ANTI-CORRUPTION FIGHT IN AFRICA, THE WAY FORWARD
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| Mr. Monday Ubani. |
Gentlemen
I do not need to bother these distinguished guests of this year's annual
conference holding on African soil about the menace of pervasive
corruption on the continent. The physical evidence of the havoc corruption has
wrecked on the continent is too glaring for anyone not to see. It ranges from
complete absence of basic infrastructures that makes life worth living to more
serious issues of no structure for manpower development and to complete absence
of hospitality structures that preserve and save lives. There is no safety and
security in the continent and the direct reason is traceable to corruption of
the political elites and the civil servants with their avaricious greed and
appetite for stealing every resource that the continent is blessed with and
their loots are stashed away in developed economies ironically.
The
darkest side to this story is that the continent is the most blessed in terms
of human and natural resources, yet there is no single evidence to validate
this known fact. This is very sad and traumatic.
In
Nigeria where I am blessed to come from, the history of corruption is as old as
the country is politically. Those who know will recall that the reason or
reasons for the first military coup in Nigeria and her neighbor Ghana was the
allegation of corruption against the then existing governments. Those who
took over from the existing governments were usually found to be more
corrupt than the government they purportedly overthrew. When the States manage
to attain democracy after years of severe agitation and loss of lives, the
civilian governments that usually take over are no better. It is said that they
are usually worse than the military governments they drove back to the
barracks. In Nigeria the reason for the 1st coup was allegation of 10 per cent
but now it is 90 per cent they take and leave 10 per cent for the job.
The
citizens of the African continent in the circumstance seem helpless, hopeless,
violated and dejected. No form of government seems to deliver to the people the
true dividends of good governance the people had always yearned for. Their
fruitless look towards the developed economies to come to their rescue are
ignored as these developed economies are found to be culpable as they connive
and collude with the political parasites in the continent to take
the resources of the continent and stash away in an already developed
economies. The developed economies no doubt love the free money that their
economy needs badly to keep their informed citizens settled economically to
avoid a terrible backlash in case of agitation or restlessness that will
certainly occur whenever the people feel short changed by their leaders. There seems to be no respite for the
citizen of the African continent. Where will he go and who will help out?
The
theme of this year's conference is very appropriate. It is titled "Tackling contemporary issues facing
the African Continent: How lawyers can drive Renaissance".
Gentlemen,
we are in Liberia to proffer practical solutions to myriads of problems confronting
our continent and by the grace of God we shall accomplish that before we leave
Monrovia this Friday.
Corruption
you will agree with me is a monster we must all dismantle in the continent.
There is no region in the continental that is spared, whether South,
West, North and East, no country is free from the debilitating effect of
pervasive corruption that have befallen the continent unfortunately.
My
approach will be from various angles, I shall be brief, and it is a promise.
How do
we systematically dismantle corruption in the continent?
I put
it straightaway that it is indeed possible to fight corruption successfully
with the right knowledge, patience, and commitment to transparency. However we
must first of all understand various ways acts of corruption are perpetuated in
the various countries in the continent. Take Nigeria for instance, one of
the most commonest ways the political elites empty the treasury is through the
provision of security vote for the executives. This practice is inherited from
the military regime of President Ibrahim Babangida and has continued even after
we attained democratic rule in the country. There is no provision for it
anywhere in the constitution, yet it has become the norm even by the subsequent
government that promised us change. It is a reprehensible practice of
misappropriating and stealing huge sums of public money under the guise of
enhancing national security. Its practice is embedded in ambiguity and utmost
secrecy associated with the concept of national security which has helped to
institutionalize it. However the beneficiaries are not accountable to anyone on
the use and misuse of the funds that runs into several billions of Naira
monthly. One former state governor of my State, Abia in Nigeria was taking
about 1.1billion every month as security votes, excluding other unaccounted
allowances and perks of office running into several millions monthly.
This is
just one State, this practice is all over the 36 States of the federation, mind
you the presidency takes it own which no one knows how much, the local
government chairmen are heavily implicated in the same act, and I heard also
that some ministers used to take security votes. What I am not sure is whether
the system has stopped or is continuing under the present dispensation.
Gentlemen and ladies, you can imagine the damage such opaque practice is
causing to the economy of a country that lacks basic drugs used in public hospitals.
PRESCRIPTION
This
security votes is an evil practice started by the military, maybe for reason
that is associated with the form of government that cannot distinguish between
public interest and private interest. If it was accepted under dictatorship
regimes, this practice has no place under democracy. It is advised that we
should use the funds that are stolen away under the guise of security votes to
finance the police and other security agencies sufficiently to secure both our
internal and external territories effectively.
BOGUS AND OVER INVOICED CONTRACTS
Another
method the civil servants and political class defraud the government is through
fake and over invoiced contracts. In a report published recently in Nigeria,
arrests were made of some suspects who awarded fictitious arms contract to
fight Boko Haram worth some 2 billion dollars. This contract was awarded
between 2011 and 2015. It was reported that over 7 billion naira has been so
far recovered from the indicted companies and individuals. Over invoicing is
another fraudulent practice prevalent in the continent. Take for instance a 2-horse
power air conditioner that goes for 180 thousand naira is awarded for 1 million
or sometimes two million per one as a government contract. If this is not
madness, I need another definition of it. Why can't this contract be awarded
for 200 thousand naira or at worst 220 thousand naira? Why must the person
awarding the contract be looking for millions of naira to make personally in
all government contract he or she awards?
WEAKNESS OR TOTAL ABSENCE OF INSTITUTIONS
The
weakness of institutions like the legislature and the judiciary that would have
checked the acts of corruption in the system is devastating. These institutions
are deliberately weakened to make it easy for corruption to thrive in the
continent. Strong and independent judiciary is a panacea to pervasive acts of
corruption, alas the judiciary lacks autonomy and has been subdued that it
cannot and will not muster the necessary courage to nib it in the bud. The
legislative arm of government that should checkmate the abuse of power of the
executive especially in over sight functions are also weakened and pocketed by
the executive that instead of checkmating the executive, it colludes with them
for its selfish reasons to short change the people by turning blind eye to
fraudulent practices happening at the other arms of government. It is even said
that corruption is institutionalized at the legislative arm of government. They
collect bogus salaries and allowances yet they give little or nothing in terms
of return in legislation and over sight functions.
PRESCRIPTION
Strengthen the institutions and ensure their
independence to curb the prevalent corrupt practices in the continent. If we
really want to stop corruption and its debilitating effect on the continent we
need to go extra mile to build and strengthen our institutions that will put a
stop to destructive acts of corruption that have kept us backwards.
It is
essential that Africa must fight corruption systematically and ensure long term
stability in the continent. We are fortunate to now have technology even though
borrowed that enables us to build electronic platforms to manage
government finances, biometric systems to bring integrity to our personnel and
government payment systems and web-based platforms to provide transparency of
government finances. We should deploy emerging technologies to underpin our
contract negotiations and procurement systems, a huge source of corruption
and leakage in many countries in Africa.
We must
also create an environment that enables strong and accountable civil society
organizations that provide an oversight on government businesses. Such strong
and independent institutions have salutary effect and they exert the necessary
pressure on politicians even at the highest levels to act.
Publications
of information like monthly allocations to the various tiers of government in
the newspapers and other media platforms go a long way in help to reduce
corruption in the system. Firstly it is an act of transparency; secondly it
helps internal and external audit system to have adequate information to work
with to rid the continent of corruption and corrupt practices. Secrecy
encourages corruption but transparency and making information open and available
goes a step further to nib it in the bud.
Asset
declaration procedures and system by public office holders must be simplified
and made more transparent to enable the people hold their elected leaders
accountable. The code of conduct laws in most of the African countries are
in favour of the public office holder. In almost all the countries, unless
disclosed by the public office holder himself, no member of the public is allowed
to have access directly to the form through which assets of the public office
holder is declared. This is not proper as such a system that is shrouded in
secrecy can never allow a corrupt individual to be exposed unless if the
government of the day that is after you can supply such a damning
information in your form to an agent to expose you which is what happened
recently to a high ranking public officer in Nigeria.
Finally
it is important we re-emphasize the fact that corruption is a gross violation
of citizen's rights and needs to be treated as such. Effective and
stringent judicial system must be encouraged to deal ruthlessly with
offenders and where cases of corruption are properly made out, proceeds of
crime must be confiscated and used to develop the deficit basic infrastructures
in the country and develop the economy including creating jobs for the teeming
populace. Africa needs to focus its anti- corruption fight on long term, high
return institution building activities, coupled with the justice infrastructure
and political will to hold those who transgress accountable.
Much as
we insist that those who are corrupt must be arrested, tried and sentenced if
found guilty, I think that our attention should be more concentrated on
measures that will actually reduce if not stopped it completely.
If we
do this and more which time constraint has not allowed me to point out here,
Africa will be on its way to the renaissance we all seek for her. Note that
quality leadership and the legal profession all have a pivotal role to play in
this. Time to begin is NOW.
This paper was delivered at the African Bar
Association taking in Monrovia, Liberia.
-Monday
Onyekachi Ubani is a Barrister-at-law,is the 2nd National Vice
President of the Nigerian Bar Association.
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