strategies to End Corruption

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Strategies to End Corruption

OPINION
Remi Ogunmefun
3rd Feb. 2008

The Nigerian Television Authority had just announced the appointment of " Dr Saheed Anthony Adamuâ- as the Minister of Agriculture.

Before his appointment, Anthony Adamu was running a company distributing consumer goods in Kaduna. He was an average person, disciplined and committed to good public governance. The announcement was made at 9p.m and by 10pm all available space in his house had been taken over by party men, friends, neighbours and family members. He had to quickly ask for a caterer to prepare food and provide drinks to his visitors. Two days later when he proceeded to Abuja to assume duty, the stream of people to his house did not abate. He spent a lot of money. The first day of assuming duty in Abuja, it was one delegation or the other from his state. Party men, Party faithfuls, friends and family members all coming with one request or the other. In his house in Abuja are people waiting daily to be attended to. They come with request for personal favors. Many of the request are for employment, contract, payment of children school fees, cash for party constituent members, settlement of hospital bills, processing of appointments of party members of his state etc. This is perhaps the daily life of most of our political office holders.

The difficult part of it is that here we have a Public Officer on a fixed salary and allowances which total do not exceed N5 Million p.a. With this salary, he is expected to contribute to the welfare of Party members back home, provide for relatives and meet the request for assistance from friends. Letters reach his desk on daily basis for one personal assistance or the other. Many want contracts that does not exist. Being a politician he has to make everyone happy to be relevant. He cannot afford to distance himself from his people or his political career will end. This is the dilemma of most of the Nigerian Public Officials. Before being appointed a Minister, Anthony Adamu was one of the shinning stars of Nigeria, totally committed to the Nigerian Nation. He came from humble background where service to the nation is held in high esteem. How is he going to fulfill this daily request and pressure from his people? He cannot afford these expenses on his salary and allowance. What can he do? This is the dilemma many good Public Officers go through in Nigeria and probably one of the reasons for corruption in our nation.

I remember sometime ago when some Ministers were being sworn by the former President [Obasanjo], he made a statement advising friends and relations of the officials to leave them alone to face their state dutiesSome of us who are deeply passionate about leadership issues have tried to study the African leadership environment to determine why leaders have corruption tendencies in our part of the world. The reasons for this corruption need to be tackled before we can continue to witness some significant improvement in our Public governance. What we are seeing today in our anti corruption war are fire fighting measures tailored to the punishment alternative instead of attacking the root of the problem. The punishment side is part of the solution but not the solution. The right strategy is on the preventive side. We must prevent corruption. We must spend a lot of our time on this. We need to create systems that make it impossible or absolutely difficult for a Public Officer to carry through his corruption process. We must make it impossible for him to abuse his office.

In broad terms, corruption is when government officials use their state powers for illegitimate private gain. It is without doubt that all forms of government are prone to corruption. Bribery, extortion, nepotism, patronage, graft, embezzlement, drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crimes are all results of corruption.

Corruption is a serious challenge to development. It makes democracy and good public governance impossible. It affects all areas of governance, Public administration, Judiciary, Legislative bodies and undermines Institutional capacity for good governance. Where corruption thrives, it undermines Economic development. Cost of business increases and distortions occurs generally in the Economy. Funds that are required for social needs are diverted to private pockets or projects that are of no concern to the ordinary citizens. Quality of government services become poor and public infrastructures collapses.

There is a saying among Westerners that the amount of illegal capital flight from West African nations far exceeded their debts. For example between 1970 to 1996 alone capital flight from 30 Sub-Saharan countries totaled $187Billion Dollars (University of Massachusetts). The pertinent issue is why do Sub-Saharan countries particularly Nigeria have very high percentage of corruption. What are the reasons for these corruption tendencies among our people? Many researches have revealed that one of the reasons for this kind of behavior was Political Instability. The fear of the unknown. Many political leaders fear what will become of them tomorrow. In the process they engage in capital flight all to ensure financial security. Lack of Government Transparency is another factor that leads to corruption. Lack of laws on freedom of information, subversion of freedom of speech and that of the Press are some of the factors that have been identified as fuelling corruption.

Government have been noted for weak accounting practices and outdated financial reports. We have no indices to measure corruption. I am not aware if surveys are being made with the citizenry and businesses to determine their perception of corruption in government institutions. The absence of this basic evaluation process to me makes all our Anti corruption exercise difficult to assess or evaluate. How are we determining whether Officials charged with fighting corruption and the methods being used are effective or even succeeding if the evaluation is not been done with the citizenry.

Poor voter's education is also one of the reasons for corruption. Many of our people do not know how to vote. They vote for issues that have nothing to do with true public governance. Poor Spiritual Investment by our political leaders is also one of our banes in this problem of corruption. Our people do not truly invest in spiritual capital although many give the semblance of doing so but in truth invest nothing. Many took the oath exercise as purely procedural without appreciating the spiritual significance of the exercise. Where a country's rule of Law is weak corruption thrives. Nigeria still does not have a witness protection program that is supported by law. Any whistle blower in Nigeria today is probably at his own risk.

Poor remuneration of Public officers is another factor encouraging corruption in Nigeria. The pay of a Public Officer in Nigeria is not commensurate with the average cost of living. What do we expect where a Government store keeper earning N40, 000 per month is kept in charge of Government store holding supplies of N250 Million or a Policeman who earns N30, 000 per month is assigned to investigate a fraud of N250 Million. My guess is as good as yours. Studies have also revealed that costly political campaign encourages corruption. Falling society standard, where society rewards individuals with money instead of integrity also encourages corruption. What then do we do? The first step is to work on the factors that lead to corruption in our nation and many of these problems will disappear. The focus today is skewed in the direction of punishment. Our people's attentions understandable are more to the side of how many Public Officers have been arraigned in court and prosecuted. We cannot blame them. The citizens want justice. But that will not stop corruption except we tackle the causes and put in place measures that prevent Public Officers from plundering the resources of the nation. Some of us who have foreign friends usually get questions such as "How is that government officials are able to embezzle the huge amount being reported in your dailies". Do you not have in Nigeria systems and control that ordinarily should prevent that kind of abuse of office and fraud.

The key to ending corruption in Nigeria are in three folds: - Firstly we need to identify what causes corruption in our part of the world and tackle them head-on. They are easy if there is will to solve. Secondly we need to strengthen our National Orientation Agency and begin to orientate our people on the culture of good behavior in Public service. The local areas, states and the Federal services are to be encouraged to pursue behaviors that serve the common good instead of personal advantage. Our citizens generally need to be positioned to the culture of Zero tolerance for corruption. We need to go to the root of the society; the Communities, Local associations, Schools, churches, mosques, Colleges, Universities, and Youth Associations etc. Thirdly we must create what I will call Preventive Institutions. All over the world Public Officers are policed and inspected. Even in countries with little or no corruption they have institutions that are charged with preventing corruption. In the United States they have these checks in place and why they have not recommended for Nigeria despite there very encouraging investment in our financial crimes enforcement is a mystery. It is called the office of the Inspector General. It is part of their governance.

It is time we follow this line and borrow from these best practices wherever in the world. Let us create a strong independent Institution to be called "Public Finance Inspection Commission" - which should be a creation of the National Assembly. This commission will have authority to be advised of any expenses prior to been made by any Government or their agencies in Nigeria. The Commission will have power to stop any transaction that it is not satisfied with as provided by its enabling law. They will have power to inspect and audit any government books, any where in Nigeria and make appropriate recommendations to the Law Enforcement Agencies in Nigeria.

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