Bola Tinubu and the Bribecode (2)

In ranking African countries, the Ibrahim Index of African Governance looks not just at economic activity, but researches four categories of good governance: Sustainable Economic Activity; Participation and Human Rights; Human Development; and Safety and Rule of Law.

On this index, Nigeria, currently the continent’s largest economy, only manages a 37th position in Africa, an eloquent confirmation of the relative irrelevance of economic size as a litmus test for good governance and the well-being of the individual citizen. If I were to add a category to the Ibrahim Index it would be Equity, which would query the gap, and the dynamics, between those at the top of the wealth pyramid (whatever their political affiliations) and those at the bottom. Issues of equity are addressed but not exhausted by the extant categories of Human Development, Participation and Human Rights. It would answer the fundamental question ‘Whose country is this anyway?’ and would be interested in the fact that although 15 of every hundred Nigerian children will die by the age of 5 (http://www.punchng.com/health/infant-mortality-rate-still-high-in-nigeria-unicef/), on some streets in Nigeria, the statistic could be closer to 80 percent.

The point, of course, in all this is that while devaluation as a broadbrush economic policy will have a marked impact right across the society and political economy, we need to properly assess its impact on these five areas of the delivery of the elemental benefits of good governance. Now, while Mauritius consistently retains the commanding position of the Index’s No.1 in Africa, its economy is a minnow in comparison to Nigeria’s. Clearly, it does not take a very rich country to deliver ‘good governance’. An inequitable small economy will grow into an inequitable big one, so Nigeria’s economy can double in size, while the bottom half of the population becomes twice as badly off as they are today. This possibility should agitate the mind of any progressive politician.

Good Governance is the pill which should be taken by the political elite, before they recommend the radical, life-threatening surgery of deficit budgeting and inflationary spending to the larger society.

The economic policy proposed by the Ashiwaju has the potential to positively impact across the five spheres of governance, but ONLY if it is preceded by the necessary systemic changes that will allow the benefits to filter down to the population at large, rather than be commandeered by the ruling elite, as has been the case to date.

The occupants of state houses across the country must end the ideology of ‘Settlement’ whereby the loudest noisemakers and the nearest cronies appropriate the wealth of the commonwealth. They must instead adopt the ideology that identifies every citizen, especially the most vulnerable members of society who can least fend for themselves, as members of the Extended Family of the State, and design their policies accordingly, focusing on the provision of the basic fundamentals of education, food and shelter as drivers of sustainable economic growth that has direct impact on the other indices of development correctly identified by the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG).

Any close observer of our society knows, of course, that the feeding system is too entrenched to be affected by pious declarations and the goodwill of a head of department or a head of state. For instance, the Ashiwaju declares: ‘The deficit is not simply for the sake of running a deficit; the funds cannot be spent on non-productive matters. It must be used to fuel infrastructural and other projects that not only employ great numbers of people but enhance the overall productivity of the economy.’

But of course. Like the thousands of abandoned projects at the federal level alone.

There is something fundamentally wrong with our system that we must address. Every election cycle, the real economy shuts down while fictitious (political) contracts are awarded to fund campaigns and bloat the register of abandoned projects. Once the new governments are in place, the first order of business is to recoup godfather funds used to buy office, the N750 million Ndudi Elumelu scandal being only the most recent in the political corruption timeline. These are the ineluctable facts of the Nigerian political economy, and we must devise a system to protect the budgeted billions from the reach of larcenous government officials and contractors alike. Nothing less than a Corporate Corruption Act will do. Such an Act will function as a Bribe Code (www.bribecode.org) that shuts down the gravy train by:

Punishing companies convicted of the offence of bribery above a threshold of, say, a million naira, with the strict penalty of liquidation.

Protecting informants/whistle blowers and incentivizing/compensating them with a payment of 1 percent of the assets of the liquidated company.

Destroying the culture of political patronage and godfatherism by making it possible for any of Nigeria’s 37 attorneys-general to bring suit for the liquidation of a company convicted of a serious corruption offence.

Affording robust protection from victimization by innocent companies, while achieving all the above.

The knock-on effect of adopting the Bribecode is that much of the N6.87 trillion that is stolen from Nigeria every year (http://desertherald.com/n6-87trillion-stolen-from-nigeria-yearly-au-report/) will no longer happen. The AU’s Thabo Mbeki High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa reports that most of the illicit flows from Africa occurs in Nigeria and is occasioned by private sector corruption, tax evasion, and illegal transfer of profits abroad by multinationals. These transfers are usually effected by the routine bribery and subversion of public officers. With the Bribecode in force such transactions will no longer make balance-sheet sense and should largely disappear, not by the recruitment of saints for public offices, or by the draconian jailing or execution of public officers, but the expedient of legal and fiscal engineering. An economy with a cash infusion in the order of N6 trillion annually can create a lot of domestic jobs without risking hyper inflation and uncontrolled currency devaluation.

This is the systemic change that will not only prepare Nigeria for the proposals of the Ashiwaju, but may make them completely unnecessary. Yet, this is not a change that will come from a professional political class fully invested in political corruption. It is a change that can only be inspired by people who are sick and tired of Politics as Usual. In his article, the Ashiwaju says the right things as a champion of the masses, but it will amount to political posturing if the elephant in the room is not called out. That elephant is Political Corruption. I urge him – and all other Nigerians – therefore to support the Bribecode. A doubling of the naira in circulation will not help Nigeria.

A bullet in the head of Grand Corruption will.

We earned about N6.8 trillion in oil revenues in 2012 (http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/01/nigeria-earns-n6trn-from-oil-in-11-months-cbn/). How about earning a further N6.87 trillion in 2016, merely by tackling corruption with the Bribecode. We should not mortgage our house to dig a new well closer home, when we can simply replace our leaking basket with a bucket. When I speak of a common sense revolution, that is what I mean.

Chuma Nwokolo