Rooting out corruption Chinese-style

By Clement Adebayo Oloyede


Many Nigerians greeted the recent report by an Online media, Today.ng, that our Reps have proposed a 20-year jail term for corrupt politicians with mixed feelings that this might just be another attention-seeking agenda and lip-service ploy from our lawmakers to score cheap popularity from the on-going war against corruption by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The report claimed that the House of Representatives is working on the amendment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act to prescribe 20-year jail term for any politically exposed person (PEP) and those working in the private sector convicted of economic and financial crimes.

While this is a welcome development showing the seriousness of the present administration to root out corruption, there is need to not only prescribe 20-year jail term for corrupt politicians but to also see that this amendment is followed up to implementation and perhaps go a step further to adopt death penalty as is the case in China to prove the resoluteness of the President Buhari led government to free Nigeria from the shackles of corruption. Thank God Baba has just returned from China.
Development scholars have observed that corruption in its generic form hinders economic development, reduces social services, and diverts investments in infrastructure, institutions and social services. The World Bank distinguishes between two main forms of corruption: state capture and administrative corruption. State capture refers to the actions of individuals, groups or firms, both in the public and private sectors, who influence the formation of laws, regulations, decrees and other government policies to their advantage as a result of the illicit and nontransparent provisions of private benefits to public officials.

On the other hand, administrative corruption refers to the intentional imposition of distortions in the prescribed implementation of existing laws, rules and regulations to provide advantages to either government or non-government actors as a result of the illicit and non-transparent provision of private gains to public officials. Investors will be reluctant to invest in development efforts in a country where there is state capture and administrative corruption. It is obvious that Nigeria is engrossed in these two forms of corruption and it has eaten very deep into our national fabric that until this administration launches its war against corruption, stealing was not regarded as corruption.

Another scholar went further to classify corruption as either petty (need based) or grand (greed based) corruption. Petty corruption is found where public servants who may be grossly underpaid depend on small kickbacks from the public to feed their families and pay school fees. Grand corruption involves high officials who make decisions on large public contracts. Here too, there is a negative impact on the poor as they cannot afford to provide any gains to public officials, or if they do, it constitutes a great part of their earnings which they could have otherwise used for their own subsistence or development. (Idise, 2012).

This write-up concerns itself more with Grand (greed based) corruption. If we are able to root out grand corruption from our society with a tornado-like force, petty corruptions will not have sway over us again. We must acknowledge this saying that big or small, corruption begets corruption. As Theodore Roosevelt aptly put it “A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.”

In China, according to Business Anti-Corruption Portal, “the Criminal Law prohibits giving and receiving property to obtain an undue benefit. Bribery is distinguished by ‘official bribery’ (‘working personnel of the State’) and ‘non-official bribery’ (‘personnel of state organizations not engaged in public services’ or ‘working personnel of private companies’). Penalties include fines and the confiscation of property, imprisonment and the death penalty.”

The Chinese government seems not to be mincing words when they enacted that law as several corrupt officials have been sentenced to life imprisonment and to death. In 2013 for example, FoxNews reported that former Politburo member and party chief of the megacity Chongqing in China, Bo Xilai, has been sentenced to life imprisonment after a court convicted him of charges of corruption, accepting bribes, and abuse of power.

In 2014, NBCnews reported that former China Railways official has been sentenced to death for bribery. According to the report on their news site, “A Chinese court has sentenced a former top railways official to death with a two-year reprieve for taking nearly $8 million in bribes. The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court announced the verdict Friday against Zhang Shuguang, formerly the deputy chief engineer for the now-defunct Railway Ministry. The court also confiscated all of Zhang's personal assets.”

In August, 2015, Reuters reported that “A Chinese military court sentenced former senior officer Gu Junshan to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption, the Defense Ministry said on Monday, the latest official to fall in President Xi Jinping's crackdown on graft in the armed forces.”

While there are several other cases of either life imprisonment or death sentence for corrupt officials in China, it should be noted at this point that this strict sanctions against corrupt practices by officials in a country is not restricted to China alone as other countries like Vietnam have wielded the strong sledgehammer of justice on convicted corrupt officials. In 2014, two top executives were sentenced to death for embezzlement as authorities in Vietnam try to allay rising public anger over corruption. Three corrupt bankers have also recently the death sentence.

Few years back, someone that was convicted of defrauding Nigerians of billions of US Dollars while serving as the chief executive officer of a bank in the country was slapped at the back of her wrist with a 6months jail term. Today, the same personality is not only walking the streets of the nation as a free human but she is still celebrated by many.

There are many instances of this kind of case in Nigeria that is why it is a daunting effort on this present administration to convince the masses that the outcome of this corruption war will not be our judiciary slapping these alleged corrupt officials on the back of their palms with sentences that will only end up to encourage more people to envision stealing from the public purse when they are sure they will escape with a benign sentencing.

A recent report by Daily Trust that the Federal Government has concluded plans for the establishment of a National Prosecution Committee (NPC) to deal with serious high profile cases shows that the government (the executive) is serious in his fight against corruption. This is a welcome development as this Committee is among many other things expected to take up serious criminal cases such as terrorism, rape, Kidnapping, oil pipeline vandalization, high profile cases and other crimes involving Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs).

One thing that must be establish here is that the other arms of government (legislative and judiciary) must come out plain to the public and prove that the executive is not alone in this fight against corruption. The efforts of the executive will yield little or no impact if the other arms of government are not on board. And they have to show the desire not just by words of mouth but by active inputs. The executive, perhaps, recognize the need for all hands to be on deck for this fight to be successful when it said, according to the above report that: "the executive does not want to be seen to be the only one fighting corruption. Hence each organ of government will have to define how it intends to fight corruption."

If the present administration can make one or two cases as scapegoats, it will serve as deterrents to others in the country who are harbouring thoughts of enriching themselves with the masses’ common wealth. For this administration to be able to deliver on this, our legislative must team up with the executive to promulgate such China-type of anti-corruption legislations. Our judiciary must team up with both the executive and legislative to ensure that such legislations are properly interpreted and applied where applicable. The media must make sure the three arms of government are kept on their toes by exposing corrupt officials in both the public and private sectors through investigative journalism. The masses must join hands to root out this menace that has eaten deep into our national fabric. When all these (and others) are put in place; then, we can dream of being great once again.

Clement writes from Abuja. Twitter: @Lord_Clem


Source: http://newsdiaryonline.com/rooting-corruption-chinese-style-clement-adebayo-oloyede/

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