Interviewing Demand Side Actors

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widespread corruption, gross abuse of public office in many government departments and incorrigible tolerance…For these reasons the solution of the current national crisis is to be found in our ability to reclaim professionalism and confidence in public officers, and guaranteeing efficiency.²³

The Kenya National Anti-Corruption Plan concedes that:

Corruption continues to pose one of the greatest challenges facing Kenya. It continues to undermine good governance and distort public policy, leading to misallocation of resources. It has contributed to slow economic growth as well as discouraged and frustrated both local and foreign investors.²⁴

The phenomenon of corruption in Kenya which has become a matter of serious concern is further evidenced in the Kenya‟s poor performance in the various indices that have been developed to gauge governance and corruption. The statistics of TI‟s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) reveals that Kenya has primed itself as one of the countries perceived to have the highest incidence of corruption, scoring an average of 2.05 since 2002.

The 2007 Kenya Bribery Index reveals that Kenyans encounter bribery in 54%

of their interactions with both public and private institutions, up from 47% in the previous year.²⁵ Although it performs impressively in the 2007 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, having been ranked 15 out of 48 African states with an average score of 59.3%.²⁶ Closer scrutiny shows that Kenya still groans under the yoke of corruption, scoring 24% on its efforts to curb public sector corruption.²⁷ The TI CPI profiles from 2003 to 2009 also reveal that corruption in Kenya is phenomenal (See Table 4.1).

From the foregoing, it is unassailable that corruption has been a major social, political and economic stumbling block such that it was even said to have permeated the institutional bastion of democracy, that is, the judiciary. To be sure, in October 2003, there was a major probe and removal of members of the judiciary on allegations of endemic corruption.²⁸Other high-profile corruption cases in Kenya include the infamous Goldenberg scandal and recently the Anglo-Leasing scandal. The Goldenberg scandal “involved a fictitious export compensation scheme allegedly to export gold and diamonds while the most intriguing aspect of the matter is that Kenya has little or no gold mines and diamond fields.”²⁹ The Anglo leasing scandal hinges on a government tender involving amounts in excess of 90 million Kenya shillings allegedly awarded to a non-existent company.³⁰ This led to the unsuccessful

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prosecution of six senior government officials in court. These two scandals illustrate the extent corruption is entrenched within government structures and how this ultimately erodes the basic principles of good governance.

Also, annually corruption is said to cost Kenya as much as $1bn.³¹ Theft, misappropriation of public resources and fraud by public officials reduces the availability of government funds for development-related activities. The resultant limited finances impact negatively on the provision of essential services. Such was the case where the Kenya National AIDS Control Council (NACC) which was set up to coordinate the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS was discredited when it was discovered that senior staff had paid themselves inflated salaries and allowances, and there were irregularities in its procurement procedures. This led to the withdrawal of much required US $15 million AIDS grant by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.³²

Similarly, corruption in Nigeria is as old as the country itself, though its nature, scope, and consequences have varied considerably over the years. Indeed, from the late colonial period to date, commentators have expressed concern about the level of profligacy in the country. Since Nigeria‟s independence in 1960, almost every government from the military to the civilian promised to raise ethical standards and restore accountability and transparency in governance that culminated into various anti-corruption initiatives. Instead, monumental looting of the nation‟s wealth and resources by high ranking state officials has remained a constant trait of the country‟s anti-corruption crusade and political life. Evidently, over the years, many Nigerian political leaders have generally sought after the wealth they needed to make them the wealthiest in order to gain political base, influence, legitimacy and identity.³³

The effects of corruption in Nigeria have been very significant. From multi-internal effects such and poor governance, misuse of natural resources, mediocrity, high unemployment rates, the even widened gap between the rich and the poor to the international effects such as the distorted image of Nigeria in the comity of nations.

Owing to prevalence corruption in Nigeria, doing business with Nigerians by foreign nationals calls for caution thereby destabilising the economic sector of the country.³⁴

Notwithstanding the commendable efforts of the administration to curtail the menace of corruption, both President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar took millions of dollars from the PTDF Account to service the interests of their business partners. Both of them also got involved in the primitive accumulation of

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wealth including the establishment of multi-billion naira private universities.³⁵ Even though some highly placed public officers were removed from office and prosecuted;

the determined efforts of the EFCC to expose other corruptly appointed and elected officials and make them face the law were frustrated by the Presidency. Unfortunately, the two attempts made by the National Assembly in 2003 and 2007 to guarantee the autonomy of the anti-graft agency were abortive because of the egoistic tendencies of the leaders of both legislative houses.³⁶

For example, between 2003 and 2006, a total sum of US$13.2 billion was squandered from three special escrow accounts illegally opened and maintained by a former President, Obasanjo, in connivance with top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), some Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Executives and others (Joint Senate Committee on Finance, Appropriation and National Planning, 2006). The Vice President, Abubakar Atiku, shockingly released nine cheques and bank drafts totaling N432million (US$3,085,710) allegedly paid from the controversial MOFAS Account at Trans International Bank Plc, Abuja, on behalf, and personal use of the president, Obasanjo. ³⁷

The NNPC that was under the personal control of the former President Obasanjo for 8 years, could not account for the sum of N555 billion (US$4.4 billion) from the Federation Account from December, 2004 to April, 2007.³⁸ Again, during the same period, the top officials of the NNPC under the ministerial control of the President, embezzled another N502 billion (US$4 billion) through various frauds including producing barrels of crude oil far in excess of assigned Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota and converting part of the proceeds to political electioneering and laundering the balance into private bank accounts abroad.³⁹ In all, thirty-one out of thirty-six state governors were indicted by the EFCC for corruption related offences such as money laundering; financial crimes and possession of illegal assets in foreign countries which are believed to be worth more than $17 billion.⁴⁰ In the words of the former helmsman of the country‟s anti-corruption agency, corruption in Nigeria is „endemic, pandemic and systemic.⁴¹ The systemic aspect is evident in the fact that corruption pervades the entire society and has become so routinised and accepted as a means of conducting everyday transactions that many people have few practical alternatives to dealing with corrupt officials. No doubt, Arizona Ogwu observed that:

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Corruption now appears to have become a permanent feature of Nigeria national policy, it now has a home address and a zip code, it has its own policy, boundary, television stations and newspapers, it has its own labour and corporate leaders, it has its council of elders, NGOs and gender-sensitive groups and lately it has appointed its own “Attorney General" and consulates to defend its cases all over Nigeria and enhance its diplomacy beyond Nigeria.

It had become completely institutionalized, entered into the realm of our core culture and the value systems; it is now normality and no longer an aberration. The young ones are born into it, grow up in it, live with it, and possibly will die in it. The aged are not left out as they are re-socialized, re-engineered and refitted to conform to it. Corruption has virtually turned Nigeria into the land of starvation and a debtor nation in spite of the nation‟s enormous resources.⁴²

In the same vein, it has been painfully observed by the ICPC Chairman, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, that “corruption has become a hydra-headed monster ravaging not only the public sector but also spreading its poisonous tentacles to the private sector.

Every form of corruption, be it public or private, retards the growth of our economy.”⁴³ According to Dike, corruption wastes skills because time is often wasted to set up anti-corruption agencies to fight corruption and also to monitor public sectors.

Hence, corruption in Nigeria has been able to divert scarce public resources into private pockets, weakened good governance, threatened democracy and eroded the social and moral fabrics.⁴⁴ All these negatives effects keep stressing on the importance of combating corruption via anti-corruption strategies adopted by the EFFC.

Moreover, Nigeria was assessed as the most corrupt nation in the world by Transparency International (TI) in 1996 and 1997. In 1999, it was rated the second most corrupt country while in the year 2000 it reclaimed its position as the most corrupt nation in the world out of 90 countries. In 2001 and 2002, she was the second most corrupt nation out of 91 and 102 countries assessed respectively while in 2005 it moved to position number 152 out of 159 countries (see Table 4.1). In 2009 the global corruption perception index revealed that Nigeria occupied the 130th position out of 180 countries surveyed.⁴⁵

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Table 4.1. Corruption Perception Profiles of Kenya and Nigeria 2003-2009

Country CPI 2003 Rank (Out of Countries 133)

CPI 2004 Rank (Out of Countries 145)

CPI 2005 Rank (Out of Countries 158)

CPI 2006 Rank (Out of Countries 163)

CPI 2007 Rank (Out of Countries 179)

CPI 2008 Rank (Out of Countries 180)

CPI 2009 Rank (Out of Countries 182)

Kenya 123 131 144 142 150 147 130

Nigeria 132 144 152 142 147 121 146

Adapted Sources: TI Reports on Global Corruption Perception Indexes from 2003 to 2009.

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