TI Report: Is Transparency International Not Correct?

By Eddy Odivwri

There has been so much ruckus over the 2019 corruption perception index (cpi) as recently released by Transparency International (TI). The report had said Nigeria has got even more corrupt than she was the previous year. It placed Nigeria as number 146 out of 180 countries polled during the test.

In terms of score, Nigeria could only garner 20 percent. By every standard, even in the class of dullards, that’s an awful performance. And Nigerian officials are peeved, understandably.

They have been tearing down the report, describing it with obnoxious adjectives and dismissing it as hogwash. This is expected. Nigeria’s Information minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed (who has been less noisy in recent times) went all the way to London to describe the report as “baseless”.

It is particularly an annoying report to those in government who truly or pretentiously believe that government has been doing epic battle in the fight against corruption. For such ones, they expect TI to recognize all that the federal government has done, and keeps doing, to stem the aggressive tide of corruption in the country. They expect that TI would give Nigeria a good ranking which will encourage and motivate it to even double its effort and zeal in the fight against the monster called corruption. Many of such advocates were on Good Morning Nigeria, an NTA conversational programme early in the week.

One of the guests dug deep into semantics, arguing that since it is a “Perception”, it connotes such meaning like sentiment, perspective, opinion, feeling, etc. And so it is not factual or empirical. And so cannot be believed. But if the report had been positive, would they discredit the rating agency?

They all argued that, Yes, Nigeria is fighting the menace hard, though not yet there, but definitely not where it was prior to 2015, when the President Buhari administration came to power.

True as that may be, the bitter truth is that the initial caution with which Nigerians welcomed the Buhari administration has worn out. They appear to have been fully weaned of the Buhari phobia. The wait-and-see period has long been over. Now Nigerians are no longer abiding by the golden rule of “Thou Shalt Not Steal”, they are now guided by the watchful creed of “Thou Shalt not be Caught”. In that stead, they have only grown smarter and sleeker in navigating the corruption loop in such a way that they do not get trapped in it.

Perhaps Nigerian government officials should not take the report too personal. Not only is it true that Buhari inherited monumental corruption, it is also a fact that it is a continent-wide malaise. The 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) note that only eight out of 49 African countries could score more than 43 per cent in the assessment.

It further noted that one out of every four people in Africa pay bribe to access services.

Perhaps those struggling to dismiss the TI report as bunkum are looking only at the big pictures. They must be courageous to differentiate between assets recovery efforts from fighting corruption. We have been huge on the former, not the latter. They are not exactly the same thing

They forget that the report did not focus only on the “Big men” in government. Corruption is literally in our DNA as a people. Who is truly free? Is it not true that people pay bribe to access services in government offices? Are we not aware that files go missing in government offices and suddenly get found after somebody , somewhere has been “settled”? Is it untrue? Do even fuel attendants not collect bribe to sell petrol during periods of fuel scarcity? How many times have criminals been willfully allowed to escape from prison or police custody because some transactions took place between those who should be the guard and those to be guarded? Do people not even bribe to get bed spaces in very busy government hospitals? How come those smoky, rickety vehicles travel our highways when every kilometer is a checkpoint of FRSC, VIOs, Police etc? Who dares say we are not corrupt?

Is it for nothing that the former UK Prime minister, David Cameron described Nigerians as “fantastically corrupt”?

Don’t we know how ingenious and creative we are in manoeuvering our ways to circumvent the laws? Has anybody been able to explain how some privileged civil servants are fantastically rich—owning properties and assets everywhere?

Very recently, just before JAMB suspended the requirement of National Identification Number (NIN), the officials in charge of the registration process were already charging the students, for a service that ought to be free? And you say we are not corrupt?

Is it even in the church, the supposed sacred temple of purity? Or is it in the other temple: justice? Are we not aware of how judgements are procured? Did former CGS, Lt Gen Dipo Diya not lampoon the judiciary many years ago when he said judges write two judgements, putting each one on either side of the pocket and then decides to read the one that settled better, and the judgements will yet be garnished with all the casuistic arguments?

Are we being told anything new by TI?

I wrote a column recently (January 3, 2020) on Mr Wadume. Five months after he was clearly confirmed as a mega kidnapper, who caused the shooting of some policemen and a civilian, on lawful duty, by conniving soldiers, nobody has heard anything about the kidnapper nor the soldiers who criminally killed policemen on lawful duty. Is it not one big man somewhere stalling the course of justice? Is that not corruption?

Or have we not heard several times that the tonic sustaining the anti-terrorism fight is that those benefitting hugely from the Boko Haram battle are the same people ensuring that it is war without end? Imagine the bizzare Siamese vice of heartless sabotage and corruption!

We dare not delve into the miasmic kingdom of politicians with all its reeky cesspit. If all else is explained, somebody should explain to me how a “common councilor” who could not pass his WASCE suddenly become richer and more endowed than my professor in the University of Benin, who has been professing for over 20 years , but goes home with something around N400,000 per month? What is that called?

Every four years or less, facilities and equipment in government offices like that of Mr President, state governors, senators etc, get changed. Where are they taken to?

Yes, by the diligent efforts of agencies like the EFCC, three former governors (Rev Jolly Nyame–Taraba, Joshua Dariye—Plateau, and Orji Uzor Kalu—Abia) are serving various jail terms, yet the number of thieves in government and even private offices, is bursting in their seams. Just everywhere you turn, you are confronted with the oodles of corruption.

Indeed for every Dariye or Kalu held in prison, there are a thousand Nyames parading on the streets. They are just devotees of the Thou-Shalt-not-be-Caught creed.

When the whistle blowing policy was freshly launched, was the nation not awash with stunning revelations? Did we not hear of huge cash recoveries from soak-away pits, bunkers, unoccupied flats, shops and even waiting lounges at airports? More than four years after those cases, who is in jail? And you say we are not fantastically corrupt?

And when Mr President knowingly appoints into his cabinet people with huge baggage of fraud weighing down their necks, he expects the world to truly believe his fisty(?) fight against corruption?

Did one of the present ministers not hide humongous sums of foreign currency in a certain Government House in the South South, and the operatives of the DSS broke into same and confiscated the money? How did the matter get resolved? Where are those monies? Did we hear about them again till today? How else can a people be corrupt? And you say we are not corrupt? As late Fela Anikulapo Kuti will say, “second Base jare”. Why are we trying to appear holier than the pope on this matter?

Have we not long graduated from the notorious 10 per cent kickback (for every contract) to the wholesome hijack of contract sums with job completely undone?

And nothing happens?

How many of those criticizing the TI report can truly say the organization is wrong?

Yes, the fight against corruption is on and EFCC is securing a handful of convictions, yet the scourge is still very pervasive in our everyday life. All the security agencies are obviously overwhelmed, even as some of their operatives are themselves corrupt and easily compromise the system by helping criminals to either get soft-landing or evade justice altogether. As Ayi Kwei Armah once wrote, The Beautiful Ones are not Yet Born. Will they ever be born?