Nigerian courts of law receive the biggest bribes from citizens among all the institutions in which corruption is rampant, according to the report of a survey on crime and corruption conducted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and National Bureau of Statistics, with the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crimes (UNODC).

According to the report, citizens who responded to the survey said they have paid the biggest bribes to the courts, an average of $87 (N13,050) per transaction.

A summary report of the survey formally presented yesterday suggested that though bribery in the judiciary was less frequent than in many other agencies, it required the biggest transactions.

The survey was conducted in 2007 on a sample of 2775 enterprises randomly selected to represent businesses active in Nigeria, and a response rate of 79.4 percent representing 2203 interviews was recorded.

“Somewhat smaller amounts were indicated for Customs clearance, clearance of environment/health regulations, residence and work permits, registrations and police investigations (median bribe around 80 USD). Smaller bribes were given for traffic offences (median around 40 USD),” the survey reported.

Most respondents said they could not avoid paying bribes and that they did so to speed up the procedure or receive better treatment.

“Among public officials, police personnel were most frequently alleged by respondents (58%) to request the payment of bribes followed by employees of PHCN and the Water Board (39%), Revenue officials (26%) as well as Customs (25%).”

In the survey, Nigerians also rate the Police, political parties, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) low on their efficiency and performance.

It also emerged that crime and insecurity, corruption, inflation and political instability are very strong obstacles to doing business in NigeriaThe report said on average, more than 50% of Nigerian businesses become victims of crime at least once a year and that more than a third of business seems to be forced to pay bribes when coming into contact with the public sector. In particular, police and customs appear to be affected.

“The survey reveals that for more than 70% of Nigerian businesses crime and corruption constitutes the most serious obstacles to conducting business in Nigeria.”

The survey covered over 2,200 businesses across all Nigerian states and sectors of the economy and aimed was at gathering the perception and experiences of businesses with regard to corruption and crime, as well as their opinions regarding the efforts of the Nigerian Government to prevent and fight these phenomena.

The event, which was attended by large group of stakeholders, including representatives of anti-corruption agencies, public sector institutions, academia, civil society as well as the private sector and media, discussed the findings of the survey and “reaffirmed the key importance of the data for the purpose of policy development as well as benchmarking the performance of government initiatives and institutions in the fight against crime and corruption.”

Former Attorney General of the Federation Chief Bayo Ojo, SAN however dismissed the survey’s findings as “ridiculous.”

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"Justice denied"

The exact reasons why nigeria is a lawless is because there are no functioning judiciary and a reasonable police force.