ICPC and this cancer called corruption
Joel Oladele, Abuja
I pledge to Nigeria my country To be FAITHFUL, LOYAL AND HONEST…,” Those are the first two lines of the Nigeria national pledge. I don’t know if I’m the only one who gets emotional while reciting the pledge. I often struggle to control my tears because to me, those are not just mere words but a written covenant of patriotism to one’s nation.
Where you have faithfulness, loyalty and honesty; corruption can not thrive. Ironically, for a nation with such a pledge, corruption has become one of the easiest things to find on its street. It has become part of our daily life.
Civil servants changing figures, politicians stealing public funds in billions, market women selling with dishonest scales, contractors abandoning projects after being paid, lecturers awarding grades for sex, police officers on the highway routinely demand bribes, internet fraudsters popularly known as Yahoo boys defrauding both foreigners and locals, religious leaders extorting congregants, money laundering, collecting salaries of nonexistent workers, nepotism. The list is endless.
No wonder American President, Joe Biden once likened corruption to cancer. According to him, “Corruption is a cancer, a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity.”
That was succinctly captured, right? When people get money through illegal means, they don’t see the need to think out of the box in order to add to the economy again, rather they keep taking from it.
Many of our youth no longer care about education, trade or vocation as they now make money through internet fraud. To some of them, “school na scam.”
What do you expect of a young lady who believes she has her body to offer lecturers for grades? She can never take study seriously. All these have negative effects on the economy in the long run and it has contributed to the sorry state we find ourselves presently in.
The immediate past Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osibajo once noted that “the cancer in governments anywhere is corruption. When public officials, be they high or low in the executive, legislature or judiciary, are toll gates for the extortion of the populace while seeking government dispensations, the common good, happy and prosperous lives for the people is impossible.”
Now let’s look at the similarities between cancer and corruption. Cancer is a large group of diseases that can start in almost any organ or tissue of the body when abnormal cells grow uncontrollably, go beyond their usual boundaries to invade adjoining parts of the body and/or spread to other organs.
A critical analysis of how this deadly disease operates simply explains what corruption does to the society. No matter how small it is, cancer can cause the death of its host if left unattended to, especially once it has grown to a certain stage that defies treatments.
This cancer called corruption in Nigeria is almost getting to an incurable level as efforts by law enforcement agents and anti-graft agencies like the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) are almost proving abortive.
As at 1999 when civilian administration took over from military rule, corruption in Nigeria had indeed become a full blown cancer. It was so bad that the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index rated Nigeria the second most corrupt nation in the world.
The economic, political, social and moral bases of the country were negatively affected and the menace brought the country near the brink of helplessness and hopelessness. Even religious institutions, that ordinarily should be gate keepers of the nation’s moral conscience, were not immune to this widely spread cancer.
Consequently, the then President Olusegun Obasanjo together with the legislative arm of the government came up with the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 (Act 2000) which brought a fresh and decisive perspective to the fight against corruption in the form of a holistic approach, encompassing enforcement, prevention and educational measures.
It was on this Act the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) was inaugurated on September 29th, 2000 to checkmate the activities in private and public sectors and those public officers with constitutional immunity.
The Commission has since then swung into action in its fight against corruption by receiving complaints, investigating and prosecuting offenders. Other duties include reviewing and modifying the systems and procedures of public bodies as well as education of the public and fostering their support in combating corruption.
My impression has always been that all these anti-graft agencies only exist on paper like a toothless dog, and are not doing anything to fight corruption. As a matter of fact, I challenged them recently. However, I was proved wrong having read through some of the figures being reeled out and confirmed by ICPC on its achievements from 2019 – till March 2023.
In a recent presentation by the Deputy Director, Planning Research and Statistics, ICPC, Mr. Jude Okoye, revealed that the Commission has recovered forfeited and restrained assets valued at over N454billion from corrupt persons in the past four years. Out of the N454.808billion, N257.492bilion was found restrained by ICPC through system studies of government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) while N3.540billion was recovered through tax intervention.
Mr. Okoye listed other recoveries to include plots of land and completed buildings; vehicles; cash recovered from domiciliary accounts; rents received from properties forfeited to the government; assets and jewelry valued at N25.361 billion, N577.98 million, N1.199 billion, N25.73 million, and N14.83 million respectively.
Apart from the recoveries, other achievements of the Commission highlighted in the report included 4,737 investigations; 90 convictions; 3,422 projects tracked under Constituency and Executive Projects Tracking Initiative (CEPTI).
Nigeria is the 150 least corrupt nation out of 180 countries, according to the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index reported by Transparency International. A great improvement from what it used to be before 1999.
Nevertheless, it is still quite disturbing that even with a strong watchdog institution like ICPC, corruption still persists. It suggests to me that there is more to it. The fight against corruption is beyond what an organization can handle alone, it begins with our value reorientation.
We are all Nigerians and everyone must join in the fight against corruption. It is a disaster that has done too much damages to the country.
It begins from home. Parents should stop mounting undue pressure on their young children who are still trying to navigate their ways through life. They should rather instill in them the principle of process, patience and delayed gratification. In that way, they won’t be pressured into cutting corners.
When you see your undergraduate child riding an expensive car you know as a parent you didn’t pay for, don’t hesitate to quiz him on how he got it.
Society should stop giving attention to the rich while making the poor feel less human. If we keep glamourising every form of riches without questioning the source, we are passing a wrong message to the young ones. And before you know it, they also want to be rich since the value the society places on them is about how rich they are and care less about how they became rich.
How about churches holding Yahoo night to pray for and celebrate internet fraudsters? I have been in a church where someone asked during Sunday school whether a tithe paid by Yahoo guys is acceptable or not. Inside of me, I was saying “what kind of question is this?” as the answer to such is obvious. How can God accept such tithe?
To my greatest surprise, the pastor said the source of the money doesn’t matter, if you pay your tithe, you will definitely get the reward. To say I was shocked is an understatement. Imagine a supposed man of God who should set a moral standard trying hard to defend such a terrible act for his own selfish interest.
That reminds me of what the former President Olusegun Obasanjo once said at a gathering. He noted “If the Church, as an institution, does not take bribes or get involved in other corrupt practices, the behaviour of some of our men of God leaves much to be desired.
“They not only celebrate but venerate those whose sources of wealth are questionable. They accept gifts (offering) from just anybody without asking questions. This gives the impression that anything is acceptable in the house of God.”
I’ve also heard cases of young money ritualists arrested by law enforcement agents and in their confession, they disclosed how they got their spiritual power from Alfas (Muslim cleric).
The level of moral decadence is becoming worrisome and I wonder what will be left of this generation to pass on as moral values to generations yet unborn.
For as long as all these continue, the fight against corruption may continue to appear like a mirage even if the government comes up with dozens of anti-graft agencies.
The fight against corruption involves a relentless pursuit of integrity and transparency of public officers. We must think through the systems that will reduce human discretion in public-facing institutions. So, we must collectively condemn and call out corruption and corrupt practices.
The antidote to this cancer of corruption lies in the hands of every citizen. Let’s stop seeing ourselves as victims of a disease that resides in us. For the anti-corruption institutions we have put in place to be effective, we need to give them power to do so and there must be separation of power as well.
This brought me to the recent attempt by the 9th Senate to cut down the influence of the Chairman of ICPC through amendment of Section 3 of the Principal Act by inserting a new subsection 3(11), creating offices for commissioners in the commission.
The intention of such a bill is frivolous and can’t be far from the fact that the 9th National Assembly saw ICPC as a threat and was doing everything possible to clip its wings. I seriously hope such an idea will be trashed by the 10th Assembly.
Looking at the achievements of ICPC in recent time, one could see how the commission has been holding the Lawmakers accountable over funds given to them for constituency projects. This didn’t go down well with many of them who are fond of diverting it to their personal projects. I’m going to write on this separately at another time as I have loads of evidence on how ICPC has been a thorn in the flesh of these legislators in the last few years.
Here are lawmakers who should strengthen the fight against corruption but the reverse is the case as they now fight back an institution set up by the government to fight corruption. If the ICPC with the level of independence given to it is finding it difficult to eradicate corruption, you can imagine how powerless it would be by taking away its freedom with political interference.
Only leaders inspired by a higher purpose other than their profit could bring about national transformation and until we all learn to place national interest above selfish interest, this cancer may keep eating deep into our fabrics for a long time.
It is my sincere desire to see this new administration of President Bola Tinubu doing everything possible to further empower the anti-graft agencies like ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in their fight against corruption. Our institutions can only be as strong as we wish them to be.
Don’t be surprised that that bad road leading to your house or village has once been captured in the budget but the money was stolen by someone. For every decline in health and education standards you see around, Nigeria has all it takes to make it better and as a matter of fact has released funds to make it better but greedy politicians together with some contractors embezzled the money.
We are in a society where some people have more than they need, yet they are still not satisfied as they keep stealing more and more at the expense of the poor masses. If that’s not witchcraft, what then is it?
To that greedy leader; you live in luxury, yet you are surrounded by thousands of poor people who die of hunger daily. When next they are doing roll call of murderers around you, kindly answer “present sir” because that’s who you are. One day, the system will fight back and you will be left alone to dance naked to the music
Every evil in the society is traceable to corruption directly or indirectly. So, it is high time you and I stamped corruption out otherwise, little or nothing will be achieved
When next you recite the national pledge, do it thoughtfully and let it minister to you. It’s a covenant of patriotism to our dear nation. We all have a role to play in the fight against corruption. Let’s kill it before it kills us. Cooperate with the anti graft agencies to combat this menace. Remember, whenever you take more than a fair share, someone somewhere suffers it.
Let’s pray: Oh God of creation, direct our noble cause, guide our leaders right, help our youth the TRUTH to know… Amen.
