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Corruption is one of the few social problems that is widespread in Nigeria. By its nature and character, it is destructive,unethical,and could affect the rate of social development. The term corruption covers several immoral acts. It could be abuse of public office for personal gains or any other illegal or immoral acts which a person engages in, for private gains. Corrupt practices in Nigerian context includes offer and acceptance of bribe, fraudulent acquisition of property, offer and acceptance of any gratification or inducement,favouritism, nepotism, corrupt enrichment, contract inflation etc.
It is also necessary to point out that corruption can manifest in religious circle, political arena, within the economic or political system or even within the school setting. It is therefore not a gainsaying that corruption is a bane of our social development. If you look at it carefully, you will agree with me that our national economy is facing significant challenges and threats on account of the fraudulent and corrupt practices orchestrated by a small section of elite. The result was the near-total besmearing of our national image profile, the general lack of confidence in the nation's financial institutions as well as the growing investor-doubt of our capital market. In the intervening period ,all the integrity and transparency Institutions of the world were knocking us down on account of absence of accountability in our national ethos. Transparency International ,for instance, ranked us as one of the most corrupt nations of the world based on all index for s couple of years, while the Financial Action Task Force[FATF],virtually declared Nigeria unfit to trade with.
Faced with these challenges, the last civilian administration led by President created two major anti-corruption agencies: the ICPC and EFCC.As many would recall, the ICPC was created by Act of parliament in the year 2000 while the EFCC came up a little after in 2004.Based on the available records and data,ICPC is yet to record any substantial achievement in investigating and prosecuting corrupt practices and other related offences since the year 2000.However,the EFCC especially under Nuhu Ribadu has made an impressive marks. The Agency, that is the EFCC has successfully investigated, prosecuted and secured about 250 convictions. Yet, there were occasions when the Agency acted as if there were people that are untouchable or above the law in Nigeria. This is because there were individuals alleged that are to be properly investigated or prosecuted up till today. Could we then say the EFCC is not corrupt too?
In the political realm, corruption is capable of undermining democracy, rule of law and good governance. Award of contract without following due process, inducement of voters during election,rigging,stuffing of ballot boxes, hijacking of ballot boxes, election result manipulation, maiming and killing during campaign and elections constitute corrupt practices. The scourge extends to the educational sector. In the school system, alteration of results, aiding and abetting to cheat and to escape purnishment,sexual harassment of female students by the lecturers, offer and acceptance of gratifications, leakages of examination questions, indecent dressing by the female students to lure the opposite sex are unethical behaviors that can be morally and religiously condemned. From the angle of religion, corruption can manifest in our manner of dressing, process of acquiring wealth,pre-marital sexual dealings, money extortion by mallams and Alfas, ritual practices or idolatry in different guises by the knowledgeable ones etc.In religious perspective, corruption is an act of violating the moral etiquettes. The violator of the good moral conduct can be described as being corrupt.
Corruption can further be classified as Institutional and non Institutional form. A lot of people will be involved when corruption is institutional, techniques they will be using will be sophisticated and will require collaboration, whereas non Institutional type is of direct opposite. It could further be classified as petty or high level corruption. Petty corruption is act that is freely committed by people out of ignorance and most of us are victims of this type of corruption. High level of corruption is more dangerous and can threaten economic stability, slow down growth, weaken institutional capacity and can as well reduce the resources available for social programmes.High level or corruption is also known as grand corruption.Lastly,corruption can be classified as either public or private corruption. It is public, if it involves the use of public office for private gains. In other words, it involves government officials benefiting at the expense of the tax payers. Private corruption however is between individuals within the private sector.
Indeed, corruption poises a serious development challenges. It affects rate of development. Of course, corruption during electoral process and in legislative bodies reduces accountability in the judiciary, it compromises the rule of law, and in public administration, it results in unfair provision of services and uneven distribution of resources. Nigeria under development could be traced to corrupt practices of our leaders. It is alarming that between 1960 to 1999 over 400 billion dollars was stolen from government treasury by the past Nigerian leaders. This accounts for our stagnated development.
In specific terms, corruption lowers both foreign and domestic investment of the nation. According to IMF, lowering investment accounts for at least one third corruption's overall negative effects. At global level, high level of corruption can cause the donors' nations to suspend, reduce or withdraw development assistance among others.
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