A Critical Look at the NBS Report

The latest figures on the level of graft in the public service appear to drive home the reality of a festering national malaise, reports Ndubuisi Francis

“No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious and charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful,” Kurt Vonnegut Jnr. had written in the New York Times bestseller: “A Man Without a Country.”

This holds true for Nigeria in view of recent developments.
While the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) churns out damning report on the level of corruption in the nation, permeating through the entire national landscape and particularly hibernating in the public service, where the government is perceived to be waging a fierce battle, the courts and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) continue to regale the nation with recoveries of humongous loot from power brokers of yesteryears.

With a total number of bribes paid to public officials in Nigeria within a 12-month period standing at 82.3 million, and a per capita number of bribes paid to public officials by the adult population at 0.9 per cent, the nation is indeed in dire straits. Any wonder why the global anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI) annually rates Nigeria low on the scale!

Last week, the NBS, in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed in a report that an estimated N400 billion or the equivalent of $4.6 billion in purchasing power parity (PPP), representing 39 per cent of the combined federal and state education budgets in 2016, is paid out as bribes to public officials in Nigeria annually.

The125-page National Corruption Report, which covered the period between June 2015 and May 2016, strongly decked bribery in flowery terms, describing it as an established part of administrative procedure in Nigeria.
According to the report, which has so far ruffled some feathers, almost a third of Nigerian adults (32.3 per cent) who had contact with public officials between June 2015 and May 2016 had to pay, or were requested to pay a bribe to such public official. The police and the judiciary occupy unenviable spots as the biggest bribe-takers, the report said.

The Magnitude of Public Sector Bribery
The survey showed that a large proportion of bribes in Nigeria (42 per cent) are paid to speed up or finalise an administrative procedure that may otherwise be delayed for long periods or even indefinitely, thus making bribery the most effective option for facilitating that service.

According to the report, the second largest proportion of bribes (18 per cent) is paid to avoid the payment of a fine, a frequent request in citizens’ encounters with the police, while 13 per cent of all bribes are paid to avoid the cancellation of public utility services, an indication that the provision of the most basic amenities, including water and sanitation, can be subject to abuse of power by public officials in Nigeria.

Although fewer people come into contact with judicial officials than with police officers over the course of the year, the report indicated that when they do, the risk of bribery is considerable (33 per cent).
The prevalence of bribery in relation to prosecutors is the second highest, closely followed by judges and magistrates, at 31.5 per cent.

While the presidency and police appear to be living in self-denial on the NBS survey, the report had noted that the magnitude of public sector bribes in Nigeria becomes even more palpable, when factoring in the frequency of the payments, adding that the majority of those who paid bribes to public officials did so more than once over the course of the year.

Bribe-payers, it added, pay an average of some six bribes in one year, or roughly one bribe every two months. It equally revealed that bribe-payers spend an eighth of their salary on bribes, noting that the average sum paid as cash bribe in the country was approximately N5,300, which is equivalent to roughly $61(PPP).

“This means that every time a Nigerian pays a cash bribe, he or she spends an average of about 28.2 per cent of the average monthly salary of approximately NGN18,900. Since bribe-payers in Nigeria pay an average of 5.8 bribes over the course of one year, 92 per cent of which are paid in cash, they spend an average of NGN 28,200 annually on cash bribes – equivalent to 12.5 per cent of the annual average salary,” it added.

The report, which is the first of its kind in the country in terms of scope, said Nigerians consider bribery the third most important problem facing their country, after the high cost of living and unemployment, well ahead of the state of the country’s infrastructure and health services.

The report, however, observed that “public sector bribery is not the only form of corruption affecting Nigeria: the prevalence of bribery in relation to selected employees of private companies is 5.5 per cent, meaning that bribery is also significant in the private sector in Nigeria.

“However, the payment of bribes to public officials is the most familiar and widespread form of corruption directly experienced by the population and the one that most affects the lives of ordinary citizens,” it noted.
Giving an insight into how bribery works in the country, the report said public officials in Nigeria show little hesitation in asking for a bribe, noting that the vast majority of bribery episodes are initiated either directly or indirectly by public officials (85.3 per cent), while almost 70 per cent of bribes are paid before a service is rendered.

It stressed that with such a large portion of public officials initiating bribes, which are paid up-front, it seemed that many public officials show little hesitation in asking for a kickback to carry out their duty, adding that bribery is an established part of the administrative procedure in Nigeria.
On the average number of bribes paid to public officials by adult Nigerians in the period, by zone, the North-west recorded 0.86 per cent; North-east 0.78 per cent; North-Central 1.1 per cent; South-west 1.13 per cent; South-South 1.05 per cent; and South-east 0.60 per cent.

Pondering the Police Reaction
Quite expectedly, the report did not go down well with police authorities. Officially reacting to the report, the Police Public Relations Officer, CPS Jimoh Moshood said it failed in many respects to appraise the tremendous efforts by the Police to rid itself of corruption.

He stated: “The Nigeria Police, after a careful study of the report, wishes to state categorically that it is entirely misleading, a clear misrepresentation of facts, essentially based on hearsays, which made it unempirical, and the survey instrument absolutely inadequate and therefore a plain distortion of the improved situation in the force as a result of the renewed commitment and determination to fight corruption, bribery and corrupt tendencies in the ranks of the personnel of the Force.

“For the avoidance of doubt, since the inception of the present administration, Nigeria Police in July 2016, after the reported survey has been conducted and concluded, the Inspector-General of Police has introduced and implemented diverse internal reforms aimed at bringing corruption to zero level in the Force.”

A Rattled Presidency Reacts
Also reacting to the report, especially against the backdrop that it was conducted in the first year of the present administration, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Prosecutions, Okoi Obono-Obla said the survey was not an indictment on the Buhari administration.

He said the amount and other figures involved did not portray the anti-corruption war of President Buhari as ineffective. Blaming the judiciary for the low successes recorded in the fight against corruption, he said: “The judiciary has not demonstrated enough commitment to the ongoing war on corruption. That is why the judges, who were accused of corrupt practices, were re-instated to their jobs by the judiciary, without recourse to morality.
Though many of them were exonerated after due trial, for the fact that they had faced charges of corruption, they should have been excused from the bench,” Obono-Obla said.

Considering the Implications
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo recently signed some executive bills, which touched on a number of policy issues. The issues include the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment designed to facilitate the ease of doing business, among others.

The orders are designed to reshape the way things are being done in the public and private space. The public service is on the driver’s seat of implementing the executive orders. Thus, with the NBS report, it does seem that corruption is pervasive, and the rot deep-rooted. It, therefore, means that the EFCC and relevant agencies need to design a more appropriate strategy to combat the scourge of corruption.