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A National Bureau of Statistics’ (NBS) survey has shown that Nigerians paid about N400 billion or $4.6 billion as bribes in 2016. The survey, which was conducted between June 2015 and May 2016, was supported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the European Union, wanted to assess the quality and integrity of public services in Nigeria. The amount paid as bribes by Nigerians to public officials was equivalent to 50 percent of the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the 36 states of the federation in 2016.
Ninety-two percent (92%) of the bribes paid were in cash. And when compared with countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Western Balkans, surveyed by UNODC on similar issue, at 92 percent, Nigeria and Iraq are countries where bribes are paid the most in cash.
“Corruption is the bane of any progressive society. It stifles entrepreneurship, professionalism and erodes the value of hard work and honesty, and is one of the root causes of under-development in our society. Over the years, we have seen the effect of corruption manifesting across all sectors of society, with collusion across the public to private sectors to sports bodies and even civil society”, the survey report stated.
The exercise covered 33,067 households in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The survey findings further show that 52.2 percent of Nigerian adults had contact with public officials, of which 32.3 percent of such interactions resulted in bribe payments, meaning that bribes were paid 82.3 million times by Nigerians during the period.
Furthermore, 62 out of every 100 Nigerian adults that paid bribes during the period, paid at least once and at most three times in a year. Furthermore, 19 out of every 100 adults that paid bribes, did so at least four times and at most six times in year, just as 13 out of 100 Nigerian adults paid bribes at least seven times and at most 15 times in a year. Three out of every 100 paid bribes at least 16 times and at most 30 times in a year, while another three out of every 100 paid bribes more than 30 times in a year.
Nigerian Police officers top the list of public officials who asked for bribes directly and they were followed by public utilities officials and customs officers. The findings show that six out of every 10 bribes paid to Nigerian police officers were asked for directly, while others were asked for indirectly. For customs officers and their counterparts in public utilities, five out of every 10 bribes paid to them were asked for directly, while the rest were asked indirectly.
However, the customs officials are the most expensive to deal with. This is because in every transaction where a customs officer asked for a bribe, an average of N88,587 was paid. The next most expensive to deal with are judges and magistrates, prosecutors, land registry officers, representatives of local/state government, teachers/lecturers, doctors and police officers. In any transaction that required that a bribe must be paid, the average amount collected by judges/magistrates was N18, 576. Prosecutors collected N10,072 bribe per transaction, while land registry officers, local/state government representatives and teachers/lecturers collected N8,782; N8,043 and N5,958 as bribe respectively. Doctors working in public hospitals and health centres and public utilities officers collected N5,925 and N4,373 as bribe per transaction respectively.
Most of the bribes were paid in order to speed up procedures, avoid payment of fines, stop cancellation of public utilities and to receive preferential treatment. Among the six geopolitical zones, the highest bribe per transaction was paid in the South-East region. During the period covered by the survey, an average of N14,106 was paid as bribe per transaction in the South East zone; N8,190 bribe paid per transaction in South-South; N4,586 in North East; N4,002 in North West; N3,861 in North Central while N3,180 was paid as bribe per transaction in South West. Over 72 percent of Nigerians in South West, North Central, North East and North West believed strongly in the commitment and effectiveness of government in the fight against corruption.
TELIAT SULE
