How a society that fights corruption looks like
Although grand or high-level corruption is said to retard the development of a country the most, petty or low-level corruption (everyday abuse of entrusted power by low- and mid-level public officials in their interactions with citizens who try to access basic goods or services in places like hospitals, schools, police and other offices) eats at the soul of a country faster and feeds the country’s corruption perception. Logically therefore, countries aiming to tackle the vice of corruption, besides fighting high-level corruption, pay particular attention to low-level corruption, putting structures in place to ensure it is eliminated or controlled to the barest minimum.
Take, for instance, a country like Rwanda. Despite Kagame’s many sins, he has been particularly successful in curbing low-level corruption and considerably improving the CPI of the country thereby making it attractive for foreign investors and tourists. On a first visit to Rwanda, one cannot escape noticing how genuinely courteous, efficient and helpful government officials (customs, Immigration, police, etc) are right from the airport to the towns and villages. No official asks for or receives bribes, payments or kickbacks and the general impression among visitors to Rwanda is that it is one of the best governed and one of the least corrupt countries on the continent. No wonder, it has been consistently scoring very high on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. The 2015 CPI placed Rwanda fourth least corrupt country in Africa and 44th globally. New African Magazine’s Baffour Ankomah describes Rwanda as a “shining star” in Africa due to its zero tolerance of corruption. Also, in February 2016, Transparency International – the global anti-corruption watchdog – concurred that; “Rwanda is committed to fighting corruption with its “zero tolerance” to corruption without discrimination”. It also commended the government for its “efforts in fighting corruption with concrete impact.” According to many expert studies, “Rwanda presents an opportunity for positive peer learning on how to fight corruption.”
Cross over to Nigeria and all the evidence of the government’s much-advertised fight against corruption can only be seen in the media. At the airport, the immigration official who’s supposed to stamp your passport will continue to delay you unnecessarily until you understand his body language and settle him/her. If you insist on your right, s/he will simply shoot back “You speak your grammar! Na grammar I go chop?” Of course, the Nigerian police is famed for its bribe-collecting and justice-perverting behaviours.
A fortnight ago, it was reported that as part of efforts to rid the police force of corruption, the Inspector General, Ibrahim Idris, sacked four policemen in Ijebu-Ode for extorting N50, 000 from a man they arrested on trumped up charge and I smiled. Tafa Balogun, former IG, set up a task force to arrest and summarily try policemen collecting bribes on the highway. Over 1,200 police officers were dismissed in the process and he created the impression of a tough boss committed to wiping out corruption from the rank and file. Lo and behold, he was the most corrupt policeman in Nigeria’s history! He was disgraced out of office, convicted and jailed for stealing billions of naira of police funds.
Since 1999 there has not been a police boss that has not hypocritically ordered the dismantling of the notorious police road-blocks in Nigeria. But till date, those road blocks still exists in all nooks and crannies of the country and serve as the medium for the extortion of, and killing of Nigerians and road users who refused to settle the policemen. One constant prayer of Nigerians and residents in Nigeria is to have nothing to do with the police. Any encounter with the police leaves behind a tale of woes!
What about regulatory agencies, government agencies and departments? The story is the same – corruption everywhere.
Last week I travelled, by road, through Benin, Anambra and Enugu, to Benue state. The entire stretch of the road was littered with policemen, Federal Road Safety (FRSC) officials, Customs and at times soldiers. The sheer number of these security officials on the road presents a picture that all of Nigeria’s insecurity problems were at the highways – I was left wondering how many police personnel were left to protect citizens in cities, towns and villages. At every stop – which can be only 2 kilometres apart in some cases – these security men kept harassing, extorting and delaying travellers on the road. The policemen were not particularly bothered about checking for contraband or incriminating materials but just checking car documents to discover any anomaly, which they will seize upon to extort money from the drivers of the vehicles. So hungry and beggarly did they look and behave that, most times, they didn’t wait to discover any anomaly with vehicles before demanding settlement in threatening tones. The unspoken threat was “It’s either you settle us or we’ll keep you here with us”.
On remonstrating with a co-traveller on the conduct of the policemen, I was reminded that their behaviour was expected. Hear the response “They are hungry; they have to survive. Inflation has made their salaries worthless and even at that the APC government has been unable to pay them”. To me, that sums up Nigerian situation –expecting poorly paid and hungry officials to shun corruption. Any wonder Nigeria continues to languish near the bottom of Transparency International’s CPI? For the fourth consecutive year, Nigeria, in 2016, was ranked 136 out of 157 countries despite the fact that the war on corruption is one of the cardinal objectives of this administration.
Christopher Akor