Nigeria’s crusade against corruption got a rude shock when Transparency International accused the country of being on the lead of African nations allegedly slowing down the fight against corruption in the continent.

Coming at a time when the National Dialogue finally kicked off, inspite of criticisms from Nigerians who felt otherwise regarding the concept of the conference, the latest indictment, however, has been viewed as a challenge for the delegates, who are billed to formally commence deliberations today, after a week recess, writes Ndubuisi Ugah

Just as Nigerians were eagerly awaiting the formal smooth take-off of the National Political Reform Conference (NPRC), which was inaugurated last Monday by President Olusegun Obasanjo, the nation was once again greeted with yet another news of being listed among the African nations reportedly slowing down the pace in the battle against corruption.

The indictment, which is coming barely six months after Transparency International (TI) rated Nigeria as the world’s third most corrupt nation, is no doubt a shocking indictment given the fact that the Obasanjo administration has since its inception in 1999, expend more time and resources on the fight against corruption than any past administration.

The latest indictment is believed to be a fallout of the controversy generated by the validity of the TI score, which revealed that Nigeria was yet to sign the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU) conventions targeted at enhancing greater transparency in the fight against organised crime and corruption.

According to TI’s regional director for Africa and the Middle East, Dr. Muzong Kodi, who announced the latest indictment of Nigeria, Nigeria incurred the wrath due to its inability to sign the international conventions, which include the Protocol of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of 1999, the Southern African Development Economic Commission (SADC) of 2001 and the 2003 UN convention on trans-national crime.

It would be recalled that the AU protocol requires the ratification of 15 countries for effective take-off, but with the latest indictment on Nigeria, it appears the Federal Government’s crusade against corruption may have started suffering some set back.

Kodi had lamented that only the small country of Comoros has signed an otherwise important document that seeks to help the continent’s leaders actualise the dream of corruption free societies.

The TI regional director also noted that such attitude as displayed by the Nigerian government, among others, is capable of continually calling to question, the country’s National Integrity System (NIS), which forms the main benchmark of assessing the actual standing of nations on the corruption scale.

It was gathered that the countries in Africa held to be guilty alongside Nigeria comprise mainly of those nations that are prime movers of the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

A critical feature of NEPAD is the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), which seeks to monitor and score the corruption index of fellow countries. These front-line countries, according to TI, are Senegal, Egypt, and South Africa.

Incidentally, when TI came up last October with its 146-nation list, Botswana was rated the least corrupt African country, thus occupying an enviable 31st position with a 6.0 score.

Surprisingly, however, Nigeria’s anti-corruption stance has been one policy thrust, which has been notably vigorously pursued by the Federal Government.

Even as the Chairman of AU, President Obasanjo has not hidden his determination from fellow African leaders to see the need for corruption to be completely wiped out of the continent’s developmental strategies for an improved African economic and political order.

This is because it has become a widely known and acceptable fact that corruption undermines the integrity of individuals and institutions, and stigmatizes countries in which it is very rampant.

However, the recurrent rating of Nigeria as the third most corrupt nation in the world by TI, observers believe calls for concern among the country’s leaders and policy-makers.

But what is rather disturbing is the fact that TI’s indictment of Nigeria over graft, has again brought to fore the helpless situation with which the Federal Government’s anti-corruption crusade has been reduced to.

Before the latest pronouncements became public, Nigeria third ranking as the most corrupt nation had caused unprecedented tremors among Nigerians within and outside the country.

Though expected, the country for obvious reasons, either for good or for ill, has been regarded as a dragnet by development watchers across the globe due to her large human population, abundant natural resources and geographical clout.

Even it was said that what smaller and less powerful countries could do and get away with, is seriously censored and sanctioned when Nigeria is involved.

Such was the extent of Nigeria’s status, when issues involving it was under discourse. Like some observers said, such was the price of greatness, whether potential or actual, which the country needed to pay for.

But then, at any rate, it is not unusual that well-meaning people are disturbed that Nigeria still gets such an unenviable rating on the global corruption index despite the five-year-old titanic efforts of the Obasanjo administration to rid the country of the recalcitrant bug of corruption.

The limited effect of government’s attempt at eradicating corruption is a testimony to the virulent nature and prevalence of the cankerworm in Nigeria’s body politics. The development, is believed to be a glaring manifestation of the fact that there must be fundamental change of tactics or strategies, not just more of the same old things, in a bid to combat corruption and other economic crimes.

With its move for debt forgiveness from the World Bank, analysts have considered continually criticised such move as ill-motivated and unwarranted given the strategic role the nation plays in Africa.

Even at a time, reports were rife that Nigeria was on the verge of granting credit facilities to some African nations drew the ire of Nigerians, who felt that so much have not been done back home to alleviate the sufferings of its citizenry, let alone its wanting to foot the bills of other countries.

These among other salient issues, were said to have dominated national and international discussions on the way forward for the country, moreso as the current democratic dispensation was expected to offer relief for Nigerians, who having been under military rule had wanted something feasible and precise to cushion the harsh effect of the economy and underdevelopment.

The agitation has been very fierce that Nigerians, mostly Civil Society Organisations (CSO), the organised labour, human rights activists, came to the consensus that something drastic needed to be done since it was argued that the Obasanjo administration was not doing enough to improve the living standard of Nigerians.

But with the level of misgivings, which has so far trailed the National Dialogue, where over 400 delegates have converged on Abuja, to brainstorm on the way forward for the country, the latest indictment by TI has equally opened up another chapter on the item list of the delegates.

Although the delegates are yet to settle down fully for the business of the day, Nigerians however, have not hidden their support for a resounding conference where the problems militating against Nigeria’s progress will be discussed inside out. This is where a concrete proposal on how to tackle the menace of corruption becomes imperative.

And what is more disturbing is the fact that many Nigerians, particularly government’s spokespersons, rose in stout defence of the country, when TI adjudged Nigeria as the third corrupt nation, without bearing in mind that the world has become a global village and as such, all eyes were on her policies and programmes for the country’s development.

Many analysts have argued that given the recent happenings in the political arena, nothing short of a number one spot could have been awarded to the country, even with its unrelenting crusade against corruption.

Little wonder that in some close quarters, the Federal Government has often been chastised as not being sincere in its fight against corruption. Some of the problems that have stalled the nation’s progress and which have given us bad image in international fora, according to investigations, include non-compliance with the rule of law, non-challant attitude towards the yearnings of the people, and the inability of the Federal Government to evolve policies and programmes that will cushion the harsh economic effect on the citizenry.

IT’s Chairman Peter Eigen, while launching the 2004 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) had noted that one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015 would not be reached unless governments, went beyond the show of tackling corruption in “public contracting.”

He said this was in view of the fact that oil-rich Angola, Azerbajian, Chad, ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazhastan, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Sudan, Venezuela and Yemen all have extremely low scores.

According to Eigen, these countries “public contracting in the oil sector is plagued by revenue varnishing into the pockets of western oil executives, middlemen, and local officials.”

As it is, the issue therefore, that demands attention is how Nigeria intends addressing the corruption stigmatisation, which arguably is causing a lot of mixed reaction.

But looking at Kodi’s recipe for a viable approach to combating corruption, implies that the Federal Government needs to adopt a pragmatic approach, which should be all encompassing in its approach and attitude towards crusade against corruption in the country.

According to Kodi, what leading African nations’ reluctance towards signing the anti-corruption conventions represents their failure to live up to expectations of international community in combating corruption in real terms and as such, “in essence means that they will not be positive on the corruption perception index.”

“Why would you cry foul if in the end scores have course to believe that beyond orchestration, you are not really fighting corruption or not really fighting it enough,” the TI director added.

And to address the issue in a more dignified manner, Kodi said Nigeria must now take the concept of National Integrity System (NIS) more seriously. The concept, which portrays the true standing of nations, is arrived at by considering the quality of life, rule of law and sustainable development, which are sustained by how well the “pillars of government” fare.

According to him, the pillars are the legislature, executive, judiciary, the auditor-general’s office, the ombudsman, watchdog agencies, public service, media, civil society, the private sector as well as the international actors.

To him, there is no way the sustainability of the due process can be achieved if all the pillars of a democratic set-up are not strong enough to maintain the desired independence.

He went further to explain that the degree of public awareness and the nature of a country’s value system (societal values) are decisive in measuring how far any one nation can go in the anti-corruption drive.

Yes, the Obasanjo administration has often than not been given kudos over its giant strides in ensuring that the country moves out of its corruption-induced zone, yet it is still believed that much should be done to eradicate corruption or reduce it to its bearest minimum in the country.

The Anti-corruption Commission and the Code of Conduct Bureau must be strengthened in the discharge of their functions, while the fight against corruption must be sustained, mostly from the top echelon of government.

Nigeria should learn a lesson from China, with a population of about 1.3 billion but has successfully checked the monster. Like a classical saying suggests, “the absence or acute shortage of legitimate means of survival fuels corruption and other economic crimes.”

Research has shown that factors that “inevitably facilitate corruption and help such widespread and pervasive poverty, mass unemployment, gross social, economic inequalities and the exclusion of the majority from opportunities must be valiantly and seriously tackled because there is a tendency of human beings to survive by fair means if possible and by foul means if necessary.”

Ndubuisi Ugah, This Day (Lagos), February 27, 2005