Anti corruption fight and its discontents

By UCHE CHRIS

.           Why Nigeria is not winning the fight

President Buhari’s anti- graft fight received a rude shock recently from the global corruption watch dog, Transparency International, TI, in its 2019 report which saw the country slip two negative places to 138 out of 180 countries. As expected government’s reaction has been knee-jack and combative as if TI were an opposition party in Nigeria and the report was engineered to cost it some electoral and political capital.

The Corruption Perception Index is conducted annual across countries of the world and is based on the experiences of people on the processes involved in government business, and actions of government officials.  TI is a global agency that is guided by predetermined guidelines and criteria for assessing and arriving at its verdicts and rankings; it is the same set of parameters that are applied to all countries.

Although TI is global and foreign in outlook and operations, its reports are well domesticated as they are derived locally by nationals of the countries, based on media reports, interviews and reports of government agencies and professional bodies. So it is erroneous to assert as government often does that the reports are biased as the facts are foreign generated and do not reflect extant national realities.

Moreover, the world has become a global village of information that like the gold fish there is no hiding place for any country with most information now available at the push of buttons; there is no secrets anymore. This means that what TI says about us may not be totally different from what we have said or are saying about ourselves.

Government may be genuinely disturbed and concerned about the report given its assumed performance in the fight with the recent convictions of some politically exposed persons such as former governors and other high profile people; and President Buhari does not cease to remind the international community of these achievements in the war against corruption. The challenge with government strategy in the fight is that targeting merely a few high profile persons cannot effectively curbed the nefarious activity, nor change public perception without addressing its root.

Government can make TI a scape-goat but what it said is not diametrically different from the report of National Bureau of statistics, NBS, in its 2019 report which concluded that Nigerians paid over N600 billion in bribes to government agencies. Now these bribes were not taken by politicians but everyday public servants who are neither seen nor heard. No doubt government has been pursuing its fight with vigour and determination but this alone is not enough.

Therefore, government is mistaken to believe only in its version of reality without interrogating contrary evidence militating against its performance. Its touchiness in the matter is understandable given that curbing corruption is one of the three planks of its electoral mandate; and any suggestion of failure or inadequacies directly impugn its legitimacy and performance.

Again, government reaction is wrong and patronizing because it assumes that the report should reflect what is being done by it and not what actually is the situation in spite of what is being done. Obviously, government is waging the anti-graft war and it is also producing some notable results, such as the recent conviction of former Abia state governor Orji Kalu, and the arrest of elusive former AGF, Mohammed Adoke over the Malabo scam.

All these are laudable and significant; but they do not address the root of the scourge in the country; otherwise we would not drop in the TI ranking. So what is the problem with the anti corruption fight that defeats the efforts of government?

The first problem has to do with government’s definition and understanding of what constitutes corruption and how to address it, which is narrow and very restrictive. For it, politicians are the only corrupt people in the country and jailing a few of them would send the necessary signal to the rest of the bad boys to watch their actions. This is not only myopic but delusional. It is unabashedly simplistic and understands neither its social nature nor complexity.

Second, the Nigeria economic system is now built on corruption, which makes it existential. Since the 1975 and 1984 public service purges which Buhari was a part of, the public service had lost its innocence. Nobody works in the public service and wishes to retire on pension anymore; everybody takes care of himself while in-service to protect themselves against the rainy days.

So focusing on the politicians simply begs the problem. Again, the value of the local currency has virtually collapsed that few people earn enough for their needs, which makes corruption systemic and inevitable, which affect people standard of living.

Thirdly, virtually every Nigeria lives above his legitimate income because of rising social expectations and responsibilities. It is generally said that one employed Nigerian is responsible for more than half a dozen dependants. Even if he is not minded to engage in it life pressures may compel him. This manifests in cutting corners by everyone who engaged in a skilled work or operates in an office. It has become a value system and pervasive making any effort to stamp it out by jailing a few politicians nonsensical.

Fourthly, government’s own actions and policies speak more negatively than the attempt to eradicate the menace. One, the president is surrounded by people who have corruption questions to answer, such as Adams Oshiomhole, APC national chairman, former governors Rotimi Amaechi, Babatunde Fashola, Danjuma Goje, Adamu Abdullahi, Timipre Sylva and even Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Indeed, Oshiomhole once declared that membership of the party guarantees immunity from corruption prosecution.

In essence, the fight has been selective and targets opposition party people which makes it laughable, opportunistic and unserious. Also the president own nepotic disposition where most strategic positions in the country have been given to a section of the country to the exclusion of others is crass violations of existing laws such as the federal character commission and exposes the political, vindictive and self serving nature of the fight.

These are incontrovertible facts that even the conviction of the entire political class cannot eradicate or mitigate the corruption. He has to accept responsibility for the down grade in our ranking and address matters arising from it. Otherwise, we will be here next year exchanging barbs with TI on the discontents with the anti corruption fight.