I missed it. December 9, that is. In 2003 the UN General Assembly designated it as the International Anti-Corruption Day. No, school children are not required to march in a colourful ceremony, as in independence day.
I thought it was a good day this year for the Buhari administration to sound off loudly on the successes of its anti-corruption war. I am sorry to say that if it did, I did not hear it. I am not suggesting that the government does not recognise this important day that serves global notice on corruption annually that it can reign but it cannot rule God’s roost on earth. Perhaps, it does not intend to always sound the deafening blast on its horn. If so, not bad.
In a press statement, the Centre for Democracy Development, CCD, says that the UN objective in picking December 9 is “to raise people’s awareness of corruption and of the role of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in combating and preventing it.” It is as laudable an objective as they come.
However, I think it is always a mistake to think that governments and corporate organisations and people everywhere are blissfully unaware of corruption and its evil grip on all nations and peoples and therefore needs a special day once in a year to duly remind them. People have always been aware of this and all the other evils such as not coveting one’s neighbour’s stately mansions and his state of the art jeeps, since, I would imagine, Adam and Eve were chased out of the Garden of Eden, no thanks to the wily serpent. But we still covet, not in defiance of the divine injunction per se but because covetousness sits well in the human heart. We have been trying to grope our way back to the fabled garden since but thanks to corruption and our inability not to covet, we have lost the way, I think.
It is now 15 years since the UN made the declaration. I wonder what effect it has had so far on corruption in governments, corporate organisations and individuals. Do we have less corruption or more corruption in countries big or small; rich or poor? It would be good to know what the current state of corruption is globally since the UN declaration beyond the annual Corruption Perception Index report issued by Transparency International.
The jury must still be out. I have an uneasy feeling that when it returns with its verdict, nothing in it would surprise us. Because nothing has dramatically changed either in people’s awareness of corruption, abhorrence of it or their readiness to combat it. We are still in bed with corruption, warring against it with strong words of excoriation., as if corruption fears condemnation.
Part of the problem with combating corruption is the sense in which it is understood – and that is financial corruption. It is narrow, of course, but it is easier to deal with this aspect of corruption than say, moral corruption and perhaps, the greatest corruption of all, the corruption of power emanating from its flagrant misuse. We tend to forget that corruption is derivative. It derives its resilience from the refusal by leaders and their minions to play by the rules of human and societal management. When a state governor freely helps himself to the state treasury, he does so because he does not think he is misusing his political power. I am not aware so far of a former governor hauled before a judge by the EFCC on charges of misusing his power to oppress other people and deny them their legitimate entitlements as bona fide citizens.
In our long war with corruption, we have concentrated on financial corruption; and therefore ignored the roots and the trees of corruption. No one, not even the blind, can pretend not to know that we have been warring against corruption since the majors made us aware in January 1966 that every ten per cent creamed off government contracts spells the word everyone professes to hate but none would eliminate from his vocabulary.
Ours is the loudest anti-corruption war in the world because our country is rated as the booming corruption capital of the world. It more or less defines us now as a country and as a people. Court dockets are full of charges against our former big men and women allegedly found in bed with corruption. More of such people are dragged to court and detention here than any where else in Africa. Sure, we are not proud of this but we do have a price to pay for being the giant of Africa. We tower over other African countries in size, corruption and moral decadence, as of right. See am?
What is particularly disturbing being that even as the guns of the anti-graft war boom, we can still hear the laughter of corruption loud and clear. A report by Price Waterhouse Coopers quoted by CDD offers us these chilling dampeners on the anti-graft war given new tempo since Buhari assumed office as president in 2015:
One, “corruption in Nigeria could cost up to 37% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2030 if it is not dealt with immediately.”
Two, “the cost is equated to around $1,000 per person in 2014 and nearly $2,000 per person by 2030.”
Three, “In February 2018, Transparency International released the Corruption Perception Index (showing that) Nigeria slipped further down in the global rankings, an indication that appreciable and lasting progress has not been made in the fight against corruption. Nigeria ranks 148 out of 180 countries, with a 27% score out of 100%.”
Four, “corruption persists in the country at all levels, costing taxpayers 25% of annual GDP.”
Depressing. To put the four points another way: corruption is not preparing to surrender to the forces of the Nigerian state sooner or even later. It is chuckling at the anti-graft commanders and their foot soldiers. If you think this is a war that Nigeria would win sooner than later, given the noise and the occasional plaudits that attend it, consider these three takes on corruption:
Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardaunan Sokoto, late premier of the Northern Region: “Corruption is a big matter and one which had given us a lot of anxious thought. It is all very well to say abolish corruption as though it was a thing that can be cut off by turning a tap or pressing a switch. No, it is a matter which springs from the very roots of human nature. Is there any country in the world which can honestly and convincingly claim to be absolutely free of corruption? I doubt it very much. In my opinion all that a government can do is to frown on these (corrupt) practices and endeavour to keep them in bounds … (so that corruption) does not become a by word among men.”
Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late premier of the Western Region: “It will, I believe, be generally agreed that eradication of corruption from any society is not just a difficult task; it is, without dispute an impossible objective.”
There you have it from two of our late redoubtable nationalists. Is there hope for a corruption-free Nigeria? Perhaps, yes; perhaps, no. But whatever your take might be, consider this from the well-thumbed book of Job chapter 17, verse 14: “I say to corruption, Thou art my father.” Got it? I rest my case.
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