2011 anti-corruption war in Nigeria: a lost battle?

By Tonnie Iredia

The on-going trial of some former Governors for corruption while in office is quite thought provoking for what it reveals- that the anti-corruption war in Nigeria is a cyclical unending relay race. Looking at where we are coming from, the situation is no doubt frustrating.

During the first republic, the Balewa government declared corruption as the nation’s main enemy. General Yakubu Gowon promulgated the ‘Corrupt Practices Decree No. 38 of 1975 to deal with the subject.

Murtala Mohammed sacked about 10,000 civil servants on the basis of corruption and related matters. President Shagari concerned about the high incidence of indiscipline and corruption inaugurated an Ethical Revolution Committee in 1982. After him, General Buhari swore never to “tolerate kickback, inflation of contracts, forgeries, fraud and abuse of office’.

President Babangida resuscitated the Code of Conduct Bureau to which he added the Code of Conduct Tribunal in 1989 to handle corruption. For the same purpose, General Abacha set up the Failed Banks Tribunal and promulgated the ‘Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Decree No. 13 of 1995’.

We have since added two formidable bodies-the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). But till date, not much has been achieved in respect of the subject as allegations of corruption against many top leaders are becoming more bizarre by the day.

The suspicion that the nation may not have the political will to try the high and the mighty is no longer an issue since we have in our anti-corruption drive, humiliated many-a former Senate President, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, several former Ministers and Permanent Secretaries, Chief Executives of Banks and even a former Inspector General of Police! It seems it is time for us to introspect and ask another question-is Nigeria a naturally corrupt nation that openly purports to hate what it inwardly likes doing?

This question is germane because of the many unwholesome things that our public institutions stand for. Why for example, is the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) unable to provide a metre to anyone who can afford it so that everyone can pay his correct bill?

Inexplicable too, is the fact that anyone who is lucky to get a metre is charged an amount for it every month notwithstanding that it was fully paid for before it was supplied. With constant power failure, it is difficult to quickly exhaust the credit in a PHCN recharge card, yet people are officially surcharged for not buying another card while their previous cards are still in credit.

Another public body- the Abuja Water Board is never able to reconcile payment of bills to it through banks designated by it for the purpose. Although the board gets the original of the payment receipt from the bank, every consumer has to display in his premises, a photocopy of the duplicate copy of the receipt. This creates a conducive opportunity to extort money from those who panic over threat of disconnection or what else is the deliberate confusion for?

With advanced technology, all our banks are now on- line making it possible for a customer who opens an account in one location to operate it anywhere in Nigeria but because our electoral commission has to retain some inherited avenue for fraud, it cannot use the same strategy to make it possible for a citizen to vote in a place different from where he was registered. Meanwhile, we hear that over 1,300 of the commission’s Direct Data Capture Machines (DDC) have been allowed to be “stolen” from a designated custody.

But theft in offices cannot be worse than the official fraud where many governments in the nation appoint countless 419 political employees as Special Advisers and Assistants into non-existent positions without any schedule of duties. Worse still, their bogus salaries- about ?200,000 per month are unrelated to their qualifications and experience as many of them have in actual fact, never worked before.

How can a government be involved in the fraudulent practice of paying salaries to people who are deceitfully described as officials but who everyone knows have no job to do? At local government level, our councils are a haven of fraud.

First, state governors divert a substantial part of their allocation and this has been confirmed-thanks to Governor Aregbesola of Osun state who openly decried the trend recently. Second, council officials are reportedly found in their offices only on the days fixed for sharing among themselves whatever their governors graciously give them. Whereas such officials across the nation tell whoever wishes to hear that they are short changed, they are part of the game.

Only last week, local councils in Bayelsa state organized a lavish political rally to support their governor’s gubernatorial ambition which was transmitted LIVE on national television- who paid for it? In 2009, 110 council areas selected from the 36 states paid eight hundred thousand naira (?800,000) each for an Award/Dinner event for Best-Performed Local Government Chairmen in Nigeria organized by some committees in the National Assembly.

As for we the people, we are essentially hypocrites with respect to corruption in view of the large crowd of ethnic supporters who appear in court to show solidarity with persons who are standing trial. Indeed the atmosphere at the trial of anyone charged with corruption often looks as if it is government itself that is on trial.

More often than not, the real suspect triumphantly enters the court amidst ovation which he acknowledges with his two hands like someone in a political party rally. In other words, we hate corruption but we love those accused of it; hence, when a citizen moves up into a big position, his friends and relations are quick to remind him that ‘this is our time’.

What then is the definition of corruption in Nigeria? The case of Patricia Etteh, former speaker of the House of Representative seems illuminating. She was accused and indicted of corruption by her colleagues and then forced out of office. While the indictment subsisted, she was given national honours. At the tail end of the life-span of the House, those who openly championed her indictment eloquently alerted the nation that she really did nothing wrong earlier.

Against this backdrop, it is obvious that the institutions of society set up to coordinate our fight against corruption have an awesome mandate. Surprisingly, they have feeble official support considering what we hear of a ministerial struggle to control them.

It also explains why Farida Waziri, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is the one agitating for a special court to handle corruption cases whereas that should have been one of the tools we should have given her knowing the nature of corruption in our society and how difficult it has been to deal with.

With the recent condemnation of plea bargaining by eminent Jurist- Justice Kayode Esho, we can only agree that corruption is now an attractive crime in Nigeria whose punishment consumes only a negligible fraction of the gains of the offence. It looks like a lost battle!!