The degree of
corruption in a society creates a political/economic condition that affects the functioning of the government. And corruption in government affects the economic functions of the country. In the most general sense, corruption means that something has been changed so that it no longer meets its proper purpose, while regarding politics, corruption concerns officials performing their public tasks improperly to receive personal benefits.
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congressive (APC)  and former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) in his campaign has been hammering on the hydra-headed phenomenon called corruption and poor performing economy of the country, promising  that he would tackle them if voted into power come February 14 presidential election. According to him, the level of corruption in the country was intolerable and should be checked.
Towing the same line, the Rivers State chairman, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Chika Onuegbu, suggested that as part of measures to effectively tackle corruption in Nigeria, corrupt public officials should be made to face charges in court to serve as deterrence to others. This was contained in his new year message where he said only capital punishment could serve as a stringent measure to curb the growing menace of corruption and rescue Nigeria from the throes of poverty.
One might ask; why has the issue of corruption taken a centre-stage at this point of Nigeria? Corruption has always been with us and nothing much seems to have been done about it, why? Its effects are horrid and it is not something a society should tolerate.
Furthermore, while it does exist everywhere in the world, it is becoming worse in Nigeria than other places, so we must definitely do something about it. Government corruption is defined as the abuse of public power for private gain and it involves more than just accepting bribes. It exists in any human organisation but corruption among government or public officials is the worst.
The Transparency International in its Global Corruption Barometer in 2013 reported that the five most corrupt institutions are political parties or politicians, the police, public officials, the legislature and the judiciary’, it also ranked countries by their levels of corruption, with Nigeria ranking one of the most corrupt. Beginning from 1979 when Nigeria had the first presidential election with Shehu Shagari emerging uptil 1999 which saw the General Ibrahim Babangida and General Sani Abacha and others, the story of corruption has remained the same-very bad. From the authoritarian regime of Abacha to the civilian regime of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria has never been free of corruption and economic hardship, even when some of the leaders had the opportunity of being in office for eight years and above.
In fact, the problem of corruption in this country did not start with the present administration under President Gooduck Jonathan, so why the “kill him, persecute him, change” syndrome when he has not been given the freedom enjoyed by other presidents? Although Chief Obasanjo proved himself popular during his military regime when he moved cautiously to weed out a number of the most corrupt generals and officials, which earned him a re-election in 2003, Nigeria’s problems remained immense. Indeed, corruption by government or public officials has inflicted terrible harm on many countries including Nigeria but President Jonathan should be given another opportunity to concentrate on his vision for the country.
This piece, however, is not intended to support or encourage corrupt government officials or politicians to continue with their misdeeds. Corruption produces cynicism, lack of trust or faith and disregard for the rule of law and it also contributes to political instability. That is why most military coups in the past were attributed to corruption.
Corruption has direct economic costs. Some of these are obvious and dramatic, such as the billion dollars the dictator, Sadam Hussein, apparently extracted from Iraq’s economy for himself and his family. Moreso, inflated cost of government programmes due to corruption reduce economic growth and the benefits we receive from governmental services.
It, therefore, behoves  any government to govern sensibly, honestly and democratically. Such president, governor or members of the legislature can only be eligible for reconsideration. Leaders must endeavour to resist the temptation to enrich themselves illicitly. The reason America, Botswana and others are richer than Nigeria is not because they are cleverer, but because their systems work better. Freedom, property rights and the rule of law foster prosperity. All these ideas can be copied and adopted and made to work for Nigeria. Our presidents and governors must ensure they keep good records and not to ignore constitutional term limits. The problem we have today is that the past heads of state and presidents left things in bad shape for the democracy that President Jonathan is battling to reshape.  Some past presidents or heads of state became very wealthy during their tenure in office but today they claim to have done better than the current regime. They left the country’s economy in deep distress.
To be continued.

Shedie Okpara