Surviving pervasive corruption in Nigeria

BY LEKAN OLAYIWOLA

Some time ago, I visited a lands registry in Lagos to regularise some real estate documents. The external and interior ambience of the secretariat was impressively modern and the fleet of exotic cars sitting in the parking lots matched what you would see at the corporate headquarters of a multinational corporation. Impressive. Top and mid-level government officials donned expensive corporate suits or native attires. They looked well-fed and perhaps well-paid. Apart from the exterior facade, however, nothing suggested the efficiency you would expect from the private sector. It was business as usual – endless wait to see an official who is frequently “not on seat.” Some of his or her colleagues ensconce themselves on comfy chairs chatting away on mobile phones or watching morning talk shows on a big television screen sitting on a large refrigerator. By the time Oga returns to the office, he is swarmed by other guests or “customers” who have urgent business to transact with the government.

When my turn came at last to see Oga, he smiled respectfully at me and asked what he could do for me. You could tell from his rotund face and glowing skin that he was quite comfortable. Occasionally, he would interrupt our conversation apologetically to give instructions to some contractor or artisan fixing something in his house. Finally, after checking all the documents I presented, he said I would have to come back for his director’s signature and official stamp. I protested that he could just take it to him immediately. After laughing for a while, he pulled out a voluminous file from under a pile of other files, opened it and said, “some of the documents here have been pending for 2 years waiting to be signed. You know why?” I shook my head in wild disbelief. He nodded back and said, “they refused to cooperate.” To make a long story brief, he demanded seventy thousand naira to proceed with the action.

The anecdote provides a snapshot of the prevalence of corruption in virtually every facet of the public sector in Nigerian society. On the surface, things look stable and people go about their lives and businesses as if all is well. Deep down, however, no one is at ease. The average Nigerian is embattled amid structural violence being waged against him at every turn daily. Despite the illusion that the government of the day is far from him, his contact with the state is more frequent than he realises. And at each contact he pays a heavy price in the form of bribery directly or indirectly through spiralling cost of goods and services. It is erroneously assumed that the local government is the closest to the people and since that third tier of government is disempowered, government is far from people at the grassroots. While this may be somewhat true from a governance perspective, it is false when measured in terms of the impact of state institutions and officials on the life and livelihood of the citizens.

A recent chart that appeared in BusinessDay newspaper, relying on statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) showed the prevalence of corruption in seventeen different facets of the public sector in Nigeria. Essentially, the key corruption index in the chart is bribery, which also includes extortion and graft.

A closer examination and analysis of the chart shows that the administration of justice in Nigeria and judicial officers at both the bar and the bench are most susceptible to corruption as defined above. The saying that the judiciary is the last hope of the common man suffers a great blow in this regard because, in Nigeria, justice goes to the highest bidder with prosecutors and judges/magistrates accounting for the highest prevalence of bribery at 67% and 52% respectively.

Both fall within the top five most corrupt institutions in the country. This also has direct implications for the inflow of foreign direct investment into Nigeria. International capital flees from jurisdiction with a poor or porous justice system. This means more unemployment, higher cost of imported goods and more taxes for the citizens.

The second item on the chart is land registry officers which this article opened with. These state officials have a corruption prevalence of 58% ensuring that only the rich can own property or have access to land for housing, agricultural or commercial uses. In addition to the cost of land or landed property, perfecting the legal documents of property comes with an enormous financial burden. This silently creeps into the growing housing deficit in the country and contributes to the soaring cost of accommodation in both urban and semi-urban areas, which results in more urban slums and crowded neighbourhoods with all its attendant health, education and social infrastructure challenges.

Customs and immigration services not surprisingly came in third place at 54% prevalence. The implication of this is at least two-fold; firstly, for an import-dependent nation like Nigeria, this adds to the cost of foreign goods in the Nigerian market. Secondly, it puts the safety of the citizens at grave risk from importers of fake drugs or other harmful substances, firearms, ammunition and so on. The so-called porous borders in Nigeria are not only a function of inadequate personnel to man them or lack of equipment to physically secure the Nigerian borders with its neighbours, corrupt officials are also a huge part of the problem in places where border officials and security infrastructure are available.

Interestingly, in the fifth position on the corruption index in Nigeria are the embassies and consulate officers with a 50% prevalence level. So even those who are desperate to japa, the officials of the foreign countries are there to collect their share of the 271 billion Naira national bribery pool. This shows how pervasive the bribery economy is in Nigeria so that whether you are living in Nigeria or travelling out, no one escapes the negative effect of corruption.

Then you have a long list including members of parliament (49%), police officer (46%), vehicle inspection officers (45%), Federal Road Safety Corp (44%), tax revenue officers (41%), members of the armed forces (36%), Local Government Area representatives (27%), public utility officers (25%), other public officials (24%), teachers/lecturers (17%), other health workers (15%), doctors and nurses (12%).

The typical Nigerian citizen is beleaguered by the quality of laws and policies made in the “unhallowed” chambers of federal and state legislatures. He is embattled by law enforcement agents if he gets in a dispute or gets his car on the road or opens a small kiosk on a street corner. He has a hard time dealing with public utility officers and other government workers including teachers and health and social care workers. The structural violence that the average Nigerian puts up with daily is enough to erupt in large-scale conflict. Yet, miraculously, there seems to be a general sense of stability when you open your window to get a view of the street across major cities and towns in Nigeria.

Nigerians feel the mighty fist of the Nigerian state in many obvious and imperceptible ways through state officials and political actors. We celebrate our resilience, but it is one based on gross injustice and inequality. We tout the significance of the white section of our national flag which means peace, we only have what the late Norwegian peace scholar, Johan Gatung described as “negative peace,” a peace devoid of justice a peace that co-exists with structural (institutional) violence. By the way, not many truly peaceful countries have white symbols of peace overtly displayed on their national emblems. Japan, Costa Rica, Switzerland and the Vatican are for more peaceful countries yet the white on their flags is indirectly attributed to their peaceful stance. Indeed, the hood does not make the monk!

While our neighbours Liberia and Sierra Leone have consistently ranked among the top ten most peaceful countries on the African continent despite emerging from a decade-long civil war in 1997 and 2003 respectively, Nigeria after 35 years of surviving its civil war ranks 37th position. The road to genuine positive peace may look long and dreary, but it is not impossible. The solution does not lie in passing the buck to government institutions or public officials. We all must take responsibility for the type of nation we want to build and live in. As far as bribery and corruption are concerned, for there to be a receiver, a willing or reluctant giver must co-exist.

The other people whose land documents cooled in the bulky file for two years at the lands registry I mentioned in the opening paragraphs of this article are not fools. They either wanted to do the right thing or were unwilling or unable to “cooperate” with the public officers. If we genuinely want a change, a truly peaceful society is possible. It begins at home with how we raise our children and the value we inculcate in them – not just telling them to be honest, diligent and content, but by also leading from the front with examples of how we came by the money we used in building the houses we raise them in, the cars we drive them in, the fees we pay for their education at home and abroad. Unless and until we can fully disclose the sources of our assets and possessions without an inkling of shame or deceit, social peace will be a mirage. The institutions we build and work for will be tainted and oppressive.

The home front is strategic to building a more peaceful society, but unfortunately, it has been hijacked by capitalist and mercantilist interests which it now serves with full steam. What we see and decry as corruption in the Nigerian institutions is but a reflection of the failure of the Nigerian households struggling under the weight and pressure of globalization. We need to go back to the basics.

Lekan Olayiwola is a peace and conflict researcher and practitioner. He can be reached at: [email protected]