The Lexicon of corruption in Africa and how Corporate Governance can redeem the situation

In an interview some eight years ago with CNN’s Christian Amanpour, the then out going Head of State of Nigeria Retired General Muhammadu Buhari noted that the high rate of corruption in Nigeria could consume the country if nothing urgent was done to curtail it.

Buhari is not the only Nigerian that has raised this alarm. Many Nigerians including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, and Abdulsalami Abubakar, have also, on several occasions, lamented the high rate of corruption in the country even with the anti-corruption agencies in the country.

Corruption is condoned by our system and institutions of state. We have even developed our own specific language for the scourge. The Lexicon of corruption is an interesting one in Nigeria. You would hear people talk about “giving Kola” appreciating you” “oiling the process” and “paying homage”

In most police stations across Nigeria you would see posters saying bail is free but police officers would not grant bail until the “table is wet”*or “pure water on the ground”

According to the respected UK business magazine, The Economist, in most African countries citizens tell pollsters that graft is getting worse and police is severally mentioned by respondents as a major institution they see as very corrupt.

Interestingly many of such results are seldomly not published but handed to government that would quietly sweep it under the rug. Therefore researchers would quote polls by International outlets instead of local news channel. Top government officials do claim that such polls could be sponsored to embarrass their principals and they would ensure such reports are discredited if published.

High-profile scandal among political bigwigs is one reason for that, though it may also be that dodgy deals are being uncovered more often, rather than becoming more common.

For most people, though, it is because they still face regular shakedowns from officials and the police. One in four Africans who used public services or interacted with police told pollsters they had paid a bribe in the previous year, according to a report in 2019 by Transparency International, a Berlin-based NGO. Still, widespread anti-corruption efforts do at least pose awkward questions to the determinedly unscrupulous.

Some public officials still trust in impunity. “Give me something,” demands a woman X-raying bags at Enugu airport in Nigeria, conceding impressively little to anti-graft efforts. The begging knows no age, a young student on his way out of Nigeria at the Murtala Muhammed Airport , Lagos was asked to drop something and he replied the Customs and Immigration officials that they should do their jobs. They proceeded to check his luggage and he left their desk after 30 minutes of checks. The officials tagged him uncooperative because he simply asked them to do the needful.