THE CHANGE PROJECT: ENDING CORRUPTION AND ENSURING PROSPERITY IN NIGERIA
By
Rt. Hon. Salaam Najeem Folasayo
Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly, Osogbo, Osun State
Being a Distinguished Public Lecture organized by The Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ), Kwara State Wing, held at NUJ Press Centre, Ilorin, Kwara State on November 19, 2015
Let me begin this lecture by first and foremost thanking almighty God for strength and good health to be physically present here today. Secondly, I must humbly and sincerely thank the President and entire leadership crew of NUJ Kwara State for deeming me fit to be given the opportunity and the privilege to deliver this year’s Distinguished Public Lecture. Let me confess that when I received the invitation to deliver this lecture on the chosen topic, I was initially reluctant to accept for three obvious reasons: one, the fright that I will be addressing a well-informed audience, the journalists, the mouth-piece of the society and
conscience of nation whose professional power, skill and influence made former American President Thomas Jefferson to admit that he would preferred a society without government but mass media, ‘the fourth realm of the estate’ than the one with government without it. My second panic arose from the first one, that is, fitting into the billing of having as part of my audience those with vast expertise and ably much more qualified to be standing here than sitting down there listening to me ‘stealing their own show’. The third constraint I felt was whether I will do justice to the topic: The Change Project: Ending Corruption and Ensuring Prosperity in Nigeria. Particularly, ‘the change project’ mantra which has sanctimoniously take life of its own in Nigeria today, all thanks to my party, the All Progressives Party (APC), which has christened a hitherto ‘mere’ verb and/or noun that CHANGE represent to something that today becomes a torrent whose current provides wings of hope, optimism, confident expectation, ‘common-sense revolution’ (thanks to Asiwaju Tinubu) and indeed, audacious change, that the party cruised into power across our clime in this year’s general elections. For many, the APC’s motto: ‘Change’ was (and in my mind, still) a moving train that make the locomotion of the wind of change that the APC represent too difficult for any force to stop. So, the topic adequately captured the mood of not only our auspicious listeners here but the nation at large.
It is interesting to note however, that these same fears earlier exhibited are actually the tonics that spurred me not only to be in the ancient city of Ilorin but to be here in this gratifying, historic and epoch-making gathering of distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen!
Permit me to begin this lecture by admitting that Nigeria is a country of contrasting fate. On one hand is a country with abundant human, mineral and material resources that make it a source of envy to all and sundry; a country that once upon a time occupied enviable position in the comity of nations and one that carried itself with prestige and dignity of the black race on the world stage; the country that the international community was courting and taken very seriously. I am talking about Nigeria, a country that never shied away from accepting that it was naturally bestowed with the mandate of carrying on its shoulders, the dignity of Nigerians and Africans at home and in diaspora with qualm and magnanimity. No wonder at independence, the Nigeria I am referring to here, volunteered one of its cardinal foreign policy principles to be ‘African-centred piece’ or simply ‘afro-centricism’ with the belief that in view of the preponderance of its vantage demography as the most populous black country of the world, and on the presumption that one in every five black persons in the world is a Nigerian, has manifest destiny to bear the burden of the black race. It was called and treated as the giant of Africa.
On the other hand and more embarrassing, is a country which is later projected to be where everything odd is not only on the increase but there appeared to be no silver lining in the darkest cloud. It declined to become a ‘giant with clay feet’, battling with virulent terrorist fury with attendant insecurity of lives and property of citizens and residents alike posing unprecedented humanitarian tragedies. Suddenly, Nigeria became a country topping the list of most corrupt nation of the world, a nation of 419ners, a place with intermittent inter and intra-ethnic conflicts conflagrations, and a state with strong and so called ‘big men’ yet with weak state institutions and unstable polity. In other words, Nigeria precipitously descend to become a society where political space for citizens’ participation is either totally unavailable, limited, or subverted through fraudulent electoral process, a political community where impunity reigns supreme, a clime with millions of jobless youths/graduates and corresponding high illiteracy rate, and one of hopeless populations with ascendant poverty figure amongst others. Unfortunately, these incidences have flared up emotional outbursts in many who believed and concluded that ‘nothing good can never come out of Nigeria’. Indeed and interestingly, this dual-identity that Nigeria represents make it perhaps, one of the most fascinating countries in Africa in particular and the world in general.
Recall, that when Hillary Clinton, the immediate past U.S. Secretary of State visited Nigeria in August 2009, she squarely blamed the leadership and governance failure vis-à-vis corruption in the country as a source of disconnect and discontent of the people with their government. In her words (quoted in The Nation, Friday, August 14, 2009, p.1), she remarked that:
The most immediate source of disconnect between Nigeria’s wealth and its poverty is the failure of governance at the federal, state and local levels…. Lack of transparency and accountability has eroded the legitimacy of the government and contributed to the rise of groups that embrace violence and reject the authority of the state”.
Undoubtedly, Clinton’s assertion is a validation of Chinua Achebe’s (Achebe, 1983) who strongly blamed leadership for ‘the trouble with Nigeria’, the caption that was coincidentally chosen as the title of his book. Therefore, to Achebe,
The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are (sic) the hallmarks of true leadership…
Therefore, the questions worth asking are these: what are the values that make Nigeria once enviable and courted by many? What went wrong with these noble ideals? Why do Nigeria condescend too low to where it is today? To what extent can it be said that Nigeria and Nigerians have been battered and short-changed by corruption? Who and what are to be blamed for the country’s woes and dismal performance? Is there any hope in the horizon? In what practical ways can solutions to these myriad of challenges posed to the nation and its people be confronted and overcome, among others? These are some of the issues I will share my thoughts on in the course of this lecture today believing that I will make some hopefully useful contributions even though I claim no expertise. Looking intently at the topic, it is discernible that the framers of the topic know that there is a problem with our country and believed that there are possible ways out. Therefore I form the strong impression that I am expected to look at the problems in the system and probable solutions that will take us to the desired promised land. Albeit, before we launch into that, there are some preliminary issues that must be cleared so that the paper will be understood in the context in which it is written.
Sincerely, I need not remind us that in many fora, academics and commentators alike have treated this hydra-headed monster called corruption as if it has become not only the lot of Nigeria but that the country and corruption are like Siamese twins coupling together un-sundered. While I am not here to fault this line of debate, I believe that yes, it may be difficult to achieve 100% success in eradicating corruption from Nigeria just as no country has succeeded in doing, but it is a possible task making corruption and corrupt people unattractive and incidentally, make the full weight of the law takes its course whenever it occur by making sure that those involved get punished to deter others. It is in view of preponderance and pervasiveness of corruption that Shola Omotola poignantly queried: “Is corruption decipherable in Nigeria?” This is because, to him, “corruption has almost become a way of life that one finds it difficult to differentiate between what is, and what is not corruption”.
In fact, in his acceptance speech after being declared winner of the March 28, 2015 presidential election by the electoral umpire, our president, Muhammadu Buhari (then President-Elect) have this to say about corruption and Nigeria
… We shall strongly battle another form of evil that is even worse than terrorism – the evil of corruption. Corruption attacks and seeks to destroy our national institutions and character. By misdirecting into selfish hands funds intended for the public purpose, corruption distorts the economy and worsens income inequality. It creates a class of unjustly-enriched people… I repeat that corruption will not be tolerated by this administration; and it shall no longer be allowed to stand as if it is a respected monument in this nation.
Indeed, for too long, corruption was seen and been treated as ‘if it is a respected national monument’ in Nigeria. Again, it is in realization of this image-battering that corruption has done Nigeria that former President Olusegun Obasanjo said in 1998 while campaigning for the office of the president that anti-corruption bill was brewing in his pocket. And truly, upon assumption of power, the first bill the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo sent to the National Assembly was the bill that established the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Act 2000. Therefore, to Chief Obasanjo, he lamented that “Corruption is a hydra-headed monster and unlike a conventional war, you don’t know the enemy. It is a war that is worse than any other wars”. In view of the collateral damage done to this country both domestically and before the international community, the then new administration of Chief Obasanjo declared war on corruption.
In his May 29, 1999 inaugural speech, the former President Obasanjo said and I quote: “Corruption, the greatest bane of society today, will be tackled head-on… No society can achieve anything near its full potential if it allows corruption to become full blown cancer as it has become in Nigeria”. Similar concern on corruption was again expressed by Obasanjo at the inauguration of the ICPC in Abuja on September 29, 2000 with Justice Mustapha Akanbi (retire) made to head the new commission, by admitting that “with corruption, there can be no sustainable development or political stability. By breeding and feeding on inefficiency, corruption invariably strangles the system of social organization. In fact, corruption is the anti-thesis of development and of progress”.
Literature is replete with various definitions of the concept of corruption. While there are differences and divergent opinions, there seems to be somewhat consensus about what corruption is. For instance, Salisu, said ‘it is the misapplication of public resources to private ends’. In this respect corruption is conceived when public officials for instance, collect bribes for issuing passports or visa, for providing permits and licenses, for authorising passage of goods at sea/airport, for awarding contracts or for enacting regulations designed to create artificial scarcity. Better still, Ninsin viewed “any form of behaviour that generate private self-serving gains, which are not sanctioned by law, or the prevailing norms of society” to be an act of corruption. Yet, Jain simply said corruption is “the abuse of public office for private gains”. To Chief Obasanjo, corruption is when any of these or combination of them occur (a) use of one’s office for pecuniary gains/advantage; (b) gratification; (c) influence peddling; (d) insincerity in advice with the aim of gaining advantage; (e) putting in less than a full day’s work for a full day’s pay; and (f) tardiness and slovenliness.
Going further, the Economic Financial Crimes Commission Establishment Act 2004 broadened the definition of corruption by authorizing the Commission to investigate, prevent, and prosecute offenders who engage in:
Money laundering, embezzlement, bribery, looting and any form of corrupt practices, illegal arms deal, smuggling, human trafficking and child labour, illegal oil bunkering, illegal mining, tax evasion, foreign exchange malpractices including counterfeiting of currency, theft of intellectual property and piracy, open market abuse, dumping of toxic, wastes, and prohibited goods.
For our purpose here, we consider corruption as a deliberate and intended action (and sometimes inaction) of a person who uses his official position and influence to illegally accept or give bribes or acquire property using public resources knowing fully well that such action (or inaction) serve selfish and narrow interest other than that of the generality of the people (the public). Thus, a corrupt person is an individual who engaged himself or herself in the misapplication of the commonly owned resources be it financial and otherwise of the society either directly or through a proxy as a result of his/her official position.
Ending Corruption
Permit me at this juncture to remind you that it will be very prejudicial for me not to acknowledge that there have not been various attempts to fight and check corruption by various administrations in this country at all levels of government, particularly by the federal government. Of course, several times war has been declared on corruption in Nigeria but as Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, former EFCC Chairman, once remarked, when you fight corruption, it fights back. So, make no mistake, Nigeria has never been in want of policies of government deliberately fashioned to take the war to corruption. The views of Omotola (2005: 10) are apt here again. According to him, “the country has never been in want as regards policy measures to combat corruption. For instance, the Penal Code (applicable in the North) and the Criminal Code in the South were part of earliest legal instruments designed to deal with cases of official corruption by public officers”.
If corruption is attitudinal, attitude is a mental product of norm subject-called human person, then we can say that corruption can be terminated? Yes, because a person can be made to change attitude by rejecting an idea that is considered as wrong in a given society with either the instrument of persuasion or coercion.
In that wise, if persuasive instrument is to be used, then the government of President Buhari needs a massive media campaign with a cleverly coached watchword that would demonize corruption, and I think the body language of the President is doing the magic already. Even, the suspected corrupt ones are denouncing corruption now. Good or bad, that is a positive direction. For the sake if the non-conformists who have vowed to live and die in corruption, because of its huge reward, instrument of coercion is equally needed.
So, if coercion in the value of rule of law is deployed, the people who profit from corruption and those who live on the proceeds of corruption must be made to suffer and lose their reward, but how can that be achieved when the enforcers of the laws are corrupt themselves? This is another academic exercise on its own.
Come with me, you can make laws on how the education must be run, on how students must not be exploited by the teachers, how best we think the teachers must conduct themselves, but you cannot make law on how the teachers teach, and by not coming to the class regularly when one is paid adequately, corruption has been unveiled.
At the House of Assembly of Osun, we have all the laws and we are still creating more to make life meaningful for an average person on the street, but when it gets to the stage of implementation, you will begin to witness adulterated implementation. Take for instance, a law was made for security trust fund, but can we say that corruption was not in the arrangement of the security equipment for the people who would implement the law? Can we say that somebody was not making corrupt proceeds from the purchase that would be done? The answers are in the wind.
I recalled that pension law was enacted by the National Assembly and the Committee was inaugurated to implement the laws, but later we heard on how the same committee diverted the pension fund, and how the anti-graft body charged to investigate bungled the investigation at the request of the then power-that-be. So it is one corrupt practice after the other.
Retooling the question: How to End Corruption? I am of the opinion that political will on the part of leaders at all levels is demanded. This is the only potent weapon that has worked in all developed nations and some other saner climes, and it can work here too. And I am confident that with the disposition of President Mohammadu Buhari, corruption is in big trouble. However, what is your take of the governors and Local Government leaderships? The answer is in the air.
Conclusion
The change project is desirable and badly needed because it is the credible alternative now, but what must change must be made to change by the leadership at all levels of government, our economy must be rolled back from the precipice by being imaginative and innovative; our infrastructure must be radically overhauled, not stomach infrastructure, because Bible says, men are not created for bread alone; our education must be completely restructured in line with the reality on ground, our youth must be seriously engaged, and the civil service must be dissected, deconstructed and rebuilt; the poor must be provided with safety nets and the informal sector of the economy must energized through a deliberate action plans with a view to enhancing the market drive.
If the highlighted conditions are met, I assure you that the prosperity basket would be expanded, and the change project would be celebrated.
I thank you for listening.
Rt. Hon. Najeem Folasayo Salaam