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

a propos, when i was younger i learned, through friends, that the cops
in ny got "christmas presents" of liquor from the liquor stores--call it
"thank you presents" for the season.
in truth, not the same as a politician stealing public funds.
also, i finally got the point about what was so shocking to find
nigerian govt officials in s africa buying military equipment with cash.
it must have been b/c the military acquisition services were siphoning
off all the money. in npr this morning some nigerian commentator stated
that no military shipments had come into the country for years.... no
wonder the army couldn't defeat boko haram.
ken

On 4/5/15 6:33 PM, 'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series 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 "
>
> - 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

--
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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