Corruption, the abuse of power for private gain, featured prominently in the 2015 presidential contest. Incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan was accused repeatedly of not doing enough to punish corrupt practices since the start of his presidency. He claimed that the anti-graft agencies under his watch had more convictions than at any other time in Nigeria’s history.
Jonathan pointed to ending years of fertilizer fraud and the introduction of electronic payment systems in the public service leading to detection of 56,000 ghost workers and associated savings of N162billion. These and similar accounts of his stewardship did not catch the fancy of many because of the high level of impunity displayed by the corrupt in the society. President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was relentless in assuring the electorate that he would deal decisively with corruption if voted into office.
We believe that with the emergence of General Buahri as president-elect, Nigeria would need to prioritize a determined fight against corruption.
The Buhari team must move fast to tell Nigerians how he intends to actualize the war against corruption that he promised the electorate. Nigerians do not deserve a long wait for the details of his plans for a corruption-free regime.
Usman Mohammed, a political scientist at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, recently summarized scholarly research on the impact of corruption on economic development, drawing attention to the salient points. He bemoaned a situation where people steal billions of naira and after their arrest and prosecution such persons are only jailed for three or six months. To him, this practice makes corruption in Nigeria the most lucrative and attractive business.
The impact of corruption on the economy and the fabric of the society is seen in annual budgets that are not implemented. Budget monitoring groups in the country have frequently reported that capital votes for social and economic infrastructure are often embezzled with impunity at federal, state and local government levels. The result is that schools are not built, hospitals operate without medicine and roads are left impassable. Indeed, corruption in Nigeria today engenders social, economic and political problems, among others.
It is also true that corruption slows down the institutionalization of democracy, rule of law, human rights and economic development. In addition, corruption promotes high incidence of conflict, violence, crime, insecurity and instability due to antagonistic competition, inequality, poverty and lack of access to basic necessities of life.
Most importantly, corruption facilitates erosion of the values of hard work and integrity besides conscripting access to productive opportunities; diversion of energies of the youth to crime, deviance behaviour, violence and sundry forms of anti-social behaviour.
On the economy, corruption discourages foreign investment because of unwholesome bureaucratic and other practices that characterize the activities of regulatory agencies. Also, lack of investment in the real sector by both foreign and domestic investors is often a consequence of corruption because of high profitability of contracts in services and supplies. A related challenge is dependence on foreign sources for goods and services resulting in under development of indigenous technological and productive capabilities required for a diversified economy.
Leakages of national assets to foreign countries through money laundering and conspicuous consumption are also traceable to corrupt practices. Another key impact of corruption is misallocation of resources towards programmes and projects amenable to corrupt practices. Lastly, there is the high cost of doing business and low investment in productive sectors. This frequently results in widespread poverty and unemployment, high prices of goods, low purchasing power leading to low capacity utilization by producers and manufacturers which in turn results in retrenchment of workers
For these and similar aberrations, Nigeria deserves a fresh look at corruption with a view to implementing well-thought solutions to halting the advance of the monster in our country. In doing this, policy makers must take due cognizance of the need to follow the rule of law in a democracy.
Weneso Orogun
