CHALLENGES IN COMBATING CORRUPTION IN NIGERIAN DEMOCRATIC DISPENSATION AND ITS POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

CHALLENGES IN COMBATING CORRUPTION IN NIGERIAN DEMOCRATIC DISPENSATION AND ITS POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

ABSTRACT

Corruption is a great disaster that destroys socio-economic development and political prosperity of any nation. In fact, debasement has caused developing countries to fall behind in terms of national and international development. This culminated both state actors and international organisations to wage war against corruption through multiple strategies. The Nigerian fourth republic follows the race in combating corruption and enhancing national development through anti-corruption institutions (EFCC&ICPC) so as to sanitise the political economy of the state. This article elucidates the challenges in combating corruption with aim of offering solutions. Despite the existence of anti-graft institutions, corruption is still going on due to the lack of political will by the government, political interference, lack of autonomy, paucity of funds among others. The qualitative method was duly adopted via in-depth interviews for the purpose of data collection in this study. The study recommends that there is dire need for government political will in combating corruption. Besides that, institutions must become independent with adequate funding in order to meet their target in combating debasement.

Keywords: Corruption, Strategies, Challenges, Democratic dispensation, Possible solutions.

INTRODUCTION

Corruption is a worldwide wonder, justifiably just in its societal settings. Its existence gives rise to sporadic advantages as opposed to legitimate and moral standards and dissolves the ability to secure the welfare of a nation (Osoba, 2006; Aluko, 2007). The annals of corruption is as old as the world itself, in light of the fact that the antiquated civic establishments have hints of common "wrongness and debasement" (Dike, 2005). Corruption has really affected all nations across the globe especially the developing states in Africa, Nigeria included. It has affected both the developed nations and underdeveloped states (Eugene, 2013). Nigeria is at a critical stage since independence. The country faces a severe crisis in its economic, social and political development that is not unconnected to the problem of pandemic corruption. The manifestation of the crises is clear, the remedies much less so (Ogundiya, 2009). Corroborating the above assertion, former chairman of anti-graft agency (Economic Financial and Crimes Commission) Malam Nuhu Ribadu hinted that the top Nigerian officials have squandered or wasted almost $380 billion - $440 billion between 1960 and 1999 (Ribadu, 2009; Human Right Watch, 2010; Mohammed, 2013). Furthermore, Nigeria lost $4 billion - $8 billion due to corruption each year from 1999-2007 (Human Right Watch, 2010). However, the figure has been increasing from 2007-2015. Accordingly, the country was rated as the 136th corrupt state out of 175 nations within the context of the Corruption Perceptions Index reported by Transparency International in 2015. Corruption continues to occur despite anti-graft measures taken by new civilian administration of President Buhari which have led to the reduction of debasement and corrupt tendencies. Several measures have been taken by each government ranging from the first republic, second republic and military regimes towards advocating various strategies, programs and measures against corruption. Indeed, each administration is affected by a certain degree of corruption and also possesses a number of strategies for combating it. In the fourth republic, the civilian administration has introduced anti-graft institutions (Economic Financial and Crimes Commission (EFCC); Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (ICPC); and their components such as, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiatives (NEITI), Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-corruption Reforms (TUGAR). In fact, these institutions were established in order to strengthen public accountability, probity, transparency and to combat the gravity of corruption in both public service and private sector management (Waziri, 2010; Enweremadu, 2012; Justine & Okoye, 2014). Above all, these institutions face some critical challenges in combating corrupt practices in Nigeria. These agencies suffer some bottlenecks such as absence of autonomy, paucity of funds, unequal treatment, institutional factors, lack of judicial power, inadequate database, and lack of political will towards combating the menace of corruption (Waziri, 2010). These challenges have hindered the attainment of goals of the anti-corruption crusade from bringing future development and prospects to the Nigerian democratic system. This paper is an attempt to ascertain the challenges in combating corruption and its possible solutions.

Chapters: 1 - 5

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Number of Pages: 65

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