What Chatham House, TI’s reports say about corruption in Nigeria
Recently, two international agencies, Chatham House and Transparency International (TI), both from the United Kingdom, released their reports on corruption in Nigeria, which they said remains ubiquitous in the functioning of the country’s society and economic life. While the TI’s report focused on defence sector corruption practised by creating “phantom” defence contracts, that of Chatham […]
Recently, two international agencies, Chatham House and Transparency International (TI), both from the United Kingdom, released their reports on corruption in Nigeria, which they said remains ubiquitous in the functioning of the country’s society and economic life.
While the TI’s report focused on defence sector corruption practised by creating “phantom” defence contracts, that of Chatham House dwelled more on drivers of corrupt behaviour, which it said, is deeply ingrained at all levels of Nigerian society.
Transparency International, in its 19-page report titled, “Weaponising Transparency: Defence Procurement Reform as a Counterterrorism Strategy in Nigeria” revealed that a whopping US $15 billion was stolen by former military chiefs through fraudulent arms procurement deals.
The huge sum was equivalent to half of Nigeria’s foreign currency reserves, said the report which was done in partnership with Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC).
Chatham House’s report tagged, “Collective Action on Corruption in Nigeria: A Social Norms Approach to Connecting Society and Institutions” estimated that close to $400 billion was stolen from Nigeria’s public accounts from 1960 to 1999.
The report authored by Leena Koni Hoffmann and Raj Navanit Patel, said some $182 billion was lost through illicit financial flows from Nigeria between 2005 and 2014.
Though both TI and Chatham House praised President Muhammadu Buhari’s efforts to identify and prosecute prominent individuals for large-scale theft of public funds, they said the efforts would not be enough to win the long fight against corruption and achieve collective behavioural change.
Nigeria’s corrupt elites profit from Boko Haram insurgency – TI
Transparency International’s report revealed how corrupt officials over the years exploited the excessive secrecy of Nigeria’s defence budget to steal monies meant to fight Boko Haram insurgency in the north east.
“Defence sector corruption in Nigeria has enabled the political elite to accumulate and distribute political patronage, said the report jointly presented by the Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani and a Senior Legal Researcher at TI, Eva Marie Anderson in Abuja.
“Longstanding military exceptionalism meanwhile, has justified weak and compromised oversight of security-related spending and excessive secrecy.”
This, the report said, has weakened Nigerian counterterrorism capacity whilst strengthening Boko Haram terrorists.
“Nigeria’s corrupt elites have profited from conflict; with oil prices at a record low, defence has provided new and lucrative opportunities for the country’s corrupt kleptocrats,” the report revealed.
It said most significant corruption opportunities are those exploited through inflating procurement contract values and creating “phantom” defence contracts.
Such contracts, it noted, were used as a vehicle for money laundering and facilitated via weak or corrupted Nigerian banks, with illicit financial flows hidden in property in the UK, United States, South Africa and Dubai.
The report repeatedly cited the case of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki as an example of how the country’s defence sector provided opportunity for exploitation.
Dasuki is currently standing trial for allegedly mismanaging funds meant for the procurement of weapons to fight Boko Haram insurgents.
TI however acknowledged that President Buhari’s government has taken significant steps to identify and prosecute individuals involved in security sector corruption.
It said the campaign to focus international attention on returning stolen assets has been powerful.
“But however effective these efforts are, they will not be enough to win the long fight against corruption. The reality is that Nigeria’s attempt to secure the repatriation of large quantities of illicitly laundered assets from places like the UK makes a better media headline than it does anti-corruption strategy.
“With the President’s first term ending in 2019, the window of opportunity for far reaching change is closing rapidly.
“Only a holistic reform agenda can deliver the deep, systemic changes and improvements in transparency and accountability needed to prevent the next US $15 billion quietly leaving Nigeria through the back door, it said.
TI therefore recommended that the Nigerian government should extend public access to defence and security information.
“Recent amendments to the Public Procurement Act are an important advance in the fight against defence corruption, but they will have limited impact without corresponding amendments to the Freedom of Information Act.”
The report recommended monitoring confidential procurements as a means of ensuring effective spending of defence budget.
“For genuinely confidential procurements, a separate legal procedure could be designed allowing for monitoring by a confidential senate committee and a unit with suitable security clearance within the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP),” it said.
“Civil society and the media are powerful monitors, and the Procurement Act empowers both to monitor tender awards. Guidelines for non-classification would enable civil society to extend its monitoring to the defence sector, thereby realising a function originally envisaged in the legislation.
“Widely perceived as one of the most durable forms of corruption in Nigeria today, security votes should be abolished or strictly regulated…Declassifying how the security vote funds have been spent, after a two year information embargo, could also enable citizen oversight,” the report recommended.
Why corrupt practices persist in Nigeria – Chatham House
The report by Chatham House diagnosed circumstances that drive corrupt behaviour in Nigeria, and the types of beliefs that support practices understood to be corrupt.
The report said government’s focus on transparency and legal sanctions to combat corruption is critically important, but innovative and complementary approaches are needed to foster a comprehensive shift in deeply ingrained attitudes to corruption at all levels of society.
The findings of the report are based largely on a national household survey jointly developed by the Chatham House Africa Programme and the University of Pennsylvania’s Social Norms Group (PennSONG), in collaboration with Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics as well as a network of academics and practitioners from Nigerian universities and NGOs.
It found that social norms of corruption are limited to specific contexts and sectors in Nigeria.
“Social norms drive the solicitation of bribes by law enforcement officials, whereas the giving of bribes is influenced more by circumstances and by people’s beliefs about what other people are doing,” the report said, noting that if the environment or options change, behaviour will also change.
The report showed that the social contract between government and the governed is very local and not national, saying “There is a deep-seated lack of confidence in official institutions, or in the universal application of a fair and neutral rule of law.”
This severely weakens the consolidation of a Nigerian national identity based on common and equal citizenship, it said.
“Instead, less effective social contracts are forged particularly around ethnic or religious identities – an arrangement that fuels inter-communal distrust.”
Chatham House said the true costs and consequences of corruption are hidden within the normal interactions of daily life, with people engaging in certain forms of corruption as a practical response to obstacles and inefficiencies in Nigeria’s administrative and economic systems.
“As long as the Nigerian government’s interactions with citizens continue to be marred by extortionate behaviour and expectations of bribery, the state deprives itself of the moral basis to lead in addressing the country’s corruption problem.”
The report said, “Routinely abusive behaviour by public officials is an obstacle to building public trust and stimulating collective action. Instead, it fosters public cynicism, apathy and a sense that different rules apply to different groups.
“Government-led anti-corruption campaigns will only be perceived as sincere if they are self-examining and self-correcting.”
The report, however, recommended some policy approaches to influencing collective action against corruption.
It said changing incentives in contexts where corruption is a rational response or is environmentally driven, could help address fraudulent practices in the country.
“Administrative and institutional reform could remove some opportunities for officials to exert the leverage that encourages or forces citizens to engage in corrupt practices.
“Online and mobile technologies should be used to simplify the direct payment of official fines, the adjudication of disputed penalties, the handling of complaints and the safe reporting of demands for corrupt payments.
“Clear information on how to report corrupt behaviour by state agents, and how to follow up cases, should be made widely available in accessible formats and local languages.”
The report recommended that reducing official fine rates would erode the scope for state agents to solicit petty bribes from citizens in return for escaping official penalties.
“Relative to the real income level and average living costs of most Nigerians, official fines are very costly, creating a strong incentive to pay a lesser sum in the form of a bribe.
“There must be clear and enforceable negative sanctions for corrupt behaviour, and equally clear and meaningful positive incentives not to engage in corruption.”
It also urged the government to reframe the approach to anti-corruption messaging and interventions.
“Official anti-corruption campaigns in Nigeria have tended to use tough, intimidating and sometimes aggressive language; but such messages often fail to be sustainable or convincing because the behaviour of the government and its agents is perceived as unchanged or hypocritical.”
It said “Leadership on anti-corruption can only be successful if it is by example. The behaviours and actions of Nigerian political actors play a major role in setting social trends, forging public trust and inspiring positive behaviour.
“As key trendsetters, political actors and officials must measure up to higher standards of integrity, honesty and transparency in order to send a powerful signal regarding the government’s commitment to changing negative social norms and regaining public trust.”
Nigeria’s anti-corruption agencies, Chatham House said, should therefore systematically integrate an informed understanding of behavioural drivers as part of the long-term approach to their mandates.
t added that “a careful understanding of the factors that drive relevant behaviours should be a critical component of government actions to reduce corruption.
“It is recommended that an interagency unit be established in Nigeria to review and hone anti-corruption messaging, and to advise how behavioural lessons can be practically, ethically and most effectively applied at all stages of policymaking – from diagnostics to design, implementation and evaluation – rather than as a separate approach that produces ‘behavioural policies’ as add-ons.”
These holistic approaches, Chatham House said, would better position public institutions to engage Nigerian society in anti-corruption efforts.