Nigeria: Tackling corruption with a children’s book
LAGOS: Bribery is a fact of life for most people in Nigeria, whether it’s a daily “dash” of a few naira
“administration fee” to speed up maddening bureaucracy.
On another level there’s the preferential award of contracts to friends and associates that
public tendering processes.
At the top is “grand corruption”
that has seen hundreds of billions of dollars disappear since Nigeria gained independence in 1960.
Onyinye Ough was so concerned
understanding about what constitutes
But which went on sale earlier this month,
“For the past eight or nine years I’ve been passionate about how I can educate children around the issue of corruption,” she told AFP in an interview.
“More recently, I’ve been seeing how corruption has become a bit more culturally acceptable... Social norms are one of the things that drives corruption.
“So, I thought, ‘why not start with young people to shift these norms, to say this is actually corrupt behavior that can harm?’”
Holistic approach
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 on a promise to root out endemic corruption and impunity at the highest level.
He has pledged to recover what he has called “mind-boggling” sums of public funds looted by previous administrations and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The new illustrated book, described as a “modern parable about the impact of corruption,” seeks to show that regardless of the money involved, actions have consequences.
Ough, who has a background in anti- corruption and international development, said it
distinguish how certain behavior can be perceived as corrupt, and many people act in good faith.
The character Emeka, for example, is described as “a nice man who works for the governor.”
But he is unaware that his recommendation of a friend to a trying to help his boss.
huge kickbacks to win a road contract. As a result, it can’t afford the best materials and the substandard surface causes an accident.
“The key message is that most of the time people are not ‘bad’ but don’t realize what they’re doing... Grand corruption is a different story,” said Ough.
On one level, the book kicks against Nigeria’s deeply ingrained culture of tribalism and patronage, where anyone who rises to a position of power is expected to reward his supporters.
On another, it’s designed to get away from the idea that “corruption pays,” she explained.
Ough, who runs Step Up Nigeria, a non-governmental organization that aims to promote good governance, sees the book as just “one angle” to tackling the problem.
Future generation
The publication of the book is timely, as Nigerians prepare to vote for a new president, parliament, state governors and assemblies early next year. Accusations of corruption are
- fuls while Buhari’s record on tackling the problem is under scrutiny.
The main opposition People’s Democratic Party has accused him of conducting a political witch-hunt as many of its members have been investigated or put on trial.
The pace of prosecutions has been glacial and there has been a
a number of measures have been introduced to tackle fraud.
They include having all government revenues to be paid into a single account at the Central Bank
- cation system to cut illegal banking.
Efforts are also being made to root out tax defaulters, while there is increasing pressure from civil society
their public spending.
Ough said overseas investigations and court cases, as well as legislation forcing foreigners to disclose the source of their wealth, were giving some Nigerians pause for thought.
But with Nigeria ranked a lowly 148 out of 180 countries in Transparency International 2017 Corruption Perception Index, the overall culture had to change, she said.
“Fighting corruption needs to start with what we teach our children,” she added.