Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) fingered four major reasons why corruption caused Nigeria to be rated the third most corrupt country in the world.

Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi yesterday fingered four major reasons why corruption became so deep-rooted and endemic in [Nigeria’s] public life that [the country] was controversially rated the third most corrupt in the globe.

Justice Akanbi spoke yesterday in Abuja on the corruption status of the country before 1999 and now. The venue was the Conference Hall of the ICPC headquarters, Abuja, while the occasion was the opening ceremony of a one-day interactive seminar [where the] main focus was “Fighting Corruption: The Stakeholders Perspective.”

Reeling out the causes of corruption in the country, yesterday, the retired jurist said that lack of political will to fight graft on the part of past successive military leaders and inconsistency in government policies with their implementations formed the basis, while reluctance by the nation’s law enforcement agencies to arrest and prosecute some “sacred cows” encouraged its spread.

His exact words: “The question is: why did previous efforts at tackling corruption fail? My belief is that past regimes did not manifest the strong political will so vital for any successful effort at combating the menace of corruption.

“There was inconsistency in the implementation of the ad-hoc measures put in place and the efforts of one or two military administrations to tackle the problems head on were thwarted by successive regimes who never saw corruption as anything serious, worthy of their attention.” Instead, they adopted a cosmetic approach in dealing with the issue.

Mirabile Dictu, a successor regime returned seized properties to their owners even though such owners were divested of the properties on the grounds that they acquired them illegally and corruptly.

“Secondly, for almost about two decades, Nigerians kept talking about corruption yet no one was being prosecuted for corruption in any of the superior court[s] of record.

“The lethargy on the part of the law enforcement agencies or the authorities in dealing with issues/cases of corruption gave the criminally-minded corruptees and their cohorts a field day and encouraged them to continue to amass ill-gotten wealth at the expense of the nation,” he said.

He added: “Corruption has been described as a cankerworm, a malaise that has afflicted our nation and done havoc to our corporate existence.

“Corruption is endemic, pandemic and systemic and several efforts made in the past to check its onslaught had defied solution.

“The many adhoc measures to combat it, put in place by various military regimes failed to yield results or change the attitude and minds of purveyors of corruption who see it as a way of life.

“The result was that the international community continued to stigmatise us as a people without any ethical or moral values and without qualms. Thus Nigeria became a pariah nation and Nigerians were treated as such and exposed to all sorts of indignities at border posts in foreign lands,” he added. Justice Akanbi said that this was what propelled President Obasanjo’s administration to promulgate the ICPC Act 2000 which he said is yielding results.

He said: “The present anti-corruption act 2000 is unique in more ways than one. Unlike the two penal laws, the Act goes beyond criminalizing corruption and related offences and enforcement as it imposes an obligation on the commission to educate the public against bribery and corruption and to enlist and foster public support in combating corruption.”

Ise-Oluwa Ige and Dayo Lawal, Vanguard (Lagos), September 16, 2005