Corruption And National Development By Nuhu Ribadu

It gives me immense pleasure to be
part of this distinguished gathering.
I am very honored to be asked to
speak on an important topic that is
at heart of the national discourse
and therefore the key to any
solution to our various challenges.
Behind every problem confronting
us, there is corruption. Corruption is
a recurring decimal in every change
of government in this country.
We have got a problem with our
country and we all know it and
therefore we do not need to be
constantly reminded of it for it is an
issue that we confront in our daily
lives, in our schools, and our
interaction with with the police, in
the army or SSS, customs and
immigration offices, prisons,the
legislatures, the ministries,
hospitals, in our courts and in the
private sector as well like our banks,
markets and not to mention, the
media are daily awashed with mind
boggling reports on corruption all
over the country. Most of us here
may be wondering how and when
corruption took charge of our lives?
Since this event is taking place here
in Kano and there will be no time to
have an exhaustive coverage, let us
just narrow the discussion to this
part of the country, however, I will
note that what happened here is
similar reflection of other parts of
Nigeria. for starters, I would like to
take a walk with you down memory
lane on our recent past as a region.
Sir Ahmadu Bello the first and only
Premier of Northern Nigeria and his
lieutenants, most of blessed
memories, led this vast region
effectively for just about a decade.
Keenly look at what they were able
to achieve, largely with internally
generated revenue because there
was no oil then or it was
insignificant in the revenue profile of
the country. The last annual budget
by the late Sardauna for the whole
north was just 44 million pounds.
It is important to state that with this
scanty resource, they were able to
maintain law and order and ensure
effective security of life and property
for this vast region. They built
Ahmadu Bello University, the largest
in sub-Sahara Africa; they built
Ahmadu Bello Stadium one of the
largest and best in Africa at that
time. They built NNDC, the largest
black owned Conglomerate in black
Africa; they built many textile
factories, good roads, marketing
boards, efficient water supply where
it was available and good sanitation,
well planned urban areas with trees
and good hospitals with
ambulances; good primary and
secondary schools; Kaduna
Polytechnic that is the largest in
black Africa. Indeed everyone still
recalls that golden era with
justifiable pride. These were
accomplished by men and women
from here and not from the moon.
When Major Nzeogwu made his
speech to justify the take over of
power on January 15th, 1966, he
mentioned that the military took
over because the first republic
politicians were collecting ten
percent bribes.(though i am in
disagreement with his assumption
given the achievements recorded
with the paltry sum) but
nonetheless it’s presupposed that
at least they were using 90 percent
of the resources to do the work.
It would be great to pause the
question ‘What is happening now’?
It is either the other way around:
public officials taking away 90
percent and using 10 percent to
work or even outrightly looting of
the treasury; infact from recent
reports, a lot of money is stolen
from the source, that it does not
even make it’s way to the treasuries
of the many governments in the
country today .
To be fair, it is important to mention
that there is corruption in every
society including all the advanced
countries. However the irony is it
has not stopped development.
There was corruption in the first
republic too. But it was dealt with
effectively and it was not allowed to
be the cancer that it is now. It was
not as widespread and as rampant
in scale and magnitude as it is now.
As I was writing this paper I
stumbled on a tweet that got me
thinking that read as follows, “The
revenue Nigeria received for the
whole of last year (2012) from the
sale of crude oil is more than the
yearly aid, the entire sub Saharan
Africa received. Where is the money,
where is the improvement?” This
was a question posed to us by the
UK Prime Minister, David Cameron
at the World Economic Forum in
Davos .
Corruption is a vicious cycle.
Mismanagement of public funds has
direct bearing on the country’s
collapsing infrastructure, standard
of education, health
facilities,insecurity, injustice,
unemployment, poverty and other
challenges which are
interconnected. The efficiency of
public services and ability of the
regulatory agencies to regulate the
private sector are also affected
resulting in collapsing infrastructure
and poor services. Corruption dents
the citizens’ confidence in the
integrity of leaders and credibility of
governments, it ends up with a
total disrespect for authority.a sad
situation we are in Nigeria now.
Northern Nigeria which Sir Ahmadu
Bello led at independence is now 19
states, the federal capital territory
Abuja and 414 local government
areas. These 19 states and over four
hundred local government areas got
a total of N8.3 trillion from the
federation account between 1999
and 2010. We know quite well that
every one of these local government
areas have budgets per annum that
is more than the budget of the
entire northern region of old. Can
we please emulate the glowing
examples of Sardauna?
My take is that they were not
corrupt and that was the reason
they achieved so much with so little.
What is really happening now with
all these huge sums have?
These local government areas do
not even repair township drainages.
They do not maintain existing
markets and motor parks amongst
many other things that would take a
while to mention. Nobody knows
what they generate as revenue
internally because all the sums
quoted in the reports and
newspapers are just what they get
from the federation account
monthly. They hardly meet in
council except when there are
subventions to be shared. Local
government is the nearest to the
people and also has the easiest
funds being stolen by corrupt
officials and their collaborators.
The state governments are mostly
not fairing any better. Some of the
states have governors that are
doing some commendable
developmental initiatives but many
of them just need our prayers.
Governance has been reduced to
periodic elections. Once a governor
gets elected, he or she will start
planning for a second term; and as
soon he or she gets a second term,
the scheme to be president or vice
president will start being initiated.
For those who are not going to be
either president or vice president,
the retirement house for many
governors is now the Senate on top
of installing his preferred successor .
The constitution enshrines a three
tier government of local, state and
federal levels. At each level there
are supposed to be three arms of
government – executive, legislature
and judiciary. From all indications
the legislators have become, in
most cases, rubber stamps. They
are supposed to appropriate money
for the executives. They are
supposed to do oversight functions.
In short, they are supposed to check
the excesses of the other arms of
government.
Today, if the legislators are doing
their work effectively, many who are
appointed ministers or
commissioners wouldn’t have been
there. Their oversight functions are
now reduced to visit to ministries
and agencies to get packages. Even
monies that are appropriated as
budgets, the committees of the
legislature are part of those being
awarded contracts by these
departments in addition to their
very generous constituency
allowance that is not subject to any
check and balances. To make
matters worse, many legislators,
especially from the northern states,
hardly attend sittings to defend the
interests of their constituents. They
are mostly busy traveling to
various parts of the world with their
new found wealth. There are a few
of them who are very good but I do
not know when most of these
distinguished and honorables will sit
down to really distinguish
themselves in their primary duties
of making laws for the good
governance of the society.
The judiciary is supposed to be the
last hope of the common man.
Justice is an attribute of God and is
the real foundation of any
egalitarian society. It is sad to say
that the judiciary in Nigeria has of
recent times become the main
legitimizing institution for any
corrupt practice. When you rig an
election it is the judiciary that gives
validity to that election,when the
politicians are not in agreement, a
judge will give a helping hand to
the one with more power and
money. When you steal public
money and the anti corruption
agencies charge you to court it is
the judiciary that cleanse that
illegally acquired wealth and makes
what is unlawful, Haram, to be
lawful, Halal, it may be made Halal
by the judges but the society knows
it is not and God knows one day we
will account for all these deeds, if
not now then certainly later; and if
not here then definitely in the
hereafter.
There are two institutions that
throughout our history are very
critical to any reform of the society –
religious leaders and traditional
rulers. In this part of the world, we
have a model for reforming society
as espoused by Shehu Usman Bi
Fodio and his disciples. They did the
19th century revolution to establish
justice, ensure equity and entrench
intellectual pursuit for public good.
Resisting evil and enjoining good
was the foundation of that order.
Today, most of the custodians of our
cherished cultural values are those
who help the oppressive status quo
to get entrenched. Except for a few,
most of our traditional rulers are
part and parcel of the on going
corruption. They did not inherit this
system from our revered grand
parents and parents. The
subordination of these institutions
to the whims and caprices of state
governments have made many of
them subservient to the corrupt
system.
Similarly,a lot of the religious
leaders we have today stopped
talking the truth to power. The
Ulama and clergies are supposed to
be the successors of the divine
prophetic messages. They are often
reduced to various pathetically
sycophantic prayers for the success
of oppressors and corrupt people in
power,or if they are not duping their
congregations, then they are busy
attending to weekly ceremonies for
marriages, turbanning ceremonies
or burials across the land. They do
not pray for the poor or for a
genuine peace and progress of the
people and society. So what do we
do or what is the way forward?
Many people hold the view that the
solutions to our problems lies with
leadership , yes they are right,and
they also believe that the leadership
is at the Highest level, anything
short of a honest, fair, just,modern
and courageous leadership at that
level in Nigeria today will not bring
us back to the glorious days of the
past. the general blame is to the
governors for the sorry state of
affairs, but governors are not in
charge of enforcement in Nigeria .
Any society that does not enforce its
laws properly will end up in
chaos,lawlessness ,indiscipline ,insecur
and corruption,and this is the
situation of Nigeria ,period. That
leadership in Nigeria must lead in
the fight against corruption, it will
take a fearless and upright
president to stop corrupt
governors doing what they like with
their state’s money. The fight
against corruption has to begin from
there for it to be meaningful.
All of us must be involved in every
way to raise the educational
standard of our people at all levels
in both western and eastern senses.
It is not easy to mobilize an illiterate
citizenry. We must enlighten and
mobilize our people to be conscious
of national and global trends and
events,to fight election rigging and
all forms of extremism in our
communities. We must help in
every way, individually and
collectively, to get the right people
to do the right things in the right
ways. We must start naming and
shaming corrupt people in our
communities. In short, there is need
for structural, institutional and
attitudinal changes that should be
deepened and widened all over our
communities.
Today, whoever wants to get
elected in Kano and many other
parts of especially the north one has
to evoke the name of late Mallam
Aminu Kano of blessed memory.
How much did he leave or what did
he leave behind? Only his good
name and good deeds! When
President Shagari was overthrown
by the military he had only N64,000
in his account. This is what the
driver of a commissioner gives out
daily, and yet he was president for
more than four years in Nigeria.
Many other examples abound in
many parts of our beloved country,
before and even now: it was done
before and it can be done again,
The irony of fight against corruption
in Nigeria today is that even the
corrupt ones are pretending to be
fighting corruption.A corrupt person
cannot be in the lead in the war
against corruption. We are deceived
constantly by people in
government and those outside
government but are desperate for
power or attention.These are the
conmen under the guises as
politicians and there are also a few
conmen in the name of religious
leaders. I appeal to these characters
to please repackage. Kindly engage
in other things that can bring you
attention, drop this issue about
“corruption that has now turned
into a “cliche” that you are using to
bring confusion to Nigerians.
There are sufficient laws and
institutions to fight corruption in
Nigeria today , what is needed more
is the honesty,determination and
competence to carry out the fight
effectively at both the executive and
judiciary level.
For now let us not be just spectators
in the affairs of our country,
Corruption is denying us national
development. Let the good ones
amongst us get involved in politics
and activism. Let us keep putting
pressure on our corrupt leaders. My
good friend, Rotimi Fashakin of the
CPC, says “the corruption in the
past is mere bazooka and that the
corruption of the present has gone
nuclear”. We need to work hard to
deactivate this nuclear weapon as
soon as we can otherwise it will
explode on us all.
I thank you all for listening.
God bless us all.
Paper presented by former EFCC
chairman Nuhu Ribadu at the two-
day summit for Northern
Development Focus Initiative (NDFI)