Corruption of corruption discourse

The international anti-corruption summit – “the first of its kind aimed at exposing, punishing and driving  out global corruption” opens at Lancaster House in United Kingdom on Thursday.  President Muhammadu Buhari is a notable guest among others that parade IMF’s Christine Lagarde, presidents Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Norwegian prime […]

The international anti-corruption summit – “the first of its kind aimed at exposing, punishing and driving  out global corruption” opens at Lancaster House in United Kingdom on Thursday.  President Muhammadu Buhari is a notable guest among others that parade IMF’s Christine Lagarde, presidents Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg. Yours comradely once observed that the bane of corruption discourse seems to be its lack of immunity against corruption itself, defined as an abuse of printed and spoken words over corruption; an issue that calls for concerted action and deep reflection, rather than endless workshops (read; word-shops!). The point cannot be overstated that corruption is an English word. It is also an open knowledge that the British through bribery, subterfuge and violent colonial campaign occupied Lagos in 1861, (some 150 years ago) after which it declared the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. Since then corruption has since assumed varying Nigerian meanings. Some meanings of corruption in the neo-colony called Nigeria include policemen doing collective (sorry, collecting) bargaining at illegal checkpoints proudly blocking free movement of ordinary folks. Early this year Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, released the “bomb-shell” (his words”!) according to which 55 out of 170 million Nigerians have stolen over N1.34 trillion from the country’s treasury from 2006 to 2013!, a quarter of 2016 budget. Out of the stolen funds, the minister said 15 former governors were alleged to have stolen N146.84 billion; while 4 former ministers stole N7 billion; 12 former public servants, both at federal and state levels, stole over N14 billion; 8 people in the banking Industry allegedly N524 billion; while 11 businessmen allegedly stole N653 billion.
With these star-numbers in corruption, I think there is no better country to hold “the first international anti-corruption summit, than Nigeria. We don’t refine crude oil nor make tooth pick. That’s bad enough. It is however a damning commentary, that on corruption in which we dare say we have “a comparative advantage”, (Nigeria is the only country that for three years, between 2001and 2004, proudly factored ‘Looted Funds’ into its annual budget!)  Britain has again beaten us to it hosting a summit we should have invited Prime Minister David Cameron, as a listener or an observer. It is a corruption of corruption discourse for us to depend on a received wisdom on an issue we should naturally be advising others on. President Buhari won election on anti-corruption wind of change and globally acknowledged personal integrity. At the 2016, World Economic Forum the United State Secretary of State, John Kerry, commendably gave President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign a pass mark. President Buhari’s famous quote according to which “if Nigeria does not kill corruption, Corruption will kill Nigeria” is still familiar! I search in vain for Minister David Cameron’s quotable quote on corruption. On the contrary, United Kingdom under him maintains overseas territories that are tax havens for illicit funds, some from Nigeria. Since Nigeria has invariably missed the opportunity to host first anti-corruption summit, the hope is that President Buhari would authoritatively tell the world in London, that for Nigeria under him fighting corruption is not another passing fad by world leaders, but a total commitment as corruption has almost ruined a nation he inherited.
This then raises the question about Nigeria’s strategy to fight corruption since President Buhari was sworn in a year ago. For one, president Buhari and his deputy, Yemi Osibanjo popularly declared their assets and made them open for public interrogation. Many governors including those from his party have refused to follow in the model -of-declare -and-publish the forms. Certainly many legislators refused to follow the example of the President. Is the strategy to combat corruption a shared strategy or deregulated in the same ways grafts and public thefts have been deregulated? Is the war against corruption a one-President orchestra or a sustainable agenda? The recent scandalous budget padding shows that where the strategy is not clear or shared, we all hunted by the spectre of corruption of anti-corruption war. Corruption should also be seen as part of development challenge. Corruption did not enter our development literature until recently. In the 60s, 70s and up to the mid-80s, no student of development economics would be burdened with definition of corruption nor less than he or she would be tasked with establishing the correlation between corruption and development. Perhaps we need to focus more on policy corruption (or is it corruption of policy?) that has made corruption assumed such prominence in daily life as well as in development discourse. The policy corruption flows from unprovoked neo-liberal assault on the developmental and welfare state of the 60s and 70s in preference for favoured IMF/World Bank notorious ‘structural adjustment policy’ (SAP) of the 80s and 90s and ‘reform’ and ‘market forces’ of 2000s. Paradoxically all the neo-liberal ideas that fuelled corruption and weakened the state came from London under British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher. Massive naira devaluation induces a compensation crisis in which take home pay takes nobody home, distorts structure of incentives in favour of graft than handwork and completely impoverishes pensioners. Since the state has been denied any meaningful role in development, state resources turned to no man’s resources such that it becomes fashionable to shamelessly loot while government officials trumpet from the rooftop; ‘private sector is the engine of growth’.  It is this official policy corruption that is the bed rock of global corruption. May be President Buhari should first organize a national summit on corruption.