Nairaland Forum

As promised,I just published my note article titled, I AM NOT AGAINST CORRUPTION. An article discussing corruption in its reality in Nigeria and across the world,efforts to stop it and its impossibility. A way forward against corruption apart from declaring war. The difference between the corruption in Developed and developing nation,why the corruption in developing nation didn't prevent the development compared to the developing nation. Kindly take a read and drop your comment. We must understand the reality of today, that a war against corruption is a lost war; it has never been won by any nation, even in china where death is the penalty of it, corruption still strives and flourish.
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AOH

I AM NOT AGAINST CORRUPTION

By: Abdulrazaq Oyebanji Hamzat

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We must understand the reality of today, that a war against corruption is a lost war; it has never been won by any nation, even in china where death is the penalty of it, corruption still strives and flourish.



According to the oxford dictionary, Corruption is defined as a dishonest or illegal behavior especially of people in authority.



Limiting our discussion to political corruption, Political corruption is the abuse of public power, office, or resources by elected government officials for personal gain, e.g. by extortion, soliciting or offering bribes.



Going by this meaning, it is crystal clear to everyone that corruption is not healthy or desirable in a progressive or aspiring progressive society. Despite this clarity, most people in the world today are corrupt in one way or the other, but the corruption of the people in government authority is unquantifiable. Out of all the corruption being perpetrated in the world today, the most recognized with the highest impact in the society is that which occur in the hand of people trusted with the resources of a nation.



The reason for this piece is to express my understanding on the issue of corruption in developing nation,especially in Nigeria and also recognize the effort of our government in fighting it, as well as proffer another alternative to the utilization of our energy and resources.



Corruption they say destroys the nation, but I say if properly understood can be used for transformation, at least as a temporal measure.



I am not saying we should be corrupt or encourage corruption, but the truth and reality as far as human beings of today are concerned is that corruption is a way of life, from Nigeria to America, Saudi Arabia to Jerusalem.



Every effort by various government across the world to end the menace of corruption have proven not functional enough to prevent it, especially in a world were democracy is regarded as the most acceptable form of government, the same democracy has proven in most cases, as being responsible for the increasing corrupt practices across the world, because the more the politicians, the more the corruption. Corruption and democracy are said to be inseparable.



The question now is, can corruption be prevented? Experts says no, but they say it can be reduced to the nearest minimal.



What is this nearest minimal if we may ask? In answering this question, some people here in Nigeria would be fast to refer to the U.S as a country with minimal corruption since they the U.S are the world most powerful and one of the most developed nation in the world. Though rated in 2011 by the Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index ranked the United States 24 out of 183 countries. In this regard, using the U.S as a measure for a minimal corruption may be justifiable.



Now, If the U.S is to be used as a measure, we must first listen to what the U.S citizens are saying about their own corruption and its impact.



American dream, an organization Waking People Up And Getting Them To Realize That The American Dream Is Quickly Becoming The American Nightmare, in one of its article titled: 25 Bizarre Examples That Show That The U.S. Government Is Absolutely Brimming With Idiots, Incompetents And Incredibly Corrupt Politicians Says, if our founding fathers could see us today, what would they think? Unfortunately, they would probably come to the exact same conclusion that so many of us have come to - the U.S. government is absolutely brimming with idiots, incompetents and incredibly corrupt politicians.



The organization continued in the article,Today it is very rare to come across a politician that still has any integrity left. Washington D.C. has become such a cesspool that it seems to corrupt even most of the politicians that originally go there with good intentions. The organization went further to say, We have created the most complicated government in the history of the world and we have hundreds of thousands of pages of laws, and yet nothing seems to work right except lawlessness.



Our economy is dying, our relationships with the rest of the world are a mess and we have accumulated the largest debt in the history of mankind. Meanwhile, our politicians openly hand out our money to their friends and to those that have donated money to their campaigns and they waste our money on some of the stupidest things imaginable. Have we now gotten to the point where our system of government has become so corrupted that it is almost impossible to repair it? There it seems as though almost everything our government tries to do is cursed. Nothing ever seems to turn out the way that it is supposed to. The more our politicians promise to get spending under control, the more money they seem to waste. It is almost as if there is a "drought of common sense" in Washington D.C. right now. Not only can't our politicians fix our problems - everything that they do only seems to make our problems even worse. The American dream said.



So, if the U.S is to be used as a measure for what experts call the minimal corruption, we would not be out of place if we adopt the title of the American dream’s publication which says, THE U.S GOVERNMENT IS ABSOLUTELY BRIMMING WITH IDIOTS, INCOMPETENT AND INCREDIBLE CORRUPT POLITICIANS.



Going back to our discussion on reducing corruption to its minimal,I am not saying we can not try to reduce corruption to some extents,but the present setting of Nigeria's government agencies does not support corruption reduction,any effort put in to it with this structure would be wasted.



I would rather advice all well meaning Nigerians to instead of wasting our time on fighting a ghost corruption of looting,we should rather focus on fighting the physical corruption of structure,it is easier to fight and its success would mean a giant step at achieving a greater and faster success against corruption.



How then can Nigeria’s corruption be used for transformation?

Just like the American politicians and other countries in the world where politics is regarded as a major business, the Nigerian politicians are corrupt like their counterparts across the world, but most Nigerians see our corruption as Away and Beyond (from 2face Idibia new Album title), just like the citizens of other nationals see theirs.



The difference between the corruption in the developed and developing nations are far away, the loot of the developing nations is looted out of the country why that of the developed nation remain in the same country, contributing to its economy from a private sector. This major difference is the main reason why the corruption in the developed nation didn’t affect its development as much as it does to the developing nation.



According to a report by the BBC in 2006 credited to the former EFCC chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Nigerian leaders have looted over $380billion and probably all of these funds are taken outside the country. Mr Ribadu said he had come up with his figure of $380bn stolen or wasted since independence "easily" through records kept by the Nigerian central bank and the ministry of finance. According to another report, Nigerian leaders looted $500b foreign aid, Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, accused past Nigerian leaders of stealing $500 billion donors’ assistance from Western countries to Nigeria since independence.



Another report says, about $20-trillion had been stolen from Nigeria's coffers by leaders who had access to the nation's money between 1960 and 2005. This was disclosed by Dapo Olorunyomi, chief of staff to the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) at a function in Lagos. These reports were in 2005 and 2006,I am sure this figures had gone higher. Imagine how developed Nigeria would be if $20 trillion is invested in the private sector? Would we be looking for foreign investors now? Even if these funds were looted by individuals and reinvested in their individuals’ capacity back into the economy, I am sure we would not be in this present state where the rate of unemployment is a alarming.I feel that there is a way that these corruptions can be utilized for development in a developing nation like Ours.



The Nigerian government have on several occasion, invested so much money in their said war against corruption, the same corruption they are practicing, how do we expect the president or governors who themselves are CORRUPTION to make any meaningful effect? The fund dedicated to fighting corruption is being stolen by the same government.



CORRUPTION REINVESTMENT

CORRUPTION RE-INVESTMENT should be a way out of our present condition; the government should relent on its effort to fight itself (corruption), but concentrate on corruption re-investment, i.e ensuring that the looted funds are not laundered out of the country. This is a gift i expect from any genuine leader. The Government should ensure that looted funds are not allowed to be taken out of this country; in fact, I think a law should be enacted in this regard by the National Assembly, where death sentence or life imprisonment would be the punishment for any public office holder found guilty of taking funds abroad. Not those found guilty of stealing it,but those guilty of taking it out of the country.



In addition to this, the National Assembly should state categorically in the law that certain amount of money must not be kept in the bank idle for interbank deals, it should be channeled into businesses where citizens can benefit. The Government should introduce a law stating that all previous government officials who had funds outside the country should be given some certain period of time to return the funds into the country and start a physical business, they should be free from violation, harassment, intimidation or questioning what so ever, and after the period given, any individual found to have hidden money outside the country would be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.



My believe is that, all looted funds if returned to Nigeria and channeled into businesses by individuals would not only reduce the unemployment and government burden, but would also increase governments income which would give room for rapid development.



For example,TY Danjuma looted huge funds from the country, these funds if left in government handling may be prevented to serve any purpose other than being looted again by another person, but it was looted by TY danjuma through corruption. After leaving the scene,TY Danjuma channeled some part of these funds into his foundation, TY danjuma Foundation where his foundation gives grants to NGO’s involved in community development and so on. TY Danjuma may still has a lot of funds abroad underutilized,if these law is in place, he would not only bring out major parts of the funds, but invest it in the community for more development.



I am not against Corruption, if it can be used in this manner at least for now. yes, I am not against it provided it can be utilized in this manner for an emergency measure to reduce the hardship in the land. This style can help us if we can consider it now, it should continue for some time before the situation return to normal when new measures can be introduced to tackle corruption in its entirety.



We must understand the reality of today, that a war against corruption is a lost war; it has never been won by any nation, even in china where death is the penalty of it, corruption still strives and flourish.



This is why President Hu Jintao of china said, There is no way in any country to “root out” corruption. Most critical is containing it to a level acceptable to the public. And to do this is for China, The public must also understand the objective fact and reality that China has no way of entirely suppressing corruption without sending the whole country into pain and confusion.



Copy Right

Abdulrazaq Oyebanji Hamzat (c)2012

MD/Initiative Creator (IC)

GRAND PLAN

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Your prescription here is based on a rather limited understanding of what corruption is, Alhaji

You want me to accept that because you see corruption in absolute terms only, you are not against the construction of structurally unsound bridges by engineers on the take?
What about having children taught in schools by teachers who cheated in qualifying admission exams?

I'd wager a bet that you, like many observers, expressed outrage on learning routine maintenance cycles were ignored by DANA Air just a week ago, yet here you advocating the untold benefits of corruption

Do you see why this GRAND PLAN of yours earns a well deserved F9, in my book

lol

F39 you mean

absolutely no sense of shame, its okay to be be corrupt as long as you re-invest the money into the same economy, according to you

how about prosecuting and disgracing people by stripping them of their positions and powers instead of playing ping pong in the court of law

So, if the U.S is to be used as a measure for what experts call the minimal corruption, we would not be out of place if we adopt the title of the American dream’s publication which says, THE U.S GOVERNMENT IS ABSOLUTELY BRIMMING WITH IDIOTS, INCOMPETENT AND INCREDIBLE CORRUPT POLITICIANS.

The difference between US corruption and Nigerian corruption is that our own takes lives every day via car crashes, plane crashes, Boko Haram/PDP, and more.

There may be corrupt officials in the US, but Americans are still altruistic and are vocal about corruption daily. There was an election last Tuesday in California. Californians voted to reduce Congress terms; a way of eradicating those men and women who take office and sit there for years, wasting tax dollars. Meanwhile, our own corruption has reached monumental proportions, from the president down to the poorest man.

ogugua88:

The difference between US corruption and Nigerian corruption is that our own takes lives every day via car crashes, plane crashes, Boko Haram/PDP, and more.

There may be corrupt officials in the US, but Americans are still altruistic and are vocal about corruption daily. There was an election last Tuesday in California. Californians voted to reduce Congress terms; a way of eradicating those men and women who take office and sit there for years, wasting tax dollars. Meanwhile, our own corruption has reached monumental proportions, from the president down to the poorest man.

In his article titled 'foreign aid and corruption', John O'Shea actually made a distinction between two types of corruption.
I don't have accessed to it right now, but the following is a brief excerpt.

John O'Shea (Opinion, December 9th) rightly draws attention to corruption in Africa and the outstanding work that GOAL and other organisations undertake there. An important issue is where corruption comes from. There are two types: vertical (aid or bribes to political élites) and horizontal (day-to-day corruption among civil servants, police, nurses, etc.).

Successful economies such as Ireland and South Korea have had substantial vertical corruption, but very little horizontal corruption, which is more corrosive. Horizontal corruption is caused by poverty and poor salaries.

^^I need to read that book.

Wonder if he has a description of diagonal corruption and where it can be found.

eGuerrilla: In his article titled 'foreign aid and corruption', John O'Shea actually made a distinction between two types of corruption.
I don't have accessed to it right now, but the following is a brief excerpt.

Thanks

I found it on a website but I have to register to read the full article. Will do so soon.