Corruption and good governance and strange bedfellows

US President Barack Obama visited only Ghana recently. Other nations in Africa wondered why, none more so than some Nigerian politicians.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later on visited Nigeria among other African countries. She gave a reason for Obama's skipping a visit to Nigeria: presence of corruption and absence of good governance.

Touche! Well said. I am a Nigerian and I know that, too. What was new was the fact that it was pointed out in relation to the dashed hopes and expectations of a US presidential visit.

Sadly, in my humble opinion, the roots of Nigeria's problems with entrenched corruption and failed practice of good governance lie in the path followed to so-called independence.

Nigeria is still in 1959, a year before colonial independence. What do I mean? Those who were around then are still alive today and surreptitiously compounding the national problems.

For instance, practically everyone in government today had a relative or friend among those in government just before independence!

Cushy jobs for the boys and girls of yore, while the job market is shut to deserving millions out of work - mainly because the latter 'outsiders' may inadvertently expose the business-as-usual sharing of ill-gotten communal loot and risk a revolution.

Before independence, most Nigerians in the North lived under a feudal religio-social system, while most of the South was under the village system in both the pagan and Christian areas.

Then came independence and the discovery of crude oil in the South, in no particular order. The more regal North - the Sultan of Sokoto still visits and relates with HRH the Prince of Wales as a co-royal - produced politicians, while the more rural South produced political advocates and activists.

So, the Northern politicians selected their best for secondment to the federal government, while the Southern political activists got appointed on their own personal merit.

That was the beginning of the problem. The North thus schemed their way into the best positions in government, while the South merely got to play second fiddle and began to cherish the role of the junior partner dependent for survival in the Civil Service on loyalty to the Northern overlords.

So, the Southerner became corrupt in order to keep his job or business, while the North became more arrogant and brazen about its vision for the national cake derived from the South - specifically, the Niger Delta.

You may know the rest already... Unfortunately, the current trend of greed and unethical conduct, as opposed to patriotism and dutifulness in national outlook, cannot be arrested!

Why? Simply put, unlike in Ghana under Jerry Rawlings, when the corrupt and unpatriotic were just rounded up and lined up to be shot by a firing squad, the same cannot happen in Nigeria.

The aforementioned politicians and activists have ingeniously circumvented such a fate. Yes, both sides have intermarried, either they themselves or their children or children's children, since independence.

Some may say that that is national integration but I say, at least going by the local customs, who can jail or execute his or her own in-law?

That's how politics of the stomach became so entrenched that good governance is generally viewed as a curse, especially if a retiring senior Civil Servant or politician is not celebrated in his or her home town after retirement in his or her own mansion....

Even though corruption is an ancient problem, there are many causes and variations. The following are insights into the scope of the issue at hand:

Corruption and state politics in Sierra Leone

How taxing is corruption on international investors?

The causes of corruption: a cross-national study

Economic development through bureaucratic corruption

Corruption and government

State capture, corruption and influence in transition

Corruption: A study in political economy

Corruption

So, it has been discovered that corruption lowers foreign direct investment and, subsequently, national economic growth: Corruption and growth.

That's why Nigeria's wealth is being frittered away by worms in need of fumigation, while the nation depends on imports for both vehicles and food, and even clothing!

That's why most of our so-called leaders have more than one wife, have all their children abroad, and strive to be in or affiliated with the ruling party.

What's the way out? First, nobody and no body is monitoring anything - no checks and balances, as if we are still living in the do-or-die and winner-takes-all pre-independence era.

Secondly, bring back the old national anthem - at least, I think, no corrupt person can sing along to that without choking on a few words here and there.

Thirdly, there is a need to define what Nigeria truly stands for, beyond the meaning of "Niger Area" - too many people have used that name to mask themselves from the rest of us by using the might of the Federal Government for personal vendetta and financial profit.

Oh well, who really cares anyway?


UPDATE - Friday, September 04, 2009:

Oh, one more thing... The weekly Federal Executive Council meeting sgould exclude all the past heads of state of Nigeria - their presence, in my humble opinion, only shows the incompetence of the current cabinet in power and merely serves to propagate and compound the errors and omissions of these past rulers and ex-warlords, instead of just officially seeking their advice or suggestions as and when due in a pribate capacity.

They all must get used to the fact and idea of being ex-presidents or once-heads of state, just as Poland's Lech Walesa was once forced to accept and do the appropriate thing by retiring and resigning his fate to good old history!