Continued from LAST WEEK
Poor investment in human capital development (education and health), and, particularly, the neglect of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and science-based technology education has contributed in no small measure to a lack of highly skilled technical manpower and technological capabilities required to drive the economy and transform Nigeria into an industrialized society as well as improve the living conditions of her teeming population (Mohan, 2003). Without the needed growth and development in education (Krueger & Mikael, 2001), Nigeria’s economy may remain stunted. Corruption is a complex, omnipresent and multifaceted phenomenon with multiple causes and effects. The phenomenon of corruption has a long history in the development of human societies. A whole body of literature exists on the definition of the concept, which I do not intend to bore us with. However, it is important to underscore a few of such definitions, at least, for purposes of emphasis. The concept, corruption, is originally from the Latin verb, rumpere, which means to break… into pieces.
The conventional definition of corruption is that provided by the World Bank which conceptualizes it as the abuse of public office for private gains. What that means is that corruption sprouts and thrives in a situation where public officeholders enjoy large discretionary powers in a monopolistic situation with no mechanism for accountability. It is in this regard that Robert Klitzgaard, reduced the dynamics of corruption to a mathematical formulaas: C = D + M – A, where Corruption = Discretion + Monopoly – Accountability (Akor, 2013, p.51). Although corruption is a global scourge, Nigeria appears to suffer the most from it, because many of the country’s leaders and public office holders are believed to be pathologically corrupt. Corruption has continued to shape and blight the country. Everyone appears to believe that Nigeria has a “culture of corruption” (D. J. Smith, cited in Dike, 2014, p.5). In fact, no less a person than David Cameron, former British Prime Minister, on May 11, 2016, sarcastically labeled Nigeria as being “fantastically corrupt”. According to Dike (2014), Nigeria appears to be a hotbed of corruption and the so-called war against corruption seems like trying to contain the wind.
The majority of the elected officials, appointees, and top government representatives are corrupt. They often extract bribes from the citizens (business owners, those seeking to do business with the state, and others), while performing their official duties (Dike, 2014, p.5). National dailies are awash with news reports of how public officials, including former presidents corruptly acquire multi-million dollar homes and choice properties within and outside Nigeria and stockpile stolen public money in coded Swiss accounts abroad. We are all familiar with the famous case of the Abacha loots, whose recovery in 24 years and remittance to the federal government coffers, has so far totaled $3.65billion. There is also the case of Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria’s former Minister of Petroleum Resources, who is being charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC for the alleged disappearance of $20billion from the petroleum agency during her tenure. She was reported to have forfeited jewelry worth N14.4bn and houses valued at $80m to the federal government following a forfeiture order secured by the EFCC. Commendable as these recoveries and forfeitures may be, the snag is the reported re-looting of such recovered monies and properties by some unscrupulous government officials.
Ladies and Gentlemen, beyond the above examples, permit me to cite further instances of how some kleptomaniac Nigerian public officials have also abused the privilege of their offices. One of such highly placed persons is Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina. He was the Chairman of the defunct Police Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT) whose board was saddled with the responsibility of reforming the Police Pension Commission to purge it of all of infractions. But rather than carry out the assignment, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina decided to fleece the organization and literally ran it aground. Luck however, ran against Mr. Maina and he was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison on November 8, 2021, for money laundering and stealing of pension funds to the tune of N2billion. Like Mr. Maina, Mr. Ahmed Idris, the former Accountant-General of the Federation is currently being prosecuted for money laundering. The Premium Times (2022, May 16) reported that Ahmed Idris was arrested on Monday May 16, 2022, by the EFCC over alleged money laundering and diversion of public funds totaling N170billion. Just as I was putting this paper together, news broke out on September 5, 2022, that the Federal Government had filed fresh charges against a former Commander of the elite Police Intelligence Response Team, Abba Kyari, a Deputy Commissioner of Police.
According to the Punch (2022), the Federal Government uncovered over N207m and 17,598 Euros, traceable to various bank accounts being allegedly operated by the former super cop in addition to 14 assets, including shopping malls, residential estate, polo ground, plots of lands and farm land. Recall that Abba Kyari is also standing trial for alleged drug deals and links to Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi, a Nigerian online fraudster, who is also facing alleged money laundering charges in the USA. The foregoing cases are mere scratches on the surface of the magnitude of grand and petty corruption in Nigeria. We must, however, caution that corruption is not only endemic and pervasive in Nigeria’s public sector. Private individuals are also involved in massive corrupt activities. Studies have shown that corruption is a cankerworm that eats into the social and economic fabric of any nation. It leads to “poor governance and low growth” and hampers social development (Rose-Ackerman, 2004). Corruption serves as a disincentive to foreign direct investment(FDI), thereby complicating the high rates of inflation, unemployment and decline in foreign reserves as well as deterioration in the standards of living of the people as is the case in Nigeria at present. The pervasiveness of high-profile political corruption in Nigeria also undermines any genuine efforts to enhance economic growth and national development as well as diminishes the peoples’ trust in government. In a nutshell, corruption is anathematic to political stability and economic prosperity.
Democracy and politics of exclusion in Nigeria As a concept, democracy has evolved from pre-modern to modern times. One of the most popular and earliest conceptions of democracy is that credited to Abraham Lincoln who perceived democracy as “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. This simple and clear definition of democracy underscores the centrality of the majority of people in this political system whether in terms of investing in, or harvesting the bounties of democracy. Democracy has been touted as the most preferred system of governance, worldwide. It is perhaps, in acknowledgement of that, that Obafemi Awolowo, a sage and one of Nigeria’s foremost politicians noted that the worst form of democracy or civilian rule is better than the best military regime. However, Uji and Kigbu (2013) have opined that while Western democracy entails the development of the people’s capacity as well as ensuring freedoms for the people, the experience with democracy and its practice in developing countries, including Nigeria as a transferred system of government since independence has not taken into cognizance, a strong and sound economic foundation as a basis for national development. According to Eugenia George-Genyi (2022) the vast population of the Nigerian people is impoverished and emasculated by poverty and misery while development and economic growth have continued to elude the nation despite the presence of oil in large commercial quantities. This has prompted scholars such as Collier (2009), to argue that democracy has not actually taken root in Africa generally yet. According to Collier what transpires essentially, may have superficially looked like the spread of democracy, but it is actually the spread of elections.
In fact, one opinion that appears to be gaining ground is that despite Nigeria’s 23 years’ unbroken record of democratic transition, the brand of democracy being currently practiced in the country is civil rule, characterized by politics of ethnicity and exclusion rather than democracy of majority rule and inclusive politics. It is in the light of that assertion that this section of our conversation examines Nigeria’s divisive ethnic politics and its implications Nigeria’s divisive ethno-religious politics and its implications Politics of patronage based on primordial identity is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria. From the colonial period, through independence to the present era, ethnicity has played, and is still playing, manifest and latent roles in the political life of Nigeria. Ethnicity has been one of the most important causes of social crises and political instability in Nigeria. Alumona and Okoli (2021), linked ethnic politics and rivalry in Nigeria to the country’s colonial era when the imperial overlords adopted the strategy of “divide and rule” to further colonial penetration and consolidation. Successive governments in Nigeria since independence, have in one way or the other deployed primordial sentiments in deciding who gets what, when, and how.
However, it has never been as pronounced as it appears to be in the present era as ethnic and religious politics tend to have been elevated to the level of a national statecraft. Kehinde (2015), argued that Nigeria’s electoral choice is largely based on ethnic considerations as successive elections from the colonial era through the post-independence period to the current dispensation have been seriously undermined by ethno-regional cleavages. He lamented that President Muhammadu Buhari rode to power on the basis of such sentiments. What is more, the results of both the 2015 and 2019 elections showed that the voting pattern was based on ethnic and regional considerations. Deriving from the ethnic, regional and religious flavour which the outcome of both elections produced, political appointments made by President Buhari and patronages extended to party loyalists have seemingly reflected such sentiments. As a matter of fact, not only has most of the appointments been highly skewed in favour of the North to the disadvantage of other sections of the country, they have also favoured people of a particular religion. Table 1. below, which shows the distribution of the appointments of heads of the nation’s military and paramilitary institutions as at 2022, speaks volumes about such religion-induced lopsided appointments.
Continues NEXT WEEK
