Speeches

ICPC And The Crusade Against Corruption In Nigeria: Evolving A National Strategic Plan Of Action

Dec 10, 2008 - 1. Introduction

The phenomenon of corruption is not of recent origin. The origin of the phenomenon has been traced as far back as the times of the Greek and the Roman empires.

Corruption is said to have been so prevalent during these period of times that the governments of those days had to privatize tax collections by auctioning the rights to collect taxes to private citizens.

The prevalence of corruption in democratic England was also said to account for the professionalisation of the civil service in that country in the nineteenth century.

Africa, however, came under the eyes of the storm during the post-colonial era when some writers and commentators linked the prevalence of corruption in most African countries to the pre-colonial cultural practices and weak economic and institutional structures .

Nigeria attained some notoriety for corruption in 1996 (during the military era) when it was ranked the most corrupt Nation in the world by Transparency International Inc (TI).

Nigeria has since then been ranked the most corrupt nation in the world twice more: 1997 and 2000; the second most corrupt Nation in the world four times in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. Nigeria also has the (dis)honour of being the third most corrupt Nation two times: 2004 and 2005. The fourth most corrupt country once in 1998.

Nigeria’s corruption image has been improving consistently since 2006. It was ranked the fifth most corrupt country in the world in 2006, the ninth most corrupt country in 2007 and the 16th in 2008.

It is noteworthy to point out here that some people, including key government functionaries have faulted TI corruption reports on Nigeria. The purpose of this Address is not to evaluate the respective arguments. It suffices here to say that whatever the deficiencies in the TI reports on Nigeria.

It serves as a reference point worldwide. And it should serve as a starting point on the journey in the fight against corruption in Nigeria.

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