Issues
Corruption And Nigeria’s Economy
The word corruption is
being chorused in Nigeria by everybody in all spheres of human endeavour. Corruption has its hydra-headed effect in anywhere there is the likelihood of societal activities. It is ironically found in places where it ought not be. It is there in the Kitchens of our homes where some house wives tend to out play their husbands. It is found in the churches where the Holy Spirit and righteousness should dominate actions of the congregations and members of the clergy and. In the market places where it appears that corruption is an instrument of measurement of demand and supply. In Government establishments, doors of offices are wide open for perpetration of corruption.
What then is Corruption? The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defined corruption as a dishonest or wicked behaviour. The World Bank described it as the abuse of public office for private gain. I see corruption as an inherent evil that can be reduced only if we sanitize ourselves to be able to carry the flag and the weapons of anti-corruption. The endemic nature of corruption in Nigeria was confirmed by Dr. Chuba Okadigbo of blessed memory in 1987 when he said: “The corrupt man is everywhere, the man on the street, the man next door, the man in the market or in departmental store, the policeman on beat patrol, the soldier at the check point”.
According to the Plos one group, corruption is a complex problem which threatens the impact of public investments, health care access and services, equity and outcomes. At the level of individuals and households, there is mounting evidence of the negative effects of corruption in the health and welfare of citizens. The 2006 report of Transparency International asserts that the corruption level undermines the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal MDGs and that corruption is one of the primary causes of the fact that the global community is already off target to meet the MDGs.
Man is therefore by nature the instrument of the causes and consequences of corruption.
The causes of corruption in Nigeria among other things include natural factors such as poverty, institutional factors such as democracy, social factors such as collapse of moral values and legal factors such as unfair legal system.
Economically, the Niqerian populace has been engrossed by abject poverty where more than 30% live below the minimum biological food requirements.
The levels of poverty and unemployment in the Nigerian economy are very high, at approximately 61 % and 23% respectively in a statistical data given in 2010. As a result of these ugly trends the level of corruption risks become so high that the people stick themselves to corrupt practices. This is why late Prof. Chinua Achebe in his No Longer at Ease” written in the early nineteen sixties exclaimed that Nigeria is corrupt through and through, which also agrees with the saying of late Okadigbo that corruption is.” everywhere in Nigeria.
Gray and Kauffman have argued that, in an underdeveloped capitalist economy which Nigeria is one, corruption is widespread for two main reasons. First, the motivation for corruption is strong; second, opportunities to engage in corruption are numerous.
To migrate from poverty to a seemingly middle manpower level people indulge themselves in risk propelling ventures that will ultimately result to corruption. This trend is more prevalent in Nigeria because of sole dependance on the black gold (the oil) for livelihood. Nigeria is therefore characterized by abundant revenue from petroleum. This resulted to financial autonomy of political leaders and governments.
The tax payers seem not to have any influence on governance because there is enough money for politics and government to strive. This financial freedom reduces the moral basis for the citizens to demand public accountability from governement.
In Nigeria, the political arrangement provided great power to the Chief Executive, the President to seemingly act as an autocrat which reduces -the impact or practice of democracy in the polity. As a result of this, the separation of power-between the executive, legislature and judiciary is a mere nominal practice creating loopholes for corruption to flourish. In Nigeria all sorts of corrupt practices take place mainly around the political process. When public funds are corruptly obtained and used for elections, more corrupt practices will be perpetrated by the victorious politicians to recover their pre-election and electoral expenses. Sad enough the porous security level in the countrywas introduced by political competitors who saw politics as a life and death struggle by arming .the youths with guns and ammunition to win election. Today, these youths are grand patrons of corruption. They go to the creeks and elsewhere to vandalize oil pipelines to make money to remain afloat. They go to offices to abduct their mentors and governments pay outrageous ransom to them.
Corruption, like laziness which begins in a cobweb and ends in an iron chain has gripped the Nigerian state that amnesty was seen as a viable option which I think is counterproductive because each zone of the federation seem to participate in this doctrine of making peace in the falsehood of spending our hard earned resources outrageously. This action makes those involve to be silent or inactive in a while, like the bed bug, and become more offensive when the toxic effect goes away. There is the likelihood that Nigerian youths who are not benefiting from this will form themselves to something that will not help to bring peace but insecurity. In the Northern part of the country, political disadvantaged individuals have introduced the Boko Haram which is hopelessly bringing down,” the economic strength of the affected states. At the political level, corruption has been circularly dominant that it will take huge amount of time, intellect and fund to reduce.
The growth of corruption in Nigeria is very rapid and has hydra-headed adverse effect. This is because Nigerian social structure constitutes fertile ground for the growth.
Nigeria is a society of “two publics” the national and the communal public. Primary loyalty appears to favour the community at the expense of the nation. It has been a welcome practice to divert and misappropriate public funds at the national level and use it for personal, family and community projects.
The act of nepotism where undue favouritism is meted upon ones relation is also a welcome practice in Nigeria. Putting square pegs in round holes is not.also frowned at so long as it is done by somebody in authority in the national public to favour himself or his community. Sanctions are seemingly being metted out to public officers in the national estalishments who to not engage in corupt practice from their community members who expect them to bring home ill acquired fortunes for them. Those who do not have such opportunity to divert fund or any benefit from the Federal Government to their states or community go to any length of corrupt practices to be recognized in their communities. Some who succeed are given chieftaincy tittles or given preferential treatments during social gatherings. To achieve this, some go into killing, armed robbery, kidnapping etc.
Legally speaking, since 1960, Nigeria has enacted excess of anti-corruption laws and raised many anti-corruption agencles and Institutions which have resulted to unfair legal system because of the duplications in handling corruption matters.
To be continued
Dr. Ikoro, a certified corruption risk assessor is based in Port Harcourt.
Ikoro Watson Matthew
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
