Nigeria is dysfunctional in every area as a result of an epidemic called corruption. This goes beyond politicians, public office holders, private sector operators and our family units. The plague can be found in our everyday dealings with our institutions.
Corruption is a social evil with immediate economic effects but also long-term damage on the moral fabric of humanity; it eats into the family values where ones worth is measured by the size of the wallet; It eats into the public life and social sector thereby denning the general population of the basic things in life.
Corruption comes from the Id- the instinctive nature of the being, the self, the selfish, the animal desire to fulfil immediate aggressions and desires which mature into fully grow untamed ego. Ours have now grown into a norm to a culture. It’s also fuelled by the desire in capitalism which advocates completion, privatization and wealth accumulation. We have extended ours to greed, wickedness and inhumanity to fellow men. How do we explain individual accumulating unearned billions even when served as a dish he or she cannot finish eating corruption proceeds before his lifetime.
Nigeria’s brand of corruption seems to have encompassed the three types of corruption, petty corruption, grand corruption and systematic or endemic corruption. These three forms of corruption, petty corruption occur at a smaller scale and within established social frameworks and governing norms. Examples of petty corruption include the exchange of small improper gifts or use of personal connections to obtain favours. This form of corruption is common where public servants are significantly underpaid and a dysfunctional economic system.
Another form of corruption, which is grand corruption, is occurring at the highest levels of government in a way that requires significant subversion of the political, legal and economic systems. This occurs where there are inadequate policing of corruption or adequate punitive measures commensurate with the crime committed. In addition, another form of corruption is systematic or endemic corruption; this is a type of corruption which is primarily due to the weaknesses of an organization, institutions or process. It can be contrasted with individual officials or agents who act corruptly within the system.
We are really in a big threat to scratch the enormous issue of corruption. Corruption is a sore universal concept but in some societies it is treated with respect and in other with disdain. We breathe and eat corruption in our country Nigeria. We have moved from corruption to impunity. The acceptance of corrupting norms can be seen in our family life, interactions with friends and relatives, in public and private lives and institutions.
We should start by insisting that all corrupt individuals should return their ill -gotten wealth and individuals with unexpected and unexplainable wealth should forfeit such wealth to the state. This can help correct a disjointed economic system and set examples for others to learn from.
As one of the cardinal objectives in which the incoming administration won the April election, the government needs to confront corruption by showing political will to tackle the menace; changing some judicial and legal framework for curbing corruption and also adding some policy framework from the already existing framework. The government needs to review and consolidate on some of the gains and achievement made by the other previous governments in reducing corruption especially in the accounting process and institutional setups.
Some of these gains include the establishment of the anti- corruption agencies and the introduction of some technology driven concepts like the Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System (GIFMIS), integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and some other technology driven platform that can reduce corruption in the public service and other sectors of the economy. The government needs to look into the Acts of the following anti-corruption agencies and initiatives amendments that reflect the current realities in the country .They should give some of them the powers not only to prosecute and initiate criminal proceedings against offenders but also to act within some constitutional and legal framework. Some of these agencies include; ICPC, EFCC, NEITI, Code of Conduct bureau, also included are other agencies whose activities go a long way in abetting corruption. They include the Budget office, Bureau of public services reform, Federal Inland revenue services, Office of the Attorney general of the federation, office of the auditor general of the federation, Public complaint commission, Technical unit on governance and anti-corruption reform, Fiscal responsibility commission, Bureau of Public procurement. They should be strengthened and the capacity of the workers to fight corruption enhanced to perform their duties effectively. These include the training of the work force, granting of investigative powers and prosecuting capacity.
On the judicial and legal reform towards reducing corruption, the government should initiate a legal framework that is retributive and commiserate with the crime of small and grand corruption. Some effects of some of the corrupt practices are more deadly than ebola, Aids and malaria combined together. The government should establish a special court to handle mostly corrupt cases and dispatch the cases within an acceptable time frame. This will be an improvement from our justice system that allows some cases to extend more than ten years as with some of the corrupt cases. They should be a time line for corrupt cases. The penalties for corrupt cases should also be reviewed depending on the amount and level of corruption involved. We should also be mindful that embezzlement and bribery is not the only corrupt practices but also the subversion of the political, legal and economic systems in form of nepotism and co.
The judicial reform can also take the form of appointment of more judges and creation of new courts on emergency basis in the country. This will help to speed up the judicial process and the creation of monitoring and inspection department in the judiciary to monitor and eliminate the ever increasing corruption cases. There should be a way of ensuring that judges are not corrupt also that they are selected based on passion and conviction. The judicial service commission, the body of benchers and the Nigeria bar association have a huge role to play in this. The country should also ensure a strong adherence to the rule of law. This should actually be the bedrock towards every other reform in the judiciary process. This entails the uninterrupted willingness of all citizenry to allow the law to work for all and sundry i.e equality before the law .Also the various arms of the law are allowed to work independently and to fulfil their constitutional obligations.
Civil and Public service reform is essential for the eradication of corruption. Apart from the establishment of the Bureau of Public procurement, there is the need to establish a Public procurement council to stop the weekly use of the Federal Executive council as a public procurement outlet. This would greatly reduce corruption. There is also the need to focus much attention on the civil and public sector to curb corruption. Most of the contracts in the federal civil service are done by the management in the civil service or their contractor representatives. What this means is that the middle men or genuine business men and contractors are schemed out. There should be a comprehensive auditing of the owners of the properties in Abuja and other major cities to ascertain those owned by the previous or serving civil servants. Unaccounted owners and wealth should be confiscated. Doing this will help the government to reduce the incident of corruption among the civil service and some others that reap the system off. There should be a comprehensive reform and professionalism in the civil service. Also there should be a deliberate policy by the government to attract the best of our citizenry to civil service and improve on their remuneration. There should also set up some other comprehensive welfare scheme to ensure a secured future life for our public servants.
The idea of red tape and bureaucratic bottle neck should be address. This ensures that government service delivery mechanism and issues in the public and civil service are treated with dispatch. A time frame should be set for the handling of any particular issue. To ensure about this the government should through the anti- corruption agencies set up string operations to arrest and prosecute offenders. This would mostly be effective in institutions that are notorious in perpetuating corruption.
Added to this important judicial and legal framework is the massive education of the population on the dangers and evils of corruption. This comprehensive educational, media and advocacy platform will go a long way in sensitising the population on the evils of corruption. Corruption should actually be treated the way we handle ebola as it has proven to be more dangerous than any communicable disease or natural disaster. Jingles, musicals and our educational curriculum should provide platforms for education and enlightenment on corruption. Our human resources training should devote a substantial part to the training on ethics, moral sanity and values that promote uprightness and rewards honesty. Honesty should be presented as an important virtue. The role of the traditional institutions, churches, mosques, families and other community based organisation can also be harnessed as they form part nucleus of the moral persuasion and agents that encourage our public servants to engage in corruption. The communities should be encouraged to device means of shaming ill- gotten wealth or suspicion wealth. The role of the community or social roots in curbing corruption is paramount if the government is to curb corruption. These groups of individual should be made to understand that they are the victims of corruption.
We should also establish a whistle blowing policy to guide the conduct of our public and private sector. This policy should be holistic to cover all sphere of life for the country. The whistle blow act should be promoted as a parliamentary act and forms a compulsory part of any organisational policy. It should find a way to encourage and reward whistle blowers and punish individuals with knowledge of a fraudulent activity that refuse to report the same to selected agencies.
Transparency and accountability should be the mark of all the government dealings. The idea of transparency is to make sure that the formulation of every policy and implementation of such policy is done in an open, clear and transparent manner. This entails carry the general public, civil society organisation along in formulating and implementation of policies. It will entail that every contract and function of the government is open for scrutiny for every interested party. With this kind of policy, it will greatly improve due process and discourage corruption. Government should periodically publish all the contracts awarded in the country with an attached ownership structure of the companies that won and executed the contract. If practicable all ministries, department and agencies should be audited annually and its expenditure profile exhibited openly. This will encourage good governance and the culture of due process.
Apart from all these, the security agencies with the banks should monitor the financial transaction exceeding certain amount of money .This is in the addition to the already existing reporting by banks to EFCC. These agencies should be empowered to investigate ill-gotten wealth or suspicious wealth and makes it obligatory for these agencies to commence the investigation and confiscation of wealth gotten illegal.
Although an advocate of slim government but we would galvanise the fight against corruption by the establishment of an anti- corruption czar to harmonise and coordinate the activities of all the anti-corruption agencies and give the tumour a special and strategic attention in the country.
The most important action the government needs to take is to exhibit the political will to tackle corruption. This political will will ensure that every corrupt cases be investigate and the law allowed to take a full course. The general population should see and perceive the government to have a zero tolerance on corruption or any corrupt practices. The president and his lieutenants should be seen to be above board. Added to this is the creation of some ambassadors to serve as catalyst or agents against corruption. These should be individuals whose public and private lives will serve as examples for the population.
We are all victims of corruption. From the dysfunctional government system to the impunity that goes on in the government and private circles has all made our society to tend towards a failing state. If we are to make progress, eradication of corruption should be declared a national emergency .
Ogwu Paul Okwuchukwu
ogwupaulo@yahoo.com