International Anti-Corruption Day: Is Nigeria Making Progress?

The International Anti-Corruption Day is observed by the international community on December 9 every year. It is the day set aside by the United Nations (UN) to create awareness about the negative impacts of corruption on nations and the need to fight it. 

The history of this annual commemoration dates back to October 31, 2003 when the UN General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention against Corruption and requested that the Secretary-General designate the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as secretariat for the Convention’s Conference of States Parties. 

The General Assembly also designated 9 December as International Anti-Corruption Day, to raise awareness of corruption and of the role of the Convention in combating and preventing it.  The Convention entered into force in December 2005.

Since then, Nigeria has joined the global community in observance of this day. The 2021 Anti-Corruption Day is themed “Your right, your role: Say no to Corruption”.

According to the UN, the theme is to highlight the rights and responsibilities of everyone – including States, Government officials, civil servants, law enforcement officers, media representatives, the private sector, civil society, academia, the public and youth – in tackling corruption.

In Nigeria, corruption is more of an endemic issue, and it is seen in almost every public institution in the country, with huge resources lost annually. 

Some studies have linked the increasing level of poverty, inflation, unemployment, poor access to basic services and poor development in general in the country to corruption.

This may not be far from the truth as Yiaga Africa stated that Nigeria has lost $582 billion to corruption in 61 years.

The group further disclosed that between 2011 and 2015, about N1.3 trillion of public funds was laundered. 

Also, last year, Iliyasu Gashinbaki, the Chairman of the Society for Forensic Accounting and Fraud Prevention (SFAFP), noted that Nigeria loses N2.5 trillion annually due to fraud and corruption. 

This is despite the fact that the country currently has the highest number of poor people in the world. 

According to Gashinbaki, the reason there is so much corruption in the country is because the institutional processes are weak.

The Auditor-General for the Federation also highlighted same in most of his observations in the 2019 Audit report, attributing the financial foul plays to internal weakness in the institutions/ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Dataphyte already reported some of these issues in its review of the 2019 Audit report. Other reports can also be found that speak to issues of corruption in the country. 

How Nigeria Fares in Corruption Ranking

Annually, Transparency International (TI), a global coalition against corruption, assesses hundreds of countries and ranks them on the basis of perceived corruption in the public sector.

In the last six years, Nigeria’s scores and ranking has been consistently poor. On a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is “highly corrupt” and 100 is “very clean”, Nigeria recorded its worst score in 2020. The country scored just 25 points and was ranked 149 out of 180 countries.

This is a drop from 2019, where the country scored 26 points and was placed 146th position out of the 180 countries assessed that year.

What Steps Has Been Taken to Fight Corruption

The government recognises the danger that corruption poses to the development of the country. Thus, it puts in place different institutions and mechanisms to curb it. 

There is the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) which are the frontline institutions in the fight against corruption. 

The President Buhari administration introduced the Whistleblowing policy in 2016. The policy placed the task of fighting corruption in the hands of the citizens

There is also the Open Treasury Portal (OTP) that was launched by President Buhari in 2019 to ensure that there is transparency with government spendings. 

While these institutions and policies have to some extent exposed some corrupt practices in the country, there is still more to be done as cases of non-adherence to the policies are still reported every now and then.

For instance, Dataphyte has reported several cases of violation of the OTP guidelines by MDAs, raising the alarm of possible corruption. 

With respect to the whistleblowing policy, although majority of the citizens are aware of the policy, the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) has noted in their survey that many people are unwilling/have stopped reporting cases of corruption because of fear of victimization/stigmatization, nepotism, and the loss of hope in the system that adequate action will be taken by the relevant authorities. 

As Nigeria and Nigerians join the rest of the world to mark this year’s Anti-corruption day, a deliberate commitment to playing a part and intensifying efforts to fight corruption at all levels irrespective of the individuals involved may be the best way to mark this year’s occasion because every citizen – low and high – has a role to play in combating this menace that has taken so much from the country.