Being the first part of the paper presented at the 20th Bassey Andah Memorial Lecture by Professor Sola Akinrinade, provost, Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria. The event was held recently at theUniversity of Calabar International Conference Centre, Cross River State.
Preliminaries/protocol
It is appropriate that I begin this presentation with a note of appreciation to the leadership of the Bassey Andah Foundation for the honour of this invitation and sharing a platform with some of the most distinguished individuals this country has ever produced. My relationship with the Foundation dates back to 2008 when I was invited to chair that year’s edition of the lecture. I have remained in touch with the Foundation’s leadership since and I am greatly pleased to note the remarkable progress it is recording in its quest to impact the development process in this country.
For the purpose of this lecture, the organisers suggested the theme, ‘Corruption and the Development of Nigeria’. I have slightly modified the title of this presentationto read, ‘Corruption and the Underdevelopment of Nigeria.’ Despite the most optimistic interpretation of the economic status of Nigeria today, it would be a most untruthful declaration to say that Nigeria is developed. However, no one controverts the statement that Nigeria is an underdeveloped country that is achieving far below its potential given its human and other endowed resources.
Nigeria’s underdevelopment crisis
Going by the huge human and other resources available to Nigeria, the country has the potential to be one of the most developed countries in the world. Unfortunately, Nigeria has not harnessed this potential and falls far below the level of development it ought to have attained. The situation has worsened in recent years. A country that, only a few years ago, proudly declared itself the largest economy in Africa also holds the dubious distinction of being the poverty capital of the world. Poverty rate, as measured by the percentage of the population living on income of less than US $2 per day has risen from 54percent in 1999 to 80percent today. Nigeria has overtaken India as host to the largest extremely poor population in the world. In the same vein, unemployment has risen from 4.2percent in 1999 to 23percent in the third quarter of 2018 with youth unemployment standing at a staggering 33.1percent. To the above should be added that Nigeria today, with 13.5 million, has the world’s largest population of out-of-school children; one of the top five countries with highest mortality rates; one of the three remaining polio-endemic countries in the world, and the world’s third most terror-afflicted country.
However, to the layperson, the statistics reeled out above may not mean anything. To her, underdevelopment of the country is more easily understood in terms of: Hunger occasioned by poverty and food insecurity; decimated public school system with poor infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms, inadequate personnel, underachieving students; terribly bad roads including some with craters that can fit a small vehicle; deficiency of equipment, supplies and services in public hospitals; inadequate power supply resulting in regular blackouts, and near-absent public water supply system.
We can go on and on with the list of manifestations of developmental inadequacies that make the average Nigerian complain that every family is a local government Council supplying its own power, water, education, etc. The question is: how did we, as a nation, arrive at this sorry pass?
Attempts at interrogating the basis for this gross underachievement have yielded various explanations ranging from leadership failure to the lingering effects of colonialism, among others. However, in recent years, one new explanation for the underdevelopment of the country is the devastating consequences of corruption and corrupt behaviour on the part of those entrusted with our commonwealth.
With time, corruption has become one of the most assailed factors in explaining the failure and underdevelopment of the Nigeria state. This is not without cause. Corruption is one of the most prominent elements militating against the proper marshalling of resources in Nigeria. The stench of corruption permeates almost every space in Nigeria and has made the country and its systems sickly and unhealthy.
Nigeria and its corruption conundrum
A little peep into our history may be appropriate at this stage. Historical records including reports of colonial officers, point to the prevalence of corruption in the Nigerian polity particularly the public sector as far back as colonial times. The reports of District Officers many times point to the incurably corrupt native elites. In contemporary times, our struggle with corruption dates back to the period following the attainment of internal self-rule and the immediate post-independence period.
In his January 15, 1966, speech on behalf of the Supreme Council of the Revolution of the Nigerian Armed Forces declaring martial law over the Northern Provinces of Nigeria, Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu declared that “The aim of the Revolutionary Council is to establish a strong united and prosperous nation, free from corruption and internal strife.” Later in that speech, he famously declared: “Our enemies are the political profiteers, the swindlers, the men in high and low places that seek bribes and demand 10 percent; those that keep the country divided permanently so that they can remain in office as Ministers or VIPs at least, the tribalists, the nepotists, those that make the country look big for nothing before international circles, those that have corrupted our society and put the Nigerian political calendar back by their words and deeds.”
Major-General J.T.U. Aguiyi Ironsi who took power following the coup promised to wipe out corruption. In his maiden broadcast to the nation on January 18, 1966, he warned that “the federal military government will stamp out corruption and dishonesty in our public life with ruthless efficiency and restore integrity and self-respect in our public life. This declaration was followed by the setting up of various probe panels into the assets of some public officials and other persons suspected of large-scale misappropriation of public funds and unjust enrichment.
In the years that followed, from 1966 to 1999, except for the civilian interregnum of the Second Republic, 1979 to 1983, the Nigerian political space became the plaything for one military messianic group or the other. Corruption along with “failure or inability to consult” by deposed leaders became the most popular excuse deployed by gun totting, trigger-happy soldiers for capturing power.
The era of military rule coincided with a critical phase in the development of this nation. Over the years, “Corruption” became a plot in a classical play constantly looking for new actors for re-enactment by subsequent generations. Each regime sought to legitimise its status by laying claims to fighting corruption and justifying its staying in power by claiming a need to sanitise the polity and entrench a corruption-free process. The entrenchment of military rulers in the seat of power particularly in the immediate post-civil war years coincided with the emergence of stupendous oil wealth, which properly managed could have transformed the nation’s fortune positively and permanently. But what we had instead was a worsening of the economic situation and aggravation of corruption. With a clear lack of focus on the path of one regime after the other, it is no brainer to hazard why corruption thrived unabated even as Nigeria became the country with the highest cost of implementing construction projects not because of higher quality of delivery but because of padding.
Why are our infrastructural facilities including roads, power, schools, hospitals etc. in such a calamitous situation? Corruption has done an incalculable harm to the progress of Nigeria as a country and the effects have been far reaching, including negative international image, lack of legitimacy for government, violence and political instability, erosion of social values including the culture of hard work, social trust, respect for others, especially elders and the weak, etc.
Governments, even un-elected ones, live on trust and retaining the confidence of the people is crucial to their survival.Public Confidence is important to the smooth functioning of government. Unethical behaviour on the part of government officials lead to loss of public trust. A government cannot function effectively, if the public believes that its officials are corrupt, even if they are not. The general perception in the country today is that corruption has eaten deep into the fabrics of government at every level and in every agency of government. There are increasing expectations to promote good governance, integrity and transparency in the public service. Thus, public functionaries should not just be people of integrity, they must be seen to be so.
Sola Akinrinade
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