With most of these states firmly under “democratically elected governments” at the onset of the 21st century, the traditionally recognized human rights abuses such as extra judicial killings, restraint of freedom of movement, speech, assembly, denial of fair hearing and access to justice, etc. have drastically reduced. Even when carried out by the state and its agencies, these are fought against by the people in form of mass protests or actions in law courts. And unlike before, the governments now make prompt clarifications on such issues so as to douse tensions and be perceived as a respecter of such rights.
As commendable as this situation is, there has metamorphosed another genre of human rights abuse, far more dangerous than its predecessors and widely felt by a generality of the citizens of a nation. This form of abuse, ignored by many and unrecognized by even more people, has proved fatal to the aspirations of nations caught in its grip. This form of abuse becomes more popular by the day and therefore increases its ravaging effect because, unlike the traditional rights abuses, it is not directed at any one in particular obviating the requirement of personal injury and leaving the victims with a sense of wholesomeness. Because of its nature, its effects are felt not only by the citizens alone, but also by the perpetrators and the state itself. This latter day human rights abuse is called corruption.
Corruption mostly in governance has proved to be the nemesis of many nations. It attacks the fundamental values of human dignity and political equality of the people cutting across the social, economic and political spheres unlike any other form of abuse. The term corruption has been variously described as the “giving of something to someone with power so that he will abuse his power and act favouring the giver”; and the “offering, giving, soliciting or acceptance of an inducement or reward, which may influence the action of any person.” Implicit in the word corruption are acts such as bribery, extortion, kickback and gratification which involves two parties and over and under invoicing, fraud, embezzlement and other acts of malfeasance which a public official can commit alone.
Social scientists have identified two types of corruption as impeding economic and political development of most of the third world – they are bureaucratic corruption and political corruption. While the latter refers to “efforts by political coalitions to capture the apparatus of state or maintain a monopoly on power”, the former centers on “activities by public servants to enrich themselves through illegal means”. A combination of both manifests in opportunism and excessive enrichment of members of the politically dominant group.
For three consecutive years, 2001, 2002 and 2003, Nigeria has hovered around the first and second position on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of the Transparency International. Bureaucratic corruption has become so institutionalized that it has been elevated to the status of a national pastime. Its present degree is an inevitable outcome of political corruption as manifested in the general elections of 1999 and 2003 where all government and state agencies such as the police, INEC and army were all used to elevate a particular group to power across the nation.
The recent allegation by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai against two senate leaders, Ibrahim Mantu and Jonathan Zwingina to the effect that 54 million Naira was demanded from him for the facilitation of his confirmation as minister underscores the extent to which this ill has permeated our society. Even the Presidency has been alleged to offer huge sums of money as gratification to legislators at times when the office of the president is under threat of impeachment. Though the accused senators have been cleared of any wrongful act by their colleagues, most Nigerians would have been amazed if they had been indicted by the committee which investigated the allegation. After all, corruption investigations in Nigeria have always been a case of subterfuge, cover-ups and gerrymandering.
Because of circumstances like the one above, Nigeria has come to be seen as the most corrupt nation on earth. Corruption in Nigeria is said to permeate virtually all sphere of the society – government, private sector, education, health, the security apparatus and even religious organizations. It has become a case of “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. An annual estimate of losses through this practice is better left to the imagination. The overall impact on the economic and political well being of the citizenry is devastating.
The unfortunate and unpleasant thing about corruption in Nigeria is that the government and its officers are so enmeshed in it that nothing is being done nor can be done about it. Sometime in 2000, an Act, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences (ICPC) was passed to fight this malady. Till date, no single individual whether in government or the private sector has been prosecuted or convicted. And this is in spite of allegations of corrupt enrichment and huge sums of money being carted away daily into offshore accounts by these officers. The few who have been investigated are those opposed to the government in one form or the other, thereby creating an impression that the Act was meant to witch-hunt the opposition.
As this state of affair persists, the citizens are left at the mercy of the perpetrators of this shameful act and therefore continue to bear the brunt. Even the fact that Nigeria is the 6th largest oil-producing nation in the world has been rendered nugatory because of the non-reflection of revenue from this sector on the lives of the people, the non availability of public infrastructure and the total breakdown of all establishments that make up a modern state.
Presented with this situation, one need not consult a soothsayer to determine that the biggest threat to democracy and human rights provisions in Nigeria today is corruption. One may wonder how corruption affects the human rights of citizens in a polity, and if it does whether such violation could be enforced. I have therefore tried to set out hereunder the basic infringements of human rights of Nigerians as a result of corrupt practices in government.
The adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of Resolution 41/128 on the Declaration on the Right to Development is seen as a great leap towards a desire to enthrone a meaningful life for people throughout the world. The Declaration on the Right to Development is one of the most essential declarations of the UN on human rights because it encompasses and incorporates the previous documents on human rights namely the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and on the continental level, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) all of which Nigeria has ratified.
The Declaration provides in Article I that the “right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized.” Subsumed under the above “economic, social, cultural and political” rights are those to education, work, public assistance in case of unemployment, old age, sickness and disability, right to an adequate standard of living, adequate food, clothing and housing, right to social security, right to join and form trade unions, right to vote and be voted for, right to fair hearing, freedom from torture, freedom of assembly, right to life, equality before the law and equal protection of the law, etc. The right to development recognizes the people’s right to full sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources and even the right to self determination. In Article 10, the Declaration further provides that states should formulate and adopt implementation policies, legislative and otherwise, for the realization of the rights.
The question therefore arises as to what effort the Nigerian state has made or is making towards the achievement of those rights. Despite the inclusion of Chapter Two conveniently titled “Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy” in the Nigerian constitution from 1979 till date, little effort has been made by successive governments to see those provisions as rights capable of being pursued with vigour in order to achieve a certain level of success in their implementation. Nigerian governments have consistently relegated those provisions to what they are termed to be – mere objectives and principles. In as much as the will is lacking towards their implementation, the greatest enemy towards their achievement has been the incidence of corruption in government.
If a right itemized above is seen and regarded as a right qua right, it goes without saying that the citizens are entitled not only to ask questions in the face of their violations through any means whatsoever, but also to pursue remedial measures for their enforcement either through the administrative or judicial process.
Budgetary allocations made for the purpose of implementing government policies in the areas of education, housing, health and social infrastructure almost end up in the pockets of individuals made up of bureaucrats, contractors and their cronies. For instance, since the inception of this government in 1999, huge sums have been realized from crude oil sales, taxes and duties as well as aids from foreign donors. Despite these facts, the country is suffering from a shortage of petroleum products because the local refineries have been grounded in order to create business for a favoured few. Our university system was comatose for upward of six months this year because the government obstinately refused to listen and accede to the basic needs and inevitable requirements that would make them perform better. Pensioners are dying daily on queues reminiscent of the Nazi concentration camps in a bid to collect their hard-earned entitlements. The list of anomalies unleashed on Nigeria by corruption is endless. Even the president was quoted to have said sometime ago that he is ashamed of Nigerian roads in spite of huge sums of money allocated for their maintenance. The question is, after expressing his shame, what efforts were made to determine the actual expenditure of the allocations so as to ascertain what happened. Despite the “no sacred cow” speech made by the president in 1999 at his inauguration, the sacred cows have not only multiplied in number through the years but have also become more daring in their approach, grazing even where the gods fear to tread.
The government has failed to address this problem squarely, knowing fully well the implications. It is instructive to note that corruption has been a recurring reason for the constitutional change of government in Nigeria. One could therefore claim that even the right to a democratic government is being threatened by this malady. The posturing being made in regard to the ICPC and the periodic warning statements are, with all due respect, for cosmetic purposes, probably for the benefit of Transparency International, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the international community. Nigerians are no longer fooled.
The cumulative effect of corruption in governance on the citizenry has worsened by the day. Because of corruption, Nigerians have to pay a higher price for petroleum products. Because of corruption, the standard of education and health facilities are at their lowest level. Because of corruption, a great number of Nigerians cannot afford a meal a day or a shed over their heads. Unemployment has become a perennial problem with no solution of any kind in sight. A few people have hope in the ability of the police to fight crime and other social vice. Most regrettably, many people are now losing confidence in the judiciary as the last hope of the common man because of the corrupting influence of the executive and legislative arms of the government and their agents on a few judicial officers. In short, virtually all rights available under basic international documents and the Nigerian constitution have been eroded and made meaningless by the avarice, greed and rapacity of public officers from the federal to the local government level.
That corruption was given as a reason by the president for the re-structuring of the local government system is an admission that something is fundamentally wrong with governance in Nigeria, not only at the local government level but also at federal and state levels. The government should realize that the index used to measure the corruption in a given polity is an interplay of two factors, the secondary being the incidence of actual corrupt practices while the primary and essential one is the effort or lack of same made by the government to combat the monster.
It has therefore become a matter of urgency and priority for the president, the legislature, the judiciary and all other agencies saddled with the duty of fighting corruption to adopt new approaches towards combating this menace. It is not in doubt that the approach earlier adopted has failed, with the public reposing little or no confidence in its ability to address the problem. It should be understood that corruption in government is an outcome made possible by a given set of unwritten and written rules and any effort made towards fighting it would be futile if the rules that regulate socio-political relations provide an incentive system that makes opportunism highly lucrative. To address the outcome properly, the rules which make them possible needs re-appraisal and re-evaluation so as to determine the deficiencies inherent therein. Only when the will to address the problem is mustered can a holistic appraisal be carried out so as to institute efficient and effective counteracting policies. The continuous lip service being paid to this societal ill is insulting to the intelligence of Nigerians. It is therefore left for Mr. President to determine in what manner his government should be remembered – whether as the government that fought corruption to a standstill or the one that gave Nigeria the global gold medal in corruption.
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