ARTICLES
Big Government Encourages Corruption
By Thompson Ayodele
Quite recently, the Transparency International beamed its searchlight on countries in the world. In its annual assessment of global level of corruption for 2001, applying the corruption perception index, it reveals Nigeria's unenviable position. Nigeria is ranked the second most corrupt country in the world, worsted only by Bangladesh. One could be tempted to say that there is some slight improvement in the rating. It was in the first position in the last rating. Now, it is the runner-up. Some state officials have consistently considered the rating unfair assessment of the country's situation. Whether Nigeria is first or second, the fact remains that it is one of the top-10 in the world's most corrupt countries.
The implications of this rating are many. What one needs to ask are, how does Nigeria find itself in this repulsive position? What can be done to effectively stem the trend? Are the appropriate sanctions meted out to those who engaged in corrupt practices? What are the police doing to arrest and prosecute those caught? Does government play any role in oiling corruption in Nigeria? How can the rules of the game be changed?
Many quick-rich emails and letters have been received across the world. Some of them are purported to have been written in other countries in Africa. Structurally, lexically and semantically they are identical. That reinforces the origin. Majority of such emails and letters emanated from Nigeria. On March 7, 2000, a senior official of Nigeria Postal Service buttressed this when he said in The Guardian: "Most of these scam letters were not posted in Nigeria but Tanzania, Johannesburg, Cote d'Ivoire, Madrid judging from the date stamp impression on them. But all of them had their origin in Nigeria," Mr. Taiye Olaniyi said while Nigeria Postal Service was destroying 1.6 million scam letters in addition to 5 million similar letters earlier destroyed.
Their stories are woven around big contracts and colossal amount of money trapped in either government ministries or establishments, or that they are relations of former heads of governments trying to shield their ill-gotten wealth from the prying eyes. They have every reason to concoct such stories and use government departments, current or retired government functionaries as bait. Nigerian government since independence is involved in business transactions from petrol-chemical to street cleaning. Big contracts are awarded. Some of them were half-performed, shoddily executed or not executed at all. Those that were performed were not totally paid for because the actual costs were inflated. Public officials are seen to have amassed wealth that they cannot really explain while "serving" the people.
Our government is a very big one with large amount of wealth concentrated. When such concentration remains, corruption will continue to flourish. In spite of all this, powerful interest groups, politicians and a handful of individuals when discovered the status quo favours them and will not be sheltered in the face of any positive change are vociferously resisting when the state is advised to roll back. When governments handle big business, it will be an avenue for large-scale illicit deals. A group of citizens will emerge who cannot survive without government patronage. The bigger the size of the government the bigger the amount of corruption. When government does not promote economic freedom and it creates monopolies through punitive regulations and trade ban on certain goods, many will be driven to informal sector and hence to black market.
The present government at the inception promised to combat corruption. But not much has been seen. One tends to reason that the first step will be to prosecute and punish offenders. The two penal laws and the recently enacted Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 can mete out appropriate punishment. But in the last 10 to 15 years, reported cases of corruption in the contemporary law reports are hard to come by. In effect, none " has been found guilty." Seemingly absence of sanction or its selective application is a clear indication that corruption has been condoned and glorified. Laws to deal with it have not been strictly applied. It is a field day for the perpetrators. When the get rich-quick emails and letters are forwarded to the police nothing seems to have happened. So for the perpetrators, it is business as usual.
President Olusegun Obasonjo said "corruption is the anti-thesis of development and progress." I think he is just being economical with words. He has not said it all. International community sees Nigeria as a nation without honor and self-respect. If left unchecked, corruption could undermine Nigeria's nascent democracy by contributing to social disintegration and gross distortion of economic system and weaken the rule of law. By putting money into the pockets of plunderers of the nation's wealth, growth will remain stagnant and such ill-gotten wealth could in turn be used to subvert democracy. Where corruption thrives as the case Nigeria, the cost of doing business and the cost of goods will be driven up. This is a red flag to investors that the environment is not conducive to invest their hard-earned money.
By deterring potential investors and increasing the cost of goods, the envisaged economic growth will be a pie in the sky. The lot of poor people can be improved if there is appreciable growth in the economy. Poverty reduces when per capital income increases. But a vibrant and self-sustaining economy is illusory where corruption reins. In the end the ultimate victims are the poor and economically impoverished Nigerians who are not lucky to have direct access to government purse.
Corruption scandals in Japan in the 1990s have come out in the open and have caused a government to fall. That has not happened in Nigeria. Instead government actions and inactions have encouraged and oiled corruption. The crackdown of the Mafia in Italy in the 80s whose activities were similar to the advance fee fraud ring in Nigeria had enabled Italy to be seen as a country to invest and do business. That crackdown is needed in Nigeria. Nigeria will better off if it could follow the worthy examples of Hong Kong and Singapore. Both countries were once in the league of corrupt nations but realizing its implications on economic growth and development, they quickly shift from being very corrupt to relatively clean and become good examples for other countries.
Nigeria will have to take a cue from them. Stemming corruption requires more than official statements. It requires stepping on big toes. It requires economic will. Political power to the people is not enough. Government relinquishing most of its economic power to the people must complement it. This is desirable. Unless this is timely done, Nigeria might have perilously embarked on a self-paved road to serfdom.
" Thompson Ayodele (thompson@ippanigeria.org) is the coordinator of the Institute of Public Policy Analysis (www.ippanigeria.org) in Lagos, Nigeria. This article may be reprinted without prior notice if the author is given credit