A country so corrupt it would be better to burn our aid money

By MICHAEL BURLEIGH

PUBLISHED: 23:14 GMT, 8 August 2013 |
UPDATED: 23:41 GMT, 8 August 2013

Nigeria is not quite the most corrupt country
on earth. But according to Transparency
International, which monitors international
financial corruption, it is not far off — coming
a shameful 172nd worst among the 215
nations surveyed.


Only countries as dysfunctional, derelict and
downright dangerous as Haiti or the Congo are
more corrupt.
In theory, Nigeria’s 170 million-strong
population should be prospering in a country
that in recent years has launched four satellites
into space and now has a burgeoning space
programme.


Moreover, Nigeria is sitting on crude oil
reserves estimated at 35 billion barrels
(enough to fuel the entire world for more than
a year), not to mention 100 trillion cubic feet
of natural gas.
It also manages to pay its legislators the
highest salaries in the world, with a basic wage
of £122,000, nearly double what British MPs
earn and many hundreds of times that of the
country’s ordinary citizens.


No wonder the ruling elite can afford luxury
homes in London or Paris, and top-end cars
that, across West Africa, have led to the
sobriquet ‘Wabenzi’, or people of the
Mercedes-Benz.


Yet 70 per cent of Nigerians live below the
poverty line of £1.29 a day, struggling with a
failing infrastructure and chronic fuel
shortages because of a lack of petrol refining
capacity, even though their country produces
more crude oil than Texas.
And that poverty is not for want of assistance
from the wider world.


Since gaining its independence in 1960, Nigeria
has received $400 billion (£257 billion) in aid
— six times what the U.S. pumped into
reconstructing the whole of Western Europe
after World War II.


Nigeria suffers from what economists call the
‘resource curse’ — the paradox that developing
countries with an abundance of natural
reserves tend to enjoy worse economic growth
than countries without minerals and fuels.
The huge flow of oil wealth means the
government does not rely on taxpayers for its
income, so does not have to answer to the
people — a situation that fosters rampant
corruption and economic sclerosis because
there is no investment in infrastructure as the
country’s leaders cream off its wealth.


Corruption in Nigeria is endemic — from
parents bribing teachers to get hold of exam
papers for their children through clerks
handed ‘dash’ money to get round the
country’s stifling bureaucracy to policemen
taking money for turning a blind eye.
It is at its most blatant, perhaps, in the oil
industry, where 136 million barrels of crude
oil worth $11 billion (£7.79 billion) were
illegally siphoned off in just two years from
2009 to 2011, while hundreds of millions of
dollars in subsidies were given to fuel
merchants to deliver petrol that never
materialised.


Whether the country is ruled by civilians or
soldiers, who invariably proclaim their burning
desire to eradicate civilian corruption, it makes
absolutely no difference.


The military ruled Nigeria between 1966 and
1979 and from 1983 to 1999, but if anything,
corruption was worse when they were in
charge since they had a habit of killing anyone
threatening to expose them.
It is estimated that since 1960, about $380
billion (£245 billion) of government money has
been stolen — almost the total sum Nigeria
has received in foreign aid.
And that even when successive governments
attempt to recover the stolen money, much of
this is looted again.


In essence, 80 per cent of the country’s
substantial oil revenues go to the government,
which disburses cash to individual governors
and hundreds of their cronies, so effectively
these huge sums remain in the hands of a
mere 1 per cent of the Nigerian population.


Political power is universally regarded as a
chance to reap the fortunes of office by the
ruling elite and its families and tribes.


The most egregious example was President Sani
Abacha, a military dictator who ruled in the
Nineties and accrued a staggering $4 billion
(£2.58 billion) fortune by the time he died of a
heart attack while in bed with two Indian
prostitutes at his palace in the nation’s capital,
Abuja, in 1998. Abacha’s business associates
did nicely, too — one of them deposited £122 
million in a Jersey offshore account after
selling Nigerian army trucks for five times
their worth.


Public office is so lucrative that people will kill
to get it. Nigeria has 36 state governors, 31 of
whom are under federal investigation for
corruption.

In one of the smallest states, a candidate for
the governorship occupied by one Ayo Fayose
received texts signed by the ‘Fayose M Squad’
— and it was clear the ‘M’ was for ‘Murder’
when they stabbed and bludgeoned a third
candidate to death in his own bed.

By the end of its term of office, the British
Government will have handed over £1 billion
in aid to Nigeria.

Given the appalling levels of corruption in that
nation, this largesse is utterly sickening — for
the money will only be recycled into bank
accounts in the Channel Islands or Switzerland.


Frankly, we might as well flush our cash away
or burn it for all the good it’s doing for
ordinary Nigerians.

Sadly we don't even need their aid but the article was on point since we have decided to bring shame on ourselves as a nation.
"Nigeria(ns) when will you regain your senses"

a very sad situation

Why do they still give us aid? Let them stop it maybe we go get small sense

Kissing my American passport with GLEE!
Good to know the CORRUPT USA takes care of it's citizens !!!

This is very true. Nigeria is too corrupt.

Highest paid legislooters who get paid for doing nothing meaningful.

The level of corruption in Nigeria is alarming and sickening.

Stop giving Nigeria money!
But this western aid donors will never listen

Only violent revolution will stop such insolence.