Nigeria is on its knees as the world marks International Anti-Corruption Day today. Decades of unremitting graft has left it tottering on the brink of collapse. This year, Nigeria scored a miserable 25 points and is ranked 145th on the Transparency International corruption perceptions index out of 180 countries surveyed.
This summarises the regrettable state of the public sector. Health services are dying, education is woeful, and infrastructure is shabby. The call for overhauling the electoral system is as strident as the clamour for a new judiciary.
From the local council to the centre, there is no check on executive recklessness because the legislature is in the executive’s pocket. In 2012, the country was estimated to have lost over $400 billion to corruption since independence. This is the reason Nigeria is not working.
This year’s Anti-Corruption Day theme is ‘Uniting with Youth Against Corruption, Shaping Tomorrow’s Integrity.’ It is just as well because the old guard which has controlled the levers of power continues to mess with it.
The people entrusted with making government policy work for everyone are sabotaging it. Nigerians are still processing the shocking revelation that a whopping 753 duplexes and other apartments in a Federal Capital Territory district were reportedly traced to the erstwhile governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, 63.
In 2012 James Ibori, a former governor of Delta State, was jailed for 13 years by a London court after being found guilty of 10 offences relating to laundering funds. The Metropolitan Police estimated that Ibori, 65, embezzled $250 million of Nigeria’s public funds. He was said to have spent the diverted funds on a luxury lifestyle, including a private jet and expensive London houses, a mansion in South Africa, and properties in Texas.
In late 2021, Abdulrasheed Maina, chair of the Pensions Reform Task Team, was jailed for laundering N2 billion pensions fund. The prosecutors said Maina, who earned N256,000 salary monthly, bought a property in Abuja with $1.4 million cash without passing through a financial institution. Okon Abang (the judge) said many of the pensioners Maina stole from “died without reaping the fruit of their labour.” His son was jailed for 14 years for money laundering.
In 2019, then-director general of the National Intelligence Agency, Ayodele Oke, and his wife Folasade were charged with theft and laundering $43 million, £28,000, and N23 million that the EFCC found in their Ikoyi, Lagos flat in 2017. Before he was appointed NIA DG in 2013, Oke was an ambassador to the Secretariat of the Commonwealth of Nations in London. He is in his twilight.
The corrupt old guard is killing Nigeria. The youth are the only hope and must take up the anti-corruption fight. Wherever they are – in school, social media, churches, and mosques – they must be engaged and encouraged to save the country. They must be told that the culture of graft is not the way to go. The youth must take a stand if they must salvage the bleeding country.
Primary and secondary schools must instil the value of integrity in the pupils. History should be taught, and genuine heroes celebrated. The campaign to catch them in early life must start from home and be intentional and consistent. The National Youth Service Corps orientation camp should be a platform to consolidate the message before young graduates are released into the workforce.
Faith organisations should preach against corruption. The National Orientation Agency should wake up and drive the campaign, reaching the youth with anti-corruption multimedia messaging, including hoardings. It should engage and sponsor artistes to send the message to their teeming fans and followers. The country is in danger and must be saved.
