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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment