CORRUPTION AS THE MAIN PLAGUE OF NIGERIAN CIVIL SERVICE; THE ANALYSIS IN RETROSPECT

Abstract

This study examined corruption as a
main plague of Nigerian Civil Service; The Analysis in Retrospect. Hermeneutics
model of Analytical Conceptual pattern was adopted for this study. It deduces
its facts from literature on records of activities proceeding of the Economic
and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices
Commission (ICPC) (which are the main anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria) and
data from Transparency International on corruption. This study contributes to
the body of knowledge through appraisal of contribution of civil service
officers encouraging corruption, examination of nature and pattern of civil
service corruption as well as prescribed intervention for minimizing corruption
in Nigerian civil service.

 

Keywords: Corruption Plague, Retrospect, Civil
Service

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Corruption is as old as man himself and it remains one of the
major problems confronting developing countries around the world (Heineman et
al, 2006). Nevertheless, corruption differs in terms of intensity from one
country to another due to socio-political and economic specifics. In some countries,
corruption has led to the termination of democratic institutions, removal of
president and bureaucrats. The overall effect of corruption is felt in its
threat to development. Development is hampered when development priorities are
informed by corruption (Waziri, 2010). Essentially, development includes
growth, human development and empowerment, reduction in poverty and dispersion.
Development is seen as the transformation of society. The objectives of
increasing the capacity to regulate both internal and external relations cannot
be achieved where corruption is widespread. Corruption, therefore poses a
serious challenge to development. In economic development, corruption generated
inefficiency by promoting mediocrity, and increasing the cost of business
through the price for right payment (Oluwasanmi, 2007). Corruption is seen as
misuse of public office for selfish gains. This condition is especially created
by individual in place of public duties, trust and confidence, both high and
low. Corruption thrives heavily in Nigeria especially in almost every segment
of daily life.(Okekeocha, 2013)

 

The rest of
this paper is organized as follows: Section 2: Undertake a conceptual, theoretically
and methodological review if some relevant literature on corruption; Section 3:
Presents types and nature of corrupt practices in Nigeria, Section 4: Nigeria
Development while Section 5: summarizes the findings, draws conclusion and
makes recommendations.

 

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

The systematic
study of corruption is hampered by the lack of an adequate definition of corruption,
Corruption is a problem that lies at the intersection of the public and private
sectors, this fact is supported by Osunyikanmi (2009) who opined that
corruption is synonymous to the terms; fraud, bribery, settlement etc. all
these are rampant in both public and private sectors. Dikko (2011) opined that
corruption increases by the day. He indicated that the monies stolen from May
1999 - mid 2006 were more than all the stolen monies by our past leaders from
independence till handling over to the democratically elected government. Since
then, the endemic act has been on a rise. Adewale (2011) in his own capacity
has explained corruption in light of diverting the funds that should have been
used for developmental purposes into private or personal use. This has
contributed immensely to leakage of public funds from Nigeria into illegal
deposits abroad, thus, rendering the country poor infrastructural and
developmentally. The international communities have seen corruption as a
culture of Nigeria. In year 1995, USA secretary of state was of opinion that
corruption in imbued in some culture. This argument has been disputed by
illustrating the level of corruption in the former USSR states of Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. Communism is never a system with
culture of corruption, nevertheless, the fore mentioned states were corrupt, in
lieu of this, corruption is rather a universal practice that supersedes custom
and culture. Adewale (2011) further entrenched that tracing the cause of corruption
would consider the stage of development and the type of government that exists
in a state or nation. Tanzi et al (2006) among others, has noted that
governments of certain countries for political or other reasons create
incentives for bribery and corruption and are sometimes involved directly in
the corrupt practices. In extreme cases like that of Nigeria, the government
itself intentionally practices corruption in order to break into the defenses
of the legislative arm..Ogbeidi
(2012), examined the level of corruption in Nigeria since independence (1960)
and was of the view that corruption has been the bane of Nigeria’s development.
Anifowose (2007) states
thus;

                        “Simply defined, corruption is the abuse of public office for

                          private gain. Public office is abused for
private gain when an

                         official accepts, solicits or extorts bribe,
it is also abused when

                         private agents actively offer bribes to
circumvent public policies

                         and processes for competitive advantage of
profit.”

 

The rating
of Nigeria on corruption is evidenced in the records of Transparency
International Agency from 1999 to 2010 as tabulated below:

Table 1.

Nigerian Corruption Perception Index
1996-2010

 

 

YEAR

PERCEPTION
INDEX

NO OF
COUNTRY EVALUATED

RATING

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

1.20

1.30

1.90

1.90

1.90

1.60

1.70

1.40

1.60

1.90

2.20

2.20

2.20

2.70

2.40

54

52

85