Hope for a new era (IV): The challenge of fighting corruption

It is significant that President Buhari has long identified the fight against corruption and its root cause of indiscipline as priority for his government. This stance is a reflection of the deep-seated prevalence the cankerworm has become in the Nigerian society, and constitutes one of the most critical challenges of public sector management. Hardly can […]

It is significant that President Buhari has long identified the fight against corruption and its root cause of indiscipline as priority for his government. This stance is a reflection of the deep-seated prevalence the cankerworm has become in the Nigerian society, and constitutes one of the most critical challenges of public sector management. Hardly can any aspect of public life in the country be spared the incidence of corruption in one form or another.
Until the sudden appearance of insecurity occasioned by the nefarious activities of insurgents and militant and criminal activities in various parts of the country, corruption had been Nigeria’s main scourge, leading to it being ranked among the world’s most corrupt countries. Even the spate of insurgency draws inspiration and impetus from the societal dislocations and failure of state institutions to fight corruption.
Yet corruption can be controlled and contained if the political will is mustered by a government disposed to doing so. Its present dimension is mainly attributable to the serial complacence which successive administrations have treated it with. This is where the antecedents of the new president come in. It was primarily his implacable anti-corruption reputation and campaign that earned for him the mandate of Nigerians to lead the country and curtail the excesses of the last few years, leading the charge on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
In spite of its numerous forms and ubiquitous nature, corruption demonstrates easily identifiable features wherever and whenever it rears its head. One of its core traits is the deliberate distortion of due processes in public service delivery, for personal gains. In the Nigerian context, this is the main problem, and it is spawned by the climate of impunity that prevailed and had gone unchecked for too long. This is reinforced when the culprits of corrupt practices are not only unpunished; they are honoured by their communities.  
For the fight against corruption by the new administration to succeed, its strategy must dwell on two planks. Firstly it must disabuse the mindset that makes public officers see corrupt practices as acceptable by the society by unfailingly applying the law to check them. Secondly, it needs to actualize the punishment of culprits of corrupt practices, no matter who is involved. Thirdly, it will be to its enduring credit to facilitate the recovery of all proceeds of corrupt practices, since these legitimately belong to the common patrimony of Nigerians, which the administration is mandated, and just sworn, to protect in the first place.
The point has been made over the years that a major premise for the widespread incidence of corruption in Nigeria is the collapse of the public service structure at various tiers of government. Needles to emphasise that even routine procedures of basic civil service practice has collapsed, in some cases perhaps beyond redemption. 
This therefore calls for a fresh offensive by the Buhari administration for a total overhaul of the public service from the federal to the local government levels, especially with respect to issues of managing public funds, the typical targets of corrupt public officials. Until the movement of every kobo of Nigeria’s public funds is traced in any part of the world and accounted for, the fight against corruption cannot be seen to be won.
 The administration also needs to unshackle the statutory anti-corruption agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Crimes Commission (ICPC), the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Public Complaints Commission (PCC), from the apron strings of political interference. They should be strengthened to insulate them from partisan political considerations.   Any public officer, including even the president, who tries to tamper with the work or temper their findings in criminal investigations, for political reasons should be questioned for its propriety. As for Jonathan, he is not in any position to influence the course of any possible criminal indictments that may arise from the actions and inactions of the administration he headed.