Identify two major obstacles to tackling corruption in Nigeria. Explain why it has been so difficult to achieve transparency. Historically, what has been the cause for such problematic levels of corruption in Nigeria and many other African nations?
Here is the corresponding article.
Two obstacles in tackling corruption are scams in taking subsidized money from consumers as seen with kerosene, and the ability of large oil corporations to hide their true revenue (NNPC). It is difficult to achieve transparency as well since Nigeria relies on one natural resource (oil), allowing certain people to benefit and exploit it. Since they control the resource, they can manipulate the information in favor of themselves, to profit. Also, the government does not have checks and balances, allowing for one person (dictator) to take control of the people and economy, as seen with former president Sani Abacha who was seen as a murderer, and thief. The person can withhold information to maintain legitimacy. Historically, countries like Nigeria have had dictator-like leaders, allowing for higher level of corruption. The leader can do as he/she pleases, without consent of the people, showing high autonomy and corruption. This is also seen in other countries such as Syria, and Egypt, with authoritarian rule.
ReplyDeleteA major obstacle to tackling corruption in Nigeria is the silencing of whistleblowers who point out corruption in the government and state owned companies. When outspoken Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi accused the state oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), of failing to account for $ 20 billion in oil revenues he was suspended. With the claim that he was financially reckless; however, it is most likely the government silencing Sanusi in order to stop his embarrassing statements that insinuates corruption within the government. Another obstacle to tackling corruption is the belief that those implicated in it maintain too much power to be touched. With the possibility that those implicated are high positioned members in the state or the state run companies. Which would explain why past reports on the missing revenue in the oil sector have been buried with ease.
ReplyDeleteHistorically the major cause of such problematic levels of corruption in Nigeria and many other African nations is a history of rule by imperialist nations. Throughout a large majority of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century a large number of African nations were puppet states for imperialistic nations such as Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Portugal, and Etcetera. Therefore, when these countries stop imposing imperialistic rule it created a vacuum of for the natives to fill. However, the natives were usually politically inept and failed to have the capacity to create a political bureaucracy and institution initially that was not corrupt. Overall this has led to many corrupt nations throughout Africa, which could at some point purge there governments’ and solve their corruptness, however, this is yet to be the case in Nigeria.
I agree with your view that Nigeria is not yet serious about tackling corruption, as the people in the government are supposedly trying to eliminate it are likely the ones that profit from this corruption, and thus their stance that they are attempting to get rid of the corruption are likely just to give the government a better image. I also agree with the historical perspective, as corruption is rooted in the attempts by the natives to consolidate power after the Europeans left a power vacuum, as deals were made and people were killed.
DeleteTwo major obstacles that must be dealt with in Nigeria are the kerosene scandals as well as the unaccounted revenue of $20 billion in oil by the state’s own oil company. It has been difficult to achieve transparency due to the fact that many Nigerian political leaders are part corrupt themselves, and do what they can to silence any possible whistleblowers such as Lamido Sanusi who accused the national oil company of failing to report a significant amount of missing funds. Historically, a desire for wealth has been a cause for corruption with many of the leaders in power taking massive amounts of money which could be used to advance the economy and keeping it in foreign banks. For example, in the kerosene scandal, there was a government subsidy to make the price of kerosene less than half of what people are paying, yet people in the country are still paying more for the kerosene with someone along the line making money from the government subsidy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Joseph especially when he mentions the difficulty of fighting corruption due to political leaders being corrupt themselves. I feel the best way to combat this problem is have a neutral third party that can determine where the money went and who should be elf accountable otherwise none of these problems will be overcome. I also agree with him in what he considers to be the cause of corruption. As a result of Nigeria's our economy often times people couldn't gradually rise to success as seen in most developed countries. So instead they attempted to achieve success they wanted by means of much less integrity.
Delete