest that President Goodluck is too slow to tackle corruption. Rather than confront corrupt individuals, his government adopted escapist approach to it. That was why the Federal Government reacted forcefully to the US report. President Goodluck Jonathan described the report as skewed, overblown and unrealistic. He said that his administration has not relented in its fight against corruption, insisting that all the relevant laws are being applied against those who have corruption cases against them, contrary to the allegation that his administration treats corruption with kid gloves.
Despite the government’s defence, the unassailable fact is that corruption in Nigeria has gone a notch higher in recent years. This is not only among politicians occupying high public offices, it has permeated Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government, as a recent anti-graft watchdog report revealed. This is a serious cause for worry. To continue to play the ostrich on the problem of corruption as the government is currently doing is to live in denial. The US report may have seemed alarming, but it is obvious that government is losing steam in the fight against corruption.
This gives critics the impression that this administration is not demonstrating enough will to tackle corruption. It is also common knowledge that there are some glaring cases in which the government has not demonstrated seriousness in its anti-corruption crusade. Nigerians and the international community have followed with dismay cases of corruption being handled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
In our different states, laws are being subverted in favour of the bigwigs. Cases abound where government immersed in corruption subject people to their whims and caprices. While every Nigerian should rise to condemn act of kidnapping, it seems that kidnapping laws are only meant for the poor who out of no choice take to the heinous crime. How do Nigerians feel when government officials kidnap their opponents, beat them up before the security agents and yet go scot free? Politicians enact anti-kidnapping laws and ensure that culprits are hanged yet when they are involved in kidnapping, the godfathers intervene.
Rather than reject it, the US report should be the prodding that Nigeria needs to ginger up the anti-graft crusade. Nigeria is now on its knees, an animal kingdom because of corruption. Might is now right. The fear is that if the current tide of impunity is not forced into reversed gear, this land will degenerate into anarchy if it has not already. We may wake up one day to see Aso Rock on fire and that will be the dismissal hymn of this funeral ceremony called Nigeria.
