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

ken:

Greetings. Thanks. I have to go for an interview on international watercourse law and the Nile River Basin. Nevertheless, I will try to address the issues you have raised.

(1) I must disagree with you. The impact of corruption on the lives of Africans is often understated and not overstated. As one who has not only researched and written about corruption, but one who has been affected by corruption, I can tell you that corruption is probably one of the most important constraints to human development in Africa. A lot of issues in Africa, such as destructive mobilization by ethnic and religious groups that are marginalized by the ruling regime and pushed to the political and economic periphery, often have their origins and foundations in the corrupt practices of the civil servants and political elites who rule the country.

(2) Civil service pay has very little to do with corruption. Some of the highest paid civil servants and politicians in Africa are also among the most corrupt. In fact, in studies of corruption in Nigeria and Cameroon, scholars determined that the most corrupt civil servants in these countries were actually among the highest paid public workers in the country. You may want to read Gould and Mukendi's piece on corruption in Zaire/DRC. It is quite illuminating. D. J. Gould and T. B. Mukendi (1989), "Bureaucratic Corruption in Africa: Causes, Consequences and Remedies," International Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp, 427-457.

(3) People who argue that the total economic picture would not be affected by corruption see corruption as a simple transfer of income from one citizen or group to another. Hence, the money remains within the economy. Unfortunately, that argument fails to take into account the fact that most of the money stolen from African countries through corruption is usually "invested" in offshore accounts in Switzerland and other safe places or is used to purchase real property in the developed countries--this is the preferred option because if the crook gets caught, his ill-gotten gains are safely located abroad and most likely is his or her family. Transparency International has provided a record of money stolen by many of Africa's dictators and top-civil servants and placed in foreign accounts, It is in the billions of dollars. Perhaps, more important, is the fact that corruption, especially the bribes requested by civil servants, makes it very difficult for ordinary citizens to organize their lives and engage in those activities that enhance living and improve their quality of life. In corrupt African countries, ordinary living is made extremely difficult by persistent requests for money by police, hospital staff, clerks at government offices, border officers, etc. Then, as determined by research, corruption can deprive citizens of access to life-saving public services such as police protection, medicines at public hospitals, clean water, etc. If you have the chance, read my book: CORRUPTION IN AFRICA: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, AND CLEANUPS (2007 hardback; 2010 paper).

Sorry, but I have to go. 

John 

On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 11:45 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

john
i have heard only one or two lectures on corruption, but i get the impression that its impact is often overstated.
secondly, what is called corruption might be renamed when the full circumstances are taken into account. i learned that the hotel where i was staying in burkina was three months behind on paying their personnel. when i left, everyone was begging me for tips, for money. i would understand those people, at wits end about paying their bills, trying to find any way to extract something more from me.
i know--we all know--of civil servants not being paid. in some instances in senegal i heard you might wait a year before your salary would begin. how do you live in the meanwhile?
how do/did teachers in the congo live without salaries for years?
so, bribes/tips/pots de vin/bakshish might be seen as a substitute for an inadequate or missing salary.
is there any correspondence between that level of "corruption," the cop who demands a "tax" for driving on, and the billions stolen at the top. frankly i am dubious that the one has anything to do with the other.
nicolas van der walle argues that in many cases the total economic picture isn't affected by corruption. i don't know if he would argue that in light of the enormity of the amount stolen from oil revenues in nigeria. i'd love to hear more of your thoughts on the impact corruption has, and how we are to measure it, assess it
ken

On 4/4/15 12:57 PM, John Mbaku wrote:

Corruption in Nigeria, and indeed, in other African countries, is an institutional problem--it is a problem exacerbated by the existence of weak and dysfunctional institutions. No one individual, president or otherwise, and no matter how much power that person is granted, can deal effectively with corruption, unless he or she begins by bringing together all relevant stakeholder groups in the country to reconstruct the state and provide the country with institutional arrangements that adequately constrain state custodians (i.e., civil servants and political elites). If anyone on this forum is really interested in minimizing corruption in Nigeria and creating a new foundation on which the country can build a new nation characterized by peaceful coexistence, rapid creation of the wealth needed to fight poverty and improve national living conditions, including those of heretofore marginalized groups and communities, that person should recognize the role played by the country's dysfunctional institutions in the perpetuation of a corrupt and/or "chop" mentality in the country. Such an individual might begin by reading Jean-François Bayart's L'état en Afrique: la politique du ventre (1989). I believe there is an English translation: The State In Africa: The Politics of the Belly (1993). Also La criminalisation de l'état en Afrique (Jean-François Bayart, Stephen Ellis & Béatrice Hibou eds., 1997). I believe there is an English translation--The Criminalization of the State in Africa (1999). Reading these materials should help the reader recognize the importance of institutions to corruption. If he or she is still not convinced, then read the following: John Mukum Mbaku, Corruption in Africa: Causes, Consequences, and Cleanups (2010). The key point brought out by all this research is that: unconstrained power can turn even a saint into a despotic and uncontrollable tyrant. 

On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 4:10 AM, Ibukunolu A Babajide <ibk2005@gmail.com> wrote:

Ikhide,

You supported Jonathan who personified the stealing political elite and you campaigned against Buhari whose ONLY credential is to stop the looting.

YOU and educated elite of your ilk are complicit in the looting. Before you raise any unsustainable defence my good self and many like me have been fighting against this looting. I started at 17 and I am still at the task.

There is no Utopia in politics. There is no black and white but shades of both colours but when you exposed your privates and intellectual shallowness in public you abstained from choosing the better alternative. That your moral abdication deny you any moral high ground to speak against corruption because you are corrupt too or at the minimum you are complicit in supporting a corrupt government or by not actively supporting a man who personifies anti corruption.

Cheers.

IBK

On 4 Apr 2015 05:46, "'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

"Since 1960, over $600 billion in oil revenues has flowed into Nigeria's coffers; it represents an opportunity unavailable to much of the developing world. These petrodollars could have been spent pro­duc­tively, could have transformed agriculture, laid the foundation for an effective public education system, pro­vided much-needed infrastructure. Yet, according to the World Bank, of that $600 billion, $300 billion has simply disappeared into overseas bank accounts through theft and corruption."

http://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/has-globalization-failed-nigeria

I have another source document that insists that $400 billion was looted. By the way, Oby Ezekwesili and others use these figures...

- Ikhide

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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
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Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & Willard L. Eccles Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow
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--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu

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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
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Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & Willard L. Eccles Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow
Department of Economics
Weber State University
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Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA
(801) 626-7442 Phone
(801) 626-7423 Fax

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