Thoughts from South Korea
Annyeonghaseyo (pronounced An-yong-ha-se-yo)! Greetings from Seoul, South Korea (SK), East Asia, from the 2019 International Bar Association (IBA) Conference at the Coex Convention & Exhibition Centre. As usual, everything about the Conference and it’s organisation, was on point. In fact, I would say that, the 2019 Conference was an improvement on 2018. As usual, Registration was seamless - walk in, collect your Name tag and Conference materials in two minutes, and buzz off! The sessions were quite impressive (at least the ones which I attended), and the catering was superb. I particularly enjoyed the session in which a lady who defected from North Korea, spoke, telling us about her rough road to freedom. The last session which I attended, was on the rule of law. Since the rule of law doesn’t seem to operate efficiently in Nigeria, I decided to, at least, get some theoretical experience of it, by listening to others discuss the topic. I discovered that, Nigeria is certainly not as bad as places like the Philippines, where we were informed at the session that, over forty Lawyers and four Judges, have so far, been assassinated there.
On our own, we visited the Namsan Seoul Tower, from which you can have a 360 degree view of Seoul, the Gyeongbok Palace, their first and largest Royal Palace in Seoul (then Hanyang), built in 1395 during the Joseon Dynasty. IBA also organised various tours for our recreation, but for me, the highlight of the tours, was our visit to the Demilitarised Military Zone (DMZ), that is, the 250 km long territory, which demarcates North Korea (NK) from SK, and divides the Korean Peninsula in half. The DMZ “was established by the provisions of the Korean Armistice Agreement, to serve as a buffer zone between North and South Korea”. We saw one of the steam locomotive trains, which was riddled with bullets during the Korean War when NK invaded SK (1950-1953), as well as the unification bridge. We went up to the Dora Observatory, from which we could view NK through telescopes. We walked through the Third Tunnel of Aggression, one of four tunnels under the DMZ, which were secretly in the process of being constructed by NK, in order to launch a surprise attack on SK. This particular tunnel, was discovered by SK in 1978, intercepted, and blocked with three concrete barricades. Unlike Yours Truly who turned back after the first five minutes, physically fit Lawyers like, Dr Konyin Ajayi, SAN, Dr Wale Olawoyin, SAN, Chief JK Gadzama, SAN and Mrs Oyinkan Badejo Okusanya, completed the 1 mile walk through the tunnel!
Gross Domestic Product
Who can believe that, in 1960, the year Nigeria gained her independence from the British, SK’s GDP per capita was a paltry $79, even less than Nigeria’s then $92.96. Today, 59 years later, SK’s GDP per capita is over $26,000, while ours is less than $2,500. Shame! Mind you, unlike Nigeria, SK has no proven oil reserves, and is a major importer of oil and gas, so don’t imagine that their achievements came via easy money, originating from natural resources.
GDP – Gross Domestic Product, in simple terms, is the economic output of a country. Per capita, is when this output is divided by the population of that country, to arrive at a figure for each person. In 2018, SK’s GDP was about $1.619 trillion, against a population of about 51 million. However, if you divide SK’s GDP with Nigeria’s unreliable and unsubstantiated population figure, said to be about 200 million, you still arrive at a GDP per capita of over $8,000, as opposed to our own paltry $2,450 or so.
Room for Comparison: Respect and Corruption
So, is there really any other room for comparison between SK and Nigeria, apart from their 1960 GDP per capita incomes? Well, maybe on a few other levels - the first, being SK’s culture of showing respect, especially to elders, like ours; the second, being the warmth of the people of Seoul. Nigerians too, are mostly welcoming, warm people; the third, being the rush hour traffic, like the 4pm traffic on Third Mainland Bridge; and the fourth, that SK suffers from a measure of corruption, even in their Judiciary, like we do.
Aside from the main forms of corruption being offences under SK’s Criminal Code, they promulgated the ‘Act on Anti-Corruption and the Establishment and Operation of the Anti- Corruption & Civil Rights Commission 2008 (as amended in 2009) (AAC)’, the purpose of which is, inter alia, “...... to create a transparent public service and society by handling people’s complaints and grievances, improving unreasonable administrative systems, and preventing and efficiently regulating corruption through the establishment of the Anti- Corruption Rights Commission” - just as we have our 1000 different laws and organisations like, the Code of Conduct Act , EFCC, ICPC, and so on.
The difference with ours, however, is that, they have a measure of accountability. Section 4 of the AAC defines the ‘act of corruption’ to include offences like bribery, causing financial damage to a public organisation, and concealment of acts of corruption. Unlike here in Nigeria, where CEOs of public organisations spend the funds of their establishments recklessly and frivolously, completely running the organisation down and getting away with it, such actions are prosecutable offences under the AAC.
I cannot say for certain, when corruption became a problem in SK, but, in 59 years, SK has metamorphosed from an undeveloped agrarian economy, largely dependent on foreign aid, into a first world developed, 11th largest economy in the world, and a major manufacturer and exporter of popular brands like Samsung, Hyundai, KIA and LG, while Nigeria has been on a steady course of decline and deterioration, until her final arrival as the new ‘poverty capital’ of the world, in 2018.
The Environment
As we were driving from Incheon International Airport into downtown Seoul - the city of sky scrapers - I couldn’t help but feel that the place reminded me of somewhere that I visited before - was it New York or Washington DC? (a country that was once poorer than Nigeria!). Yet, we are still shamelessly, openly herding cattle on our roads like savages living in the Dark Ages, or the Agrarian Revolution of the 17th Century, and arguing about RUGA/NLTP. How sad. Seoul is so clean (though sometimes there is an offensive smell that permeates the atmosphere, causing people to adorn face masks to avoid the smell). Even when we visited Gwangjang Market to eat street food (shaki (tripe) and boiled panla (stock fish) etc), the whole environment was clean. Even something as basic as the Smartlet toilet in our hotel, was impressive. It flushes and cleans itself, by itself.
SK’s Meteoric Development and Success
One of the greatest factors that has contributed to SK’s development, is industrialisation. SK implemented export-oriented policies, investing heavily in research, technology and innovation, to promote their export competitiveness. This has earned SK the enviable position, of the 10th largest exporter in the world. SK also ranks 4th, in the world ease of doing business index, and 1st , in terms of enforcement of contracts. Of course, all of this, is more or less, alien to us in Nigeria.
Last week, I gave you the example of all the different factories on our road in Ibadan, including our gas cylinder manufacturing factory (which was already an exporter in the 1980s), which are all moribund, thanks to past Governments, and how reviving them will be more difficult than exhuming the corpse and collecting the blood of my grandmother who died over 50 years ago! - what with the ‘difficulty’ (not ease) of doing business in Nigeria, the insurmountable obstacles placed by Bank of Industry and similar organisations, unattractive interest rates, ridiculous policies, lack of cohesion of policies, lack of incentives, corruption and so on (thanks to this Government too).
Fight against ‘Kwarappsion’!
Most importantly, SK has shown the political will to fight corruption, unlike Nigeria, where even some members of the newly created cabinet had been fingered for gross corruption, even before they were appointed! Yet, they were still appointed - and President Buhari’s administration, is said to be actively fighting corruption! Indeed.
Former SK President, Park Guen-Hye, was impeached in December 2016, as a result of large scale corruption allegations, also involving senior government officials. Her impeachment was upheld by the Constitutional Court in March 2017; and she is presently serving a 25 year prison sentence at Seoul Detention Centre, for abuse of power, bribery and leaking national secrets. There are obviously no sacred cows in SK, if their President could be jailed – nothing like our own ‘join APC and your sins are forgiven’!
Even though about 40% of Koreans believe that their Judiciary is corrupt, and it is not entirely free of political pressure, it is fairly independent, and it is certainly not afraid to act as a check on the President’s wide powers. Can the same be said, about the independence of our Judiciary, which even the NBA President, has alleged is under threat from this Government?
Inevitable Failure of the Fight against ‘Kwarappsion’
As for our country Nigeria, it is built on a system that makes it mandatory for corruption to thrive. Firstly, in the case of Government, the fact that Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution is not justiciable, means that there’s no accountability, whether it’s for failure to deliver on the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, or simply causing financial ruin to a public organisation.
Secondly, the remuneration system in Nigeria, is warped, thereby beckoning to corruption to come and take a seat and relax. For instance, most junior workers do not as much as earn a living wage, talk less of Judges and Doctors - professionals, who earn a pittance, while some semi-illiterate, poorly educated members of the National Assembly earn jumbo salaries plus mouth-watering perquisites, for not doing much. If these overworked and underpaid workers were working in a place like Kogi State for example, where Governor Yahaya
“......BUT, IN 59 YEARS, SK HAS METAMORPHOSED FROM AN UNDEVELOPED AGRARIAN ECONOMY, LARGELY DEPENDENT ON FOREIGN AID, INTO A FIRST WORLD DEVELOPED, 11TH LARGEST ECONOMY IN THE WORLD......WHILE NIGERIA HAS BEEN ON A STEADY COURSE OF DECLINE AND DETERIORATION, UNTIL HER FINAL ARRIVAL AS THE NEW ‘POVERTY CAPITAL’ OF THE WORLD, IN 2018”
Bello is alleged to have owed workers salaries for most of his tenure, how would they have been able to live and support their families, without an alternative means of income, some of which may be fraudulent? You pay me a pittance, and the little you pay, you don’t pay as and when due, and you ask me not to steal or do almost anything, when I’m desperate?
Judges
Closer to home, in our own profession, Nigerian Judges have one of the busiest dockets in the world. Yet, with all that work, writing in longhand, sitting in terrible conditions, they get a meagre remuneration, so much so that, many of them struggle to send their children to decent schools, and have no place to go upon retirement, when they must vacate Government Quarters. Thank God for Lagos State, providing homes for Judges where they live and retire to, and Rivers State (under the leadership of Governor Wike), which is presently building Judges Quarters where they can reside for life. Please, do not say “who forced them to become Judges?” It’s not as if Nigeria is a treasure trove of job opportunities, where people are spoilt for choice. Or, “Isn’t being a Judge a call to service, a sacrifice?” All jobs are a call to service, for which workers must be adequately remunerated. So far, the only job that I know that is call to service sacrifice and poverty, is that of the Catholic Priest and Nun, where they actually take a vow of poverty. The Judges’ story, is one for another day.
I dare say that, if there is no major rethink of our system, to make it more equitable, corruption will never be eradicated in our society. You are prepared to spend N5.5 billion to purchase cars for Senators, yet, you are yet to implement the paltry N30,000 minimum wage for workers.
As for SK, even though it is quite a distance from Nigeria - would I want to visit Seoul again? My answer is, a resounding, reverberating Yes!
Annyeonghiseyo! (Good bye) - for now.