By Furera Isma Jumare
Recently Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, lamented that globally, 30 per cent of aid meant for development was lost to corruption in 2011, hampering the ability of countries to prosper and grow, by preventing peace, development and human rights from flourishing.
This brings to mind Nigeria, a country awash in oil wealth, but which ranks 143rd in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (or the 33rd most corrupt country in the world). In his 2007 book “The Bottom Billion”, Paul Collier, former World Bank Director of Research Development had also called Nigeria a development failure.
In Nigeria, government agencies which have the responsibility of providing public goods and services are cesspools of corruption. It is the same thing from the federal government, to the states, and the local government councils where it is an open secret that in some cases, their statutory monthly allocations are simply shared among officers.
Sadly, no one seems to care anymore that public officers, many of whom earn less than a N100,000 a month, drive around in brand new expensive cars (paid for in full), send their children to expensive private schools, own expensive homes, and flaunt their ill-gotten wealth.
Obviously, the civil servants are aided and abetted by legislators that have oversight function over their agencies, as well as the private sector itself. For example, around 2008 the power sector probe by the Ndudi Elumelu led House of Representatives Committee on Power was steeped in allegations that members had collected a bribe of N100 million from a contractor. Elumelu and his team were charged to court, but have we heard anything anymore about the case?
Then there is the Farouk Lawan (Mr. Integrity)/ Femi Otedola bribery scandal during the fuel subsidy probe. Here, evidence emerged that Mr. Integrity had taken a bribe of at least $500,000 to exonerate a company owned by Femi Otedola, a big player in the oil sector.
It is also clear that members of the legislature cannot help soliciting bribe regardless of the importance of whatever project, sector or ministry they “oversee”, knowing this is to the detriment of growth and development of the country, its citizens, or even the constituencies they claim to represent. In Nigeria the corruption disease has hit on such an audacious scale and now reached frightening proportions.
To add salt to injury, Nigeria ranked 156th in World Bank’s Human Development Index in 2011, falling into the Low Human Development group, and only better than 23 countries. For many years the country has fallen into that group, and now it is not likely to meet most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the target date of 2015 according to reports.
This is because to achieve each of the goals requires an infusion of funds by government. And there lies the problem for Nigeria. Wherever funds are needed for a project, corruption is lurking around the corner. How on earth then did we think the country would achieve rapid development and meet the goals by 2015? Marrying the two issues of corruption and achieving the MDGs together, understanding why it would be a difficult task anyway becomes easier.
Already, looking at the overarching of the eight goals - eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in assessing the current progress of the MDGs in Nigeria reports that this goal is not likely to be met by 2015. As it is already, by 2010, 61.2 per cent of Nigerians were living under a dollar a day, according to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
But then again, for the same reason, can Nigeria meet the goal of achieving universal primary education? While World Bank statistics showed increased primary school enrolment in this case, there is a missing link. If the MDGs are supposed to be a means to achieving development, that goal should have addressed the issue of quality of education, and not just volume.
The educational system in the country has totally collapsed in terms of quality. There is dilapidated physical infrastructure, limited educational equipment and other materials, and poor quality of teaching. Of course this feeds into Nigeria’s secondary school system where for example only 10 per cent of the 110,724 candidates passed the 2011 November/December Senior School Certificate Examinations of the National Examination Council (the NECO SSCE).
For the health sector, the case of Professor Adenike Grange, the former Minister of Health who was fired for graft in 2008 is an example of corruption in high places. But also recently in July, a scathing report appeared in the equally sensational on line news media, Saharareporters.com, regarding the activities of the Federal Ministry of Health. Staff members together with those of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), were accused of stealing much of the N320 billion allocated to the ministry specifically for the achievement of the MDGs and others.
But the Office of the Senior Special Advisor to the President on MDGs is not left out of the corruption scandals; it was recently reported that the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had arrested the Benue state coordinator of the MDGs, Mr. Timothy Aikyor, and some of his subordinates, for misappropriation of between N300 million and N1 billion.
In view of all this therefore, are the MDGs attainable in Nigeria? We know that corruption in Nigeria, very much like religion, has been accepted as a way of life. Law enforcement and other constituted authority that should abhor and prevent it actually condone and fuel it. Many corruption cases have “disappeared” because of the connivance of constituted authority, but even where cases still exist, they are often tied up in bureaucracy at the courts anyway. So what to do?
Countries have been urged to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Adopted in 2003 by the General Assembly, the instrument is the first global legally binding one meant to help countries fight corruption and recover stolen assets. Nigeria has ratified it, but if the Nigerian government is sincere in its fight against corruption, then for a start it must incorporate the convention’s provisions into our laws.
When this happens it might serve as a deterrent for those who believe they can steal public funds and hide the loot abroad.
Leadership
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