Monday Discourse
For
a government that likes to flaunt the success of its anti-corruption
war, the report of the corruption survey carried out by the National
Bureau of Statistics, in partnership with the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, is a rude awakening, writes Tobi Soniyi
The
revelations contained two in the report: ‘Corruption in Nigeria.
Bribery: public experience and response 2017’ released last Wednesday by
the National Bureau of Statistics and the United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime were quite chilling.
It
must also be a rude re-awakening for a government that takes delight
in blaming past administrations for whatever ills it comes across.
The
report, among other findings, stated that 95 per cent of Nigerians
would accept a bribe when offered or pay a bribe when demanded.
The
survey found that only 5.3 per cent of Nigerians would either refuse to
pay a bribe when asked to or refuse to accept when a bribe is offered
to them.
The
Nigerian Corruption Survey, first of its kind by the NBS gave graphic
details of corruptions in different shades and how it affects daily life
of the average Nigerian citizen.
Misconceptions
Government’s
attempt to shift the blame isn’t going to work. The response of the
Chairman, Special Presidential Investigation Panel for the Recovery of
Public Property, Okoi Obono-Obla to the implication of the report, to
say the least, was baffling.
Reacting
to the report on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily Show, he said, “It
is chilling, daunting, outrageous and shocking but I am not surprised
because corruption has become pandemic and endemic. Most Nigerians are
pathologically corrupt.
“This
government wants to fight corruption but what is the challenge?
Nigerians do not want to support the fight against corruption; the
judiciary and the legislature do not want to support the fight against
corruption. It is as if only the President and the Vice-President are in
support of the war against corruption.”
His
self righteousness was a clear demonstration of lack of understanding
of what the report shows. It is also an admission that those saddled
with the responsibility to lead the anti-corruption war are ill-prepared
for the task because they lack the requisite knowledge required to
deliver on that mandate. One does not need to be a genius to understand
that the government is merely fighting the symptoms of corruption and
not corruption itself.
Obono-Obla,
claimed that Nigerians had refused to support the anti-graft crusade of
the President Muhammadu Buhari administration because they are
pathologically corrupt. Why should they, if the president is unwilling
to prosecute his friends that are corrupt? Why should they when children
of highly placed people were given employment secretly in well paying
public institutions while their children, more qualified, continue to
roam the streets for lack of jobs? As long as those leading the
anti-corruption war do not understand that fighting corruption is not
just about breaking the houses of judges at night, the country should
expect more damning reports in the future.
If
Obono-Obla’s position is baffling, the position taken by Professor Femi
Odekunle, a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on
Anti-Corruption can not be defended. He said the report was not an
indictment on the federal government led by President Muhammadu Buhari.
If the Nigeria Police Force is corrupt, who takes the blame? Who
appoints the Inspector General of Police? If the federal civil service
is corrupt, whose duty is it to reform it? Just because the president is
fighting corruption does not mean he should not accept responsibility
for not able to stop public sector corruption as shown by the report. Or
is it the president of Ghana that should take the responsibility?
Another
misconception is that the report shows that government is not fighting
corruption. That can’t be the truth. Even the authors of the report in
question admitted this much when they said: ”Over the years we have
seen the effect of corruption manifesting across all sectors of society
with collusion across the public to private sectors to sports bodies and
even civil society.
“Sadly, Nigeria as a country has experienced this menace for a long time but now appears to be tackling it head on.
“It
is for this reason that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)
partnered with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to
carry out this survey on the quality and integrity of public services in
Nigeria, the results of which are published in this report.” That is
not a comment these two organisations would have made three years ago.
The report admitted that the government is fighting corruption but
proved that the effort isn’t comprehensive enough.
No Doubt Government is Fighting Corruption
When
compared with Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, this government is
indeed fighting corruption. Although, the government is fighting
corruption but it lacks the basic understanding of what drives it in
Nigeria. This weakness reveals why it has concentrated on punishment
without addressing the socio-economic factors driving corruption. It is
making the same mistake every successive administration made and the
result will be the same. The president made the same mistake in 1984
when he was a military head of state: he believes (he still does)
clamping people into jail and sentencing them to donkey years will stop
corruption. The NBS’s report has shown that he is wrong.
The
perception from the South-east and South-south is also understandable.
Many from these two zones do not believe the government is fighting
corruption. The reverse would have been the case if the research was
carried out while Jonathan was in the office. The perception clearly
shows the frustration of the people of the south-east and the
south-south with an administration that has chosen to reduce their
influence in governance. It is this same perception, justifiable so in
our view, that is driving the clamour for restructuring. For one, if
President Muhammadu Buhari is genuinely interested in leading a united
country, he should bend backwards to accommodate the south-east and the
south-south. The government should stop relying on technicalities to
support its argument that it is not discriminating against the two
zones.
Another
misconception is that only members of the Peoples Democratic Party are
being prosecuted. First, there is nothing wrong with prosecuting
members of the PDP since they were the ones that ran the country for the
past sixteen years before Buhari took over. They must be held
acountable. Besides, members of All Progressives Congress are also being
prosecuted. While those who do not belong to any political parties are
also being prosecuted.
Another
misconception is that this government lacks the political will to fight
corruption. I think the will is there. In recent time, no one has shown
as much political will as the Buhari-led administration.
What then is the problem?
To
begin with, the report proves that Buhari was right to make the fight
against corruption one of the policy thrusts of his adadministration.
The
report stated: “The above findings could explain why, after the high
cost of living and unemployment, Nigerians consider corruption to be the
third most important problem facing their country, well ahead of the
state of the country’s infrastructure and health service.”
A Flawed National Anti-Corruption Strategy
In
May, when the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of
Justice, Abubakar Malami, (SAN), released the National Anti-Corruption
of Strategy (NACS), two international non-governmental organisations,
namely the Royal Institute of International Affairs, better known as
Chatham House and OXFAM published separate reports which clearly showed
that the approach adopted by the present administration in the fight
against corruption was not working and would not lead to a reduction in
grafts.
Reviewing
the NACS and the reports of these two respected international NGO, a
former Chairman of the Governing Council of the National Human Rights
Commission, Dr Chidi Odinkalu, observed that inter-agencies rivalry did
not allow the federal government to come up with a strategy that could
help the fight against corruption
He
said: “From the wreckage of this conflict, the Attorney-General’s
department emerged victorious. The result was that other ministries,
departments and agencies with complementary expertise on the subject
were either relegated or excluded from the process. This absence of
joined up thinking is evident in the resulting document. It is confused,
self-contradictory and arguably worse than no strategy at all. It is an
anti-climax.”
According
to him, the new strategy, which had been approved by the Federal
Executive Council, lacks any clear diagnosis of why fighting corruption
in Nigeria has proved so intractable.
“The
result is that the NACS document does not in any way offer any
assurance that this current phase of fighting corruption in Nigeria will
suffer a fate different from its predecessors”, he added.
Other
deficiencies he identified in the NACS include lack of coherent
narrative of the corruption challenge and non recognition of other
actors in shaping or fighting it beyond the narrow halls of government
as well as failure to evince any need for popular ownership of the fight
against corruption. It also does not see any relationship between the
nature and incoherence of the Nigerian state and Nigeria’s chronic
corruption pandemic.
With
these shortcomings, analysts knew that the new anti-corruption strategy
was unworkable and therefore dead on arrival. The UNODC and NBS’
reports have further validated the observations raised by Odinkalu.
Since the report was not written by PDP or job seekers as the Presidency
likes to describe those opposed to its policies, it will be difficult
to wish away the damming findings contained therein.
Fighting Corruption the Wrong Way
Away
from the myopic anti-corruption strategy, the two reports address most
of the shortcomings inherent in the Nigerian government’s document. To
begin with the Chatham House’s report, Nigeria lacks a holistic approach
to the fight against corruption.
The
report said: “President Muhammadu Buhari has shown sincerity in his
commitment to lead anti- corruption efforts in Nigeria, including
through strengthening whistleblowing incentives and protections,
high-profile investigations of prominent individuals for large-scale
theft of public funds, and the recovery of billions of naira by
Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies.
“These
efforts are essential, but cannot by themselves foster a sustainable,
comprehensive reversal of long-established assumptions and practices in
the absence of a decisive shift in public apathy and a collective will
to achieve collective behavioural change.
“Nigeria’s
ongoing anti-corruption efforts must now be reinforced by a systematic
understanding of why people engage in or refrain from corrupt activity,
and full consideration of the societal factors that may contribute to
normalizing corrupt behaviour and desensitizing citizens to its impacts.
“This holistic approach would better position public institutions to engage Nigerian society in anti-corruption efforts.”
The
report diagnoses what drives corrupt behaviour in Nigeria and
identifies beliefs that support corrupt practices. It is a must read for
anyone serious about fighting corruption in Nigeria. It examines
corruption in Nigeria from the perspective of social norms that serve as
embeded markers of how people behave as members of a society.
It
exposes one of the fundamental weaknesses in the federal government’s
anti-corruption strategy when it said: “In the context of
anti-corruption in Nigeria, understanding these underlying social
drivers helps to identify which forms of corruption are underlined by
social norms, and which practices are driven by conventions, local
customs or circumstances.
“Identifying
the specific social drivers of specific collective practices is
critical to designing targeted and effective policy interventions to
change those practices.”
For
example, because punishments for certain offences are unknown, unclear
and uneasy to inflict, people find that bribing their way out is the
fastest way to go. Many police officers and drivers don’t know the
punishment for driving without a driver’s licence. So the drivers end up
paying bribes to the arresting officers. This also happens in traffic
offences. Yet a government that is fighting corruption does not know how
to fix this!
The
report also finds that lack of exemplary behaviour by leaders
encourages corruption as it robs the government the needed public trust
to fight corruption. It said: “Routinely abusive behaviour by public
officials is an obstacle to building public trust and stimulating
collective action.”
While
exposing the flaws in the new anti-corruption strategy, Odinaklu said:
“In what could easily be a summary of the shortcomings of the NACS, the
Chatham House report laments that Nigeria’s focus has mainly been on
‘traditional’ legal and governance-based measures, emphasizing the
reform of public procurement rules and public financial management,
anti-corruption laws and the establishment of various agencies tasked
with preventing corruption and punishing those who engage in it.’
“While
acknowledging the importance of these measures, the report emphasizes
the need ‘to foster a comprehensive shift in deeply ingrained attitudes
to corruption at all levels of society.’ Its central argument,
therefore, is that ‘Nigeria’s ongoing anti-corruption efforts must now
be reinforced by a systematic understanding of why people engage in or
refrain from corrupt activity, and full consideration of the societal
factors that may contribute to normalizing corrupt behaviour and
desensitizing citizens to its impacts.'”
OXFAM
report titled: “Inequality in Nigeria: Exploring the Drivers” although
focuses on why many Nigerians remained poor while the economy was
expanding, it nevertheless provides rare insights into why corruption
remains inevitable in the country.
It
states: “Poverty and inequality in Nigeria are not due to lack of
resources, but to the ill-use, mis-allocation and misappropriation of
such resources. At the root there is a culture of corruption and
rent-seeking combined with a political elite out of touch with the daily
struggles of average Nigerians.”
It
also strikes at the root cause of corruption when it said, “The overlap
between political and economic power bends the allocation of
opportunities, income and wealth to vested interests, and biases
policy-making in favour of the rich.” The result of this is what it
described as the astronomical cost of governance. Paying members of the
National Assembly so much while the people continue to languish in
abject poverty. Despite budgeting so much for provision of water, the
larger percentage of Nigerian population don’t have access to water safe
for drinking.
Unemployment
has also continued to rise. While the Buhari administration was quick
to file charges against a former minister, Abba Moro for his role in the
15th of March 2014 recruitment scam when 6.5 million people applied for
4000 vacancies which left 16 people dead, no one has been queried for
secret recruitment that took place when Buhari took over government.
Yet, both are corrupt practices. By allowing the secret recruitment to
stay, this government has lost the credibility to ask Nigerians to
support its anti-corruption crusade.
A
government who chose to constitute a civil panel to investigate
allegation of corruption against the Secretary to Government of the
Federation, Babachir Lawal and the Director General of National
Intelligence Agency, Ayo Oke but would not allow the National Judicial
Council investigate corrupt judges should not expect Nigerians to
support its corruption crusade.
There
is nothing Ibrahim Magu is doing now that Nuhu Ribadu did not do when
he was the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
There must be a missing link. The tragedy of the Nigerian system is such
that some of the people Magu is hounding today, may turn out to be the
people who will determine his fate tomorrow.
The Report
According
to the report, an estimated N400 billion, or the equivalent of $4.6
billion in purchasing power parity (PPP), representing 39 per cent of
the combined federal and state education budgets in 2016, is paid out as
bribes to public officials in Nigeria annually.
The
National Corruption Report, which covered the period between June 2015
and May 2016 also showed that almost a third of Nigerian adults (32.3
per cent) who had contact with public officials between June 2015 and
May 2016 had to pay, or were requested to pay a bribe to such public
officials.
According
to the report, the magnitude of public sector bribes in Nigeria becomes
even more palpable when factoring in the frequency of the payments,
adding that the majority of those who paid bribes to public officials
did so more than once over the course of the year.
Bribe-payers, it added, pay an average of some six bribes in one year, or roughly one bribe every two months.
“Roughly
400 billion Nigerian Naira is spent on bribes each year. Taking into
account the fact that nine out of every ten bribes paid to public
officials in Nigeria are paid in cash and the size of the payments made,
it is estimated that the total amount of bribes paid to public
officials in Nigeria in the 12 months prior to the survey was around 400
billion Nigerian Naira (NGN), the equivalent of $4.6 billion in
purchasing power parity (PPP). This sum is equivalent to 39 per cent of
the combined federal and state education budgets in 2016,” the report
said.
It
equally revealed that bribe-payers spend an eighth of their salary on
bribes, noting that the average sum paid as cash bribe in the country
was approximately N5,300, which is equivalent to roughly $61(PPP).
“This
means that every time a Nigerian pays a cash bribe, he or she spends an
average of about 28.2 per cent of the average monthly salary of
approximately NGN18,900.
“Since
bribe-payers in Nigeria pay an average of 5.8 bribes over the course of
one year, 92 per cent of which are paid in cash, they spend an average
of NGN 28,200 annually on cash bribes—equivalent to 12.5 per cent of the
annual average salary,” it added.
The
report, which is the first of its kind in the country in terms of
scope, said Nigerians consider bribery the third most important problem
facing their country.
“Public
sector bribery is not the only form of corruption affecting Nigeria:
the prevalence of bribery in relation to selected employees of private
companies is 5.5 per cent, meaning that bribery is also significant in
the private sector in Nigeria.
“However,
the payment of bribes to public officials is the most familiar and
widespread form of corruption directly experienced by the population and
the one that most affects the lives of ordinary citizens,” it noted.
Giving
an insight into how bribery works in the country, the report said
public officials in Nigeria show little hesitation in asking for a
bribe, noting that the vast majority of bribery episodes are initiated
either directly or indirectly by public officials (85.3 per cent), while
almost 70 per cent of bribes are paid before a service is rendered.
It
stressed that with such a large portion of public officials initiating
bribes, which are paid up-front, it seemed that many public officials
show little hesitation in asking for a kickback to carry out their duty,
adding that bribery is an established part of the administrative
procedure in Nigeria.
“While
money is by far the most important form of bribe payment in Nigeria,
the survey shows that other forms of bribe payment, such as the
provision of food and drink, the handing over of valuables or the
exchange of another service or favour, also exist.
“Qualitative
research shows that such exchanges may sometimes include sexual
services, although the actual extent of that particular form of bribe
payment is unknown,” the NBS report said.
The
survey showed that a large proportion of bribes in Nigeria (42 per
cent) are paid to speed up or finalise an administrative procedure that
may otherwise be delayed for long periods or even indefinitely, thus
making bribery the most effective option for facilitating that service.
According
to the report, the second largest proportion of bribes (18 per cent) is
paid to avoid the payment of a fine, a frequent request in citizens’
encounters with the police, while 13 per cent of all bribes are paid to
avoid the cancellation of public utility services, an indication that
the provision of the most basic amenities, including water and
sanitation, can be subject to abuse of power by public officials in
Nigeria.
On
the categories of public servants indulging in bribery, the report said
law enforcement and the judiciary were areas of particular concern.
“Police
officers are the type of public official to whom bribes are most
commonly paid in Nigeria. Of all adult Nigerians who had direct contact
with a police officer in the 12 months prior to the survey, almost half
(46.4 per cent) paid that officer at least one bribe, and in many cases
more than one, since police officers are also among the three types of
public officials to whom bribes are paid most frequently (5.3 bribes per
bribe-payer over the course of 12 months) in Nigeria. At the same time,
the average bribe paid to police officers is somewhat below the average
bribe size.
“Although
fewer people come into contact with judiciary officials than with
police officers over the course of the year, when they do, the risk of
bribery is considerable: at 33 per cent, the prevalence of bribery in
relation to prosecutors is the second highest, closely followed by
judges and magistrates, at 31.5 per cent.
“The
experience of corruption in encounters with public officials whose duty
it is to uphold the rule of law can lead to the erosion of trust in
public authority,” it said.
The
report put the prevalence rate of corruption in the public sector at
32.3 per cent, and the average number of bribes paid to public officials
by bribe-payers at 5.8.
The
total number of bribes paid to public officials in Nigeria in the
12-month period also stands at 82.3 million, while per capita number of
bribes paid to public officials by the adult population was 0.9 per
cent.
The
contact rate with public officials in the review period was 52.2 per
cent; the prevalence rate in the rural setting was 31.0 per cent while
34.8 per cent was posted in the urban setting
On
the average number of bribes paid to public officials by adult
Nigerians in the period, by zone, the North-west recorded 0.86 per cent;
North-east 0.78 per cent; North-Central 1.1 per cent; South-West 1.13
per cent; South-South 1.05 per cent; and South-east 0.60 per cent.
The
NBS said the data presented in the report was collected in the National
Survey on the Quality and Integrity of Public Services, otherwise known
as the Nigerian Corruption Survey, a project funded by the European
Union and implemented by the UNODC in collaboration with the National
Bureau of Statistics of Nigeria (NBS).
The
statistical agency noted that Nigerian Corruption Survey was designed
as a large-scale household survey, representative at the level of the
Nigerian states, with the aim of collecting baseline information.
The
report is the first comprehensive nationwide household survey on
corruption to be conducted in Nigeria and in Africa at large, and covers
all states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory.
According
to the NBS, the report provides very valuable and reliable information,
which will support the national efforts at reducing the corruption
menace, as well as blocking loopholes in public services.
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