CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1Background of
the Study
The tragic story of Nigeria’s retrogression
since its political independence from Britain in 1960 is a very sad one indeed.
Well-meaning Nigerians are very much ashamed that despite the bountificial endowemment
of good climate and natural resources, and the Nigeria has made no substantial
progress in modernization. Visitors are shocked that a nation which pronounced
to the whole world that the greatest problem facing it was “how to spend its
money,” Okike (2000, p.22), has nothing to be proud of. Communication is
expensive and poor the taps are ever dry despite abundant rivers, streams and
high water table. Post offices and mail services have been abandoned, railways
are comatose. Sanitation is nil.
Nothing, in fact is well with Nigeria. Why is Nigeria so
unfortunate these days?
This tragedy
emanatedfrom corruption – “corruption glut”; that is, an oversupply of
corruption. It is shameful. It is terrible. It is deplorable.
From a professional point of view, the greatest tregedy facing
Nigeria today is systematic corruptions which constitutes moral debasement and
deterioration, leaders systematically decieve Nigerians and rob the public
treasury which is among the most immoral act of a civilised society. Millions
of naira have been stolen and hidden in foreign lands. But what is corruption?
Corruption
simply means abuse of trust, especially on the pat of the public officers. When
public money entrusted in somebody’s care is mismanged or embezzeled, it is corruption.
Corruption is not a new phenomenom. It has existed inserious forms in
societies. Recently, corruption has been found to be common in the developing
societies, atleast several reports points towards these societies in line with
corruption. Corruption is a problem to any society. Public servants and civil
servants have often been criticized for corrupt and decadent tendencies.
Members of this class have used their offices or positions in a way that is
anti-thetical to public interest, as exampify in illegal gains on accumulation
of benefits of the expense of the populace.
Elekwa
(2006, p.12), has described corruption as the carrying out of government
activities outside the stated or known norms, rules, principles, procedures and
laws that leads to the embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds.
Ibedogwu
(2002, p.162), defines corruption as the perversion of integrity or state of
affairs through bribery favour or moral depravity. It means an agreement
between two or more persons to reorder the structure, process, behaviour of a
public officer in order to make dishonest decisions etc.
Corruption
therefore affects the public service and society because it increases
operational cost and reduces profits and benefits. It is anti-government by
creating corrupt bureacrates and other corrupt functionaries, which constitute
social obstacle to the execution of programmes. It weakens a government by
making policy-makers timid in taking bold steps to curb excesses of citizens,
or reform the system. It creates unwillingess to make sacrifice, such as the
payment of taxes or the prctices of compulsory savings scheme found necessary
for social development, in a situation where citizens become cynical and where
immoral and self seeking bureacrat and politicians display ill-gotten wealth.
Coruption
has become fully integrated into our value system, and as part of our tradition
and culture. Emeka (2010, p. 86), maintains that corruption is a force. It
exists in multiple forms. It is vicious in its extreme, topping governments,
demoralizing citizens – honest and hard working citizens, degenerating
standard, upsetting principles and leading to a general lack of progress even
in societies that have all the natural resources for meaningful development.
Nigerria for instance, was declared
the most corrupt nation on earth by Transparency International, during civilian
government of Obasanjo. Corruption in Nigeria is endemic. It permeates all nook
and crannies of the society. In ministries, in public enterprises, churches, in
government, corruption wrecks havoc. None is completely extricated and
exonerated from the highest pperson to the lowest, Nigeria have been identified
nationally and internationally as corruption-prone.
Although, this
is an assumption, but to some extent it is true because the actual number of
Nigerians who are not engaged in corrupt dealings in their place of work are
negligible. It is perhaps this recurring corruption in Nigeria that has made
Transparency International to pass that judgement on Nigeria few years ago.
However, various governments in
Nigeria, both military and civilian have made efforts to address the isssue of
corruption. Several reforms have been carried out on the civil service and
other government agencies, yet corruption persists.
The most discouraging aspect is that
corruption seems to be perpetrated by the very leaders who pretend to fight it.
It is during one of these periods Nigeria try to fight corruption that (EFCC)
was established. Since its inception, the agency has been fighting both big and
small in Nigeria who engaged in corruption. To some extent, it has enjoyed the
cooperation of the judiciary in arresting and persecuting those found guilty,
of corruption. Yet, much as (EFCC) has tried, the agency is still battlenning with
the “Nigerian Factor” which has militated against its attempts to achieve
complete success.
This study will
therefore, investigate the efforts of Nigeria government in fightting
corruption using (EFCC), with the aim of discovering how effective (EFCC) has
been, and the problems it has been encountering so far.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Corruption is not good viewed from all angles; it
ditorts and discourages progress in societies, developed and developing.
Nothing but mostly corruption has made societies like Nigeria unable to attain
development. The mosses of various societies have been subjected to all forms
of degradation, frustration and exaspiration by corruption. Within the several
decades Nigeria got her oil wealth, corruption had made the leaders to abadon
agriculture, and resorted to monocultural economy where oil, and only oil
wealth, determines the wealth flow, as well as power flow. The oil wealth for
decades have been mismanaged and embezzled. Our various governments have been
insensitive to the oil commmunities environment daily polluted as a result of
oil exploration by the multi-national companies. All the money meant to be used
for the provision of social welfare and infrastructures to these communities
siphoned into private accounts in overseas.
Corruption and
its impact lurk around the whole Nigeria. The executive, the legislatures, the
judiciary, none is bereft of this impact. Corruption has kept government blind
over diversifying the economy. Consequently, unemployment rages high. The
youths remain unemployed after graduating from the universities. The elders who
have served out their ages in the ministries still hold sway not wanting to
allow the youths work. Nothing is done without one form of bribery or the other
yet; government has four years pretentiously claim to reform these
institutions, when they, the reformers are the culprits.
This research effort is set out to
investigatee these problems. Attempts will be made to give recommendation on
ways to address corruption.
1.3 Research
Questions
The
research questions to be adopted in this research work are:
i)
What is
corruption?
ii)
How has
corruption affected the Nigerian society?
iii)
How effectively
has the Nigerian government addressed the issue using (EFCC)?
iv)
What will
Nigeria do to eliminate corruption?
1.4 Objectives
of the Study
The broad objective of
this study is to examine Nigerian government and her fight against corruption with
emphasis on EFCC, and other specific objectives which include:
i)
To conceptualize
corruption;
ii)
To investigate
the effect of corruption on the Nigerian society;
iii)
To investigate
how Nigerian government has effectively addressed corruption using (EFCC).
iv)
To profer
recommendations on how to address corruption.
1.5 Significance
of the Study
i) This research
work will be significant and of benefit to the government and its agencies,
especially, those agencies set to fight corruption in the society.
ii) It will be
beneficial for carrying of some government reforms both in the ministries and
the public enterprises.
iii) It will be
contributory to the books and materials in the public administration department
of FCAI.
iv) It will be
beneficial to students and scholars, who may like to carry out research studies
on the same area in the future.
1.6 Scope
of the Study
This research work will investigate
corruption and the effectiveness of (EFCC) set by the Nigeria government in the
fight against corruption. The much they have achieved, and their short comings
will be investigated. Recommendation will also be profered at the end of the
research work. This topic was chosen due to the flexibility in getting data by
the researcher.
1.7 Limitation
of the Study
This study would not have been
conducted without some constraints. Firstly, the researcher had the problem of
finance, which was hardly adequate to effectively conduct the exercise.
However, the one available was managed.
There was the
constraint of time. As a worker and a student, it was a herculean task
appropriating the limited time the research had, considering the scope and
sensibility of the topic.
Some respondents
were hardly seen on seat when this researcher went back to collect
questonnaires distributed. Some of them hardly devulged some information which
they considered classified.
1.8 Definitions of Terms
The following
concept will be defined to facilitate understanding.
i) Corruption:
It means the abuse of trust by mostly public officers.
ii)
EFCC:
It is an agency set by government to arrest and prosecute public officers who
engaged in corruption.
iii) Accountability: This entails the
obligation of an individual or organization to account for them and to disclose
the results in a transparent manner.
iv)
Democracy:
It is a government based on people’s consent.
v)
Development:
It involves wholistic and all embracing transformation of the country.