January 30, 2022

Transparency International (IT) is a kill-joy global agency. It’s a bringer of bad news. Every year, it tells the world that Nigeria is corrupt. That public sector in the world’ most populous black nation is decadent and oozes the most odious whiff of graft. TI goes about minding other people’s businesses.

It pokes its nose into affairs that do not add money to its pocket. Such a badly behaving child. It’s even a young agency. Only just 28 years old (will be 29 by May this year), TI is calling out a 61-year-old Nigeria. No respect for elders.

Now, as always, it has stuck its foot into the muddy Nigerian public sector. And the sticky muds have ensured that TI will not come out unhurt. In its 2021 Corruption Index, TI has the audacity, yet again, to call a whole Nigeria corrupt. How can any agency describe Nigeria, especially under the leadership of Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, Africa’s reigning anti-corruption champion in the heavyweight category, as corrupt? TI even says under Buhari in 2021, Nigeria doubled down, in fact, sunk deeper into the corruption pit.

The latest news is that TI has ranked Nigeria 154 out of 180 nations on its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2021. Nigeria moved five places down compared to the previous year, 2020. Meaning, corruption got worse within the last one year. The report which was released by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), said Nigeria fell one point compared to the 2020 CPI.

Executive Director CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Rafsanjani, said the index revealed that Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points in the 2021 CPI. That’s like scoring 24 percent in an exam. TI CPI report bears a seal of empiricism. It’s not one of those statistics generated from hotel rooms or inside secretive offices. It is produced from an aggregation of eight different sources that provide perceptions by country experts and business people on the level of corruption in the public sector. Nigeria’s public sector is an active theatre of corruption. Year-on-year, the Auditor-General report, the anti-corruption agencies ( mainly the EFCC and ICPC), the National Assembly and other oversighting institutions reel out damning reports of underhand dealings, sleazy privatization of public assets and funds, direct stealing of cash, lopsided recruitment into agencies of government, bribery, kickbacks, contract over-invoicing, phoney companies with spurious contracts; it’s always a long list.

TI reports since 1993 when it was formed has been largely insulated from government manipulation and influence. Its independence, impartiality and objectivity have earned it the status of globally acknowledged, most widely used cross-country parameter for measuring corruption. The outcome of CPI analytics follows carefully gathered information from key sectors and institutions of a nation’s public life including the “non-compliance/internal control weaknesses issues in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)” captured by the Office of the Auditor General of countries or equivalent fiscal Ombudsman of any nation. In the case of Nigeria, TI information was gleaned from diverse sources including the report of the Auditor-General of the Federation. It, therefore, cannot be accused of witch-hunt, partisanship or dancing to the tune of a political leviathan. Besides, in the case of Nigeria, TI has been consistent in its verdict whether under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government or the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In the extant report, TI referenced the level of financial recklessness, abuse of budgetary processes, and failure of MDAs in following the due process of appropriation. There was the example of the Auditor General’s report which revealed that the sum of N49bn was spent by nine MDAs without appropriation by the National Assembly in gross violation of section 80 (4) of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended).

The Nigeria Police Force, for instance, was indicted by the Auditor General’s report on matters of internal control, prudency and inventory management. How do you explain that 178,459 arms and ammunition were missing from the armoury of the Nigeria Police?

But Nigerians are not alarmed at the poor run of the country in the global corruption chart. Everywhere you look, there’s corruption festering. From the boardroom to the marketplace; public space to the private sector, corruption happens. It’s almost cultural; a way of life. The crooks are decorated with ribbons of glory; the thieves are gratified with executive positions. None stirs to chain the pillagers. The plunder is acceptable to one and all, especially if the plunderer is your tribesman of shares your religious bias. And how the people hail the ones who stole their tomorrow; who made them believe that crumbs are just what they need.

What is worrisome is how government officials vehemently strive to rubbish the TI report every year. PDP government officials did it in their days. In the days when President Goodluck Jonathan openly told the people that ‘stealing is not corruption.’ They called TI a meddlesome interloper, a busy body whose report was only fit for the bin. Now, APC government officials are doing same, even much worse. They trot the efforts and convictions of the EFCC and ICPC as evidence that corruption is being tamed. But they miss the argument.

Truth is, whether PDP or APC, whether left or right, corruption festers in Nigeria. The more niggling truth is that whereas the Buhari government was thought to be the long-missing antidote to corruption, it has surpassed previous governments in proclivity to corruption and in rewarding the corrupt. APC has morphed from a pretentious club of political purists to a nest of the corrupt and the crudely crooked. Adams Oshiomhole, at the peak of his political career as the Chairman of the APC, urged members of the opposition to join the APC and have their sins forgiven. This is no double Dutch, it simply means once you join the APC, every corruption charge and apparition hovering over you shall disappear. It’s another dimension of Government magic.

But why even dare to pooh-pooh the TI report? Corruption is a staple on our national menu. There is no publicly-procured document any Nigerian would seek to get without bribing the issuing authorities. International passport; drivers license; National Identity Number (Card); clearance of goods at the ports; getting admission into Unity schools, government-owned universities; public sector employment; recruitment into the military and para-military fold; you name it. They all happen with a bribe or on the basis of who you know, not what you know. The corruption culture has even been exported. Diaspora Nigerians are full of tales of woes; how they were fleeced for passport renewal in different parts of world by Nigerians working at Nigerian embassies and High Commissions.

Buhari defenders should stop treating the TI report with intent to respond and defend government. They should adopt the Stephen Covey principle: Listen with intent to understand that there is a problem, not with intent to reply. It’s only then that they can muster the courage to seek solution to the miasma of corruption. Living in denial does no good to the nation. There is a pandemic of corruption in Nigeria. To tame it, leadership is required. Such leadership must punish crime, not pamper it.

• First published in Sunday Sun