RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Has globalization failed in Nigeria?

What exactly is meant by corruption? Is corruption illegal compensation and gratification for doing one's fully paid work? Is it abuse of office, dereliction of duty, and enriching oneself in the process? Is it society, the system, the people, or all of them that is corrupt? Is there a difference between a corrupt society and a society with corrupt people and corrupt practices? Should a society be described as corrupt if corruption is the rule rather than the exception- institutionalized corruption, such that corruption is the default state in relationships and transactions?Corruption is a basal part of such a society's culture. In such a society, corruption will usually cast an encasing shadow on most activities and transaction. It is expected, tolerated, encouraged, glorified and seldom severely punished.
Is the above scenario not what it seems to be in many African countries? If it is, to describe the countries as corrupt will not be saying much. Their governments- executive, legislature, and the judiciary are all corrupt. Traditional institutions are corrupt. Civil and other societies in the countries are corrupt. Responsibility and accountability are not high order issues. All that seems to matter is that the "store" remains open for business even though not much trade goes on. A new word should be found and used to describe the countries.
For me, a society, system and people are corrupt when corruption is the exception rather than the rule. In such a society, to be corrupt will earn legal and moral disapproval and when proven will be severely punish in line with the law. That does not seem to be the case in many African countries.

oa


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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2015 5:34 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Has globalization failed in Nigeria?

"2. Political corruption, by sheer volume and amounts involved, exacts a greater moral damage in Africa than quotidian corruption.

3. Political corruption (big ticket graft perpetrated by politicians and high level bureaucrats) is directly responsible for scuttling social and infrastructure projects like schools, hospitals, roads, electricity. It is therefore directly responsible for the death, poverty, and suffering of Africans. Quotidian corruption has at best an indirect culpability in these moral consequences.

4. Political corruption is responsible for the huge capital flight out of the country, the illicit export of money out of African economies. For the most part, the result of quotidian corruption is the transfer and re-transfer of money between individuals and nodes within the domestic "

- Moses Ochonu

I enjoyed very much reading Ochonu's analysis; I am not sure I agree with much of it though. My main issue is that it is hard to draw any conclusions without data.

I get the distinction between quotidian and political corruption; there is clearly a difference. We do not have the data though to determine conclusively which is more harmful to the individual and ultimately to the state - quotidian or political corruption.

Anecdotally, in the case of Nigeria, corruption has become such a permanent part of our social and cultural fabric, through the weight of sheer numbers, it is hard to underestimate the deleterious cost of quotidian corruption. To be blunt, from the "court clerk" in my village to the presidency in Aso Rock, corruption is a way of life, that is how you survive your hell. Virtually everyone does it, there are horror stories of what occurs in Nigerian public educational institutions for instance (many university lecturers make a killing from corruption and harm children immeasurably in the process).

Let's not underestimate how much quotidian corruption is a cancer on our societies. Quotidian corruption overtaxes the average Nigerian citizen and, lately thanks to political corruption, that has helped strip institutions like the police of resources, the citizen gets nothing in return. Absolutely nothing, have you been to a Nigerian police station lately? You have to bring your pen and paper to lodge and document a report. Sometimes they ask for a dozen pens and a ream of paper! And this did not start yesterday, I grew up in the barracks in the sixties and the seventies, we have been stealing from ourselves for a very long time. Because no one is held accountable.

What is to be done? We should do what the West has done; monetize and legitimize a sizable portion of the graft; I would argue that Nigerian policemen for instance have no choice but to be corrupt, they are woefully underpaid, so they get the difference from bribes. Tax the people, they are already being taxed by the police anyway, and pay the policemen what they really deserve. Put structures in place that punish severely bribe taking.

Here in my community in the US, labor rules permit cops to guard liquor stores and churches in their uniforms and with their squad cars in return for pay by the stores and churches. It is legal; in Nigeria that would be corruption. The difference in perception is driven by the fact that my community has seen fit to compensate the police officers appropriately and removed the incentive to bribe. By the way, these are not federal cops, they are local government cops.

My point is that these ideas of Ochonu's are brilliant ideas but they are not really new. What would be really new is for our rulers to effect necessary structural changes that help us, and remove the stigma attached to being Nigerian or African. It is mostly in our hands; blaming other people for our dysfunctions is not helpful and fifty years after independence, we have lost credibility in that regard.

The corruption is so blatant that I am not sure an average American would understand the difference between what is quotidian and what is political; they are not that sophisticated. Let us look inward: How do we make our rulers effect change? We have the solutions; who will bell the cat?

- Ikhide

> On Apr 5, 2015, at 12:27 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 2. Political corruption, by sheer volume and amounts involved, exacts a greater moral damage in Africa than quotidian corruption.
>
> 3. Political corruption (big ticket graft perpetrated by politicians and high level bureaucrats) is directly responsible for scuttling social and infrastructure projects like schools, hospitals, roads, electricity. It is therefore directly responsible for the death, poverty, and suffering of Africans. Quotidian corruption has at best an indirect culpability in these moral consequences.
>
> 4. Political corruption is responsible for the huge capital flight out
> of the country, the illicit export of money out of African economies.
> For the most part, the result of quotidian corruption is the transfer
> and re-transfer of money between individuals and nodes within the
> domestic

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