Right from the moment
Transparency International’s
Corruption Perception In-
dex(CPI), a flagship research
product which measures
the glimpse of perceived corruption in
the public sector of surveyed countries,
released its 2019 report, different com-
ments that will safely qualify as intra,
inter, cross, trans and counter comments
have been made by Nigerians. Out of
the 180 countries that were surveyed
worldwide, the result saw Nigeria slip
from 144th to 146th on the pecking
order fell by 26 points, a minus of one
when compared to its score in 2018 and
now ranked 32 out of 49 countries in the
sub-region. The latest report shows that
its score of 26 is way below the global av-
erage of 43 and the 2019 average score of
32 for the sub-Saharan Africa region.
Adding context to this discourse, the
word corruption comes from the Latin
word corruptus, which “means to break
or to destroy.” Corruption according to
AL-Gore, a former Vice President of the
United States (USA), destroys and breaks
that trust which is absolutely essential for
the delicate alchemy at the heart of rep-
resentative democracy. In its contempo-
rary form, corruption almost always in-
volves an incestuous coupling of power
and money and describes the exchange
of money for the misuse of public power.
“It matters not whether the exchange
is initiated by the person with the mon-
ey or the person with the power; it is
the exchange itself that is the essence of
the corruption. It matters not if the pri-
vate enrichment is with cash or with its
equivalent in influence, prestige, status,
or power; the harm is done by the fraud-
ulent substitution of wealth for reason
in the determination of how the power
is used. It matters not if the purchase of
power is seen as beneficial by some or
even by many; it is the dishonesty of the
transaction that carries the poison”.
Comparatively, aside from the fact that
the past records of the Federal Govern-
ments has not been encouraging, as no
president has in the past six decades of
independence done really very much for
Nigerians in this direction, when one
places side by side the above explanation
about corruption with the current argu-
ments and condemnation within the
government circle, of the recent ranking,
it rings apprehension that the nation is in
the hands of a dedicated group that can
neither accelerate the process nor shape
development in ways that are conducive
for the reemergence of a fully functional
country. It specifically brings to the fore
the reality that the nation is not only at
war with those that seeks to turn the
clock of history backward. But, reveals
the lack of insight to the true meaning of,
and what corruption as a social scourge
represents; and how such deformed
perception as a consequence truncates
prospect of success in the fight against
corruption.
Indeed, separate from the trumpeted
claim that the Federal Government re-
cently recovered over N200 billion and
convicted 890 people in 2019 anti-cor-
ruption war alone which the Trans-
parency International failed to put into
account, there is an accompanying be-
lieve within the government circle that
in terms of the fight against corruption,
the F.G has done well, and will continue
to do more out of inherent conviction
and desire on their part to fight against
corruption devoid of any extraneous
considerations relating to the rating by
Transparency International. Similar to
this is another school of thought that the
claim and inference by TI that Nigeria
ranks the fourth most corrupt country
in West Africa is totally unacceptable,
as it is not supported by any empirical
data, especially when placed side-by-side
with the remarkable achievements of the
EFCC in the past years.
Of course, such argument in their es-
timation may not be wrong. After all,
the mind thrives on imperfect data.And
as humans; ‘we can turn nonsense into
sense because our brains have been de-
signed for a world where a fast, plausi-
ble interpretation is often better than a
slow, certain one. Yet, the strength of this
everyday intelligence carries with it an
unexpected liability. The very way ours
have evolved to process information is of-
ten the root cause of the most common
and the most dangerous errors in busi-
ness judgement’
But, the greatest irony and tragedy of
these commentaries is that none, not
even a single personality or Govern-
ment’s institution remembered to tell
Nigerians how nepotistic and supportive
corruption has in the past few years rid-
iculed the country and made non-sense
of the Federal character. As we know,
while nepotistic corruption involves un-
justified and often unqualified appoint-
ment of friends or acquaintances to pub-
lic offices in violations to the established
norms (federal character), supportive
corruption on its parts refers to actions
undertaken to protect the existing or al-
ready done corrupt practices particularly
when the person(s) involved belong to
the same ruling party.
If objective analysis can replace emo-
tional discussion, it becomes easy to
signpost that in Nigeria, as well as most
countries in Africa, perception about
corruption often tends to be strongly
coloured by ‘national culture’ and tribal
background of the personalities involved
and their supporters. An understanding
of this development can add a vital di-
mension of realism and provide a link to
why the fight in the continent has been
lost to the political winds.
Admittedly, corruption, speaking in
absolute terms is a human problem and
has existed for so long a time in some
forms -so also is its fights. What differs
from one country to the other is the de-
gree of political will dissipated to tack-
ling the scourge.
Take Singapore as an example of a
country that suffered in the past what
currently confronts Nigeria as a nation.
In 1959, as documented by Lee Kuen
Yew, its first Prime Minister, both high
and low profiled cases of corruption ex-
isted. High profile cases made the head-
lines. Several ministers were guilty of
corruption, one in each of the decades
from the 1960s to the 1980s. Corruption
used to be organized on large scale in cer-
tain areas. In 1971, the CBPIB broke up
a syndicate of over 250 mobile squad po-
lice men who received payments ranging
from $.5 to $.10 per month from truck
owners who’s vehicle they recognized
by the addresses painted on the sides of
the trucks. Those owners who refused to
pay will be constantly harassed by having
summons issued against them.
Custom officers would receive bribes
to speed up the checking of vehicle
smuggling in prohibited goods. Person-
nel’s in the central supplies offices (the
government procurement department),
provide information on tender bids for a
fee. Officers in the import and the export
department received bribes to hasten the
issue of permits. Contractors bribe clerks
of works to allow short piling. Public
health labourer was paid by shopkeepers
to do their job of clearing refuse. Princi-
pals and teachers received commission
from stationary suppliers. Human inge-
nuity is infinite when translating power
and discretion into personal gain. But, it
was not difficult to clean up these organ-
ized rackets.
Here , its fight is a direct opposite.
Corruption and its fights in the coun-
try dates back to Colonial governments
as they (Colonial Overlords) sufficiently
legislated against it in the first criminal
code ordinance of 1916(No15 of 1916)
which elaborately made provisions pro-
hibiting official bribery and corruption
by persons in the public service and
in the judiciary. Also at independence
on October 1, 1960, the criminal code
against corruption and abuse of office in
Nigeria were in section 98 to 116 and 404
of the code.
