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SUNDAY MUSINGS: On the Matter of Whether Corruption is in Nigeria's Culture or Not
by
Mobolaji Aluko
May 8, 2016
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My People:
I ABSOLUTELY refuse, ABSOLUTELY, to agree that corruption has become the "culture" of Nigerians.
Let me first define corruption, broadly conceived, as the conversion of entrusted (public or private) asset or position for purely private gain, and/or the extraction/obtaining of un-earned reward through exerting illegal influence from a legal position of authority or privileged position. I am almost certain that this definition covers ALL corruption, public or private, from the market woman who tips her wares' scales, to the mechanic who sells you an old part for new, to the civil servant who accepts bribe, to the President who takes money arbitrarily from the Central Bank.
Please UNDERSTAND that, over time, the number of Nigerians who have ACTUALLY demonstrated corruption RELATIVE to the total number of Nigerians is SMALL - probably much less than 2%. The number of ALL Nigerians who have DEMONSTRATED corruption - given the opportunity may be much larger - say 30% - and that percentage increases to 60% for SENIOR OFFICERS (both public and private) - and the number of Nigerians who would CONCEIVE of such - without any opportunity at all to activate it - is probably less than 20%.
Those numbers do not a culture amount to.
What is worrying in Nigeria is the SCALE of the ability to demonstrate corruption - and do it with such unrelenting impunity and massive amounts in Naira, dollars, euros and cowrie shells - by a relatively FEW people in public "trust", and who remain in the public eye, and use that money to shield themselves in the Executive (including in the Civil Service), Legislature and in the Judiciary. That is what is demoralizing, and make it look as if it has become a "culture" in Nigeria.
I do not believe that God created the Nigerian to be MORE corrupt or LESS corrupt that any other human being. That will be maligning our Creator - and may God forgive those who would malign God. Rather, I believe that the particular trajectory of the Nigerian state, its present constitutional status, has made its INSTITUTIONS to be so weak as to make TOO MANY actors be able to MANIPULATE them for their own good for too long. The ongoing Dasuki-Gate, Diezena-gate, NIMASA-gate, Saraki-gate, #Panama-Nigeria-gate, etc. - as well as Scania-gate, Dikko-gate, Ibori-gate, Tafa-gate, etc. before them - are mere examples, where the regulatory institutions seem to have broken down.
The Nigerian situation shows that trying to lock the stable AFTER the horses have escaped is not a viable success strategy - there are JUST too many horses, and as you are trying to corral the escaped horses, more horses are yet escaping. It is like the Sisyphian travail. What is needed is for those who SINCERELY detest the system to put aside their little ethnic, religious and primordial sentiments, and erect stables which make it HARDER for the horses to escape in the first instance, so that there are MUCH FEWER of them that escape when they do - and invariably must - escape. These people must make it harder even for THEMSELVES to corrupt the system.
No corrupt person or thief does so to be caught, but if he or she feels that the probability is slim, then need, greed and excitement. In each of the "Gates" above, we should ask ourselves: how was this person able to EXHIBIT this particular kind of corruption, in scale and over time? Where did the oversight go wrong that this much money got missing, and no one noticed - or the system did not catch it contemporaneously? What could have been done so that he would not EVEN be tempted to do so, knowing that the PROBABILITY of being caught is 95%, for example? How can we REDUCE the NUMBER of people who could conceive of these kinds of corruption, in a pyramid so that 90% of persons will not have the opportunity of corruption, 99% will have the probability of 99% of being caught if overcome by temptation, and the 1% who have the probability of 1% of not being caught will be caught 50% of the time?
It CAN be done - yes we can.
I worked in public life in Nigeria for five years, and I can confess that it is DIFFICULT to live a righteous life in Nigeria. The system makes it so easy to be CORRUPT, but even the corrupt KNOW that they are being corrupt when they do so - but laugh off the system that their own corruption is SMALL compared with all the corruption going on around, and that the SYSTEM expects them to be CORRUPT, otherwise it should have done things DIFFERENTLY. Yes....it is like "How do you expect me not to take this money, when I don't have enough money to live well, you don't pay me enough, and yet you provide me this opportunity to take the money? You want to make a fool of me not to be corrupt?"
That is demoralizing, and we MUST re-tool our system, and our institutions, to reduce this.
Rather than agonize, let us be a little more proactive....so here goes:
(1) Let me sound like a broken record: the combination of GIFMIS/IPPIS, TSA and BVN will SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the opportunity for public institution corruption, and increase the possibility of detection. It is being FOUGHT by those who absolutely know this and who wish to let corruption continue as usual - and they will proffer different reasons WHY these technological systems should NOT be adopted - but I am CONVINCED in my own mind that while they will not ELIMINATE public corruption, it will cut it by 90%. The Federal Government must INSIST on them, and ENSURE that the States do adopt them, while assuring them that their adoption is not INCONSISTENT with true federalism.
TSA is like this: you cannot be the owner of a multi-city business, and allow your branch managers to ARBITRARILY open as many bank accounts as they wish in each city that he is branch manager of. Rather, the reasonable thing to do is to choose a business bank or two, and require the branch managers to USE only those banks that you approve - and no other - and ask that those banks send the branch reports DIRECTLY to the HOME OFFICE, even if they send the same reports to the branches. But to depend SOLELY on the branches to set up their own banks, and report to the home office at will is an invitation to fraud.
TSA enables and facilitates Remote and regular AUDITS of accounts, unlike the ARMY of auditors from the Budget office, Accountant Generals Office, Auditor General's Office that are sent to all the 800 Federal officers in droves. Most of them come looking hungry for deals to overlook infractions; as a recent Head of an MDA in Nigeria, I should know! :-)
This is the MAIN reason why these financial corruption exists: that their VERY regulators are corrupt, and corrupt the system even more. They are the REAL corruptors of the system, these regulators.
(2) Asset declaration must be taken more seriously. First, for example, public officers who have not declared their assets upon assumption of duty must NOT be able to draw their first salary without a digital certification in their IPPIS entry as provided by the CCB to the Accountant-General....another reason why IPPIS should be instituted. Add prior BVN certification, and compliance will increase tremendously thereby. Secondly, public officers and political-exposed persons must be made to fully understand that ALL their bank accounts, both local and foreign, are subject to periodic investigation, no exceptions - that is the price to pay for public office, and if you don't want that level of scrutiny, then don't opt for public office, period. Thirdly, the Auditor-General should have access to ALL the declared assets of public officers; it is not ONLY the CCB that should know whether an officer has declared his asset or not. That way, the CCB knows whether the Auditor-General has declared his own assets, while the Auditor-General also knows whether the CCB Chair has declared his own assets - a vital check-and-balance. [Note: the Accountant-General only needs to know whether a public official has declared his assets or not; both the CCB and the Auditor-General should have ACCESS to this declaration.]
(3) Public officers, from the janitor to the Minister to the President, must be made to understand that EACH person bears primary responsibility for his actions in office, and that there can be NO EXCUSE for corrupt practice as urged on possibly by a superior officer. The notion is rife in Nigeria - and I saw it in office in Nigeria too many times - that once a superior ORDERS you to do something, then even if you know it is wrong, some kind of IMMUNITY of SUBSERVIENCE-HOOD is transferred to you. The classical "the devil made me do it" defence must be rooted from our system once and for all. This is more important than removing the IMMUNITY Clause of Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution.....it is actually better to remove the Subservience-hood Immunity Clause in the minds of Nigerians, and that can be done by prosecuting and sentencing/jailing everybody involved in a particular crime, from the accountant to the Minister.
(4) Routine corruption cases should be returned to the Police,while the more egregious ones - over a certain threshold of money - should be prosecuted by the ICPC/EFCC in SPECIAL COURTS, and dispensed with in the SHORTEST possible time. The jail sentences should be publicized, but more importantly, the guilty should be banned from public office for a time certain - like for twenty years!
(5) Public budgets must be more realistically set for MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies.). The division between revenue-generating, profit-making and non-money-generating (social) MDAs must be properly outlined, and the personnel, capital and overhead money required to run them efficiently must be worked upon. The Efficiency Unit being set up in the Ministry of Finance, as well as the Zero-Based Budget being mooted (but actually not applied in the present budget, despite early hoopla) are steps in the right direction. The present gap between resources and objectives of various MDAs, particularly in the Education sector which I am familiar with - is HUGE, and leads to SHARP PRACTICES if the system is not to fall on its face. Where, for example, reasonable school fees are BANNED from being charged, while the government does not make up for the difference, is absolutely intolerable. A situation where Federal University Otuoke's monthly overhead budget is N6 million - sometimes owed for three months - while a Minister or Permanent Secretary can fly first class to the United States for a week of a useless conference and easily spend N7 million ($600 per day estacode) - is ridiculous and unacceptable. [By the way, as VC, I also was allowed to fly first Business Class (never did, in general!) , and have $600 per day estacode (used it, but not fully!) ]
(6) Finally, the hackneyed phrase of "True Federalism" - coupled with the above steps - will greatly assist to reduce large-scale corruption. Many items in the Exclusive List of the Federal Government should be made concurrent with the State Governments, and there should be a proper delineation between state and local government functions, so that the best of Nigerians can choose to serve in a fulfilling manner even at the local government without leaving that level of governance to riff-raffs. Buhari may be as incorruptible as he comes, but institutions should be built personality-free to the greatest extent possible.
Let me end where I begin: corruption is NOT Nigeria's culture, and will never be, and our institutions can be strengthened to curb it significantly.
And there you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
On Sat, May 7, 2016 at 10:13 PM, 'DIPO ENIOLA' via AfricanWorldForum <africanworldforum@googlegroups.com> wrote:
--Wharf The Snake of Orlu:We deceive ourselves if we think corruption can be reduced to an appreciable level in Nigeria. It has become the culture of Nigerians. Since we allowed the practice to sink to the level that it is in today, it has now reached a point of no return. Even as we are discussing, clever Nigerian politicians and civil servants are working on how to sustain corruption, how to make it endure in Nigeria. Simply put, corruption has developed a life of its own. Buhari may be perfecting how to make corruption work for him in a special way just as those HOS/Presidents before him. That is the whole truth.The Oha 1Ahu Nze Ebie Okwu
From: "'Wharf A. Snake' wharfsnake@yahoo.com [AfricanWorldForum]" <AfricanWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>
To: NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com
Cc: africanworldforum@googlegroups.com; omoodua@yahoogroups.com; egbeodua@yahoogroups.com; yorubanation@yahoogroups.com;
Subject: Re: [NIgerianWorldForum] Re: [africanworldforum] Oro n b'oro bo! EFCC Traced Dasukigate Funds To Ex-Jonathan Aides Abati, Okupe, Fadile, and Gulak
Mazi,Nigerians have a propensity to stealing and looting therefore I won't be surprised if in the end every Nigerian participated in chopping that money. We already know that Buhari chopped. Every former HOS chopped. Every selected politician chopped. Their girlfriends and boyfriend chopped. Personally I cannot even exonerate myself because I could have chopped when I got a free bottle of guinness at Iya Bililkisu's buka:Ejo ni Mushin - PrinceSent from my iPhone
On May 6, 2016, at 9:40 PM, Ezeana Igirigi Achusim pachusim@yahoo.com [NIgerianWorldForum] <NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com> wrote:Why bother with the minnows? The next thing you know, EFCC will be tracing Dusaki money to his barber, who was paid from the $2.1bn.And I amEzeana Igirigi AchusimOdi-IsaaNwa Dim Orioha AkA OnyeukwuSent from my iPhone--Oro n b'oro bo! EFCC Traced Dasukigate Funds To Ex-Jonathan Aides Abati, Okupe, Fadile, and Gulak
<image2.JPG>SaharaReporters has learned that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has located stolen money from accounts of the former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki to several prominent aides to the former President Goodluck Jonathan.<image1.JPG>Sambo Dasuki, Rueben Abati, Goodluck JonathanThis news comes just as EFCC agents have raided the home of former top aide to Mr. Jonathan and spokesman of his presidential campaign Femi Fani-Kayode. This is also the latest development in a massive probe of Mr. Dasuki's fraudulent use of public funds which are now known to have been used to bribe top military officials, rig the Ekiti State gubernatorial elections, and be diverted to accounts belonging to powerful public officials.EFCC sources speaking to SaharaReporters found that Mr. Jonathan's former spokesman, Rueben Abati, took N72 million; top-PDP chieftain Uche Secondus took N250 million, and Ahmed Gulak was found to have taken N50 million. Bello Fadile, a security analyst who was used by Jonathan to attempt to stop INEC from releasing the 2015 presidential election results, took N754 million.abiodun KOMOLAFE, AMNIM
Statistician+234 803 361 4419 | +234 809 861 4418 | ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk | Skype: KOMO2412 | O20, Okenisa Street, Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State----------------------------------Because He lives, the end is not now!Sent from my iPad
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