The Atmosphere of Corruption
Early last year, Dr. Hussaini Abdu, the then Nigeria Country Director for ActionAid, invited me to join a team of five members that would help the global institution conduct a research on the relationship between poverty and corruption in Nigeria. The team was chaired by Professor Etanibi Alemika of the Department of Sociology, University of Port Harcourt, recently appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari into the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption. Other members of the ActionAid research team were Professor Dung Pan Sha of the Political Science Department, University of Jos; Ms. Ayo Obe, legal practitioner and a trustee of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICC) as well as Mallam Yunusa Z. Ya’u, former Bayero University, Kano don and Executive Director, Center for Information and Development.
In the course of several weeks, between April and June 2014, we had engaging sessions in Abuja during which we reviewed corruption indicators in Nigeria like inflation/diversion of budgetary allocations, the demand and supply of bribes, inflation/unauthorized variation of contracts, payment for jobs either not done or poorly executed, overpayment of salaries and allowances to staff (including non-existent ones called ‘ghosts’), brazen diversion of government revenue, violation of procurement regulations, non-payment/under payment of tax by private sector operators, compromised auditing of public and private sector institutions etc.
With the brilliant and diligent ActionAid staff led by my brother, Tunde Aremu, working with us and providing the raw data from field researchers, we also examined poverty indicators in Nigeria like insufficient food and clothing for a family, inadequate number of schools and dropout rates, the small number of health facilities, high levels of infant and maternal mortality, unemployment, weak access to credit, insecurity for individuals, households and communities, lack of access to clean water by most Nigerians, poor sanitation, low incomes etc.
Since the main objective of the study, according to the briefing given to us by ActionAid was to examine and interrogate how corruption impacts on different segments of the society and the implication for social development, it was obvious that we had a difficult challenge on our hands. But at the end, we were able to prove that, in many ways, the level of deprivations to which a great majority of Nigerians are subjected today is a consequence of the greed of a few people in both the private and the public sectors.
However, in the course of our first session, I raised a concern I had earlier privately discussed with Dr Abdu about the timing of our research and the sensitivity of the then government in power to such issues. For some inexplicable reasons, President Goodluck Jonathan was always very defensive whenever the issue of corruption in Nigeria was broached. “Yes, people talk about corruption now, because it has become a political issue. And when you promote something to the level of politics, normally it is blown out of proportion”, he said on one occasion. At another time, President Jonathan said: “Anybody who wants to claim an element of credibility will go to the television and accuse government of corruption...Sometimes, even the very corrupt people are those making these statements because if you attack government, you are insulated, you become an angel.”
For sure, President Jonathan had a point in that in Nigeria, the only person that is not corrupt is the one making the allegation. It is also true that some big time crooks who have helped themselves to stupendous amount of public resources have perfected the art of accusing everybody else of corruption, perhaps to cover up their own glaring misdeeds. Nevertheless, it was also very unhelpful that President Jonathan decided to live in denial about a national malaise that is not only deep rooted but has helped to put an emblem of shame on our country.
I am sure that in moments of introspection, and as he presumably writes his memoir, the former president must now be regretting his disposition on the issue which emboldened many people to say that his “body language encouraged corruption” and may have also been responsible for the kind of impunity and financial recklessness that reigned under him. Interestingly, while Jonathan didn’t fancy discussing corruption because he believed it was unduly politicised, the Buhari administration and the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) have turned talking about corruption into a national anthem. So, where the discussion of corruption in the public arena is concerned, we have moved from one extreme end of the spectrum to another. Still, I am not so sure it is all that helpful.
In a jurisprudence where the onus is placed on the person who asserts to prove, it is evident that fighting corruption cannot be easy nor would recovering its proceeds be as simple as some people assume with tales of how America, Britain and some Western countries would just open their vaults to release to the government money stolen by some Nigerian officials. It is naïve for anybody to assume such things as it may take years for our country to get any looted funds back even if the places where they are stashed are located.
Therefore, while nobody is in any doubt that President Buhari, given his reputation, would not tolerate the kind of impunity that Nigerians have witnessed in recent years, there is also nothing to suggest that things are going to change substantially under him with regards to fighting corruption. Yet considering the damage corruption has done both to our national psyche and socio-economic well-being, there is need for a clear roadmap on how the administration will tackle this challenge.
The pertinent questions remain: will the sensational stories we read in the media every day lead to the successful prosecution and conviction of some big fish in the pool of corruption to serve as deterrence to others? Are institutional mechanisms being put in place to make it difficult for people to fiddle with public funds and easily get away? What legal/judicial reforms are ongoing to ensure that public officials who steal billions are not asked to pay peanuts in fines to walk free?
NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com