Very new-PHD-Thesis-Matthew-Igboamalu - unipub

The effect of corruption on Human development-Corruption Control Strategy-The way out.

By Rev. Fr. Matthew Chibuko Igboamalu

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TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Table of Contents 1 List of Tables 6 List of Figures 6 Declaration 6 Acknowledgements 7 Abstract 9 General Introduction 10 CHAPTER ONE 20 Introduction of Corruption 20 Definition of terms 25 A.CORRUPTION 25 B.VARIOUS DISCIPLINE DEFINITION OF CORRUPTION 26 1. Philosophy 27 2. Systemic Corruption 28 3. Economic and Political Science 29 4. Weber’s rational-legal bureaucracy model 30 5. Defining Corruption: A conventional distinction in the social sciences 32 6. Anthropological Methods and Approach 34 7. Concluding Remarks 43 C.THE NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF CORRUPTION 44 1. Political corruption (grand) 45 2. Bureaucratic corruption (Pelly); and 45 3. Electoral corruption 46 4. Systemic corruption 46 5. Structural corruption 46 6. Organized corruption 46 D. OTHER ACTUAL FORMS OF CORRUPTION 46 1. Bribery 47 2. Fraud 47 3. Embezzlement 47 4. Extortion 47 5. Favouritsm 48 6. Nepotism 48 E. THE CAUSES OF CORRUPTION 48 1. Great Inequality in distribution of wealth 51 2. Political office as the primary 53 3. Conflict between changing moral codes 53 4. The weakness of social and Government enforcement mechanism 54 5. The absence of a strong sense of National Community 55 F. Effects of Corruption 58 A. Positive effects for those involved 58 B. Negative effects of corruption 61 G. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AS CONCIEVED BY POPE BENEDICT


By Rev.Fr. Matthew Chibuko Igboamalu

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XVI VERITAS IN CARTATE AND THE COMPENDIUM OF THE SOCIAL DOCTORINE OF THE CHURCH 66 1. What is Human Development? 66 2. Openness to Life is at the centre of true Development 79 3. Fraternity, Economic Development and civil society 88 4. The development of Peoples rights and duties of the Environments 97 5. Corruption hinders the co operation of the Human Family 106 6. The Development of Peoples and Technology 114 7. Corruption – A challenge to development co operation 121 8. Rich Countries contribute to corruption in development Countries 122 9. The practicable methods to combat corruption against development 123 10. Corruption-A global problem that affects everyone and development 124 CHAPTER TWO 126 A. THE ETHICS OF HUMAN ACTS AS CONCIEVED BY THE CHRI STIAN ETHICS 126 1. What is Human Acts? 126 2. Knowledge 128 3. Freedom 128 4. Actual Choices or Voluntariness 129 5. Structures of sin 135 6. Ends of Human Acts 138 7. Norms of Human Acts 139 8. Morality of Human Acts 140 9. Properties and Consequences of Human Acts 142 9a. In cases of structures of sin 143 9b. Polygamy and extended family system 143 9c. Poverty 143 10. Summary 144 B.THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT CORRUPTION 147 1. The reality of corruption 149 2. Examples: Which Countries are the most corrupt? 153 3. What are the characteristics of Countries with high corruption? 158 4. Do higher wages for bureaucrats reduce corruption? 173 5. Can competition reduce corruption 176 6. Why have there been so few (recent) successful attempts to fight corruptions 178 7. Does Corruption Adversely Affect Growth 181 8. Conclusion: The Way-Out! 187 C. CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGIES IN GHANA 188 1. Introduction 188 2. Specific aspects of the Ghanaian Situation 190 3. Historical and cultural perspective of corruption in Ghana and the gold coast 195 4. Pre-colonial years 197 5. The Kwame Nkrumah years (1957 – 1966) 200 6. The National Liberation Council and the Busia years (1966 – 1972) 206 7. The Rawlings years after his 2nd coup (1981 – 2000) 209 8. Role of Anti-Corruption bodies and their effectiveness 215 9. Point of view of International Organization 218



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10. Conclusion 221 D. CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGIES IN SIERRA LEONE 2 23 1. Report on the Governments fight against corruption in Sierra Leone as conceived by the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) 223 2. Project Objectives 228 3. Methods of Data collection 228 4. Limitations of the study 230 5. A brief assessment of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) 232 6. An analysis of the 2001, 2002 and 2003 ACC Annual Caseload 235 7. Analysis of research findings 239 8. Conclusion 250 E. CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGIES IN NIGERIA 252 1. Democracy, the Military dictatorship, the Common good, Religion and Anti- Corruption Strategy in Nigeria 257 2. Military dictatorship, Civil Society and the collapse of the Common Good in Nigeria 264 3 The Cracks on the wall 268 4. Option for civil society 288 5. Association Ties 293 6. Communal Ties 293 7. Communication Ties 293 8. A new concept of the Nation State 298 9. Rule of Law and Justice for all 299 10. A just, none-discriminatory society 299 11. A place for women 300 12. A functionally literate society 301 13. A healthy mind in a healthy body 301 14. A new role for the Military 302 15. Vibrant Patriotic Press 304 16. A genuine war against corruption and indiscipline 305 17. Other Suggestion for effective Control of Corruption in Nigeria 311 18. Conclusion 323 CHAPTER THREE 325 A. CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGIES ON HUMAN DEVELOP MENT IN AFRICA 325 1. INTRODUCTION 325 2. Types of Anti-Corruption Strategy and their general characteristic 327 a. Local or citizen efforts level 327 b. Populist Initiatives 331 c. National efforts 334 d. International efforts 337 e. The need for an inclusive strategy 339 f. The role of international community 344 g. The significance of political will in fighting corruption 349 h. The 6c’s analytical tools for corruption control strategy 356



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1. Connectedness 357 2. Courage 357 3. Cosmology 358 4. Care and Compassion 358 5. Commitment 359 6. Competence and complacent 359 B. MODULES OF CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGIES AND CONFLICTS OF INTERESTS IN THE SOCIET 360 1. Bribery 361 2. Commercial Bribery 362 C. NORMAL GIFTS GIVING AND CORRUPTION 362 1. Socio-cultural logics information everyday practices 362 2. The logics of gift-giving 363 3. The logics of solidarity network 365 4. Solution of modules 371 5. Ethics and integrity definitions 371 D. HABERMASGUIDE TO ETHICAL DECISION- MAKING A KEY TO CORRUPTION CONTROL 377 E. WHISTLE-BLOWING: CULTURE? 378 F. HORIZONTAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND CORRUPTION CONTROL 383 G. WHY FOCUS ONINSTITUTION ? 384 H. INSTITUTIONS OF HORIZONTAL ACCOUNTABILITY 386 a. The Law 387 b. Anti-Corruption Bodies 387 c. Ombudsman’s Office 389 d. Public Audit 389 e. The Judicial System 390 f. Parliament 390 I . INSTITUTIONS OF VERTICAL ACCOUNTABILITY 392 a. Electoral Accountability 393 b. Independent Mass Media 393 c. None-Governmental Organization 394 d. External Accountability 394 e. Support and co operations 395 CHAPTER FOUR 397 A. EXAMPLES OF CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGY IN OTHE R COUNTRIES 397 1. Poland: Pope John Paul II and the socio-political transformation of Poland 397 a. The power of the solidarity Ethos 404 b. Equality and Egalitarianism 404 c. Moral support from the church 405 d. Appeals to Polish Myth and Idioms 405 e. Faith and Country 405 f. The supremacy of law 406 g. Democracy and civil society in post communist Poland 406 B. SOUTH AFRICA 408 1. God and transition in South Africa 408



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2. The re-invention of a theology for Freedom and Liberation 418 3. The role of International community 420 4. The Ecumenical dimension of the struggle 420 5. The Adoption of new symbols and Idioms 421 C. ALGERIA 421 1. RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY IN ALGERIA 422 CHAPTER FIVE 429 A. THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH TOWARDS CORRUPTION CONTROL 429 1. Our prophetic calling 429 2. The church’s social teaching on corruption control, Enhancement of Human Development, Eradication of poverty and inequality in the world 437 3. What the church must do 447 4. Prayer for Nigeria 454 5. Prayer for Nigeria in Distress 455 6. Prayer against Bribery and corruption in Nigeria 456 CHAPTER SIX 458

A. EVALUATION: THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHURCH: IMPLICATIONSFOR TODAY’S WORLD IN RELATION TO PEACE, JUSTICE AND CORRUPTION CONTROL 458

B. CHRISTIAN AND AFRICAN VALUES AS MEANS OF FIGHTING CORRUPTION 462

C. CHRISTIAN VALUES 462 1. Love 462 2. Truthfulness 465 3. Justice 465 4. Peace 466 5. Service 467 D. AFRICA VALUES 468 1. Sense of Community 469 2. Sense of respect for Authority and Elders 472 3. Sense of good human relations 474 4. Sense of Hospitality 475 5. Sense of the sacred and of religion 476 6. Sense of Time 477 7. Sense of language and proverbs 480 E. CONCLUSION 484 F. BIBIOGRAPHY 486



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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 the most corrupt countries - 157 -

Table 2 Corruption of Country Characteristics: Human Capital - 163 -

Table 3 Corruption and Country Characteristics: Openness - 165 -

Table 4 Corruption and Country Characteristics: Regulation of Entry - 166 -

Table 5 Corruption and Country Characteristics: Freedom of Media - 168 -

Table 6 Growth and Corruption - 186 -

Table 7 Corruption Perception Index (The top 10 and bottom 10 countries) Error! Bookmark not defined.

Table 8 Corruption in Ghana - 219 -

LIST OF FIGURES

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that I have composed this Ph.D. thesis by my own personal and independent

study, and that it has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification.

Ref. Father. Matthew Igboamalu

2011



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AKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to express my profound gratitude to God Almighty for guiding me through this work. My

profound gratitude goes also to Rt. Rev. Dr. C. Onaga my current Bishop and the Bishop Emeritus

Rt. Rev. Dr. A. O Gbuji for making it possible for me to study in Austria.

My deepest and warmest thanks go to my able professor and moderator, Prof. Leopold Neuhold,

who has always acted as a father, mobilizer, reinforcer and adviser throughout this work. He

meticulously and painstakingly read in between the lines of every aspect of this work. He corrected

all the necessary errors and made sure that I lacked nothing in this work. In short, he is a man of his

words, kind, humorous and loving. He is worthy of his position, may God reward him and his

family abundantly. My thanks go also to his secretary Ms. Cornelia Flori, a diligent and dedicated

secretary, who is always available to help.

I wish to thank in a special way my second professor and moderator, my moral theology

professor, Very Rev. Fr. Prof. Walter Schaupp for reading through this work, his advices thought

provoking lectures on Moral Theology and his friendliness. He is really a man of God.

I deeply wish to thank in a special way my big brother and a special friend Rev. Fr. MM.

Hermann Glettler, through whom it was possible for me to study in Austria. It is no exaggeration to

say that this work is his brain-child. This is because he suggested this topic for me and gave me

every encouragement and veritable conducive atmosphere that I need to work. He is really my

source of inspiration. He is in fact a brother in need, may the Good Lord bless him and the entire

household of the St. Andrew’s Parish Graz Austria. I find in them good friends.

My deepest gratitude goes to my immediate junior brother Rev. Fr. Mag. Philip Tobechukwu

Igboamalu who is currently here in Austria pursuing his Doctoral studies. He has been a source of

my encouragement and support. His advice and succour has been a balm. May the Lord reward

him hundred-folds.



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I wish to thank my brothers and sisters, my senior brother, Late Mr. Elias Igboamalu and family

Anthony Igboamalu and his family, Victoria Igboamalu and her family, Marcelina Igboamalu and

family, Helen Igboamalu and family for all their prayers and support.

My special thanks go to Ms. Jutter Becker and Nkiru A. Eneh who helped to organize the

manuscript. Again, I thank in a special way, Mr. Endurance...... (Alias Biggy) for his endurance in

typesetting and advice to see that this work go through.

My gratitude goes to the Rector and the entire Staff of Karl-Franzens-University (Graz-Austria)

for their unreserved assistance through this work.

My deepest greetings go to Very Rev. Msgr. Professor Obiora Ike and Rev. Fr. Dr. Ikechukwu

Ani who actually helped me in no small measure to see that I studied here in Europe.

I wish also to thank the following special friends who helped me in one way or the other to see

that this work sees the light of the day. They include; Frau Traude Schrotner, Frau Weber Kajtia,

Frau Maria Eder, Engr. Patrick Thalhammer, Mr. Gilbert Ezeama, Rev. Fr. Mag. Eliseus

Ezeuchenne, Rev. Fr. Mag. Charles Ogbunambara, Robert Hautz, Petra Mietler, Michael Ugodu,

Mrs. Evelyn Ikeche, Ifeoma Ikejide, Mrs. Victoria Ugwu, Mrs. Lydia Ilboudu, Mr. Ignatius

Ezeama, Mrs. Scholastica Boakyawaa, Henry Jesionka, and a host of other good friends whose

names cannot all contain here.



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ABSTRACT

Corruption control strategies are most effective when they are participative and inclusive of all stakeholders in society. Such inclusiveness requires building coalitions among stakeholders—government, civil society, and NGO--in order to ensure the sustainability of reforms. The international community also has a role to play in supporting committed reformers who are more likely to generate challenges to their country's regimes. This project examines the practical issues involved in minimizing corruption in Africa and consequently the whole world. It is argued that reforms are more likely to succeed when various stakeholders are involved in the design and implementation phase of an anti-corruption strategy. Such an approach creates the necessary consensus for reform as well as a sense of participation in improving the quality of governance and generating a better condition for effective human development. It is also believe that the problem of corruption which has obstructed human development over the years especially in Africa and Nigeria in particular can be drastically reduced to the barest minimum by corruption control strategy as the-way-Out.



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GENERAL INTRODUCTION

According to the Social Doctrine of the Church,

“At the dawn of this Third Millennium, the Church does not tire of proclaiming the Gospel that brings salvation and genuine freedom also to temporal realities…He is the Holy Door.” (cf. Jn 10:9)1

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6): contemplating the Lord’s face, we confirm our faith and our hope in him, the one Saviour and goal of history. Therefore, we as Christians cannot rightly discuss the Effect of Corruption on Human development in the society without alluding to the Social Doctrine of the Church.2

This is because, Church is mindful of the solemn exhortation given by St. Paul to his disciple Timothy;

“Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but have itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suite their own likings and will turn away from listening to the truth and wonder into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.”3 (2 Tim 4:2-5)

It should be understood that it is the expression of God’s Love for the world, which he so loved, that he gave his only Son (Jn 3:16). This new law of love embraces the entire human family and knows no limits, since the proclamation of the salvation wrought by Christ extends to the ends of the earth4 (Acts 1:8)

According to the Catholic Social Doctrine of the Church,

“Discovering that they are loved by God, People come to understand their own transcendent dignity, they learn not to be satisfied with only themselves but to encounter their neighbour in a net work of relationship that are ever more authentically human5”.

1 Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. P.1.

2 Ibid.

3 Op cit P2.

4 cf. Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. P.2.

5 Ibid.



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Convinced in this way, they will be ever ready to tackle in the most effective way the problem of Corruption in the society. This is because; corruption is a phenomenon that hinders man from taking man as authentically man.

Again, there have been many propositions and projections put forward by various people from different works of life as to the best way to tackle the problem of corruption. I, personally agree with some of the authors like, Roberta Gatti, and Jamele Rigolini who are of the view that anti-corruption strategies are most effective especially when they are participative and inclusive of all stakeholders in society. According to this view, such inclusiveness requires building coalitions among stakeholders – government, civil society, and NGO- in order to ensure the sustainability of reforms6.

The international community also has a role to play in supporting committed reformers who are more likely to generate challenges to their countries regimes. This work deals with the effect of corruption on human development in Africa, the whole world and corruption control strategy as the way out. It examines the practical issues and policies involved in minimizing corruption in Africa in particular and the world in general. It is argued that reforms are more likely to succeed when various stakeholders are involved in the design and implementation phase of anti-corruption strategy. Such an approach creates the necessary consensus and fertile ground for reforms as well as a sense of participation in improving the quality of governance, development and consequently life in the world.

In conformity with this participatory and all inclusive control strategy, Roberta Gatti and Jamele Rigolini, using individual-level data for 35 countries, investigated the microeconomic determinants of attitudes toward corruption. They find women, employed, less wealthy, and older individuals to be more averse to corruption. They also provide evidence that social effects play an important role in determining individual attitudes toward corruption, as these are robustly and significantly associated with the average level of tolerance of corruption in the region7.

This finding lends empirical support to theoretical models where corruption emerges in multiple equilibria and suggests that,

"Big-push policies might be particularly effective in combating corruption”8.

6 Above is a cache of http://siteresources.org/INTISPMA/Resources/Training-Events-and-Materials/Training_May17,2004_Rigolini_CorruptionPaper.pdf. Pg.1. . 7 Gatti,/Rigolini.

8 Ibid.



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In my earlier work; ``The Fact of Corruption in Nigerian Society-a hindrance to human development`` I tried to establish the fact that it belongs to the second nature of man to be corrupt. Therefore, man is culpable for man’s corrupt practices. I also established the fact of corruption in Nigerian society.

In this second work, I wish to deal with, The Effect of corruption on Human Development in the world as a whole, with particular reference to African countries – Corruption Control Strategy the- Way Out.

This work deals with the more concrete and practical means to solving the corruption menace in the world.

Pope Benedict XVI on the authentic development of every person and of all humanity said that, “Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity”9.

According to him,

“Love (Caritas) is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God's plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:32).”10

Therefore, we must face the fact of corruption in a thorough way to set the first step for change.

According to the Social teaching of the Church,

“Love faces a vast field of work and the Church is eager to make her contribution with her social doctrine, which concerns the whole person and is addressed to all people. In the light of this, there are so many needy brothers and sisters who are waiting for help, so many who are oppressed waiting for justice, so many unemployed who are waiting for a job, so many people are waiting for respect. One wonders how it can be even today there are still people who are dying of hunger. Condemned to illiteracy? Lacking the most basic medical care? Without having a loof over their head? And love has to be based on truth11

9 Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no.1

10 ibid.

11 Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No5. P.2 .



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Love therefore, is very essential and has a very important role to play in the man to man relationship in the society.

For the Pope, to avoid corruption, man must relate with each other in love and truth. To make this fact clearer, the Pope continues,

“to defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity in fact rejoices in the truth (1 Cor.13:6). All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon man completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6)12.”

For this reason, the Pope believes that Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine. And therefore, every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law (cf. Mt 22:36- 40) and which corruption negates13.

It should be observed that the scenario of poverty can extend indefinitely, in addition to its traditional forms, we think of its newer patterns.

According to the social doctrine of the church,

“These latter (lack of charity and poverty) often affect financially affluent sectors and groups which are nevertheless threatened by despair at the lack of meaning in their lives, by drug addiction, by fear of abandonment in old age or sickness, by marginalization or social discrimination...”14

It is important here to note that charity therefore gives real substance to the personal relationship with God and with neighbour; and for this reason it is the principle not only of micro-relationships (with friends, with family members or within small groups) but also of macro-relationships of (social, economic and political ones). For the Church, instructed by the Gospel, charity is

12. Caritas in Veritate, Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no.1.

13 Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no.1. 14 Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No5. P.



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everything because, as Saint John teaches (cf. 1 Jn. 4:8, 16) and as the Pope recalled in his first Encyclical Letter, “God is love” Deus Caritas Est.15

For the Pope,

“Everything has its origin in God's love, everything is shaped by it, and everything is directed towards it. Love is God's greatest gift to humanity it is his promise and our hope”16.

No wonder then, Pope Benedict XVI is of the opinion that charity has been and continues to be misconstrued and emptied of meaning, with the consequent risk of being misinterpreted, detached from ethical living and, in any event, undervalued. In the social, juridical, cultural, political and economic fields the contexts, in other words, that are most exposed to this danger, it is easily dismissed as irrelevant for interpreting and giving direction to moral responsibility. Hence the need to link charity with truth not only in the sequence, pointed out by Saint Paul, of VERITAS in caritate (Eph 4:15), but also in the inverse and complementary sequence of caritas in Veritate17.

For the Pope Charity and truth are inter connected and that is why according to him,

“Truth needs to be sought, found and expressed within the economy of charity, but charity in its turn needs to be understood, confirmed and practised in the light of truth”18.


“How can we remain indifferent to the prospect of an ecological crisis which is making vast areas of our planet uninhabitable and hostile to humanity? Or by the problems of peace, so often threatened spectre catastrophic wars? Or by contempt for the fundamental human rights of so many people, especially children?”19

I agree with the Pope that by looking at Charity and Truth in this perspective, not only do we do a service to charity enlightened by truth, but we also help give credibility to truth, demonstrating its persuasive and authenticating power in the practical setting of social living. This is a matter of no small account today, in a social and cultural context which relativizes truth, often paying little heed

15 Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no.1.

16 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Es, loc. cit., 219. 17 Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no.1.

18. Ibid 19 cf. Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No5. P.3 .



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to it and showing increasing reluctance to acknowledge its existence and thereby making corruption possible.20

In the light of this close link with truth, as we have seen above, charity can be recognized as an authentic expression of humanity and as an element of fundamental importance in human relations, including those of a public nature. Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived and only in it is the anti-corruption strategy possible. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Corruption is therefore a bane to these beautiful supernatural gifts of God to man.21

According to Pope Benedict XVI,

“Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in the God of the Bible, who is both Agápe and Lógos: Charity and Truth, Love and Word”22.

I agree with the Pope that because it is filled with truth, charity can be understood in the abundance of its values, and therefore can be shared and communicated, while Truth, in fact, is logos which creates diá-logos, and hence communication and communion.23

It should be noted that ‘Truth’, by enabling men and women to let go of their subjective opinions and impressions, allows them to move beyond cultural and historical limitations and to come together in the assessment of the value and substance of things. Truth opens and unites our minds in the logos of love: this is the Christian proclamation and testimony of charity24.

20 Cf. Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009.

21 Ibid.

22 . Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no.2. p2. 23 Ibid.

24 Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no.2. p2.



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Therefore, in the present social and cultural context, where there is a widespread tendency to relative truth, practising charity in truth helps people to understand that adhering to the values of Christianity is not merely useful but essential for building a good society and for true integral human development free from corruption and its tendencies which are selfishness and greed.25

As Pope Benedict XVI puts it,

“A Christianity of charity without truth would be more or less interchangeable with a pool of good sentiments, helpful for social cohesion, but of little relevance. In other words, there would no longer be any real place for God in the world. Without truth, charity is confined to a narrow field devoid of relations. It is excluded from the plans and processes of promoting human development of universal range, in dialogue between knowledge and praxis”26.

Consequently, the Church sees Charity as love received and given. This dynamic of charity received and given is what gives rise to the Church's social teaching, which is caritas in Veritate in re socialibus: the proclamation of the truth of Christ's love in society. This doctrine is a service to charity, but its locus is truth. Truth preserves and expresses charity's power to liberate in the ever-changing events of history27.

In other words, it is at the same time the truth of faith and of reason, both in the distinction and also in the convergence of those two cognitive fields. It is “grace” (cháris). Its source is the wellspring of the Father's love for the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Love comes down to us from the Son. It is creative love, through which we have our being; it is redemptive love, through which we are recreated. Love is revealed and made present by Christ (cf. Jn 13:1) and “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5)28.

As the objects of God's love, men and women become subjects of charity, they are called to make themselves instruments of grace, so as to pour forth God's charity and to weave networks of charity and therefore to eschew corruption in all its ramifications.

From the above reasons, it should be observed that development, social well-being, the search for a satisfactory solution to the grave socio-economic problems namely Corruption besetting humanity, all need this truth. What they need even more is that this truth should be loved and demonstrated. Without truth, without trust and love for what is true, there is no social conscience

25 Op cit.

26 Ibid.

27 Ibid.

28 Cf. Caritas in Veritate, 2009.



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and responsibility, and social action ends up serving private interests and the logic of power, resulting in social fragmentation, especially in a globalized society at difficult times like the present29.

That is why it is clear to me that the Pope’s encyclical ‘Caritas in Veritate’ is the principle around which the Church's social doctrine turns, a principle that takes on practical form in the criteria that govern moral action. The Pope considered two of these in particular, which are for him, of special relevance to the commitment to development in an increasingly globalized society: justice and the common good.

In the first place, He took cognizance of justice. Ubi societas, ibi ius: he makes it clear that every society draws up its own system of justice. And that Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is ‘mine’ to the other; but it never lacks justice, which prompts us to give the other what is ‘his’, what is due to him by reason of his being or his acting.


“I cannot ‘give’ what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity and intrinsic to it. Justice is the primary way of charity or, in Paul VI's words, ‘the minimum measure’ of it an integral part of the love “in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18), to which Saint John exhorts us”30.

We can say on the one hand, according to John Paul II that,

“Charity demands justice: recognition and respect for the legitimate rights of individuals and peoples. It strives to build the earthly city according to law and justice. On the other hand, charity transcends justice and completes it in the logic of giving and forgiving. The earthly city is promoted not merely by relationships of rights and duties, but to an even greater and more fundamental extent by relationships of gratuitousness, mercy and communion. Charity always manifests God's love in human relationships as well, as it gives theological and salvific value to all commitment for justice in the world.”31

Having seen what Justice is, one would now ask, what is common good? It should be noted that the individual good is not the only good in the society. Besides that good, there is a good that is also linked to the living in the society.

29 Cf. Caritas in Veritate, 2009. 30 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 2009

31 Cf. John Paul II, Message for the 2002 World Day of Peace. AAS 94 (2002), 132-140.



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According to the Second Vatican Council,

“To love someone is to desire that person's good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of àll of us`, made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society. It is a good that is sought not for its own sake, but for the people who belong to the social community and who can only really and effectively pursue their good within it. To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity”32.

One is required to make every necessary effort to ensure the protection of these goods. We are bound in conscience, love and reality to protect the common good in the society.

This is why both the Second Vatican council and Pope Benedict XVI maintain that,

“to take a stand for the common good is on the one hand to be solicitous for, and on the other hand to avail oneself of, that complex of institutions that give structure to the life of society, juridically, civilly, politically and culturally, making it the polis, or city. The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbours, the more effectively we love them and the more we fight Corruption and opt for Justice in the entire world”33.

The world community more urgently needs this type of love rooted in truth especially now there are increased corruption and injustices in the society. Hence everyone especially the Christians are called to practise this charity, in a manner corresponding to his vocation and according to the degree of influence he wields in the pólis. This is the institutional path we might also call it the political path of charity, no less excellent and effective than the kind of charity which encounters the neighbour directly, outside the institutional mediation of the pólis.

From the above discussions, we can easily notice that corruption control strategy when animated by charity, commitment to the common good has greater worth than a merely secular and political stand would have. Like all commitment to justice, it has a place within the testimony of divine charity that paves the way for eternity through temporal action.

As John XXIII, puts it,

“Man's earthly activity, when inspired and sustained by charity, contributes to the building of the universal city of God, which is the goal of the history of the human family. In an increasingly

32 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes,

26. 33 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 2009.



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globalized society, the common good and the effort to obtain it cannot fail to assume the dimensions of the whole human family, that is to say, the community of peoples and nations.”34

That is in other words, a city that is Corruption free in such a way as to shape the earthly city in unity and peace, rendering it to some degree, an anticipation of a pre-figuration of the undivided city of God.

34 Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris (11 April 1963): AAS 55 (1963), 268-270.



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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION OF CORRUPTION


“God is seen as the origin of what exists, as the presence that guarantees to men and women organized in a society the basic conditions of life, placing at their disposal the goods that are necessary. On the other hand, he appears as the measure of what should be, as the presence that challenges human action both at the personal and at the social levels regarding the use of those very goods in relation to other people.”35

Since everything that that exist is believed to come from God, it is consequently important therefore to see the common good as the free gifts from God to man. For this reason, in every religious experience, importance is attached to the dimension of gift and gratuitousness, is seen as an underlying element of the experience that human beings have of their existence together with others in the world, as well as to the repercussions of this dimension on the human conscience, which senses that it is called to manage responsibly and together with others the gift received36. Hence, the proof of this is found in the universal recognition of the Golden Rule, which expresses on the level of human relations the injunction addressed by the mystery to men and women: Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do so to them. (Mt 7:12)37


“This revelation responds to the human quest for the divine in an unexpected and surprising way, thanks to the historical manner-striking and penetrating- in which God’s love for man is made concrete”38.

35 Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No.20. P.14.

36 Ibid.

37 Cf Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1789, 1970, 2510.

38 Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No.20. P.14.



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According to the Book of Exodus, the Lord speaks these words to Moses:

“ I have seen the afflictions of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”39(Ex 3:7-8)

The gratuitous presence of God to which his very name alludes, the name he reveals to Moses: “ I am who I am” (Ex 3:14) is manifested in the fleeing from the slavery and in the promise.

It should be noted that when People deviate from this Plan of God and act the otherwise then come injustice, deprivation, corruption and other vices in the society.

Because of man’s refusal to this original plan of God’s love for man, that Corruption and its attendant consequences have filled the society of the world, especially in Africa of which my work is concentrated on.

It is observed with utter dismay that controlling corruption in the African countries—both high and low levels – is one of the greatest challenges to the establishment and consolidation of democratic system in the continent, and consequently the entire World.

“The notion that corruption adversely impedes development is no longer an issue of debate. Cross-country empirical work has confirmed the negative impact of corruption on institutions, growth and productivity, policy processes, property rights, and consequently, development.”40

It is also clear that in some African countries, the negative impact of corruption has been translated into political instability and frequent regime changes. For instance, the overthrow of democratic governments in countries such as Sierra, Mobutu’s Zaire, Moussa Troare’s Mali, Samuel Doe of Liberia were a few historical examples of countries where high-level and systemic corruption have been highlighted as factors that contribute to the denouncement and overthrow these regimes. More recently, civil unrest also has been associated with increasingly high levels of systemic corruption and the lack of effective leadership necessary with this persistent problem.

According to Kpundel,

39 (Ex 3:7-8) .

40 Daniel Kaufmann and colleagues at the World Bank Institute, or visit their website at www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance.



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“In short, Africans have continued to hold their states responsible for economic hardships in large part because of widespread abuse in official circles. Paradoxically, this abuse fostered democratization in several countries in the early 1990s by forcing civil society to take matters into its own hands and demand more transparent and accountable systems of government”41.

This taking of matters into their hands by the civil society as the result of bad governance has become wide spread in various parts of Africa and consequently has caused much havoc in these countries. It can be observed that, in many of these African countries, a real political process and legitimate links have yet to grow. Corruption is at the core of this dilemma. Until recently, citizens and, particularly bilateral and multilateral, donors have rarely held African governments accountable. But the globalization of markets dramatically highlights developmental inequities in these countries.

It is also to be pointed out that citizens want economic reforms such as liberalization and privatization.

According to Kpundeh,

“There are serious demands for increased transparency, accountability, integrity, political and economic competition, and the involvement of civil society in the broader governance of the country places corruption at the centre of these changes. This focus on the economy has also renewed attention on more democratic forms of governance. Internal stakeholders and the international community are beginning to insist on transparency, creating a dilemma for those leaders who resist their countries’ move to more inclusive, participatory governments.”42

As we can see, the fight against corruption requires the involvement of the entire country as well as the international community. This is why the Policymakers and academics agree that reform can only be sustained if a wide range of stakeholder’s government, civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, as well as the international community is involved in the development of anti-corruption strategies.

One notices that theoretically, democratic institutions offer the potential for citizens, NGOs, the private sector, independent media, and other stakeholders to carefully scrutinize the actions of politicians and government officials.

41 Kpundeh and Irene Hors (eds.) (UNDP/OECD.




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I wish to stress here that corruption is more prevalent during the transitional stage to more democratic forms of governance; this could be primarily because democratic political systems provide incentives and opportunities for corrupt practices. On the other hand, it can be said that, established democracies have devised institutions to contain abuse.43

However, this argument has been challenged by some scholars like Little, W. And E. Posada-Carbo, who point to evidence from newly functioning democracies in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa where, existing structures have proven ineffective in curbing high levels of malfeasance.

According to this view,

“There is mounting evidence in developing countries contend that liberalization does not necessarily reduce corruption”44.

This project examines the salient issues of why little progress has been made in the fight against corruption in Africa and proposes corruption control as “the way out”. I therefore focus on the critical issue of participatory governance, which has been absent in anti-corruption reform initiatives and argue that reform strategies are more effective when they are participative and include all stakeholders.

From the discussion, it becomes crystal clear that Coalition building is essential to sustaining an anti-corruption strategy and these coalitions must be reflective of all the stakeholders at the national and local levels including government, civil society, NGOs themselves and community-based organizations (CBOs) in which case the anti-corruption organizations are also controlled by the community.

I wish to begin this work first and foremost, with an investigation into the meaning, causes of corruption and the consequences for democracy and development.

Secondly, to provide an analysis of the current academic and policy debate on reform strategies, highlighting policies designed to control, deter, and punish as well as discuss the kinds of initiatives that can be effective.

Thirdly, to explore the institutional and political requirements for a serious assault on corruption, focusing on the significance of political will and what needs to be done to design and

43 Ibid.

44 Little, W. And E. Posada-Carbo, 1996, Political corruption in Europe and Latin America (London: Macmillan).



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empower anti-corruption agencies and build an effective judicial system for enforcing anti-corruption laws and regulations. And fourthly to analyse the need for an integrated strategy that focus on the role of civil society, (both independent, non-governmental organizations and the mass media), the private sector, and CBOs in the process.

Lastly, this work concludes with an evaluation of all the corruption control strategies taking a look at the international community and how international institutions, including international civil society, organizations, NGOS, Religious Organizations, and foreign governments cooperate with, and strengthen the efforts of African states and societies to control corruption in the whole world.

I wish to point out here that there are many unresolved problems in (Nigeria) Africa, but the issue of the upsurge of corruption is troubling. And that the damages it has done to the polity are astronomical.

According to Kpundeh

“And this explains, why menace of corruption leads to slow movement of files in offices, police extortion tollgates and slow traffics on the highways, port congestion, queues at passport offices and gas stations, ghost workers syndrome, election irregularities, among others.”45

Even the mad people on the street recognize the havoc caused by corruption - the funds allocated for their welfare disappear into the thin air. Thus, it is believed by many in the society that corruption is the bane of Nigeria. Consequently, the issue keeps reoccurring in every academic and informal discussion in Nigeria. And the issue will hardly go away!

It is because of this observation that leads some writers as Lipset and Lenz, to believe that

“corruption is endemic in all government, and that it is not peculiar to any continent, region and ethnic group. It cuts across faiths, religious denominations and political systems and affects both young and old, man and woman alike. Corruption therefore, is found in democratic and dictatorial politics; feudal, capitalist and socialist economies. Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist cultures are equally bedevilled by corruption.”46

As we can see, corrupt practices did not begin today; the history is as old as the world. This because ancient civilizations have traces of widespread of ‘illegality and corruption.’

Thus, according to Lipset and Lenz,


46 Lipset and Lenz 2000, pp. 112-113.



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“Corruption has been ubiquitous in complex societies from ancient Egypt, Israel, Rome, and Greece down to the present”47.

From the above quotation, we should not be lead to think that the magnitude of corruption is equal in every Society; this is because some countries are more corrupt than others!

As George Orwell notes in his widely read book, Animal Farm:

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”48.

Therefore, one can rightly argue that since corruption is not new, and since it is a global phenomenon, it is not peculiar to Nigeria. One can however say that, corruption is pandemic in Africa (and in many other Continents of the world as Asian nations); in other words, many of the leaders (Those who are in the position of trust) as well as the followers are corrupt (the masses-the led). Consequently, it has defied all the necessary ‘medicines.’ If there is a lack of control of corruption in every sphere in the nation, then the nation decays.

According to old adage:

“When water chokes you, what do you take to wash it down?”49

This paper, therefore, adopts a new approach to tackle the menace of corruption in Africa and consequently, the entire world. And a broad definition of the phenomenon matters in the society for its effective control.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

CORRUPTION

The Church does not lose sight of the sufferings of her people irrespective of their religious affiliations and or beliefs, especially in the face of corruption in our society.


47 Lipset and Lenz 2000, pp. 112-113. 48George Orwell, (June 1996, p.109). 49 The Philosophy of Aristotle, 451-ME2783, p.355.



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“The Church, sharing in mankind’s joys and hopes, in its anxieties and sadness, stands with every man and woman of every place and time, to bring them to good news of the Kingdom of God, which in Jesus Christ has come and continues to be present among them”50

This is why it is important for us to examine the meaning of corruption and what the terms refer to.

Corruption has been defined in different ways by different people and at various periods over time. That is to say, there is no definite definition of Corruption. However, according to Sen,

“Corruption has broadly been defined as a perversion or a change from good to bad. Specifically, corruption or corrupt behaviour involves the violation of established rules for personal gain and profit51”.

(B) VARIOUS DISCIPLINES DEFINITION OF CORRUPTION

It should be noted that in philosophical, theological, or moral discussions, corruption is spiritual or moral impurity or deviation from an ideal. In economy, corruption is payment for services or material which the recipient is not due, under law. This may be called bribery, kickback, or, in the Middle East, baksheesh. In government, it is when an elected representative makes decisions that are influenced by vested interest rather than their own personal or party ideological beliefs.52

Etymologically, the word corrupt (Middle English, from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpere, to abuse or destroy: com-, intensive pref. and rumpere, to break) when used as an adjective literally means "utterly broken".)53

Hence Political corruption can be defined as the abuse of public power, office, or resources by elected government officials for personal gain, e.g. by extortion, soliciting or offering bribes.54It

50 Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No 60. P.33.

51 Sen 1999, Pg.275.

52 "Corrupt | Define Corrupt at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/corrupt Retrieved 2010-12-06.

53 Op. Cit.



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can also take the form of office holders maintaining themselves in office by purchasing votes by enacting laws which use taxpayer money.55

While Systemic corruption is referred to as the complete subversion of a political or economic system, Governmental corruption of judiciary is broadly known in many transitional and developing countries because the budget is almost completely controlled by the executive. The latter undermines the separation of powers, as it creates a critical financial dependence of the judiciary. The proper national wealth distribution including the government spending on the judiciary is subject of the constitutional economics. It is important to distinguish between the two methods of corruption of the judiciary: the government (through budget planning and various privileges), and the private.56

Furthermore, Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, and/or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest. One common form of police corruption is soliciting and/or accepting bribes in exchange for not reporting organized drug or prostitution rings or other illegal activities. Another example is police officers flouting the police code of conduct in order to secure convictions of suspects for example, through the use of falsified evidence. More rarely, police officers may deliberately and systematically participate in organized crime themselves. In most major cities, there are internal affairs sections to investigate suspected police corruption or misconduct. Similar entities include the British Independent Police Complaints Commission.

1. PHILOSOPHY

Frequently in philosophical discussions, corruption takes the form of contrasting a pure spiritual form with a corrupted manifestation in the physical world. Many philosophers, in fact, have

54 Chinhamo, Obert; Shumba, Gabriel (2007), Institutional working definition of corruption Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa.

55 Barenboim, Peter (October 2009). Defining the rules. Issue 90. The European Lawyer.

56 "Glossary" U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre http://www.u4.no/glossary/.Retrieved 26 June 2011.



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regarded the physical world as inevitably corrupt being the most famous example of this school of thought). The Book of Genesis 6:12 similarly describes a world before the flood where 'everyone on earth was corrupt'.

Another philosophical use of the term "corruption" is in opposition to "generation," as in Aristotle's book On Generation and Corruption also known as On Coming to Be and Passing Away. In this sense, corruption is the process of ceasing to exist and is closely related to the concept of dying given certain views about the nature of living things. In a moral sense, corruption generally refers to decadence or hedonism. In theological or political debates, certain viewpoints are sometimes accused of being corruptions of orthodox systems of belief, which is to say, they are accused of having deviated from some older correct view.

2. SYSTEMIC CORRUPTION

Systemic corruption (or endemic corruption 57 is corruption which is primarily due to a weakness of an organization or process. It can be contrasted with individual officials or agents who act corruptly within the system.

Factors which encourage systemic corruption include conflicting incentives, discretionary powers; monopolistic powers; lack of transparency; low pay; and a culture of impunity.58Specific acts of corruption include "bribery, extortion, and embezzlement" in a system where "corruption becomes the rule rather than the exception."59Scholars distinguish between centralized and decentralized systemic corruption, depending on which level of state or government corruption takes place; in countries such as the Post-Soviet states both types occur.

57 Lorena Alcazar, Raul Andrade (2001), Diagnosis corruption, pp. 135–136.

58 Znoj, Heinzpeter (2009). "Deep Corruption in Indonesia: Discourses, Practices, Histories". In Monique Nuijten, Gerhard Anders. Corruption and the secret of law: a legal anthropological perspective. shgate..9http://books.google.com/books?id=P52bOZFExesC&pg=PA53.

59 Legvold, Robert (2009). "Corruption, the Criminalized State, and Post-Soviet Transitions" In Robert I. Rotberg. Corruption, global security, and world orde. Brookings Institution. p. 197. .



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3. ECONOMISTS AND POLITICAL SCIENTISTS;

According to Prince, “Economists and political scientists have taken the lead in recent research on corruption world-wide”60. It should be noted that International debates on how to approach the phenomenon are ongoing, but a general and widely accepted definition of corruption, according to Gray and Kaufmann is “the abuse of public office for private gain.”61 The question is how this definition, which is informed by Weber’s rational-legal bureaucracy model, applies to non-western contexts. In other words, what definition can be more inclusive having seen that this definition obviously depends upon the existence of a public domain that is recognisably separated from the private sphere.

It is important to note that this conventional definition of corruption is too narrow and excessively concerned with the illegality of practices. I wish to remark here that people’s own assessments of courses of action do not arouse only from a set of culturally universal, invariable norms that helps to decide if certain actions are to be classified as “corrupt” or not. Rather, what is seen as corruption varies from one context to another. Given such variations, explorations of how the actors themselves evaluate social practices are required.

In order to make this point clearer, I wish to place the rational-legal paradigm within a social and historical context to disclose shortcomings of the above-mentioned definition of corruption. By reviewing some of anthropology’s methods and approaches it will become clear that the discipline has much to offer contributing to a broader understanding of the phenomenon. An examination of socio-cultural logics informing everyday practices will show how corruption can be seen as an ambiguous phenomenon because of variations in social experience and cultural values.

60 Prince 1999.

61 Gray and Kaufmann 1998.



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4. WEBER’S RATIONAL-LEGAL BUREAUCRACY MODEL

It should be noted that the rational-legal bureaucracy model has long traditions in European countries. According to,

“the idea of bureaucratic organisation is hardly an invention of Western social-science.”62

to buttress this fact, Handelman made series of efforts to show whether there may be logical connectivity between the seventeenth-century idea of taxonomic organization and Weber’s depiction of modern bureaucratic-organization. In his efforts, Handelman finds continuity between early organisational principles in the West and the evolution of bureaucratic-organisation. Handelman argues that in the West

“one is predisposed to feel and think in particular ways, perhaps in terms of different logics, when one is within particular locales or settings which are relevant to the frame”63

For Handelman, this does not imply that bureaucratic orders are simply the reflections of society.

Bureaucratic orders maintained in Western countries today must be seen as a result of historical events informing and changing the idea of a rational-legal bureaucratic-organisation.64

According to Scott,

“the control of administration we know today would have been impossible without the development in the late nineteenth century of government accountability to broadly representative legislative bodies.”65

Furthermore, that public office was viewed as private property in much of Western Europe till at least the mid-nineteenth century exemplifies how notions of rational-legal principles have changed. According to Scott,

“developing nations have, for the most part adopted the full panoply of laws and regulations that evolved from, and gave expression to, the long political struggle for reform in the West”66

62 Handelman 1981:6.

63 op. cit.: 12.

64 This is made clear in the following statement, “In the West, one recognizes that the idea of bureaucratic-organization is somehow different from one’s perception of the everyday, and yet the same” (1981:14).

65 Scott 1969:316.

66 Scott 1969:319.



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It should be noted that this view is in line with Olivier de Sardan’s statement with reference to Africa that,

“the functioning of the administrative apparatus is entirely copied from the European pattern. In law, official functioning and budget it is totally Western.” 67

It becomes evidently clear that, the mere adoption of a bureaucratic-administrative framework will not necessarily establish the concomitant bureaucratic values and practices. As opposed to Western Europe, the logics of bureaucratic organisation may be far removed from predominant socio-cultural logics.

For Olivier de Sardan,

“In England, the development of political and bureaucratic rules and norms was a result of a long process, whereas for instance in Africa and South Asia the entire legal framework was for the most part a legacy of colonialism. As a result, the functioning of the administrative apparatus, entirely copied from the European pattern, takes the form of a “schizophrenic type”68

It should be pointed out that, the European legacy of colonialism may have set the stage for conflicting norms regarding bureaucratic-organisation in pre-colonial nations. Nigeria is a living examples of this conflicting norms regarding bureaucratic-organisation in pre-colonial nations.

To buttress this fact, Cohen reports from Nigeria maintained that

“Africans learned how to live and operate under a bureaucratic system in which illegitimacy was normal.”69

Unfortunately and as one would expect, the new rules and political norms of the colonisers had little or no applicability to the realities of their own lives. Moreover, the public services set in place by British colonial authority departed from how such services were managed in Britain for several reasons. For this reason, the inefficiency, mistrust, and frustrations of over-centralisation and incompatible logics became part of the norms and culture of the Nigerian public service well before Africans took over. Consequently, when they did, they also took over the inconsistent managerial style of the previous administrators thereby perpetrating corruption in the Nigerian society.

67 Olivier de Sardan 1999:47.

68 Ibid.

69 Cohen 1980:81.



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5. DEFINING CORRUPTION: A CONVENTIONAL DISTINCTION IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

According to Sissener,

“In political science, the conception of public office is strongly influenced by Max Weber’s ideal type of rational-legal bureaucracy. This rational-legal paradigm is crucial for the understanding of corruption as the non-respect of the distinction between public and private. However, this public administration perspective on Corruption has not gone unchallenged.”70

Sissener gave majorly three reasons for his arguments. Sissener quoted some authors like Wood, Ruud and Price to support his arguments.

Firstly, according to Sissener,

“the notion of public office is essentially a western concept. Several scholars have made this point clear. Wood says, “it does not proceed from an a priori assumption that such [Weberian] rationality is or can be the norm in society” (Wood 1994:520). Price argues in the case of India that “a public servant is confronted with a wide range of pressing demands for action which are not described in official rules and regulations […]. We can see the existence of competing codes as a reason for the widespread contestation of bureaucratic norms in many sections of Indian societies”

(Price 1999:318). Ruud states that “to be the same man, and not to entertain primary loyalty at certain times to an informal institution, a lofty ideal, to remain the person in which your friends have trust, that seems more human, at least under certain circumstances to Bengali villagers” (Ruud 1998:4).71

In his second point to support his argument, Sissener quoted Myrdal and Ward.

Secondly, according to him,

70 Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on

corruption Chr. Michelsen Institute P.O. Box 6033 Postterminalen, N-5892 Bergen, Norway ISBN 82-90584-85-7 p 5.

71 Ibid.



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“legal procedures are not per se the most rational. Myrdal (1968) differentiated between the ‘actual’ rules of bureaucratic behaviour and the ‘official’ rules and suggested that the former may be more ‘innovative’ and appropriate to local conditions. Although corruption is often interpreted as having negative distributional consequences, others have argued that corruption has positive effects; it ‘humanises’ the workings of bureaucracy (Ward 1989). The task of finding a suitable definition of corruption, which can be used for purposes of comparative analyses, has proved fraught with difficulty. The legalistic understanding of the term relates corruption to the violation of a rule or a law. This approach raises several problems. Firstly, it presupposes rules and laws prohibiting corrupt behaviour and does not allow looking into the actions or inactions that laws on corruption (and regulations that distinguishes public from private) do not cover. Secondly, given that legal codes vary from country to country, judgements of the legality of various practices will also vary.”72

In his third argument to support his point, Sissener quoted, Williams and Olivier for his claims. Thirdly, according to Sissener,

“the legal approach depends on the notion that legal frameworks are somehow neutral, objective and non-political (Williams 1999), but corrupt activity is not an objective form of practice existing in a vacuum. It is a social act and its meaning must be understood with reference to the social relationships between people in historically specific settings. A transaction is now a legal one, now illegal, depending upon the social context of the transaction. Trying to understand how corruption is conceptualised the question we need to raise is; what behaviour is being compared, how are practices evaluated, and by whom? Supporting the view that Weberian informed definitions of corruption is “too narrow and excessively concerned with the illegality of such practices, defined from a modern, Western point of view” (Olivier de Sardan 1999:27), my argument is that a broader notion of corruption is required. Olivier de Sardan uses the term of ‘corruption complex’ to include practices beyond corruption in the strict sense of the word, i.e. nepotism, abuse of power, embezzlement and various forms of misappropriation, influence peddling, prevarication, insider trading and abuse of the public purse (ibid). This seems the most satisfactory alternative as it opens up for a more advanced view of the complexity of social behaviour. Furthermore, it makes an exploration of people’s own evaluations of their practices possible.”73

72 Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption Chr. Michelsen Institute P.O. Box 6033 Postterminalen, N-5892 Bergen, Norway ISBN 82-90584-85-7 p 5-6.

73 Ibid.



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6. ANTHROPOLOGICAL METHODS AND APPROACHES

With regards Anthropological, Sissener discusses and explains what he meant by saying that Weber’s definition of corruption is narrow.


“Blundo and Olivier de Sardan argues that corruption is largely a clandestine or concealed practice with strong normative undertones, similar to other phenomena like large scale and petty crime, parallel to black market activities and drug trafficking. Anthropology, as a social science sub-discipline, has an inventory of methodological tools appropriate for analysing the habitually concealed and under-communicated, usually illegal, and sometimes illegitimate practice of corruption. As an initial approach to a field where corruption is not very well-known or previously described, to formulate new hypotheses and verify the applicability of existing theories derived from other studies, anthropological field methods are particularly fruitful.”74

I agree with Sissener that, besides traditional social science methods like questionnaires and quantitative studies run the risk of being identified with police interrogations and to produce embarrassed silence, self-victimisation, condemnation of others, and very biased results. Consequently, the indirect anthropological field methods are particularly apt in getting information from this social field that is so difficult to access for the ‘none initiated’.


“In Blundo and Olivier de Sardan’s discussions of anthropological field methods, they emphasise observation as a useful method to assess the tension between formal and informal norm systems and to determine what practices informants are considering being the most important. Corruption does not necessarily take place where the researcher is looking for it; its everyday

74 Cf. (Blundo and Olivier de Sardan 2000). In Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption Chr. Michelsen Institute P.O. Box 6033 Postterminalen, N-5892 Bergen, Norway ISBN 82-90584-85-7 p 6-7.



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manifestations might be elsewhere. This everyday dimension is often overlooked by other social sciences and has as a result been lacking in the literature on corruption.”75

That is why for Sissener, even when corruption per se is hardly observable through “participatory observation”, informal conversations and people’s everyday discourses are rich in anecdotes, confessions and accusations, through which both substantiations and assessments on corrupt practices can be obtained. One can also study more directly observable activities, like transactions in buses, hospitals and roadblocks, although at high costs and with serious ethical dilemmas.76

Furthermore, I wish to agree Sissener by arguing that,

“valuable information on corrupt practices can also be collected through interviews, and preferable informal interviews that can uncover the popular and local semiotics and ethics concerning corruption. Focus group discussions have also been fruitful in some situations. Case studies, whether of particular institutions or specific interactions or episodes, are also fruitful.”77

It should be noted that in the final analysis, Blundo and Olivier de Sardan underline the significance of methodological triangulation which holds that approaches and methods should be combined and used in parallel, like for instance interviews combined with observations and news paper reports or court hearings, to substantiate and verify the findings.78

To buttress his arguments Sissener writes,

“In this subsection I will present three anthropological works on corruption. This is to show how other social scientists, working within the field of anthropology, have argued for a broader understanding of corruption. These selected works illustrates quite clearly the importance of contextualisation.”79

Following this argument of contextualisation and to make it clearer, Akhil Gupta managed to bring to the surface how an understanding of the complexity of social experience and cultural

75 Op cit p 7

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid.

78 Cf, Blundo and Olivier de Sardan 2000, in Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption. P 7

79 Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption. P 8.



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values is crucial when trying to understand the discourse of corruption. Consequently, Akhil Gupta made an early anthropological contribution to the international scholarly debate about corruption with an article published in 1995. By examining how lower level officials execute their duties, Gupta found the conventional distinction between private and public inapplicable to an Indian context.80

Gupta says that,

“Sharmaji, an Indian lower-level official, “pose an interesting challenge to Western notions of the boundary between ‘state’ and ‘society’ in some obvious ways”. The reason, he continues, is perhaps because “those categories are descriptively inadequate to the lived realities that they purport to represent.”81

Gupta said that the following case is an example of how an ordinary lower-level officer executes his duties.

Gupta went on to explain his points further by telling more stories saying,

“Sharmaji was a patwari, an official who keeps the land record of approximately five to six villages. Sharmaji lived in a small, inconspicuous house deep in the old part of town. The lower part of the house consisted of two rooms and a small enclosed courtyard. One of those rooms had a large door that opened onto the street. This room functioned as Sharmaji’s ‘office’. That is where he was usually to be found, surrounded by clients, sycophants, and colleagues. Two of the side walls of the office were lined with benches; facing the entrance toward the inner part of the room was a raised platform, barely big enough for three people. It was here that Sharmaji sat and held court, and it was here that he kept the land registers for the villages that he administered. All those who had business to conduct came to his ‘office’. At any given time there were usually two or three different groups, interested in different transactions, assembled in the tiny room. Sharmaji conversed with all of them at the same time, often switching from one addressee to another in the middle of a single sentence. Everyone present joined in the discussion of matters pertaining to others. Sharmaji often punctuated his statements by turning to the others and rhetorically asking, “Have I said anything wrong?” or, “Is what I said true or not?” Most of the transactions conducted in this ‘office’ were relatively straightforward but these things ‘cost money’”82

80 Ibid.

81Cf. Gupta 1995:384. In Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption. P 8.

82 Gupta1995:379. In Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption. P 8-9.



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I agree with Sissener and Gupta here, that Sharmanji’s way of executing his duties show little resemblance to Western experiences in at least three ways. Firstly, his office was located in the same building as his home. Secondly, when performing his duties he constantly discussed the matters with others present. Thirdly, money was demanded in order for Sharmaji to execute his duties. However, when villagers complained about the corruption of state officials they were not mainly complaining about how they kept office, or having to pay bribes, but about lack of performative competence required in order to be successful in their dealings with state officials.83

Interestingly, Gupta concludes that,

“the discourse of corruption varies a great deal from one country to another, dependent as it is on particular historical trajectories and the specific grammars of public culture. In other words, social boundaries marking acceptable behaviour is not the same in all contexts, but rather culturally specific and socially produced.”84

Clearly and convincingly, Arild Engelsen Ruud argues in a paper from 1998 that seen from the actor’s point of view, that there is a difference between bribery and other forms of corruption. He says that in the case of Bengal the villagers have a special term for ‘bribe’ while other forms of corruption are not covered in everyday vocabulary.

Ruud writes,

“as such bribes appear to have a special significance, a special meaning, which is negative” (Ruud 1998:13). However, bribing may appear without being given a negative meaning, but outright bribery is described as only the last resort. First, problems are sought solved through the use of contacts. “In order to secure a more steady income, Kalo applied for a position at a near-by hospital. There were thirty vacant positions and several hundred applicants Kalo had reasonably good qualifications, but so had many others. As one who was not exceptionally qualified, he knew that only informal sources of influence would help: bribes, contacts, or pressure from the top. Over the month or so that went by from the formal interviews to the declaration of the results, Kalo

83 Cf. R Ruud 1998:11. In Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption. P -9 (Ruud cites an Indian newspaper reporting that a group of peasants had sent a letter of complaint to the Prime Minister, “The letter did not complain about bribes having to be paid. Instead, it complained that the rates of the bribes for the various tasks varied from day to day, and even from person to person” (Ruud 1998:4). Supporting Gupta, Ruud says that, “The process of negotiation for getting a job done by a bureaucrat – including the negotiation for the size of the possible bribe – is a game, and it requires knowledge, wit and intelligence.”).

84 Op cit p 11-13.



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made frequent travels into town from his village home searching for information and contacts in connection with his employment application. He had initially two promising contacts, a friend of his from old, who was employed in the municipality and who allegedly knew personally one of those in charge of the selection process; and then Kalo’s cousin whose neighbour was a highly placed hospital clerk. With his friend he went to the one in charge of the selection process, and with his cousin he visited the neighbour-clerk. The neighbour-clerk part of the affair was pretty open and straight-forward. As a good neighbour he would do his bit to help. He asked for money that he would need to pay off certain well-placed people. Kalo expected him to envision a reasonable cut for himself as well. A rather steep sum was required but the argument was that lots of people were willing to pay up. Kalo’s cousin’s in-laws turned out to be close personal friends of one of the commissioners in town. The commissioner explained that his own position was not one of great influence in the matter (which was to say that he was not particularly interested), and promised to write a letter to the right person recommending Kalo – which to all meant that would not apply his clout in this matter but that equally he would not jeopardise his relationship with his friends, whose in-laws brought this per so. The last strategy was that he implored his brother in- law, Nikhil, to come to his assistance. He [Nikhil] declined to do it, declined to help his sister’s family, and jeopardised his relationship with her and they are not on speaking terms any more. Kalo’s many other strategies also failed and he did not get the job.” In the case of Kalo most of those who got involved tried to help him secure the job without expressing any resentments about how they were approached. Neither did Kalo complain about the sum of money that was asked for.” 85

Consequent upon these explanations, I agree with Ruud that it is not as easy as people think in the Weber’s definition of corruption to distinguish between paying a bribe and remuneration in the bureaucracy for a job done in one’s favour.

Following this line of thought, Ruud writes that,

“it is not easy to draw the distinguishing lines between paying a bribe and remunerating some distant contact in the bureaucracy for a job done in your favour.”86

I want to conclude with Ruud that what is corruption and what is not is a matter of shade. While giving a bribe and using one’s contact can give the same results evaluations of the two acts are rarely the same.

85 Ruud 1998:14. In Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption. P -10.

86 op.cit. 17.



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Furthermore, drawing on ethnographic material about a set of Nepalese cultural practices known as ‘natabad – crypabad (Kondos writes that, “helping kin is known as ‘natabad’ helping others as ‘crypabad’”. Natabadcrypabad is translated to favouritism.87

Alex Kondos made an attempt to chart the meaning which ‘favouritism’ has for Nepalese in their everyday encounters with central administration. This he compared again to how the idea of favouritism is constructed by the Westernised intellectuals to mean corruption. It was interesting to note that he finds a conflict between the two opposing ideologies and argues that, what the academics tend to label as instances of corruption, those involved will view as obligations towards family and friends. This view is supported by ‘rickshaw wallas’ in Kathmandu in the following case story.

According to Kondos

“Many a ‘rickshaw walla’ in Kathmandu explains why he does not operate with a motorised version of the vehicle known as ‘tempo’ by simply saying ‘pahauch chaina’ I have no source-force ( Kondos says that, “‘source’ refers to the contact and ‘force’ refers to your contact’s power.”88

To explain this further, Kondos continues,

“During the 1970s a Cabinet Minister launched a scheme which provided for long-term interest-free bank loans to ‘rickshaw wallas’ for the purchase of ‘tempos’, arguing that, among other things, this would help up-grade the occupation which had become popular among Kathmandu’s educated youth because of lack of alternative employment opportunities. He claimed that the government’s action would demonstrate in a very concrete way its own and the people’s faith in education by illustrating that ‘education holds the key to better occupational opportunities’. The scheme was short-lived because, as the press, and the radio bulletins put it, ‘corruption’ marked the occasion. Some Nepalis insist that this was not the reason but rather the scheme became so popular that the students from all over Nepal rushed to the city ‘to cash in’ on the scheme and hiring their acquisitions to existing ‘rickshaw wallas’. It appears that those who managed ‘to cash in’ on the scheme were either relatives of the Minister or close friends of these relatives or staunch political supporters of the Minister. The ‘rickshaw wallas’ that did not manage to get the favourable bank loans expressed no complains about how these loans were

87 Kondos 1987:18 . In Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption. P -11 (Kondos writes that, “helping kin is known as ‘natabad’ helping others as ‘crypabad’”. Natabadcrypabad is translated to favouritism.

88 ibid, (Kondos- 1987:17 says that, “‘source’ refers to the contact and ‘force’ refers to your contact’s power”).



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gained. The only regret they expressed concerned their own lack of ‘source-force’. Kondos concludes that because favouritism constitutes a legitimate way of going about things in a highly traditional Hindu culture these practices are not regarded as corruption by the participants.”89

I agree with Sissener that a narrow definition on corruption makes it difficult to explain how behaviour that transcends Weberian borders of what is deemed acceptable for holders of public office, are seen as legitimate and even laudable to those involved. In order to explore the legitimacy of various practices a broader understanding of the phenomenon is essential. This will have to include a contextualised assessment of what practices are the most important seen from the actors’ point of view.

It is important here to discuss the Webster’s definition of corruption after which we compare it with other notions of corruption This will help us to be able to grasp more comprehensive definition of corruption that will be more encompassing and inclusive. This will help us in no small measure to tackle the problem of corruption in the world and especially on Africa.

As we have seen, that etymologically the word corruption originates from the Latin word, “Corruptus” which means something that is broken. As we have said earlier, there is no uniform definition of corruption, but one common definition of the concept is “abuse of a position of trust for private gain”. Corruption can also be expressed as a lack of loyalty to the community at large.”90

The Word broken as regards corruption is very interesting. This is because when things are broken, they are no more normal. Therefore, corruption breaks the society and makes them abnormal. That is why corruption seen as a dangerous dieses that should be taken seriously.

Among the organisations studied, Corruption is defined in a similar way. The variations mostly consist of the persons who should be covered by the definition. Some of the organisations studied have mainly chosen to include public sector employees in their definitions (World Bank and EU), while other donors have a broader interpretation in which private persons and employees of companies and organisations are also covered by the definition (Transparency International and OECD). NORAD emphasizes the interaction between the public and private sectors.

It is important to make a distinction between corruptions from a legal perspective and a socio-economic/moral perspective. In the first case, corruption is a criminal offence that mainly occurs in

89 Kondos 1987:17.

90 The social Science Encyclopaedia published by Routledge and Kegan Paul in 1995, edited by Adam Kuper and Jessica Kuper 1995, pg163-64.



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connection with bribery. The crime is regulated in the national criminal codes. In the second perspective, corruption has a much broader meaning. The meaning is thus less specific but is broadly regarded as a type of behaviour that does not correspond well with general perceptions of good governance, accountability, ethics, integrity, transparency, tradition and the honour of public officials91.

Unfortunately, Corruption has permeated into the society that it has become systematic, in which case, people in this type of corrupt society see corruption as a system. This is because it has become the way of doing things. This is also referred to as Systemic Corruption. An example of this is the Nigerian society where people do things in the corrupt way because they see others do it.

It should be noted that in the international debate, among donor organisations and in this work, corruption is not merely considered from the legal perspective. It is also regarded as a social problem with significant negative socio-economic consequences.

I want to make it clear here that corruption is not a new phenomenon in society. Corruption has existed as long as there have been individuals who have chosen to appropriate advantages for themselves at the expense of the common good. A lack of loyalty to the community at large can be expressed in the form of bribes, thefts of government property, fraud, extortion, giving favours (particularly jobs) to friends etc.92

According to social science theory,

“these expressions of corruption can be regarded as a collective action problem or a social trap”. 93

It is called a social trap because it is very difficult for people in this type of society to resist the temptation to plunge themselves into the mess of corruption since everybody do it the same way without punishment.

According to the individual point of view, (both the citizen and the civil servant), it is often meaningful to give oneself or one’s family different types of advantages.

It is important here to point out without equivocation that, individual rationality of this type (maximising utility) often involves a collective irrationality94.

91 . Joachim Anger, Corruption control strategy. Jan 2004 pg 1. 92 . Joachim Anger, Corruption control strategy. Jan 2004 pg 1. 93 Ibid. 94 The social Science Encyclopaedia published by Routledge and Kegan Paul in 1995, edited by Adam Kuper and Jessica Kuper 1995, pg163-64.



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We know that social trap is characterised by a situation in which everyone would gain by cooperating provided that “everyone else” cooperates. This means, if one cannot rely on the cooperation of others, it can be rational for the individual not to cooperate. If, for example, there is a general feeling that all, or most, civil servants accept bribes, it is utterly meaningless to be the only civil servant who does not do it.

I want to point out here that this is a very wrong precept because when this way of thinking and acting becomes the norm in society, society is stuck in a social trap. When the trap has closed, it can be extremely difficult for a society to extract itself from it.

From this perspective, it is particularly difficult to explain the existence of corruption since everyone else is involved. Instead, the central issue (and puzzle) is how it is possible that loyalty to the community at large can actually come into being in certain societies and in certain situations because we are all involved.

There are ways of escape from social trap as suggested by many social science literature researchers. These include

“for example audit offices, media, effective tax collection, ombudsman institutions, accountability, free and independent press, active civil society, political opposition, regular general elections, efficient legal system, rule of law, for example fair and qualifications-based public sector appointments, easily accessible information and openness, possibility of living on politicians’ and civil servants’ pay, capacity of political institutions to provide basic social services/welfare such as health and medical care, education, for example through training in appropriate conduct and civic virtues”.95

These control measures are very important in other to control corruption in various societies and organizations. We can now see that it is in the principle of these instruments that donors and other organisations work with, in different ways when drawing up policies and strategies to combat corruption in developing countries.

This is why we must note that for these instruments to be effective, it is essential that those who “govern” practise or at least are perceived as practising what they preach. Many authors believe at this juncture that it is only then that it will be possible for social capital to be spread in society, i.e. that persons who do not have a personal relationship with each other can nonetheless feel a certain degree of confidence and trust in each other.




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I therefore believe that a certain degree of trust in society between citizens, citizens’ trust in politics and institutions, and politicians’ trust in the citizens is, in fact, essential in order to avoid falling once again into the social trap.

One can however here say that, because corruption has received an extensive attention in the communities, and perhaps, due to the fact that it has been over-flogged in the academic circles, corruption has received varied definitions.

For Lipset & Lenz, Corruption is,

“efforts to secure wealth or power through illegal means – private gain at public expense; or a misuse of public power for private benefit”96.

Furthermore, for Nye, one can also say that corruption

“is a behaviour which deviates from the formal duties of a public role, because of private[gains regarding personal, close family, private clique, pecuniary or status gains. It is a behaviour which violates rules against the exercise of certain types of duties for private gains regarding influence”97.

According to this definition such behaviour as,

“bribery use of a reward to pervert the judgment of a person in a position of trust; nepotism (bestowal of patronage by reason of ascriptive relationship rather than merit); and misappropriation illegal appropriation of public resources for private uses”98.

In addition to the already crowded landscape, for Osoba, corruption is an

“anti-social behaviour conferring improper benefits contrary to legal and moral norms and which undermine the authorities to improve the living conditions of the people”. 99

7. CONCLUDING REMARKS

I wish to say here that corruption is an ambiguous phenomenon often causing diverse, ambivalent, and contradictory understandings among scholars, policymakers, and practitioners

96 Lipset and Lenz, Corruption control strategy 2000, p.112-114. 97 Nye,1967. 98 Victor E. Dike, Democracy and Political Life in Nigeria ( Zaria, Nigeria: Ahmadu Bello University Press) 2001. 99 Osoba 1996).



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alike. For that reason and given such ambiguousness, discourses of corruption can only be understood when seen as part of wider social and cultural contexts. It is important to opt for a broader understanding of corruption. I find the conventional definition on corruption too narrow and excessively concerned with the illegality of practices. For this reason, a more open approach has been argued for. Anthropology has an inventory of methodological tools and analytical approaches appropriate for capturing people’s own assessments of courses of action. Using these methods and approaches enables us to disclose what is corruption and what is not corruption seen from the actors’ own point of view. Corruption is very much an issue in public debates and everyday conversations both in Africa, Russia, and South Asia. The intention has not been to excuse illegal actions by providing an explanation by ‘culture’, but to show that the borderline for acceptable behaviour is not universal. Knowledge of peoples own views and their discourses of corruption provided by anthropologists will bring to light possible discrepancies between official and practical norms and practices. Unless practices are seen as unacceptable to the practitioners, reformations may prove hard to implement. Any ‘anti-corruption’ policy must face up to this.

In conclusion, I see Corruption as ‘deviation from the normal standard of behaviour for private gains thereby preventing the smooth running of human development in the society. When this unbridled egoistic tendency desire is left unchecked, it disorganizes the entire society, and/or with the .knowledge of peoples own views (culture) and their discourses of corruption provided by anthropologists will bring to light possible discrepancies between official and practical norms and practices. Unless practices are seen as unacceptable to the practitioners, reformations may prove hard to implement. Any ‘anti-corruption’ policy must face up to this.

Even though some of these definitions of corruption used in this work, have been around for over decades, the recent development in Nigeria where discoveries of stolen public funds run into billions of US Dollars and Nigeria Naira, make these definitions adequate and appropriate. Corruption is probably the main means to accumulate quick wealth in Nigeria. Corruption occurs in many forms, and it has contributed immensely to the poverty and misery of a large segment of the Nigerian population.

C. T HE NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF CORRUPTION

It is important to note at this point, that some studies have taken a holistic (broader) approach in the discussion of Corruption by dividing it into many forms and sub-divisions. We shall therefore look at the various forms of Corruption as follows:



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1) Political Corruption (grand); 2) Bureaucratic Corruption (petty); and 3) Electoral Corruption. 4) Systemic Corruption 5) Structural Corruption 6) Organized Corruption.

1. POLITICAL CORRUPTION

Political corruption takes place at the highest levels of political authority. This is said to take place, “when the politicians and political decision-makers, who are entitled to formulate, establish and implement the laws in the name of the people, are themselves corrupt. It also takes place when policy formulation and legislation is tailored to benefit politicians and legislators. Political corruption is sometimes seen as similar to corruption of greed as it affects the manner in which decisions are made, as it manipulates political institutions, rules of procedure, and distorts the institutions of government”100.

2. BUREAUCRATIC CORRUPTION

Bureaucratic Corruption (petty); it is observed that bureaucratic corruption occurs in the public administration or the implementation end of politics.

“This kind of corruption has been branded low level and street level. It is the kind of corruption the citizens encounter daily at places like the hospitals, schools, local licensing offices, police, taxing offices and on and on. Bureaucratic petty corruption, which is seen as similar to corruption of need, occurs when one obtains a business from the public sector through inappropriate procedure”.101

100 NORAD, ch.4, Jan. 2000; The Encyclopaedia Americana, 1999. 101 See also NORAD, ch.4, 2000).



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3. ELECTORAL CORRUPTION

As its name suggests, Electoral corruption includes purchase of votes with money, promises of office or special favours, coercion, intimidation, and interference with freedom of election Nigeria is a good example where this practice is common. Votes are bought, people are killed or maimed in the name of election, losers end up as the winners in elections, and votes turn up in areas where votes were not cast.

“Corruption in office involves sales of legislative votes, administrative, or judicial decision, or governmental appointment. Disguised payment in the form of gifts, legal fees, employment, favours to relatives, social influence, or any relationship that sacrifices the public interest and welfare, with or without the implied payment of money, is usually considered corrupt”102.

4. SYSTEMIC CORRUPTION

Systemic Corruption: This is where corrupt practices become the Norm in the society-this how we do it.

5. STRUCTURAL CORRUPTION

Structural Corruption as the name suggests, is when the society and government structures are involved in Corruption in an organized way that it becomes the parts and parcel of them without any person frowning at what the other person is doing that is wrong.

6. Organized Corruption: This is when a group of people specially or otherwise organise themselves for the purpose Corrupt practices. They do hide and seek and cover up among themselves in the society.

D. OTHER ACTUAL FORMS OF CORRUPTION

There are many other forms of corrupt practices, but for the meantime, let us limit ourselves with the following six forms as examples:

102 The Encyclopaedia Americana, 1999.



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1. BRIBERY:

The payment (in money or kind) that is taken or given in a corrupt relationship this includes kickbacks, gratuities, pay-off, sweeteners, greasing palms, etc.103

2. FRAUD:

It involves some kind of trickery, swindle and deceit, counterfeiting, racketing, smuggling and forgery104.

3. EMBEZZLEMENT:

This is theft of public resources by public officials. It is when a state official steals from the public institution in which he/she is employed. In Nigeria the embezzlement of public funds is one of the most common ways of economic accumulation, perhaps, due to lack of strict regulatory systems.

4. EXTORTION:

This is money and other resources extracted by the use of coercion, violence or threats to use force. It is often seen as extraction from below (The police and custom officers are the main culprits in Nigeria)105.

103Bayart al Corruption in Africa. 1997, p.11 104 Ibid.



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5. FAVOURITISM:

This is a mechanism of power abuse implying a highly biased distribution of state resources. However, this is seen as a natural human proclivity to favour friends, family and anybody close and trusted.

6. NEPOTISM:

This is a special form of favouritism in which an office holder prefers his/her kinfolk and family members. Nepotism, which is also common in Nigeria, occurs when one is exempted from the application of certain laws or regulations or given undue preference in the allocation of scarce resources106.

There are other forms of corruption that are not mentioned here some of which are even worse than the one’s I have already mentioned. These are mentioned for us to take note.

The question then is what are we going to do in this present situation? How do we tackle this endemic problem called corruption? In the report on Second Global Forum on Fighting and Safeguarding Integrity, it was observed that,

(E). THE CAUSES OF CORRUPTION

Corruption arises from institutional attributes of the state and societal attribute towards formal

political process. Institutional attributes that encourage corruption include wide authority of the

state, which offer significant opportunities for corruption, minimal accountability, which reduces

the cost of corrupt behaviour and perverse incentives in governmental employment which induces

105ibid 106 (NORAD, ch.1, ch.2 and ch.4, Jan. 2000; Amundsen, 1997; Girling 1997; also see Fairbanks, Jr. 1999).



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self-serving rather than public serving behaviour. Societal attitudes fostering corruption include

allegiance to personal loyalties over objective rules, low legitimacy of government, and dominance

of a political party or ruling elite over political and economic process.

From the USAID Hand Book for Fighting Corruption, the following major causes of corruption can be deduced.

Major Causes Illustrative Responses.

1) Wide Authority 1) limit authority (e.g.; increase competitive binding, privatized

Industry.

2) Limited Accountability. 2) Increased accountability through greater transparency (e.g.

more elective offices, financial disclosure.

-greater oversight (e.g. audit office, inspector general)

-increased sanctions (e.g. increased enforcement laws)

3) Wrong incentives 3) Realign incentives (e.g.; provided living wages,)

on performance.

4).Weak institutions 4) build transparent decision making procedures, checks and

balances of independent courts.

5) Underdeveloped civil society 5) strengthen business association watch dogs groups

Advocacy society organization ns, political parties,

Independent labour unions and independent media for

for example.107

It should be noted also that political or economic uncertainty can provide power incentives to government officials who fear that a change of government will affect their positions, prompting attempt to maximize their present situation by engaging in corrupt acts. Levels of corruption are thus high during periods of economical or political transformation.

107 USAID Hand Book for Fighting Corruption, October 1998



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Again, if the bureaucracy is inefficient, bribery can be used to speed up the granting of license and permits; conversely, this practice may provide a significant motivation to maintain bureaucratic inefficiency.

Furthermore, some economists try to incorporate the ethical dimension into their analysis, categorizing the moral cost of breaking the laws as a distinctive towards committing a corrupt act.

Most often individual’s values, ethic and tastes of government officially are accepted as giving, and they are regarded as rational beings maximizing their personal utility or office. The potential benefit and costs are usually considered in relation to economic development which can be Brocken down into economic growth, political development and national integration.

As we have seen above, it is clear that many factors give rise to the corrupt behaviours in our various societies.

For instance, in June 27, 2002, according to Reuters, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had to relieve some of its officials of their posts because they had taken bribes. And all the commissioners of the European Union (EU), resigned because they, too, had been found to be corrupt beyond acceptable limits. In the United States, Enron Corporation, an energy giant and WorldCom, a telecommunication company, were charged with fraud. The companies ‘manipulated their balanced sheets, profit and loss account and tax liabilities.’ Enron’s accountant, Arthur Andersen, collapsed for greed and fraud as it was charged with obstruction of justice in connection to the Enron probe108.

We can say here that the above examples are but tip of the iceberg! Yet, analysts tend to believe that developed countries are less corrupt than developing nations.

Wraith & Simpkings pointed out that,

“ throughout the fabric of public life in newly Independent State…runs the scarlet thread of bribery and corruption”.109

This is an uphill task, for the simple reason that it is difficult if not impossible to find an honest people in the society since corruption has become almost the way of life of the people.

According to Nye,

“it will probably be "difficult to secure by honest means a visa to a developing country.”110

That would be the subject of a corruption study.

108 (Reuters June 27, 2002; the Observer (UK), June 9, 2002). 109 (Wraith and Simpkins 1963). 110 (Nye 1967).



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Another very important question one could ask is why is corruption a viable enterprise in the Third World (Nigeria) for instance?

As we shall see, the causes of corruption are myriad; and they have political and cultural variables. And,

“Some evidence point to a link between corruption and social diversity, ethno-linguistic fractionalization, and the proportions of country’s population adhering to different religious traditions”111

Accordingly, many studies have shown that “corruption is widespread in most non-democratic countries, and particularly, in countries that have been branded ‘neo-patrimonial,’ ‘kleptocratic’ and ‘prebendal”’112

This is exactly why the political system and the culture of a society could make the citizens more prone to corrupt activities. However, we shall focus on the fundamental factors that engender corrupt practices in less developed nations, including Nigeria. Some of the factors include:

1) Great inequality in distribution of wealth; 2) Political office as the primary means of gaining access to wealth; 3) Conflict between changing moral codes; 4) The weakness of social and governmental enforcement mechanisms; and 5) The absence of a strong sense of national community113.

Studies have shown that the causes of corruption in Nigeria cannot deviate significantly, if at all, from the above factors. In any case,

1. Great inequality in distribution of wealth;

This is a very important factor and one of the most causes of corruption in the society. This happens when three are too much gaps between the poor and the rich in the society especially in Nigeria. There seem to be completion on who will accumulate more wealth in the society. It does not matter how one becomes rich. According to Ndiulor,

111 2000. Lipset and Lenz, Corruption control strategy 2000, p.112-114. 112 NORAD 2000. 113 ibid



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“Obsession with materialism, compulsion for a shortcut to affluence, glorification and approbation of ill-gotten wealth by the general public, are among the reasons for the persistence of corruption in Nigeria”.114

The life style in Nigeria is a very great problem and consequently the source of corruption in Nigeria. One can easily see that one of the popular, but unfortunate indices of good life in Nigeria is flamboyant affluence and conspicuous consumption. Because of this, some people get into dubious activities, including 'committing ritual murder for money-making.' The cases of ritual murder abound in Nigeria, but a few examples will suffice. According to report,

“A middle-aged woman and an SSS3 female student were reportedly beheaded in Akure, the Ondo State capital recently”115.

The story of the ritual killing episode at Owerri in Imo State has it that,

“A well-known proprietor of 'Otokoto' hotel, Clement Duru was reported to have been killing and selling the body parts of some of the travellers that checked into his hotel at Owerri. And recently, another incident of ritual killing was reported in the area.”116 (Ogugbuaja).

From the reports as seen above, we can infer that something is wrong. That is, the placement of our values. The lack of ethical standards throughout the agencies of government and business organizations in Nigeria is a serious drawback.

According to Bowman, ethics is action,

“the way we practice our values; it is a guidance system to be used in making decisions. The issue of ethics in public sector [and in private life] encompasses a broad range, including a stress on obedience to authority, on the necessity of logic in moral reasoning, and on the necessity of putting moral judgement into practice”117.

114 Ndiulor, March 17, 1999 115 This Day News, July 7, 2002. 116 The Guardian, May 16, 2002. 117 Bowman 1991.



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2. POLITICAL OFFICE AS THE PRIMARY MEANS OF GAINING ACCESS TO WEALTH;

This is the situation Where Political posts have now become the means of accumulating ill-gotten wealth. For this reason, elections have become a do or die affair.

It is quite unfortunate, that many officeholders in Nigeria (appointed or elected) do not unfortunately, have clear conceptions of the ethical demands of their position. Even as corrupt practices are going off the roof, little attention, if any, is being given to this ideal.

We can also refer to other factors such as poor reward system and greed;

3. CONFLICT BETWEEN CHANGING MORAL CODES;

This is a situation where good morals have been thrown overboard. For this reason,

Nigeria’s reward system is, perhaps, the poorest in the world. Nigeria is a society where national priorities are turned upside down; hard work is not rewarded, but rogues are often glorified in Nigeria. Arthur Schlesinger said of America in the 60s, that,

“Our (the )trouble with Nigeria is not that our capabilities are inadequate. It is that our priorities - which mean our values – are wrong”118.

Peer community and extended family pressures, and ‘polygamous household’ are other reasons119. The influence of extended family system and pressure to meet family obligations are more in less developed societies. Lawrence Harrison acknowledged that the extended family system “is an effective institution for survival,” but notes that it possesses a big “obstacle for development”120 .

I therefore believe that we must change our way of thinking, especially, our bad rules, According to Edward Lotterman,

118 Howard 1982. 119 Onalaja and Onalaja, 1997. 120 Lawrence Harrison, 1985, p.7.



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“Bad rules and ‘ineffective taxing system,’ which makes it difficult to track down people’s financial activities, breed corruption”121.

4. THE WEAKNESS OF SOCIAL AND GOVERNMENTAL ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS;

We must also re-organize our tax system. This is because ineffective taxing system is a serious problem for Nigeria. The society should institute an appropriate and effective taxing system where everyone is made to explain his or her sources of income, through end-of-the-year income tax filing. The recent ban on importation of Tokumbo (used car) over five years of manufacture, is in our opinion, an example of a bad policy that could breed corruption. If this anti-business ban is not reviewed or discarded completely, it will, as many critics have noted affect the economy, as those making a living in the business will be exposed to poverty, and subsequently, corruption. Businessmen would be forced to bribe the corrupt custom officials (to allow the cars in), causing the state to lose the needed tax revenue. In addition, the policy will divert business to other neighbouring countries122 (Pioneer Press, April 25, 2002). To tame corruption, the society should try to get rid of regulations that serve little or no purposes.

Furthermore, the lack of seriousness or lukewarm attitude of those who are supposed to enforce the laws of the land (judges, police officers and public officials) could lead to people engaging in corrupt behaviour, knowing well that they would get away with it. Some cultural and institutional factors lead to corruption. For instance, Nepotism and the strength of family values are linked to the feeling of obligation which can breed and nurture corruption.

It is on this note, especially the relationship between culture and corruption that Robert K. Merton in his work “means-ends schema” implies that,

“Corruption is at times a motivated behaviour responding to social pressures to violate the norms, so as to meet the set goals and objectives of a social system.”123

Often times we miss our good opportunities due to corrupt practices.

According to Lipset,

121 Edward Lotterman (Pioneer Press, April 25, 2002. 122 Pioneer Press, April 25, 2002. 123 Robert K. Merton. (1968).



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“Those going through corrupt means (through the back door, so to say), to achieve their objectives have little or no access to opportunity structure. The hindrance to economic opportunity, according to the study, could be a result of their race, ethnicity, lack of skills, capital, material and other human resources. And that cultures that stress economic success as an important goal but nevertheless strongly restricts access to opportunities will have higher levels of corruption”.124

5. THE ABSENCE OF A STRONG SENSE OF NATIONAL COMMUNITY;

Lack or low access to economic opportunities among the Nigerian populace breeds corruption. That probably explains the high incidence of corrupt behaviours in Nigeria. As a Nigerian News Paper puts it,

“Many Nigerians are highly achievement oriented, but they have relatively low access to economic opportunities. For example many civil servants work for months without getting paid”125.

Despite this ugly situation, the society expects them to be honest and productive. And to crown it all, many of those civil servants working without pay are parents, who are expected to train their children in schools with empty wallet. How can they do that? Are they magicians? No! Under this condition, many citizens would reject the rule of the game (societal norms) and criminally innovate to make ends meet.

Our attitude to wealth especially the ill-gotten wealth is a thing of concern in Nigerian society. This why a Nigerian “This Day Online” has this to say,

“The ‘brazen display of wealth by public officials,’ which they are unable to explain the source, points to how bad corruption has reached in the society. Many of these officials before being elected or appointed into offices had little or modest income. But now, they are owners of many properties around the world”126.

The above ugly and unfortunate situations are highly unbearable. The situations are not the same in some developed world like United States of America.

According to CNN News,

124 Lipset and Lenze, (2000, pp. 112-117. 125 This Day, July 7, 2002; Daily Trust, July 9, 2002. 126 This Day Online, June 24, 2002.



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“while in contrast with the United States, many of the elected officials are known to be modest in living (There are some bad eggs in their midst, but they face the laws when they are found wanting). The 2000 financial disclosure forms released in 2001, which is required annually for all 535 members of Congress (House and Senate members), show that many of them live relatively modest. (The financial forms show sources of outside income, assets, liabilities, speech honoraria donated to charity and travel paid by private interests; by law, honoraria are donated to charity). The main asset of the Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle (the nation’s highest-ranking Democrat, with direct influence over billions of federal dollars), is a one-half share in a house in Aberdeen, South Dakota, given by his mother and worth between $50,000 and $100,000 in income”127 (CNN News, June 14, 2001).

I wish to observe here that the contrast is clear. This is because, if he were a Nigerian, he could have owned many million-dollar homes in beautiful areas in London and the United States (all over Nigeria too), and decorated himself with countless traditional titles.

Again, family orientation can have serious adverse effect on corruption practices.

According to Edward Benfield,

“there is a relationship between corruption and strong family orientation. The study, which helped to explain high levels of corruption in southern Italy and Sicily, notes that “corruption is linked to the strong family values involving intense feelings of obligation.” That was the case with the Mafia in Italy where some people were seen to have the attitude of “anything goes that advances the interests of one’s self and family”128.

One becomes clear that all the above enumerated problems, can lead to corruption and should be taken care of as a matter of urgency as the Daily Trust puts it,

“including bad practices of non-payment or late payment of workers, bad business cultures of delays and refusal, or late payment for services executed by business establishments in Nigeria are forms of corruption. These kinds of behaviours have the tendency to scare away foreign and local investors, with tremendous negative effects on the economy”129.

However, in the face of all these problems, the Church’s social teaching is an integral part of her evangelizing ministry. Nothing that concerns the community of men and women-situations and problems regarding justice, freedom, development, relations between peoples, peace is foreign to evangelization and evangelization would be incomplete if it did not take into account the mutual

127 CNN News, June 14, 2001. 128 Edward Banfield, 1958. 129 Daily Trust, July 9, 2002.



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demands continually made by the Gospel and by the concrete, personal and social life of man. They include eminently evangelical order, which is that of charity:

According to the Social doctrine of the Church,

“how in fact can one proclaim the new commandment without promoting in justice and in peace the true, authentic advancement of man.”130

The Church through her social teaching seeks to proclaim the Gospel and make it present in the complex net work of social relations. It is not simply a matter of reaching out to man in society-man as the recipient of the proclamation of the Gospel-but of enriching and permeating society itself with the Gospel131

This means that for the Church therefore, tending to the needs of man means that she also involves society in her missionary and salvific work. The way people live together in society often determines the quality of life and therefore the condition in which every man and woman understand themselves and make decisions concerning themselves and their vocation. For this reason, the Church is not indifferent in what is decided, brought about or experienced in society; she is attentive to the moral quality that is, the authentically human and humanizing aspects of social life. Society-and with it, politics, the economy, labour law, culture-is not simply a secular and worldly reality, and therefore outside or foreign to the message and economy of salvation. Society in fact, with all that is accomplished within it, concerns man. Society is made of men and women, who are the “primary and fundamental way for the Church132”

This is why according to the social doctrine of the Church,

“By means of her social doctrine, the Church takes on the task of proclaiming what the Lord has entrusted on to her. She makes the message of the freedom and redemption wrought by Christ, the Gospel of the Kingdom, present in human history. In proclaiming the Gospel, the Church bears witness to man, in the name of Christ, to his dignity and his vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches him the demands of justice and peace in conformity with divine wisdom”133.

130 Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004 no.66. p37.

131 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 40 AAS 58 (1966).

132 John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, 14: AAS 71 (1979, 284.

133 Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004 no.63. p35.



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Therefore, the Church in her prophetic must of necessity of her to call to bear witness to truth and justice fight against all factors that bring about corruption in the society, since corruption is against human development.

F. EFFECTS OF CORRUPTION

A. THE POSITIVE EFFECTS OF CORRUPTION FOR THOSE INVOLVED

When one talks of the positive effect of corruption, it looks odd for some people that one can talk of some positive aspects of corruption for the simple reason that corruption in itself is negative and therefore should produce only negative effects. However, it should be noted that until the 1980s, scholarly research on corruption was largely confined to the fields of sociology, political science, history, public administration, and criminal law. Since then, economists have also turned their interest to this topic, largely on account of its increasingly evident link to economic performance. Much of the early research focused on weaknesses in public institutions and distortions in economic policies that gave rise to rent seeking by public officials and the incubation of corrupt practices. It also highlighted some positive effects of corruption, which were discounted in the subsequent literature.134

However, one can say that there exist some advantages of corruption in the nation’s development. It is observed that through corrupt means one can get rich faster. This is because one can get what he wants through the back door.

According to Pye, “despite the immoral aspect and pernicious effects of corruption, some scholars have argued that corruption can be beneficial to political development or political modernization"135.

And for Nye,

134 George T. Abed and Sanjeey Gupta, “The Economics of Corruption: An Overview”. 2002 International Monetary Fund, September 23, 2002 p1.

135 Pye, March 1965.



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“Political modernization or development means growth in the capacity of a society's governmental structures and processes to maintain their legitimacy over time (presumably in time of social change) by contributing to economic development, national integration and administrative capacity, and so on”136.

Nevertheless, Max Gluckman opined that,

“scandals associated with corruption sometimes have the effect of strengthening a value system of a society as a whole”137.

Some have argued that the vast gap between literate official and illiterate peasant, which is often characteristic of the countryside, may be bridged if the peasant approaches the official bearing traditional gifts or their (corrupt) money equivalent.

In addition, some writers have noted that corruption may help to ease the transition from traditional life to a modern political life.

McMullan points out that,

“a degree of low-level corruption’ can 'soften relations of officials and people.”138.

These observations are common occurrences in Nigeria where communities pay political visits to their Governors, Commissioners and top civil servants with cows, wines, cola nuts and money stuffed in bags that is named by Nigerians ‘Ghana must go’ in other to get the corrupt governors attend to their local problems faster and even when they are not qualified or not their turn to receive these facilities or benefits.

The apparent benefits of corruption notwithstanding, we are here mainly concerned with the evils of corruption. Any right thinking person in Nigeria where ubiquitous corruption has ravaged the society will find it impossible to agree that corruption is beneficial, no matter how plausible it may be. And Shils notes that corruption can 'humanize government and make it less awesome'139.

It should be noted that despite the fact that the international organizations consistently claim that corruption hinders economic growth, economists have not necessarily agreed with the claim from theoretical standpoints

136 Ibid. 137 Max Gluckman, (1955). 138 McMullan, July 1961. 139 Shils, (1962).



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Theoretically, some scholars like Leff believe that corruption can produce positive effect in economy insofar as it relaxes the rigid regulations imposed by the government. More than 30 years ago, Leff, first argued that,

“Corruption might promote economic growth as it relaxes inefficient and rigid regulations imposed by government”140.

It is also interesting to note that since the mid 1980s, some economists have formalized mechanisms, in which corruption enhances efficiency and promotes growth. For instance, Lui argues that,

“bureaucrats, when allocating business licenses to firms, give priority to those who evaluate time at the greatest value and bribe the bureaucrats into speeding up procedures”141

Furthermore, one can argue according to Shleifer and Vishny that,

“corruption enables private agents to buy their way out of politically imposed inefficiencies”142. This is true especially in developing countries like Nigeria where many private agents buy their ways out of some corrupt situations in which they entangled themselves.

Again, Tullock argues that,

“Corruption may make possible smaller or no salary payments to officials who, if carefully supervised, will still carry out their functions on a fee-for-service basis”143.

Corruption can make it possible for corrupt individuals to become rich quicker through ill gotten wealth at the detriment of others.

However, we can then see that theoretical studies suggest that corruption may counteract government failure and promote economic growth in the short run, given exogenously determined suboptimal bureaucratic rules and regulations. As the government failure is itself a function of corruption, however, corruption should have detrimental effects on economic growth in the long

140 Leff 1964 in Nobuo Akai, Short-run and Long-run Effects of Corruption on Economic Growth: Evidence from State-Level Cross-Section Data for the United States, Last Updated: 9 June 2005 p1.

141 Lui 1985, in Nobuo Akai, Yusaku Horiuchi and Masayo Sakata, Short-run and Long-run Effects of Corruption on Economic Growth: Evidence from State-Level Cross-Section Data for the United States, Last Updated: 9 June 2005 p1. 142 Shleifer and Vishny 1994:1013

143 Tullock 1996:6.



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run. In practice, policymakers and economists care more about such long-term consequences of corruption than the short-term effects.144

Furthermore, Beck and Maher and Lien developed auction models arguing that bribes in a bidding process can promote efficiency because most efficient firms are often those who can afford the highest bribe.145

I wish to conclude by saying without mincing words that corruption has more negative effects than it has positive effects. This is because; whatever positive effects corruption may have, they are limited to short term. Consequently, Economics consider more the long term implications of corruption, and that is for me what matters.

B. THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF CORRUPTION

It is crystal clear that the negative effects of corruption are very enormous and override in no small measure the positive effects of corruption on economic growth. As Nobuo Akai, Yusaku Horiuchi and Masayo Sakata put it,

“We also select proper instruments by testing their validity. Considering these factors, we show that the effect of corruption on economic growth is indeed negative and statistically significant in the middle and long spans but insignificant in the short span.”146

Following this line of thought, some scholars, such as Tanzi and Aidt, have recently refuted these arguments that corruption has positive effects for various reasons.

First and foremost, they maintained strongly that private firms paying a high bribe are not necessarily economically competitive firms and for them, if a firm with potentially talented individuals engages in rent-seeking activities instead of more productive activities, such a sub-

144 Nobuo Akai, Yusaku Horiuchi and Masayo Sakata, Short-run and Long-run Effects of Corruption on Economic

Growth: Evidence from State-Level Cross-Section Data for the United States, Last Updated: 9 June 2005 p1.

145 Beck and Meher, 1986.

146 Nobuo Akai, Yusaku Horiuchi and Masayo Sakata, Short-run and Long-run Effects of Corruption on Economic Growth: Evidence from State-Level Cross-Section Data for the United States, Last Updated: 9 June 2005 p5.



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optimal use of human capital will damage macroeconomic. For that reason, they are of the view that the private firms are often forced to make side-payments to government officials to run their business in many countries, such as Indonesia, Russia and Ukraine, and the cost of such corruption is particularly high for small but emerging enterprises, which can be a driving force of economic growth.147

For Aidt, the second argument is that, corruption acts as an arbitrary tax for those giving bribes to public officials, as they have to bear the cost of searching for “partners” and negotiating with them. Because of such rent-seeking costs, according to him, the auction model’s claim that bribery is equivalent to competitive auction as the same firm wins the prize at the same price under two arrangements is irresistibly invalid.

On the other hand, it becomes true that when corrupt officials rather than the treasury collect revenues from individuals and firms, an opportunity to lower the tax burden is lost.

Finally, government officials intentionally impose rigidities in order to extract bribes, thus officials know that the more rigidities they impose the more opportunity they have for extracting bribes. Similarly, if bribes are used to speed up procedures, bureaucrats may further slow down the administrative procedures.

Consequently and in the final analysis, Tanzi and Aidt believes that when corruption allows public officials to receive private benefits secretly and arbitrarily, they do not perform their expected role of fixing market failures, and instead create even more market failures. The government’s fundamental role of protecting property rights is also distorted, and its accountability and transparency are diminished 148

Tanzi and Aidt having considered all the above arguments, regard the last argument as particularly important. As some economists argue, corruption may work as the second-best solution to market distortions imposed by government procedures and policies at least in the short run. In the long run, however, corruption itself produces further market distortions and reduces market efficiency.149

According to Lui,

147 Tanzi 1998:582) and Aidt (2003:634–35.

148 op cit p7

149 Ibid.



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“corruption has two effects; (i) a positive level [Short-term] effect on allocative efficiency; and (ii) a negative effect on the economy’s long-term growth rate”. 150

I agree with Nobuo Akai, that although the first effect still remains a matter of debate, there seems to be no theoretical disagreement for the latter. Furthermore, in practice, what policymakers and economists often care about is not the short-run effect but the long-run effect.

*One would be tempted to ask: what is the difference between the effect of corruption and the evils of it. I would say that, the effect of corruption can have advantages and disadvantages while the evils of corruption do not have advantage because it is always negative and evil.

The evils of corruption abound and are as follows-

According to the Guardian News Paper,

“through corrupt means many political office holders acquire wealth and properties in and outside Nigeria; and many display their wealth (which is beyond the means), but the society does not blink. This has made politics a big business in Nigeria, because anything spent to secure a political office is regarded as an investment, which matures immediately one gets into office” 151

Many studies have been conducted that show the evils or consequences of corruption. And corruption has taught the Nigeria a dangerous and wrong lesson that it does not pay to be honest, hardworking and law-abiding.

As Welch Jr., puts it,

“The General Buhari's post-coup broadcast to Nigerians in 1983 is a case in point.”152

It should be noted with utmost dismay that Corruption wastes skills as precious time is often wasted to set up unending committees to fight corruption, and to monitor public projects. It also leads to aid forgone. Some foreign donors do not give aid to corrupt nations. For instance, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has withdrawn development support from some nations that are notoriously corrupt. And the World Bank has introduced tougher anti-corruption standards into its lending policies to corrupt countries. Similarly, other organizations such as the Council of Europe and the Organization of American States are taking tough measures against international corruption.

150 Lui 1996:28.

151 The Guardian, July 14, 2002. 152 Welch, Jr., 1987.



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Corruption is politically destabilizing, as it leads to social revolution and military takeovers. Most "post-coup rationalizations" in less developed worlds point to corruption. But hiding under the excuse of corruption to topple a legitimate government in Nigeria will seize to be a credible reason for the involvement of the military in Nigerian politics in future. This is because many of the previous military leaders in Nigeria were as corrupt, if not more corrupt than the civilian politicians they replaced. Corruption was even blamed for the first 1966 military coup in Nigeria (and that in Ghana too).

According to Wallenstein however,

“The post-electoral crisis in the Western region and the fear of northern domination of the affairs of Nigeria were other reasons.”153

As Callaghy puts it,

“Because of the widespread of petty and grand the international business community regard the whole of Africa as a sinkhole that swallows their money with little or no return."154

With the recent changes in the political economy of East Europe, the attention of the business world has been turned to this area where they may reap quicker results from their investments.

I agree with Lord Bishop of Guilford, David Peck who said,

“that Bribery and corruption, the culture of late payment, delays or refusal of payment for services already done, are scaring away British investors from Nigeria...those who fail to pay companies for services done seem to forget that the life blood of any company is its cash flow... the price of corruption is poverty.”155

According to Mauro,

“Corruption causes a reduction in quality of goods and services available to the public, as some companies could cut corners to increase profit margins. Corruption effects investment, economic growth, and government expenditure choices; it also reduces private investment”156 Above all, corruption can tarnish the image of a country.

To buttress this point, one African diplomat could not say it any better:

153Wallenstein, March 14, 1966; and Kilson, Jan. 31, 1966. 154 Callaghy 1994. 155 Lord Bishop of Guilford, David Peck, (Daily Trust, July 9, 2002. 156 Mauro 1997.



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"Eastern Europe is [now] the sexiest beautiful girl, and we [Africa] are an old tattered lady. People are tired of Africa. So many countries so many wars."157

As we have seen, what is happening in Africa is a blueprint of the problem facing Nigeria.

As Adams puts it,

“The nation’s unworkable economic policies, blatant corruption in fact, the fossilized system of government has brought almost everything to a halt.”158

And for Sen,

“Thus, corruption discourages honest effort and valuable economic activities; and it breeds inefficiency and nepotism. Corruption leads to possible ‘information distortion’ as it ‘cooks the books;’ and ‘a high level of corruption can make public policies ineffective’.159

As we have seen, Nigeria suffers more than most nations from an appalling international image created by its inability to deal with bribery and corruption.

The bad effects of corruption are as one would expect, more than its good effects. Among the good effects of corruption are: Through corrupt means some developed countries cheat the so called undeveloped world. This they do by making use of corrupt officials to achieve their purpose which would not have been possible taking the right track. For example, Raw Materials like crude oil, iron ore, tin etc. Consequently some of these undeveloped countries become poorer.

Again, the Corruption effects on the nation’s socio-political and economic development are myriad and cannot be over emphasised.

According to Mauro,

“The negative effects impact economic growth as it, among other things, reduces public spending on education”.160

Because of the seriousness of the negative impact Corruption has on the growth of a nation, the following authors have these statements to make:

According to Lipset and Lenz,

“the effect on growth is in part, a result of reduced level of investment, as it adds to investment risk” 161.

157 Newsweek Education Program - Fall/1994, 'conflict in Africa'. 158 Adams, May/June, 1995. 159 Sen 1999, p.135; also see Reuters’ Jessica Hall on WorldCom, June 27, 2002. 160 Mauro, 1997; and 1995.



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For Shleifer & Vishny,

“the effect of corruption on education comes from the fact that the government spends relatively more on items to make room for graft162. As Lipset & Lenz put it, “corrupt government officials would shift government expenditures to areas in which they can collect bribes easily. Large and hard-to-manage projects, such as airports or highways, make fraud easy. In addition, poverty and income inequalities are tied to corruption”163.

Furthermore, development projects are often made unnecessarily complex in Nigeria to justify the corrupt and huge expense on it. The new national stadium in Abuja, which is said to have gulped millions of Naira more than necessary, is a case in point.

G. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AS CONCEIVED BY POPE BENEDICT XVI VERITAS IN CARITATE AND THE

COMPENDIUM OF THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH.

1. WHAT IS HUMAN DEVELOPMENT?

There is fairly broad agreement on certain aspects of the human development paradigm.

According to the Social teachings of the Church,

“Men and women who are made new by the Love of God are able to change the rules and the quality of relationships, transforming even social structures. They are people capable of bringing peace where there is conflict, of building and nurturing fraternal relationships where there is hatred, of seeking justice where there prevails the exploitation of man by man. Only love is capable of radically transforming the relationships that men maintain among themselves. This is the perspective that allows every person of good will to perceive the broad horizons of justice and human development in truth and goodness.”164

161 Lipset and Lenz, 2000. 162Shleifer and Vishny, 1993; Lipset and Lenz, 2002. 163 Lipset and Lenz 2000. 164 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004.no. p2.



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While, human development paradigm defines the ends of development and analyses sensible options for achieving them by maintaining that, development must put people at the centre of its concerns. The purpose of development is to enlarge all human choices, not just income.

The human development paradigm is concerned both with building up human capabilities through investment in people and with using those human capabilities fully through and enabling framework for growth and empowerment165.

However, Pope Paul VI had an articulated vision of development. At which he also put People at the Centre of its concern. He understood the term to indicate,

“The goal of rescuing peoples, first and foremost, from hunger, deprivation, endemic diseases and illiteracy166”.

I find this definition very strong. This is because, from the economic point of view, this meant their active participation, on equal terms, in the international economic process; from the social point of view, it meant their evolution into educated societies marked by solidarity; from the political point of view, and it meant the consolidation of democratic regimes capable of ensuring freedom and peace.

In this regard, after so many years, as we look closely with concern the developments and perspectives of the succession of crises that afflict the world today, we ask to what extent Paul VI's expectations have been fulfilled by the model of development adopted in recent decades. We recognize, therefore, that the Church had good reason to be concerned about the capacity of a purely technological society to set realistic goals and to make good use of the instruments at its disposal.

In fact, when the Church,

“fulfils her mission of proclaiming the Gospel, she bears witness to man, in the name of Christ, to his dignity and his vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches him the demand of justice and peace in conformity with the divine wisdom.”167

According to Benedict XVI,

“Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced

165 Sen 1999, p.135; also see Reuters’ Jessica Hall on WorldCom, June 27, 2002.

166 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter CARITAS IN VERITE, 2009. 167 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2419.



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by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty168”.

Therefore it can be clearly observed that the economic development that Paul VI hoped to see was meant to produce real growth, of benefit to everyone and genuinely sustainable. It is true that growth has taken place, and it continues to be a positive factor that has lifted billions of people out of misery but most unfortunately and recently due to corruption, it has given many countries the possibility of becoming effective players in international politics.

Furthermore and in a more serious note, it can be seen that this same economic growth has been and continues to be weighed down by malfunctions and dramatic problems, highlighted even further by the current crisis. As Benedict XVI puts it,

“This presents us with choices that cannot be postponed concerning nothing less than the destiny of man, who, moreover, cannot prescient from his nature. The technical forces in play, the global interrelations, the damaging effects on the real economy of badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing, large-scale migration of peoples, often provoked by some particular circumstance and then given insufficient attention, the unregulated exploitation of the earth's resources: all this leads us today to reflect on the measures that would be necessary to provide a solution to problems that are not only new in comparison to those addressed by Pope Paul VI, but also, and above all, of decisive impact upon the present and future good of humanity169”.

I believe that in whatever way we may see it, the different aspects of the crisis, its solutions, and any new development that the future may bring, are increasingly interconnected, they imply one another, and they require new efforts of holistic understanding and a new humanistic synthesis170.

According to the doctrine of the Church,

“the solution to the problem of development requires cooperation among individual political communities. Political communities condition one another and we can affirm that each one will succeed its development by contributing to the development of others. For this to happen, understanding and collaboration are essential.171”

This means also that the solution must be done in a holistic way comprising all the other strategies.

168 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2419 169 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate , 2009. 170 Ibid.

171 John XXIII, Encyclical Letter, Mater ET Magistra: AAS 53 (1961).



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The complexity and gravity of the present economic situation rightly cause us concern, but we must adopt a realistic attitude which for me must include anti-corruption strategy that is holistic and integral in its pursuit as we take up with confidence and hope the new responsibilities to which we are called by the prospect of a world in need of profound cultural renewal, a world that needs to rediscover fundamental values on which to build a better future.

According to the social doctrine of the Church,

“It may seem that underdevelopment is impossible to eliminate, as though it were a death sentence, especially considering the fact that it is not only the result of erroneous human choices, but also the consequence of “economic, financial and social mechanism” and “structures of sin172” that prevent the full development of men and peoples”173.

Truly speaking, the current crisis obliges us to re-plan our journey, to set ourselves new rules and to discover new forms of commitment, to build on positive experiences and to reject negative ones. The crisis thus becomes an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future. In this spirit, with confidence rather than resignation, it is appropriate to address the difficulties of the present time that is Corruption and its attendant negative consequences.


“These difficulties must nonetheless be met with strong and resolute determination, because development is not only an aspiration but a right that, like every right, implies a duty. “Collaboration in the development of the whole person and of every human being is in fact a duty of all towards all, and must be shared by the four parts of the world: East and West, North and South”174.

It is very unfortunate to note that this time the picture of development has many overlapping layers. The actors and the causes in both underdevelopment and development are manifold, the faults and the merits are differentiated. This fact should prompt us to liberate ourselves from ideologies, which often oversimplify reality in artificial ways, and it should lead us to examine objectively the full human dimension of the problems.

This why according to John Paul II,

172 Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 36-37, and 39: AAS 80 (1988), 561-564, 567.

173 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004.no.446 p251.




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“The demarcation line between rich and poor countries is no longer as clear as it was at the time of Populorum Progressio. The world's wealth is growing in absolute terms, but inequalities are on the increase”175.

One can notice without difficulty that in rich countries, new sectors of society are succumbing to poverty and new forms of poverty are emerging.

For Paul VI,

“In poorer areas some groups enjoy a sort of super development of a wasteful and consumerist kind which forms an unacceptable contrast with the ongoing situations of dehumanizing deprivation... The scandal of glaring inequalities continues.”176

It is therefore observed with utter dismay that above all, that corruption and illegality are unfortunately evident in the conduct of the economic and political class in rich countries, both old and new, as well as in poor ones. Among those who sometimes fail to respect the human rights of workers are large multinational companies as well as local producers. Due to Corruption, International aid has often been diverted from its proper ends, through irresponsible actions both within the chain of donors and within that of the beneficiaries.177

As the Magisterium sees it,

“the right to development is based on the following principles: unity of origin and a shared destiny of the human family; equality between every person and between every community based on human dignity; the universal destination of the goods of the earth; the notion of development in its entirety; and centrality of the human person and solidarity” 178.

Unfortunately and similarly, in the context of immaterial or cultural causes of development and underdevelopment, we find these same patterns of responsibility reproduced. On the part of rich countries there is excessive zeal for protecting knowledge through an unduly rigid assertion of the right to intellectual property, especially in the field of health care. At the same time, in some poor countries, cultural models and social norms of behaviour persist which hinder the process of development.179

175 Cf. Encyclical Letter, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 28: loc. cit., 548-550. 176 Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 9: loc. cit., 261-262.. 177 Ibid.


179 Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 9: loc. cit., 261-262.



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The Church’s social doctrine encourages forms of cooperation that are capable of facilitating access to the international market on the part of countries suffering from poverty and underdevelopment.


“Even in recent years, it was thought that the poorest countries would develop by isolating themselves from the world market and by depending only on their own resources. Recent experience has shown that countries which did this have suffered stagnation and recession, while the countries which experienced development were those which succeeded in taking part in the general interrelated economic activities at the international level”180.

I want to say here straightaway with the Pope, that progress of a merely economic and technological kind is insufficient. Development needs above all to be true and integral. The mere fact of emerging from economic backwardness, though positive in itself, does not resolve the complex issues of human advancement, neither for the countries that are spearheading such progress, nor for those that are already economically developed, nor even for those that are still poor, which can suffer not just through old forms of exploitation, but also from the negative consequences of a growth that is marked by irregularities and imbalances181.

As John Paul II, puts it,

“After the collapse of the economic and political systems of the Communist countries of Eastern Europe and the end of the so-called opposing blocs, a complete re-examination of development was needed. Pope John Paul II called for it, when in 1987 he pointed to the existence of these blocs as one of the principal causes of underdevelopment, inasmuch as politics withdrew resources from the economy and from the culture, and ideology inhibited freedom.”182

Again in his Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus John Paul II moreover, in 1991, after the events of 1989, he asked that,

“ in view of the ending of the blocs, there should be a comprehensive new plan for development, not only in those countries, but also in the West and in those parts of the world that were in the process of evolving”183.


181 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, loc, 24, 2009.

182 Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis20: loc. cit., 536-537. 183 John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 22-29: loc. cit., 819-830.



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It is clear that this has been achieved only in part, and it is still a real duty that needs to be discharged, perhaps by means of the choices that are necessary to overcome current economic problems.

Things have changed. This is because the world that Paul VI had before him even though society had already evolved to such an extent that he could speak of social issues in global terms was still far less integrated than today's world. Economic activity and the political process were both largely conducted within the same geographical area, and could therefore feed off one another. Production took place predominantly within national boundaries, and financial investments had somewhat limited circulation outside the country, so that the politics of many States could still determine the priorities of the economy and to some degree govern its performance using the instruments at their disposal which led him to write the famous Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio.


“It seems therefore that the chief problem is that of gaining fair access to the international market, based on the unilateral principle of exploitation of the natural resources of these countries but on the proper use of human resources”184

A new Era has come. And at this period, the State finds itself having to address the limitations to its sovereignty imposed by the new context of international trade and finance, which is characterized by increasing mobility both of financial capital and means of production, material and immaterial. This new context has altered the political power of States.


“Among the causes that greatly contribute to underdevelopment and poverty, in addition to the impossibility of ascending to the international market, mention must be made illiteracy, lack of food security, the absence of structures and services, inadequate measures for guaranteeing basic health care, the lack of safe drinking water and sanitation, corruption, instability of institutions and of political life itself”185.

As Benedict XVI puts it,

“Today, as we take to heart the lessons of the current economic crisis, which sees the State's public authorities directly involved in correcting errors and malfunctions, it seems more realistic to re-evaluate their role and their powers, which need to be prudently reviewed and remodelled so as to





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enable them, perhaps through new forms of engagement, to address the challenges of today's world” 186.

The spirit of international cooperation requires that, beyond the strict market mentality, there should be awareness of the duty to solidarity justice and universal charity.

This is because once the role of public authorities has been more clearly defined, one could foresee an increase in the new forms of political participation, nationally and internationally, that have come about through the activity of organizations operating in civil society; in this way it is to be hoped that the citizens' interest and participation in the res publica will become more deeply rooted.


“There is a connection between poverty and in many countries, the lack of liberty, possibility of economic initiative and a national administration capable of setting up an adequate system of education and information.187”

Considering this matter in another point will be helpful, for instance, from the social point of view, systems of protection and welfare, already present in many countries in Paul VI's day, are finding it hard and could find it even harder in the future to pursue their goals of true social justice in today's profoundly changed environment.

As the doctrine of the Church puts it,

“In fact, there exists something which is due to man because he is man by reason of his lofty dignity... Cooperation is the part to which the entire international community should be committed, according to an adequate notion of the Common Good in relation to the entire human family.”188

Many positive results flow from this; for example an increase of confidence in the potential of poor people and therefore of poor countries and an equitable distribution of goods.

The global market has stimulated first and foremost, on the part of rich countries, a search for areas in which to outsource production at low cost with a view to reducing the prices of many goods, increasing purchasing power and thus accelerating the rate of development in terms of greater availability of consumer goods for the domestic market. Consequently, the market has prompted new forms of competition between States as they seek to attract foreign businesses to set up

186 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, loc, 24, 2009. 187 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004.no.448 p252.




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production centres, by means of a variety of instruments, including favourable fiscal regimes and deregulation of the labour market189.

Unfortunately and as one would expect, I believe that these processes have led in no small measure to a downsizing of social security systems as the price to be paid for seeking greater competitive advantage in the global market, with consequent grave danger for the rights of workers, for fundamental human rights and for the solidarity associated with the traditional forms of the social State. Systems of social security can lose the capacity to carry out their task, both in emerging countries and in those that were among the earliest to develop, as well as in poor countries. 190

As the social doctrine of the Church puts it,

“The international activity of the Holy See is manifested objectively under different aspects: the right to the active and passive delegation; the exercise of the ius contrahendi in stipulating treaties; participation in international organizations, such as those under the auspices of the United Nations; and mediation initiatives in situation of conflict. This activity aims at offering non-partisan service to the international community, since it seeks no advantage for itself but only for the good of the entire human family”191.

For this reason, it comes to logical conclusion that the budgetary policies, with cuts in social spending often made under pressure from international financial institutions, can leave citizens powerless in the face of old and new risks; such powerlessness is increased by the lack of effective protection on the part of workers' associations.

It can be observed with utter dismay that, through the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers, partly because Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labour unions.


“Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the Church's social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum for the promotion of workers' associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honoured today


190 Ibid.




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even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level.”192

However, it is important here to point out that the mobility of labour, associated with a climate of deregulation, is an important phenomenon with certain positive aspects, because it can stimulate wealth production and cultural exchange. Nevertheless, according to Benedict XVI,

“uncertainty over working conditions caused by mobility and deregulation, when it becomes endemic, tends to create new forms of psychological instability, giving rise to difficulty in forging coherent life-plans, including that of marriage. This leads to situations of human decline, to say nothing of the waste of social resources. In comparison with the casualties of industrial society in the past, unemployment today provokes new forms of economic marginalization, and the current crisis can only make this situation worse. Being out of work or dependent on public or private assistance for a prolonged period undermines the freedom and creativity of the person and his family and social relationships, causing great psychological and spiritual suffering.”193

It is particularly important here to remind everyone; especially governments engaged in boosting the world's economic and social assets, that the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity: “Man is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life.”194

It should be note with particular attention that Culture is another aspect of man that should never be over looked in consideration a human society. In Africa especially in Nigeria, Culture play a very important role as one of the most determinant of human dignity. According to Benedict XVI,

“That is why, on the cultural plane, compared with Paul VI's day, the difference is even more marked. At that time cultures were relatively well defined and had greater opportunity to defend themselves against attempts to merge them into one.” 195

I agree with Benedict XVI that at the present time, the possibilities of interaction between cultures have increased significantly, giving rise to new openings for intercultural dialogue: a dialogue that, if it is to be effective, has to set out from a deep-seated knowledge of the specific identity of the various dialogue partners.

According to John Paul II,

192 . Loc. cit., 135. 193 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, loc, 24, 2009.

194 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes 63.




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“Let it not be forgotten that the increased commercialization of cultural exchange today leads to a twofold danger. First, one may observe a cultural eclecticism that is often assumed uncritically: cultures are simply placed alongside one another and viewed as substantially equivalent and interchangeable. This easily yields to a relativism that does not serve true intercultural dialogue; on the social plane, cultural relativism has the effect that cultural groups coexist side by side, but remain separate, with no authentic dialogue and therefore with no true integration. Secondly, the opposite danger exists that of cultural levelling and indiscriminate acceptance of types of conduct and life-styles. In this way one loses sight of the profound significance of the culture of different nations, of the traditions of the various peoples, by which the individual defines himself in relation to life's fundamental questions.”196

One must be very careful in dealing with culture so that human identity should not be destroyed. As John Paul II puts it,

“What eclecticism and cultural levelling have in common is the separation of culture from human nature. Thus, cultures can no longer define themselves within a nature that transcends them, and man ends up being reduced to a mere cultural statistic. When this happens, humanity runs new risks of enslavement and manipulation197”.

I am of the opinion that we including the Church and the government must do everything possible to protect and defend the individual countries culture that are positive to human dignity. This must be done to avoid alienation and enslavement. It should be noted unfortunately, that corruption has hindered these efforts to preserve people’s culture.

I wish to point out here that corruption has lead Life in many poor countries to be still extremely insecure as a consequence of food shortages, and the situation could become worse: hunger still reaps enormous numbers of victims among those who, like Lazarus, are not permitted to take their place at the rich man's table, contrary to the hopes expressed by Paul VI.

“Feed the hungry (cf. Mt 25: 35, 37, 42) is an ethical imperative for the universal Church, as she responds to the teachings of her Founder, the Lord Jesus, concerning solidarity and the sharing of goods.”198

According to a Nigerian adage, ‘A hungry man is an angry man’ holds true here. For this reason I agree with Benedict XVI, that then People are hungry they, they are in serious dilemma in which situation anything can be possible, including wars and corruption. Moreover, the elimination of

196 Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 24: loc.. cit., 821-822. 197 Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendour (6 August 1993), 33 AAS 85 (1993), 1160, 1169-1171,

1174-1175; Id., Address to the Assembly of the United Nations, 5 October 1995, 3. 198 Cf. Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio 47: loc. cit., 280-281; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei

Socialis, 42 loc. cit., 572-574.



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world hunger has also, in the global era, become a requirement for safeguarding the peace and stability of the planet. Hunger is not so much dependent on lack of material things as on shortage of social resources, the most important of which are institutional. What is missing, in other words, is a network of economic institutions capable of guaranteeing regular access to sufficient food and water for nutritional needs, and also capable of addressing the primary needs and necessities ensuing from genuine food crises, whether due to natural causes or political irresponsibility due largely to corruption, nationally and internationally.199

I want to say here again, that food according to our African culture is a gift from God. For this reason, one should not deny a hungry man food. Also in our culture, even as a form of punishment, denial of food is not allowed. And for the same reason,

according to Benedict XVI,

“ Since the distribution of food against hunger is a universal right, the problem of food insecurity needs to be addressed within a long-term perspective, eliminating the structural causes that give rise to it and promoting the agricultural development of poorer countries. This can be done by investing in rural infrastructures, irrigation systems, transport, organization of markets, and in the development and dissemination of agricultural technology that can make the best use of the human, natural and socio-economic resources that are more readily available at the local level, while guaranteeing their sustainability over the long term as well. All this needs to be accomplished with the involvement of local communities in choices and decisions that affect the use of agricultural land.”200

It is important to note here that the pope did not only talk about the need to equitable distribution of food, but also proffered solution for this distribution to be possible. The method of distribution as suggested by the pope especially through tradition is innovative and encouraging.

According to him,

“In this perspective, it could be useful to consider the new possibilities that are opening up through proper use of traditional as well as innovative farming techniques, always assuming that these have been judged, after sufficient testing, to be appropriate, respectful of the environment and attentive to the needs of the most deprived peoples.”201

199 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 2009.

200 Ibid.




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The pope maintained that at the same time, the question of equitable agrarian reform in developing countries should not be ignored. The right to food, like the right to water, has an important place within the pursuit of other rights, beginning with the fundamental right to life. There is a universal Nigerian adage that puts this way: Man does not sing with the empty stomach.202

“It is therefore necessary to cultivate a public conscience that considers food and access to water as universal rights of all human beings, without distinction or discrimination”. 203

I therefore agree with the Pope as we have seen above that it is not only important, but also necessary, to emphasize that solidarity with poor countries in the process of development can point towards a solution of the current global crisis, as politicians and directors of international institutions have begun to sense in recent times. Through support for economically poor countries by means of financial plans inspired by solidarity so that these countries can take steps to satisfy their own citizens' demand for consumer goods and for development not only can true economic growth be generated, but a contribution can be made towards sustaining the productive capacities of rich countries that risk being compromised by the crisis.204

As we have discussed above; that every development must be people oriented, one of the most striking aspects of development in the present day is the important question of respect for life, which cannot in any way be detached from questions concerning the development of peoples. As John Paul II puts it,

“It is an aspect which has acquired increasing prominence in recent times, obliging us to broaden our concept of poverty and underdevelopment to include questions connected with the acceptance of life, especially in cases where it is impeded in a variety of ways”.205

It has been observed with serious concern that not only does the situation of poverty still provoke high rates of infant mortality in many regions, but some parts of the world still experience practices of demographic control, on the part of governments that often promote contraception and even go so far as to impose abortion. In many economically developed countries, legislation contrary to life is very widespread, and it has already shaped moral attitudes and praxis, contributing to the spread of an anti-birth mentality; frequent attempts are made to export this

202 Ibid.

203 Cf. Benedict XVI, Message for the 2007 world Food AAS 99 (2007), 933-935. 204 Ibid.

205 Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, 18596364: loc. cit., 419-421, 467-468, and 472-475.



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mentality to other States as if it were a form of cultural progress without noticing the danger of this practice.206

As if this ugly promotion is not enough, some non-governmental Organizations work actively to spread abortion, at times promoting the practice of sterilization in poor countries, in some cases not even informing the women concerned. Moreover, there is reason to suspect that development aid is sometimes linked to specific health-care policies which de facto involve the imposition of strong birth control measures. Further grounds for concern are laws permitting euthanasia as well as pressure from lobby groups, nationally and internationally, in favour of its juridical recognition.207

2. OPENNESS TO LIFE IS AT THE CENTRE OF TRUE DEVELOPMENT.


“Openness to transcendence belongs to human person: man is open to the infinite and to all created beings. He is open above all to the infinite God because with his intellect and will, he raises himself above all the created order and above himself, he becomes independent from creatures, is free in relation to created things and tends towards total truth and the absolute good. He is open also to others, to the men and women of the world, because only insofar as he understands himself in reference to a thou can he say I. He comes out of himself, from the self-centred preservation of his own life, to enter a relationship of dialogue and communion with others”208.


“When a society moves towards the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man's true good. If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of a new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that is valuable for

206Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, loc, 24, 2009.

207 Ibid.

208 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004.no.130 p 72.



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society also wither away. The acceptance of life strengthens moral fibre and makes people capable of mutual help.”209

The Church sees in men and women, every person, the living image of God himself. This image finds, and must always find a new, an ever deeper and fuller unfolding of itself in the mystery of Christ, the perfect image of God, and one who reveals God to man and man to himself. Therefore, for the Church, life is very important and should be respected in both the social and human development.210

Consequent upon this acceptance of Life and by cultivating openness to life, wealthy peoples can better understand the needs of poor ones, they can avoid employing huge economic and intellectual resources to satisfy the selfish desires of their own citizens, and instead, they can promote virtuous action within the perspective of production that is morally sound and marked by solidarity, respecting the fundamental right to life of every people and every individual, and accepting it as gift from God to Humanity.


“It is to these men and women, who have received an incomparable and inalienable dignity from God himself, that the Church speaks, rendering to them the highest and the most singular service, constantly reminding them of their lofty vocation so that they may always be mindful of it and worthy of it”211.

According to Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, there is another aspect of modern life that is very closely connected to development but as an obstacle to development: the denial of the right to religious freedom. They are not referring simply to the struggles and conflicts that continue to be fought in the world for religious motives, even if at times the religious motive is merely a cover for other reasons, such as the desire for domination and wealth212.

Today, in fact, people frequently kill in the holy name of God, as both John Paul II and Benedict XVI have often publicly acknowledged and lamented.

“Violence puts the brakes on authentic development and impedes the evolution of peoples towards greater socio-economic and spiritual well-being. This applies especially to terrorism

209 Cf. Benedict XVI, Message for the 2007 world Day of Peace, 5. 210 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004.no.105 p62.





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motivated by fundamentalism which generates grief, destruction and death, obstructs dialogue between nations and diverts extensive resources from their peaceful and civil uses”.213

I want to make it also clear here, that religious fanaticism in some contexts impedes the exercise of the right to religious freedom, as well as the deliberate promotion of religious indifference or practical atheism on the part of many countries obstructs the requirements for the development of peoples, depriving them of spiritual and human resources that they need214. For instance, in my own country Nigeria, this problem of religious fanaticism is a case in hand. The Sect called The Boko Haram has become a turn in the fresh of the Nigerian populace. The Boko Haram has Arabish origin meaning rejection of Western Education including other religious affiliation other than Islamic religion in the narrowest way of their understanding and the strict interpretation of it. This ideology has done more evil than good in Nigerian society. This is because many lives and properties have been lost through this fanatical group. Religion is supposed to be peaceful, loving, encourage justice, among other things, promote development and human dignity. But unfortunately this is not the case with Boko Haram.


“Christ the son of God, “by his incarnation has united himself in some fashion with every person. For this reason, the Church recognizes as her fundamental duty the task of seeing that this union is continuously brought about and renewed215”

In Christ the Lord, the Church indicates and strives to be the first to embark upon the part of the human person.

As Benedict XVI, puts it,

“God is the guarantor of man's true development, inasmuch as, having created him in his image; he also establishes the transcendent dignity of men and women and feeds their innate yearning to “be more”. Man is not a lost atom in a random universe: he is God's creature, whom God chose to endow with an immortal soul and whom he has always loved. If man were merely the fruit of either chance or necessity, or if he had to lower his aspirations to the limited horizon of the world in which he lives, if all reality were merely history and culture, and man did not possess a nature

213 John Paul II, Message for the 2002 world of Peace, 4-7, 12-15: AAS 94 (2002), 134-136, 138-140; Id., Message for the 2002 world Day of Peace 8: AAS 96 (2004), 119; Id. Message for the 2005world Day of Peace, 4: AAS 97 (2005), 177-178; Peace 5, 14: loc. cit., 778, 782-783. And Cf. John Paul II, Message for the 2002 world Day of Peace 6: loc. cit., 135; Benedict XVI, Message for the 2006 world Day of Peace 9-10: (2011) loc. cit., 60-61.


215 Ibid.



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destined to transcend itself in a supernatural life, then one could speak of growth, or evolution, but not development.”216

Unfortunately, either due to lack of proper knowledge of theology or lack of exposure to the true understanding of supernatural realities that make these fanatics behave the way they do. The harm and havoc done by these groups in the Nigerian society is quite alarming.

Sometimes also, the states attitudes to religious practice contribute in no small measure to this unfortunate situation. The examples of the instances of this sort of situations abound, where people are constrained in their Religious beliefs. For example when the State promotes, teaches, or actually imposes forms of practical atheism, it deprives its citizens of the moral and spiritual strength that is indispensable for attaining integral human development and it impedes them from moving forward with renewed dynamism as they strive to offer a more generous human response to divine love.217

Consequently, the Church invites all people to recognize in everyone near and far, known and unknown, and above all in the poor and the suffering a brother or sister for whom Christ died. (1 Cor 8:11; Rom 14:15). In the context of cultural, commercial or political relations, it also sometimes happens that economically developed or emerging countries export this reductive vision of the person and his destiny to poor countries. This is the damage that super development causes to authentic development when it is accompanied by moral underdevelopment218


“All of social life is an expression of its unmistakable protagonist: the human person. The Church has in many times and in many ways been the authoritative advocate of this understanding, recognizing and affirming the centrality of the human person in every sector and expression of society: Human society is therefore the object of the social teaching of the Church since she is neither outside nor over and above socially united men, but exists exclusively in them and, therefore, for them.”219

I agree with the Pope that the theme of integral human development takes on an even broader range of meanings: the correlation between its multiple elements requires a commitment to foster the interaction of the different levels of human knowledge in order to promote the authentic development of peoples. Often it is thought that development, or the socio-economic measures that go with it, merely require to be implemented through joint action. This joint action, however, needs

216 Cf. Benedict XVI, Homily at Mass, Islinger Feld, Regensburg, 12 September 2006. 217 John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 28; loc. cit., 548-550. 218 Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio 19: loc. cit., 266-267. 219 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004.no.106 pp 61-62.



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to be given direction, because all social action involves a doctrine. In view of the complexity of the issues, it is obvious that the various disciplines have to work together through an orderly interdisciplinary exchange.220

For Benedict XVI,

“Charity does not exclude knowledge, but rather requires, promotes, and animates it from within. Knowledge is never purely the work of the intellect. It can certainly be reduced to calculation and experiment, but if it aspires to be wisdom capable of directing man in the light of his first beginnings and his final ends, it must be seasoned with the salt of charity. Deeds without knowledge are blind, and knowledge without love is sterile. Indeed, “the individual who is animated by true charity labours skilfully to discover the causes of misery, to find the means to combat it, to overcome it resolutely Faced with the phenomena that lie before us, charity in truth requires first of all that we know and understand, acknowledging and respecting the specific competence of every level of knowledge.”221

Let me point out here that, Charity is not an added extra, like an appendix to work already concluded in each of the various disciplines: it engages them in dialogue from the very beginning. The demands of love do not contradict those of reason. Human knowledge is insufficient and the conclusions of science cannot indicate by themselves the path towards integral human development. There is always a need to push further ahead to combine the various ideas in man and containing the worth of man.


“this is what is required by charity in truth. Going beyond, however, never means presiding from the conclusions of reason, or contradicting its results. Intelligence and love are not in separate compartments: love is rich in intelligence and intelligence is full of love”.222

It then follows as a consequent that the Church's social doctrine which has an important interdisciplinary dimension, can exercise in this perspective, a function of extraordinary effectiveness. It allows faith, theology, metaphysics and science to come together in a collaborative effort in the service of humanity. It is here above all that the Church's social doctrine displays its dimension of wisdom. This means that moral evaluation and scientific research must go hand in


221 Ibid. 75: loc. cit., 293-294. 222 Cf. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est, 28: loc. cit. 238-240.



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hand, and that charity must animate them in a harmonious interdisciplinary whole, marked by unity and distinction.223

I agree with Benedict XVI that the excessive segmentation of knowledge, the rejection of metaphysics by the human science the difficulties encountered by dialogue between science and theology are damaging not only to the development of knowledge, but also to the development of peoples, because these things make it harder to see the integral good of man in its various dimensions.224

Paul VI had seen clearly

“that among the causes of underdevelopment there is a lack of wisdom and reflection, a lack of thinking capable of formulating a guiding synthesis,” 225 for which “a clear vision of all economic, social, cultural and spiritual aspects is required. The broadening [of] our concept of reason and its application is indispensable if we are to succeed in adequately weighing all the elements involved in the question of development and in the solution of socio-economic problems”226.

Man has the ability to think clearly, reflect and due to the wisdom given to him specially, can go beyond himself.


“The human person is open to the fullness of being, to the unlimited horizon of being. He has in himself the ability to transcend individual particular objects that he knows, thanks effectively to his openness to unlimited being”227.

The significant new elements in the picture of the development of peoples today in many cases demand new solutions. The question is, how are the elements going to be used? These need to be found together, respecting the laws proper to each element and in the light of an integral vision of man, reflecting the different aspects of the human person, contemplated through a lens purified by charity. Remarkable convergences and possible solutions will then come to light, without any fundamental component of human life being obscured.

According to Paul VI,

223Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate,, 2009.

224 Ibid.

225 Cf. Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio 40, 85: loc. cit., 277, 298-299. 226 Benedict XVI, Address at the University of Regensburg 12 September 2006. 227 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004.no.130 p72.



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“The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable manner and that we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone.228”

I therefore, agree with the Pope that this steady employment for everyone is also required by economic logic. Through the systemic increase of social inequality, both within a single country and between the populations of different countries (i.e. the massive increase in relative poverty), not only does social cohesion suffer, thereby placing democracy at risk, but so too does the economy, through the progressive erosion of “social capital”: the network of relationships of trust, dependability, and respect for rules, all of which are indispensable for any form of civil coexistence.229


“The person cannot be a means for carrying out economic, social or political projects imposed by some authority, even in the name of an alleged progress of the civil community as a whole or of other persons, either in the present or in the future. It is therefore necessary that public authorities keep careful watch so that restrictions placed on freedom or any onus placed on personal activity will never become harmful to personal dignity”230.

Economic science tells us that structural insecurity generates anti-productive attitudes wasteful of human resources, inasmuch as workers tend to adapt passively to automatic mechanisms, rather than to release creativity. On this point too, there is a convergence between economic science and moral evaluation. Human costs always include economic costs and economic dysfunctions always involve human costs.


“In no case, therefore, is the human person to be manipulated for ends that are foreign to his own development...in fact, man in his interiority transcends the universe and is the only creature willed by God for itself.”231

It is important to distinguish between short- and long-term economic or sociological considerations. Lowering the level of protection accorded to the rights of workers, or abandoning

228 Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio 33: loc. cit., 273-274. 229 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 2009.


231 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 133. p74/ Gaudium et Spes 16.



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mechanisms of wealth redistribution in order to increase the country's international competitiveness, hinder the achievement of lasting development. It should be remembered that the reduction of cultures to the technological dimension, even if it favours short-term profits, in the long term impedes reciprocal enrichment and the dynamics of cooperation.

Moreover, as Paul VI, puts it,

“The human consequences of current tendencies towards a short-term economy — sometimes very short-term — need to be carefully evaluated. This requires further and deeper reflection on the meaning of the economy and its goals, as well as a profound and far-sighted revision of the current model of development, so as to correct its dysfunctions and deviations. This is demanded, in any case, by the earth's state of ecological health; above all it is required by the cultural and moral crisis of man, the symptoms of which have been evident for some time all over the world.232”

It should be noted that just society can become a reality only when it is based on the respect of the transcendent dignity of the human person. This is because, the person represents the ultimate end of the society, by which it is ordered to the person.


“Hence, the social order and its development must invariably work to the benefit of the human person, since the order of things is to be sub-ordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around.”233

Consequently, it should be noted that the respect for human dignity can in no way be separated from obedience to this principle. That is why it is necessary to consider every neighbour without exception as another self, taking into account first of all his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity.


“Every political, economic, social, scientific and cultural programme must be inspired by the awareness of the primacy of each human being over society.”234

I wish to point out here that if some areas of the globe, with a history of poverty, have experienced remarkable changes in terms of their economic growth and their share in world production, other zones are still living in a situation of deprivation comparable to that which

232 Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter , 33: 273-274 233 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 1332 p74.

234 Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2235.



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existed at the time of Paul VI, and in some cases one can even speak of deterioration. More than forty years after Populorum Progressio its basic theme, namely progress, remains an open question, made all the more acute and urgent by the current economic and financial crisis.


It is significant that some of the causes of this situation were identified Populorum Progressio such as the high tariffs imposed by economically developed countries, which still make it difficult for the products of poor countries to gain a foothold in the markets of rich countries. Other causes, however, mentioned only in passing in the Encyclical, have since emerged with greater clarity. A case in point would be the evaluation of the process of decolonization, then at its height.235

Due to Corruption that has engulfed the modern Word’s Governance; Paul VI hopes to see the journey towards autonomy unfold freely and in peace was dashed to the ground. More than forty years later, we must acknowledge how difficult this journey has been, both because of new forms of colonialism and continued dependence on old and new foreign powers and because of grave irresponsibility within the very countries that have achieved independence.236

As it were, according to Benedict XVI,

“Paul VI had partially foreseen it, but the ferocious pace at which it has evolved could not have been anticipated. Originating within economically developed countries, this process by its nature has spread to include all economies. It has been the principal driving force behind the emergence from underdevelopment of whole regions, and in itself it represents a great opportunity”.237

Hence the principal new feature has been the explosion of worldwide interdependence, commonly known as globalization. Nevertheless, without the guidance of charity in truth, side by side with Ant-Corruption Strategy this global force could cause unprecedented damage and create new divisions within the human family. Hence charity and truth, Ant-Corruption Strategy as the way out- confront us with an altogether new and creative challenge, one that is certainly vast and complex. It is about broadening the scope of reason and making it capable of knowing and directing these powerful new forces, animating them within the perspective of that “civilization of love” whose seed God has planted in every people, in every culture.

The human development paradigm is a holistic development model. It embraces every development issue including economic growth, social investment, people's empowerment, the


236 Ibid.

237 Ibid.



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provision of basic needs and social safety nets, political and cultural freedom and all other aspects of people's lives including Religions and Morals. While no aspect of the development model falls outside its scope, the vantage point is the widening of people's choices and the enhancement of their lives. All aspects of life –religious, morals, economic, political and cultural are viewed from that perspective.

Human development has four essential pillars: equity, sustainability, production and empowerment.

The human development paradigm defines the ends of development and analyses sensible options for achieving them.

According to Mahbub ul Haq,

“In the last analysis Human Development is a child who did not die, a disease that did not spread, an ethnic tension that did not explode, and a dissident who was not silenced, a human spirit that was not crushed.”238

3. FRATERNITY, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND CIVIL SOCIETY

Why it is relevant in today’s world?

The political community is established to be of service to civil society, from which it originates. As the social doctrine of the Church puts it,

“Civil society is the sum of relationships and resources, cultural and associative that are relatively independent from the political sphere and the economic sector. The purpose of civil society is universal, since it concerns the common good, to which each and every citizen has a right in due proportion”.239

The Church has contributed to the distinction between the political community and the civil society above all by her vision of man, understood as an autonomous, relational being that is open to the transcendent. The Church’s commitment on behalf of social pluralism aims at bringing about

238 Dr. Mahbub ul Haq and Mrs. Khadija Haq, 2004, Human Development Foundation, Date/Time Last Modified:

3/7/2005 11:42:15 AM. 239 Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum: Acta Leonis XIII, 11 (1892), 134.



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a more fitting attainment of the common good and democracy itself, according to the principles of solidarity, subsidiarity and justice.

The human being is made for gift, which expresses and makes present his transcendent dimension. Sometimes modern man is wrongly convinced that he is the sole author of himself, his life and society. This is a presumption that follows from being selfishly closed in upon him, and it is a consequence to express it in faith terms of original sin.

“The Church's wisdom has always pointed to the presence of original sin in social conditions and in the structure of society: “Ignorance of the fact that man has a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors in the areas of education, politics, social action and morals”240.

In the list of areas where the pernicious effects of sin are evident, the economy has been included for some time now. We have a clear proof of this at the present time regarding the structures of sin two folds.

This vision is challenged by political ideology of an individualistic nature and those of a totalitarian Character, which tend to absorb civil society into the sphere of the state.

As Benedict XVI; puts it,

“Charity in truth places man before the astonishing experience of gift. Gratuitousness is present in our lives in many different forms, which often go unrecognized because of a purely consumerist and utilitarian view of life. The conviction that man is self-sufficient and can successfully eliminate the evil present in history by his own action alone has led him to confuse happiness and salvation with immanent forms of material prosperity and social action.241”


“The political community and the civil society, although mutually connected and inter dependent, are not equal in the hierarchy of ends. The political community is essentially at the service of the civil society and, in the final analysis, the persons and groups of which civil society is composed”242.

Every economic process in the society, must of necessity consider the moral character and the dignity of the human person.

240 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 407; cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 25; loc. cit., 822-824.

241 241 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 2009.

242 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 1332 p74.



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It should be noted that some individuals belief that the economy must be autonomous, that it must be shielded from influences of a moral character, has led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way. In the long term, these convictions have led to economic, social and political systems that trample upon personal and social freedom, and are therefore unable to deliver the justice that they promise. 243

As Benedict XVI said in his Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi,

“History is thereby deprived of Christian hope, deprived of a powerful social resource at the service of integral human development, sought in freedom and in justice. Hope encourages reason and gives it the strength to direct the will”244

As the absolutely gratuitous gift of God, hope bursts into our lives as something not due to us, something that transcends every law of justice. Gift by its nature goes beyond merit, its rule is that of superabundance. It takes first place in our souls as a sign of God's presence in us, a sign of what he expects from us. Hope therefore, is already present in faith, indeed it is called forth by faith. Charity in truth feeds on hope and, at the same time, manifests it. Truth which is in it a gift, in the same way as charity is greater than we are, as Saint Augustine teaches.245

Pope Benedict XVI puts more clearly this way,

“Likewise the truth of ourselves, of our personal conscience, is first of all given to us. In every cognitive process, truth is not something that we produce; it is always found, or better, received. Truth, like love, is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings”246.

I agree with the Pope that the unity of the human race, a fraternal communion transcending every barrier, is called into being by the word of God-who-is-Love. In addressing this key question, we must make it clear, on the one hand, that the logic of gift does not exclude justice, nor does it merely sit alongside it as a second element added from without; on the other hand,

243 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 2009 .

244 Cf. Benedict XVI no. 17: AAS 99 (2007), 1000; Cf. ibid, 23: loc. cit., 1004-1005. 245 Saint Augustine expounds this teaching in detail in his dialogue on free will (De libero arbitrio, II, 3, 8ff.). He

indicates the existence within the human soul of an “internal sense”. This sense consists in an act that is fulfilled outside the normal functions of reason, an act that is not the result of reflection, but is almost instinctive, through which reason, realizing its transient and fallible nature, admits the existence of something eternal, higher than itself, something absolutely true and certain. The name that Saint Augustine gives to this interior truth is at times the name of God (Confessions X, 24, 35; XII, 25, 35; De libero arbitrio II, 3, 8), more often that of Christ (De magistro 11:38; Confessions VII, 18, 24; XI, 2, 4).

246 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est, 3: loc. cit. 219.



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economic, social and political development, if it is to be authentically human, needs to make room for the principle of gratuitousness as an expression of fraternity.247


“One of the fundamental tasks of those actively involved in international economic matters is to achieve for mankind an integral development in solidarity, that is to say, it has to promote the good of every person and of the whole person in Charity and truth248”.

However to achieve this task requires a vision of the economy, that on the international level, that guarantees an equitable distribution of resources and that is responsive to awareness of the interdependence economic, political and cultural that today unites people definitively among themselves and makes them feel linked by a sole destiny.

We should then realize that human community that we build by ourselves can never, purely by its own strength, be a fully fraternal community, nor can it overcome every division and become a truly universal community.

The question then is how do we achieve this fraternal community? It becomes imperative to conclude that, Charity in truth as a gift is therefore a force that builds community; it brings all people together without imposing barriers or limits. In a climate of mutual trust, the market is the economic institution that permits encounter between persons, inasmuch as they are economic subjects who make use of contracts to regulate their relations as they exchange goods and services of equivalent value between them, in order to satisfy their needs and desires249.

According Benedict XVI,

“The market is subject to the principles of so-called commutative justice, which regulates the relations of giving and receiving between parties to a transaction. But the social doctrine of the Church has unceasingly highlighted the importance of distributive justice and social justice for the market economy, not only because it belongs within a broader social and political context, but also because of the wider network of relations within which it operates”250.

It follows then that if the market is governed solely by the principle of the equivalence in value of exchanged goods that it cannot produce the social cohesion that it requires in order to function







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well. This is simply because without internal forms of solidarity and mutual trust, the market cannot completely fulfil its proper economic function.

As the Pope puts it,

“It was not just a matter of correcting dysfunctions through assistance. The poor are not to be considered a “burden”, but a resource, even from the purely economic point of view. It is nevertheless erroneous to hold that the market economy has an inbuilt need for a quota of poverty and underdevelopment in order to function at its best. It is in the interests of the market to promote emancipation, but in order to do so effectively, it cannot rely only on itself, because it is not able to produce by itself something that lies outside its competence. It must draw its moral energies from other subjects that are capable of generating them”251.

It can be said without mincing words that the Church has always held that economic action is not to be regarded as something opposed to society. In and of itself, for the church, the market is not, and must not become, the place where the strong subdue the weak. This is why the society does not have to protect itself from the market, as if the development of the latter were ipso facto to entail the death of authentically human relations. Admittedly, the market can be a negative force, not because it is so by nature, but because a certain ideology can make it so252.


“The free market is an institution of social importance because of its capacity to guarantee effective results in the production of goods and services. Historically, it has shown itself able to initiate and sustain economic development over long periods. There is good reason to hold that, in many circumstances, the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs”253.

It must be remembered that the market does not exist in the pure state. It is shaped by the cultural configurations which define it and give it direction. Economy and finance, as instruments, can be used badly when those at the helm are motivated by purely selfish ends. Instruments that are good in themselves can thereby be transformed into harmful ones. But it is man's darkened reason that produces these consequences, not the instrument per se. Therefore it is not the instrument that






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must be called to account, but individuals, their moral conscience and their personal and social responsibility.254

It is crystal clear that economic activity cannot solve all social problems through the simple application of commercial logic. This needs to be directed towards the pursuit of the common good, for which the political community in particular must also take responsibility. Therefore, it must be borne in mind that grave imbalances are produced when economic action, conceived merely as an engine for wealth creation, is detached from political action, conceived as a means for pursuing justice through redistribution.


“The Church's social doctrine holds that authentically human social relationships of friendship, solidarity and reciprocity can also be conducted within economic activity, and not only outside it or “after” it. The economic sphere is neither ethically neutral, nor inherently inhuman and opposed to society. It is part and parcel of human activity and precisely because it is human, it must be structured and governed in an ethical manner” 255.

Space also needs to be created within the market for economic activity carried out by subjects who freely choose to act according to principles other than those of pure profit, without sacrificing the production of economic value in the process. The many economic entities that draw their origin from religious and lay initiatives demonstrate that this is concretely possible.


“A truly competitive market is an effective instrument for attaining important objectives of justice: moderating the excessive profit of individual business, responding to consumers’ demands, bringing about a more efficient use and conservation of resources, rewarding entrepreneurship and innovation, making information available so that it is really possible to compare and purchase products in an atmosphere of healthy competition”256.

I wish to remark here that the Church's social doctrine has always maintained that justice must be applied to every phase of economic activity, because this is always concerned with man and his needs. Locating resources, financing, production, consumption and all the other phases in the economic cycle inevitably have moral implications. Thus every economic decision has a moral consequence. The social sciences and the direction taken by the contemporary economy, point to

254 Ibid.





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the same conclusion. Perhaps at one time it was conceivable that first the creation of wealth could be entrusted to the economy, and then the task of distributing it could be assigned to politics. 257


“Indeed, the market cannot find itself the principles for its legitimization; it belongs to the consciences of the individuals and to the public responsibility to establish a just relationship between means and ends.”258

Today that would be more difficult, given that economic activity is no longer circumscribed within territorial limits, while the authority of governments continues to be principally local. Hence the canons of justice must be respected from the outset, as the economic process unfolds, and not just afterwards or incidentally.

The processes of globalization, suitably understood and directed, open up the unprecedented possibility of large-scale redistribution of wealth on a world-wide scale; if badly directed; however, they can lead to an increase in poverty and inequality, and could even trigger a global crisis.

It should be noted that despite some of its structural elements, which should neither be denied nor exaggerated, “globalization, a priori, is neither good nor bad. It will be what people make of it.” 259


“We should not be its victims, but rather its protagonists, acting in the light of reason, guided by charity and truth. Blind opposition would be a mistaken and prejudiced attitude, incapable of recognizing the positive aspects of the process, with the consequent risk of missing the chance to take advantage of its many opportunities for development. It is necessary to correct the malfunctions, some of them serious, that cause new divisions between peoples and within peoples, and also to ensure that the redistribution of wealth does not come about through the redistribution or increase of poverty: a real danger if the present situation were to be badly managed”260.

Poverty, according to the social doctrine of the Church,

257 Ibid.

258 Ibid.

259 John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy of social Sciences, 27 April 2001. 260 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Caritas, loc, 35, 2009.



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“poses a dramatic problem of justice; in its various forms and with its various effects, it is characterised by an unequal growth that does not recognize the equal right of all people to take their seat at the table of the common banquet”261.


“At the beginning of the New Millennium, the poverty of billions of men and women is the one issue that most challenges our human and Christian consciences.”262

For a long time it was thought that poor people should remain at a fixed stage of development, and should be content to receive assistance from the philanthropy of developed peoples. Paul VI strongly opposed this mentality in Populorum Progressio.


“Such poverty makes it impossible to bring about the full humanism which the Church hopes for and pursues so that persons and peoples may be more and live in conditions that are more human.”263

Today the material resources available for rescuing these peoples from poverty are potentially greater than before, but they have ended up largely in the hands of people from developed countries, who have benefited more from the liberalization that has occurred in the mobility of capital and labour. The world-wide diffusion of forms of prosperity should not therefore be held up by projects that are self-centred, protectionist or at the service of private interests.

The fight against poverty and corruption finds a strong motivation in the option or preferential love of the Church for the poor.

As the Church puts it,

“In the whole of her social teaching the church never tires of emphasizing certain fundamental principles of this teaching, first and foremost, the universal destination of goods.”264

Indeed the involvement of emerging or developing countries allows us to manage the crisis better today. The transition inherent in the process of globalization presents great difficulties and


262 Ibid.


264 Ibid.



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dangers that can only be overcome if we are able to appropriate the underlying anthropological and ethical spirit that drives globalization towards the humanizing goal of solidarity265.

It should be noted that constantly reaffirming the principle of solidarity, the Church’s social doctrine demands action to promote the good of all and of each individual, because we all really responsible for all.266

Unfortunately this spirit is often overwhelmed or suppressed by corruption, ethical and cultural considerations of an individualistic and utilitarian nature.

“Globalization is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon which must be grasped in the diversity and unity of all its different dimensions, including the theological dimension. In this way it will be possible to experience and to steer the globalization of humanity in relational terms, in terms of communion and the sharing of goods”267.


“The principle of solidarity, even in the fight against poverty, must always be appropriately accompanied by that of subsidiarity, thanks to which it is possible to foster the spirit of initiative, the fundamental basis of all social and economic development in poor countries.268”

In the same vein, the Church continues,

“The poor should not be seen as a problem, but as people who can become the principal builders of a new and more human future for everyone. Seeing the poor this way, is more dignifying and human.”269

Unfortunately however, the other factors that endanger the dignity of the individual especially the poor (children and civilians) are violence and lack of peace in the world.

Consequently, since the shocking events of 9/11, and those that followed it, believable images of peace have become even more elusive. War and conflict, though as old as human history itself, seems to have become even more violent as it increasingly targets the most vulnerable civilians, and as more and more children become engulfed in the deadly spiral of violence without

265 . Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no 450 2009.

266 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no 449.

267 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Caritate, loc, 42, 2009. 268 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 449 p253.

269 Ibid.



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boundaries. Increasingly we see a vicious cycle where human development is diminished by conflict, and diminishing human development promotes yet more conflict. It is this cycle that HDF (Human Development Foundation) can break by helping people build their own grassroots capability for peace and social development.

The end of cold war produced new hope for world peace amid widespread discussions of the peace dividend, i.e. the freeing up of resources that had been devoted to military build-up. Although many hoped that this peace dividend would be used to advance the wellbeing of those at the lowest end of the human development paradigm. That hope has never been realized.

Visionaries throughout human history have dreamed of a world at peace where all human beings will live in harmony. But that dream has not materialized despite all our technological advances and achievements, even though we as human beings can be truly proud of them.

According to ul Haq and Mrs. Haq,

“the causes of war and peace are multi-dimensional and we cannot claim that elevating the status of human development will provide a panacea to every conflict in the world. But let us not shirk our responsibility by denying the power of Human Development. By offering hope for a better future, by empowering people, and by developing understanding and acceptance of other points of view we will take real, definite steps towards world peace.”270

4. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLE RIGHTS AND DUTIES THE ENVIRONMENT

Why do we need a movement?

Care for the environment represents a challenge for all humanity. This is because it is a matter of a common and universal duty, that of respecting a common good. It is a responsibility that must mature on the basis of global dimension of the present ecological crisis and consequent necessity to

270 Mahbub ul Haq and Mrs. Khadija Haq, 2004, Human Development Foundation, Date/Time Last Modified: 3/7/2005 11:42 cooperation 15 AM.



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meet it on a worldwide level, since all things are interdependent in the universal order established by the creator.271

The Supreme Pontiff, Benedict XVI in Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, maintains that,

“The reality of human solidarity, which is a benefit for us, also imposes a duty. Many people today would claim that they owe nothing to anyone, except to themselves. They are concerned only with their rights, and they often have great difficulty in taking responsibility for their own and other people's integral development. This way of thinking by many people brought to bear the need for this movement. As the Pope Puts it, hence it is important to call for a renewed reflection on how rights presuppose duties, if they are not to become mere licence.”272

As the doctrine of the Catholic Church puts it,

“One must take into account the nature of each being and of its mutual connection in an ordered system, which is precisely the `cosmos`.”273

This perspective takes on a particular importance when one considers, in context of close relationships that bind the various parts of the ecosystem, the environmental value of biodiversity, which must be handled with a sense of responsibility and adequately protected, because it constitutes an extraordinary richness for all of humanity.

For Benedict XVI,

“A link has often been noted between claims to a right to excess and even to transgression and vice, within affluent societies, and the lack of food, drinkable water, basic instruction and elementary health care in areas of the underdeveloped world and on the outskirts of large metropolitan centres. The link consists in this: individual rights, when detached from a framework of duties which grants them their full meaning, can run wild, leading to an escalation of demands which is effectively unlimited and indiscriminate.”274

Consequently, I agree with the pope that responsibility for the environment, the common heritage of mankind, extends not only to the present needs, but also to those of the future. The truth stands that we have inherited from past generations, and we have benefited from the work of our

271 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 466 p263 272 Cf. John Paul II, Message for the 2003 world Day of Peace, 5: AAS 95 (2003), 343. 273 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 466 p263

274Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no 449



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contemporaries: for this reason, we have obligations towards all, and we cannot refuse to interest ourselves in those who will come after us, to enlarge the human family.275

I wish to say here that this is also true in my own culture Igbo land Nigeria West Africa. We do not joke with these three moments in the history of man: the past, the present and the future. We believe and are also taught that these three worlds co-exit. For this reason, whatever we do as individuals or as a community must take into account these realities which include also the environment, i.e. material and non-material things. This is not only an obligation but also a duty that we owe and must protect.

According to our culture, this is a responsibility that present generations have towards those of the future, a responsibility that also concerns individual states and the international community. In this regard, each person can easily recognize, for example, the importance of the Amazon, which is one of the world’s most precious natural regions because of its bio planet.276

It can be seen that nowadays we are witnessing a grave inconsistency. On the one hand, appeals are made to allege rights, arbitrary and non-essential in nature, accompanied by the demand that they be recognized and promoted by public structures, while, on the other hand, elementary and basic rights remain unacknowledged and are violated in much of the world. Sometimes, overemphasis on rights leads to a disregard for duties. Duties set a limit on rights because they point to the anthropological and ethical framework of which rights are a part, in this way ensuring that they do not become licence. Duties thereby reinforce rights and call for their defence and promotion as a task to be undertaken in the service of the common good.277


“Responsibility for the environment should also find adequate expression on a juridical level. It is important that the international community drew up uniform rules that will allow states to exercise more effective control over the various activities that have negative effect on the environment and to protect ecosystems by preventing the risks of accidents.”278

I believe that it is on this note that the Church maintains that,

“the juridical content of the right to a safe healthy natural environment is gradually taking form, stimulated by the concern shown by the public opinion to disciplining the use of created goods

275 Ibid.

276Ibid.

277 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 2009. 278 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 468 p264.



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according to the demands of the common good and a common desire to punish those who pollute. But juridical measures by themselves are not sufficient. They must be accompanied by a growing sense of responsibility, as well as an effective change of mentality and lifestyle.”279

I wish to say here that this change of mentality and life style should include our moral life style also. This is because; our morality is of great importance with regard to human development especially, when it is put in question.


“Moral Corruption can be a great threat and danger to man’s authentic development. When a people are morally irresponsible, the society is adversely affected, as it is the case in many developed Countries. Populous nations have been able to emerge from poverty thanks not least to the size of their population and the talents of their people. Morally responsible openness to life represents a rich social and economic resource.”280

It can be clearly seen that formerly prosperous nations are presently passing through a phase of uncertainty and in some cases decline, precisely because of their falling birth rates; this has become a crucial problem for highly affluent societies.


“The decline in births, falling at times beneath the so-called “replacement level”, also puts a strain on social welfare systems, increases their cost, eats into savings and hence the financial resources needed for investment, reduces the availability of qualified labourers, and narrows the “brain pool” upon which nations can draw for their needs”281.

It is interesting here to note that, smaller and at times miniscule families run the risk of impoverishing environments, social relations, and failing to ensure effective forms of solidarity due to lack of manpower as a result of decline in births.


“These situations are symptomatic of scant confidence in the future and moral weariness. It is thus becoming a social and even economic necessity once more to hold up to future generations the beauty of marriage and the family, and the fact that these institutions correspond to the deepest needs and dignity of the person. In view of this, States are called to enact policies promoting the

279 Ibid.





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centrality and the integrity of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society and to assume responsibility for its economic and fiscal needs, while respecting its essentially relational character.”282

I wish to observe with utter dismay that at the present, many individuals, groups and even some states have lost the sense of the sacredness of family and thereby constituting a great danger to the society.

I agree with the Pope that for this reason, banks are proposing “ethical” accounts and investment funds. This because, striving to meet the deepest moral needs of the person also has important and beneficial repercussions at the level of economics. The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centred. “Ethical financing” is being developed, especially through micro-credit and, more generally, micro-finance. These processes are praiseworthy and deserve much support. Their positive effects are also being felt in the less developed areas of the world283.


“It would be advisable, however, to develop a sound criterion of discernment, since the adjective ethical can be abused. When the word is used generically, it can lend itself to any number of interpretations, even to the point where it includes decisions and choices contrary to justice and authentic human welfare. Today we hear much talk of ethics in the world of economy, finance and business. Research centres and seminars in business ethics are on the rise; the system of ethical certification is spreading throughout the developed world as part of the movement of ideas associated with the responsibilities of business towards society”284.

I wish to point out here straight away that the word ethical, then, according to the Pope,

“should not be used to make ideological distinctions, as if to suggest that initiatives not formally so designated would not be ethical. Efforts are needed and it is essential to say this not only to create “ethical” sectors or segments of the economy or the world of finance, but to ensure that the whole economy the whole of finance is ethical, not merely by virtue of an external label, but by its respect for requirements intrinsic to its very nature.”285


283 Ibid.

284 Ibid.




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I am of the opinion that in this case; we should go back to the teaching of the catechism of the Catholic Church (catechism classes) to the children especially those preparing for the receipt of the Holy Communion, the youth and even to the adults who are preparing for marriage. This because, many people including the Catholic faithful has lost or are totally ignorant of these moral values.

For us to achieve this desired gaol, sound moral teaching is needed and much in fact depends on the underlying system of morality.


“On this subject the Church's social doctrine can make a specific contribution, since it is based on man's creation “in the image of God” (Gen 1:27), a datum which gives rise to the inviolable dignity of the human person and the transcendent value of natural moral norms. When business ethics prescinds from these two pillars, it inevitably risks losing its distinctive nature and it falls prey to forms of exploitation; more specifically, it risks becoming subservient to existing economic and financial systems rather than correcting their dysfunctional aspects. Among other things, it risks being used to justify the financing of projects that are in reality unethical. The Church's social teaching is quite clear on the subject, recalling that the economy, in all its branches, constitutes a sector of human activity.”286

Pope Benedict XVI made it clear that,

“when we consider the issues involved in the relationship between business and ethics, as well as the evolution currently taking place in methods of production, it would appear that the traditionally valid distinction between profit-based companies and non-profit organizations can no longer do full justice to reality, or offer practical direction for the future”.

It is important to point out here very clearly that for the Pope,

“In recent decades a broad intermediate area has emerged between the two types of enterprise. It is made up of traditional companies which nonetheless subscribe to social aid agreements in support of underdeveloped countries, charitable foundations associated with individual companies, groups of companies oriented towards social welfare, and the diversified world of the so-called “civil economy” and the “economy of communion”. This is not merely a matter of a “third sector”, but of a broad new composite reality embracing the private and public spheres, one which does not exclude profit, but instead considers it a means for achieving human and social ends”.287

286 Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 14: loc. cit., 264; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter

Centesimus Annus,32 : loc. cit., 832-833. 287 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritate in Veritate, loc, 46, 2009.



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It should be noted that the strengthening of different types of businesses, especially those capable of viewing profit as a means for achieving the goal of a more humane market and society, must also be pursued in those countries that are excluded or marginalized from the influential circles of the global economy. In these countries it is very important to move ahead with projects based on subsidiarity, suitably planned and managed, aimed at affirming rights yet also providing for the assumption of corresponding responsibilities.

I believe that on this earth there is room for everyone: here the entire human family must find the resources to live with dignity, through the help of nature itself God’s gift to his children and through hard work and creativity. At the same time we must recognize our grave duty to hand the earth on to future generations in such a condition that they too can worthily inhabit it and continue to cultivate the values of sustainability. This means being committed to making joint decisions:


“after pondering responsibly the road to be taken, decisions aimed at strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment, which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying”.288

We therefore come to the basic conclusion to say that this responsibility is a global one, for it is concerned not just with energy but with the whole of creation, which must not be bequeathed to future generations depleted of its resources. Human beings legitimately exercise a responsible stewardship over nature, in order to protect it, to enjoy its fruits and to cultivate it in new ways, with the assistance of advanced technologies, so that it can worthily accommodate and feed the world's population289.

Let us hope that the international community and individual governments will succeed in countering harmful ways of treating the environment. It is likewise incumbent upon the competent authorities to make every effort to ensure that the economic and social costs of using up shared environmental resources are recognized with transparency and fully borne by those who incur them, not by other peoples or future generations: the protection of the environment, of resources and of the climate obliges all international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good faith, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the planet.290 One of the greatest challenges facing the economy is to achieve the most efficient use not abuse of natural resources, based on a realization that the notion of “efficiency” is not value-free.

288 Benedict XVI, Message for the 2008world Day of Peace, 7: AAS 100 (2008), 41. 289 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 2009.

290 Cf. Benedict XVI, Address to the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization, New York, 18 April 2008.



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I agree with the Pope that the way humanity treats the environment influences the way it treats itself, and vice versa. This invites contemporary society to a serious review of its life-style, which, in many parts of the world, is prone to hedonism and consumerism, regardless of their harmful consequences.291

The conservation of nature must be vigorously pursued. It is not enough to intervene with economic incentives or deterrents; not even an opposite education is sufficient. These are important steps, but the decisive issue is how can it be influenced to a better end, the overall moral tenor of society.


“If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology”292.

This lose of conscience of society towards the concept of human ecology is even made more vulnerable by the type of education that are being propagated throughout the world. For instance, in my own country Nigeria, especially in Enugu state where I came from the state has destroyed the famous zoo which was there even before I was born. For the government in power, this has no value, and they also inculcate this wrong idea to the masses through the mass media.


“it is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible: it takes in not only the environment but also life, sexuality, marriage, the family, social relations: in a word, integral human development. Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in him and in relation to others.”293

Consequently, it would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other. Herein lays a grave contradiction in our mentality and practice today: one which demeans the person disrupts the environment and damages society. Pope Benedict XVI concludes by saying that,

“Truth, and the love which it reveals, cannot be produced: they can only be received as a gift. Their ultimate source is not, and cannot be, mankind, but only God, who is himself Truth and Love. This principle is extremely important for society and for development, since neither can be a purely

291 Cf. John Paul II, Message for the 1990 world Day of Peace, 13: loc. cit., 154-155. 292 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, loc, 47, 2009. 293 Ibid.



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human product; the vocation to development on the part of individuals and peoples is not based simply on human choice, but is an intrinsic part of a plan that is prior to us and constitutes for all of us a duty to be freely accepted. That which is prior to us and constitutes us subsistent Love and Truth shows us what goodness is, and in what our true happiness consists. It shows us the road to true development294”.

I agree with the Pope that all cultures, religions, and philosophies talk of love, love for other human beings. If love is the strongest motivating force, then let it join people in a movement of human development for the people, by the people, in partnership with the people. Let us proclaim our ultimate goal of bringing humanity together, and let all of our actions be guided by the saying, “If one human being suffers, the whole of humanity suffers.”295

We could easily say that the goals of Human Development are too lofty, and that average people are not equipped to shoulder this responsibility. And certainly we must acknowledge the many spheres of action that are controlled by national governments and even international powerbrokers (politicians). But we will miss the lessons of history if we underestimate the power of individuals when joined together for any cause.

It will be very good if we step up and take action to support all human development initiatives, anywhere in the world and let us strengthen each other through our words and actions and through the use of our resources. Those who run national governments and the international powerbrokers themselves are, after all, human beings. They ultimately face the same fate as the rest of humanity. Their opinions can be changed, altered or modified if we work diligently, consistently and in unity.

"Future changes will not depend exclusively on government. Instead they will come primarily from the actions of people at the grassroots; people who will hold their leaders increasingly accountable...The age of the people may have finally arrived."296

“When indeed shall we learn that we are all related one to another, that we are all members of one body? Until the spirit of love for our fellow men, regardless of race, colour or creed, shall fill the world, making real in our lives and our deeds the actuality of human brotherhood - until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other’s welfare, social justice can never be achieved.”297

294 ibid Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, loc, 47, 2009. 295 ibid. 296 Mahbub ul Haq and Mrs. Khadija Haq, 2004, Human Development Foundation, Date/Time Last Modified:

3/7/2005 11:42 cooperation 15 AM. 297 Helen Keller (1880-1968, Human Development Foundation, Date/Time Last Modified: 3/7/2005 11:42:15 AM.



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Every hand should be on deck with HDF and help advance Human Development, the movement for positive social change and community empowerment.

5. CORRUPTION HINDERS THE COOPERATION OF THE HUMAN FAMILY

Corruption stands in the way of family development.

We cannot rightly speak of human development in the society without seriously referring to the Family.


“The family, the natural community in which human social nature is experienced, makes a unique and irreplaceable contribution to the good of society.” 298

The importance and centrality of the family with regard to the person and the society is repeatedly underlined by Sacred Scripture. It is not good that the man should be alone (Gen 2:18). The family unit in fact, is born from the communion of persons. Communion has to do with personal relationship between the ‘I’ and the ‘thou’ Community on the other hand transcends this framework and moves towards a society, a ‘we ‘. The family as a community of persons is thus the first human community299. Therefore, when one is outside the family, one becomes isolated.

Pope Benedict XVI maintains in his Encyclical Letters Caritas in Veritate that,

“One of the deepest forms of poverty a person can experience is isolation. If we look closely at other kinds of poverty, including material forms, we see that they are born from isolation, from not being loved or from difficulties in being able to love. Poverty is often produced by a rejection of God's love, by man's basic and tragic tendency to close in on himself, thinking him to be self-sufficient or merely an insignificant and ephemeral fact, a “stranger” in a random universe.”300



299 Ibid.

300 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter E, loc, 3, 2009.



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“A society built on a family scale is the best guarantee against drifting off course into individualism or collectivism, because within the family the person is always at the centre of attention as an end and never as a means”301.

What this simply means is that Man is alienated when he is alone, when he is detached from reality, when he stops thinking and believing in a foundation302. All of humanity is alienated when too much trust is placed in merely human projects, ideologies and false utopias.303 The reason is that Today humanity appears much more interactive than in the past: this shared sense of being close to one another must be transformed into true communion. The development of peoples depends, above all, on recognition that the human race is a single family working together in true communion, not simply a group of subjects who happen to live side by side.304

As St. Thomas Aquinas puts it,

“A metaphysical understanding of the relations between persons is therefore of great benefit for their development. In this regard, reason finds inspiration and direction in Christian revelation, according to which the human community does not absorb the individual, the family and annihilating his autonomy, as happens in the various forms of totalitarianism, but rather values him all the more because the relation between individual and community is a relation between one totality and another”305.

For this reason and when seen in the light of spiritual being, the human creature is defined through interpersonal relations. Therefore, the more authentically he or she lives these relations, the more his or her own personal identity matures. It is not by isolation that man establishes his worth, rather by placing himself in relation with others and with God. Hence these relations take on fundamental importance. The same holds true for peoples as well. Just as a family does not submerge the identities of its individual members, just as the Church rejoices in each new creation (Gal 6:15; 2 Cor 5:17) incorporated by Baptism into her living Body, so too the unity of the human family does not submerge the identities of individuals, peoples and cultures, but makes them more transparent to each other and links them more closely in their legitimate diversity.



302 Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 41 loc. cit., and 843-845. 303 Cf. Ibid.. 304 Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, 20 loc. cit., and 422-424. 305 According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, “ratio partis contrariatur rationi personae”, In III Sent., d. 5, q. 3, a. 2; also

“Homo non ordinatur ad communitatem politicam secundum se totum et secundum omnia sua”, Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 21, a. 4, ad 3.



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“The theme of development can be identified with the inclusion-in-relation of all individuals and peoples within the one community of the human family, built in solidarity on the basis of the fundamental values of justice and peace”.306 According to him, this perspective is illuminated in a striking way by the relationship between the Persons of the Trinity within the one divine Substance. The Trinity is absolute unity insofar as the three divine Persons are pure relationally. The reciprocal transparency among the divine Persons is total and the bond between each of them complete, since they constitute a unique and absolute unity. From the above explanations, it can be seen that God desires to incorporate us into this reality of communion as well: “that they may be one even as we are one” (Jn 17:22). The Church is a sign and instrument of this unity.307

I therefore believe that the relationships between human beings throughout history cannot but be enriched by reference to this divine model. This mainly because, in the light of the revealed mystery of the Trinity, we understand that true openness does not mean loss of individual identity but profound interpenetration. This also emerges from the common human experiences of love and truth. Just as the sacramental love of spouses unites them spiritually in one flesh (Gen 2:24; Mt 19:5; Eph 5:31) and makes out of the two a real and relational unity, so in an analogous way truth unites spirits and causes them to think in unison, attracting them as a unity to itself308.


“Without families that are strong in their communion and stable in their commitment peoples grow weak. In the family, moral values are taught starting from the very first year of life, the spiritual heritage of the religious community and the cultural legacy of the nation is transmitted.”309

It is important to mention here that there are certain religious cultures in the world today that do not oblige men and women to live in communion but rather cut them off from one other in a search for individual well-being, limited to the gratification of psychological desires. For instance, Mmawu Religious Cult, this is a religious cult that separate men folk from female folk. They exist in many parts of Nigeria. For instance, in my own Local Government Area Ezeagu in Enugu state Nigeria, it is called Ibono Masquerade Religious Cult. The Christian revelation of the unity of the human race presupposes a metaphysical interpretation of the “humanum in which relationality is an essential element. Other cultures like Igbo culture in Nigeria and religions like Christian religion

306Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate 54, 2009 307 Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 1. 308 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, loc, 47, 2009.

309 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 213 p125



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teach brotherhood and peace and are therefore of enormous importance to integral human development.


“Some religious and cultural attitudes, however, do not fully embrace the principle of love and truth and therefore end up retarding or even obstructing authentic human development. Furthermore, a certain proliferation of different religious “paths”, attracting small groups or even single individuals, together with religious syncretism, can give rise to separation and disengagement. One possible negative effect of the process of globalization is the tendency to favour this kind of syncretism by encouraging forms of “religion” that, instead of bringing people together, alienate them from one another and distance them from reality”.310

However, the relationship existing between the family and economic life is particularly significant. The home has been for a long time and in many religions still a place of production and the centre of life. The dynamism of economic life, on the other hand, developed with the initiative of people and is carried out in the manner of concentric circles, in ever broader networks of production and exchange of goods and services that involves families in continuously increasing measure.


“Family and work are united by a very special relationship. The family constitutes one of the most important terms of reference for shaping the social and ethical order of human work. This relation has its roots in the relation existing between the person and his right to posses the fruit of his labour and concerns not only the individual as a singular person but also as a member of a family, understood as a ‘domestic society’.311”

It should be noted that the violation of the dignity of human work is unjust, and should be condemned. And therefore, no consideration of the problems associated with development could fail to highlight the direct link between poverty and unemployment. It is for this reason, that on 1 May 2000 on the occasion of the Jubilee of Workers, Pope John Paul II issued an appeal for “a global coalition in favour of decent work,312 supporting the strategy of the International Labour Organization. In this way, he gave a strong moral impetus to this objective, seeing it as an aspiration of families in every country of the world.



312 Jubilee of Workers, Greetings after Mass, 1 May 2000.



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The question then is what is meant by the word “decent” in regard to work?


“It means work that expresses the essential dignity of every man and woman in the context of their particular society: work that is freely chosen, effectively associating workers, both men and women, with the development of their community; work that enables the worker to be respected and free from any form of discrimination; work that makes it possible for families to meet their needs and provide schooling for their children, without the children themselves being forced into labour; work that permits the workers to organize themselves freely, and to make their voices heard; work that leaves enough room for rediscovering one's roots at a personal, familial and spiritual level; work that guarantees those who have retired a decent standard of living”. 313

This above statements are worthy be taken into account especially in today’s world where some developed countries treat human beings as objects, especially the Asylum seekers. Some people seem to forget that man is created by One and Eternal God, therefore we belong to one family.

I think that it is important here to say that the global context in which work takes place also demands that national labour unions, which tend to limit themselves to defending the interests of their registered members, should turn their attention to those outside their membership, to include the family work and in particular to workers in developing countries where social rights are often violated. The protection of these workers, partly achieved through appropriate initiatives aimed at their countries of origin, will enable trade unions to demonstrate the authentic ethical and cultural motivations that made it possible for them, in a different social and labour context, to play a decisive role in development. The importance of Labour Union cannot be overemphasized. And that is why while reflecting on the theme of work, it is appropriate to recall how important it is that labour unions — which have always been encouraged and supported by the Church — should be open to the new perspectives that are emerging in the world of work314.


“Work is essential insofar as it represents the condition that makes it possible to establish a family, for the means by which the family is maintained are obtained through work. Work also conditions the process of personal development, since a family afflicted by unemployment runs the risk of not fully achieving its end”.315

313 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate 64, 2009. 314 Ibid.




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This risk in the family due to unemployment should not be taken for granted. Since the family is seen as the centre or the hob of the society. It is important here to consider the wider concerns than the specific category of labour for which they were formed, union organizations are called to address some of the new questions arising in our society: I am thinking, for example, of the complex of issues that social scientists describe in terms of a conflict between worker and consumer.


“Without necessarily endorsing the thesis that the central focus on the worker has given way to a central focus on the consumer, this would still appear to constitute new ground for unions to explore creatively. The Church's traditional teaching makes a valid distinction between the respective roles and functions of trade unions and politics. This distinction allows unions to identify civil society as the proper setting for their necessary activity of defending and promoting labour, especially on behalf of exploited and unrepresented workers, whose woeful condition is often ignored by the distracted eye of society.”316

Furthermore, it can be seen that global interconnectedness has led to the emergence of a new political power, that of consumers and their associations. Therefore, if corruption is allowed to destroy the family due to unemployment and lack of work to sustain the family, we can imagine the extent of its destruction. The effect of course will be corrosial.

According to the Pope,

“This is a phenomenon that needs to be further explored, as it contains positive elements to be encouraged as well as excesses to be avoided. It is good for people to realize that purchasing is always a moral and not simply economic act. Hence the consumer has a specific social responsibility, which goes hand-in- hand with the social responsibility of the enterprise. Consumers should be continually educated regarding their daily role, which can be exercised with respect for moral principles without diminishing the intrinsic economic rationality of the act of purchasing. In the retail industry, particularly at times like the present when purchasing power has diminished and people must live more frugally, it is necessary to explore other paths: for example, forms of cooperative purchasing like the consumer cooperatives that have been in operation since the nineteenth century, partly through the initiative of Catholics. In addition, it can be helpful to promote new ways of marketing products from deprived areas of the world, so as to guarantee their producers a decent return.”317





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I want to point out that it is important here as we talk about fair trade among countries of the world, we should not forget even for a second, the responsibility to protect the poorer countries that are in most cases marginalized or even neglected.


“In the Face of all these problems, one also senses the urgent need to find innovative ways of implementing the principle of the responsibility to protect and of giving poorer nations an effective voice in shared decision-making. This seems necessary in order to arrive at a political, juridical and economic order which can increase and give direction to international cooperation for the development of all peoples in solidarity”.318

Again, the Pope continues,

“And also in the face of the unrelenting growth of global interdependence, there is a strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for a reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth”.319

This economic reform is even more urgent this present time of global economic crisis. As we can see it, many countries including: United States of America, Britain, France, Greece, etc, have slacked into recession thereby causing untold harm to the Global world trade. So to manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority.320

According to Blessed John XXIII,

“Such an authority would need to be regulated by law, to observe consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, to seek to establish the common good and to make a commitment to securing authentic integral human development inspired by the values of charity in truth”.321

318 Benedict XVI, Address to the Members of the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization, New

York, 18 April 2008. 319 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 2009.

320 Ibid.

321 Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris,, loc. cit., 293; Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,, 441.



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For This law to be inspired by the values charity in truth, the integral development of peoples and international cooperation require the establishment of a greater degree of international ordering, marked by subsidiarity, for the management of globalization They also require the construction of a social order that at last conforms to the moral order, to the interconnection between moral and social spheres, and to the link between politics and the economic and civil spheres, as envisaged by the Charter of the United Nations.”322

According to the Second Vatican Council,

“Such an authority would need to be universally recognized and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights”.323

Furthermore, it is important that such authority should be built on checks and balances. It would have to have the authority to ensure compliance with its decisions from all parties, and also with the coordinated measures adopted in various international forums. Without this, despite the great progress accomplished in various sectors, international law would risk being conditioned by the balance of power among the strongest nations.324

Unfortunately, several of the organisations that have been studied have not only emphasised but also discovered that corruption is one of the most important reasons for the lack of development and for poverty.

According to an analysis made by the World Bank, corruption is also considered to be the single most important obstacle to economic growth and social development. Most of the organisations included in the study were of the opinion that combating corruption is an absolutely essential component in the struggle against poverty.325

Corruption exists in all countries, regardless of whether they are developed or not. In all countries there are varying degrees of petty corruption or “greasing the palm”326, for example additional fees given to doctors nurses and teachers, bribes given to the police and courts, as well as extra fees given to the authorities that issue different types of licences. There are also varying degrees of


323 Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 82.


325 Ibid.

326 JOAKIM ANGER, : Corruption – Working Paper No 3 Anti-corruption strategies in development JANUARY 2004, pg.2.



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large-scale corruption or “grand corruption”, for example when politicians and senior civil servants steal funds from the public treasury, rig procurements, and buy votes in connection with general elections.

6. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLES AND TECHNOLOGY

According to the Social Doctrine of the Church,

“Nature appears as an instrument in the hands of man, a reality that he must constantly manipulate, especially by means of technology. This reductionistic conception views the natural world in mechanistic terms and sees development in terms of consumerism. Consequently, Primacy is given to doing and having rather than to being, and this causes serious forms of alienation.”327

We owe a duty to ourselves, to others and to our environment. Our freedom is profoundly shaped by our being, and by its limits.


“No one shapes his own conscience arbitrarily, but we all build our own I on the basis of a self which is given to us. Not only are other persons outside our control, but each one of us is outside his or her own control. A person's development is compromised, if he claims to be solely responsible for producing what he becomes. By analogy, the development of peoples goes awry if humanity thinks it can re-create itself through the wonders of technology, just as economic development is exposed as a destructive sham if it relies on the “wonders” of finance in order to sustain unnatural and consumerist growth.”328

The development of peoples is intimately linked to the development of individuals.

For the Church,

“The advances of science and technology do not eliminate the need for transcendence and are not of themselves the cause of exasperated secularism that leads to nihilism. With the progress of science and technology, questions as to their meaning increase and give rise to an ever greater need to respect the transcendent dimension of the human person and creation itself”329.


328 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 68, 2009. 329 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no.462 p261.



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A correct understanding of the environment prevents the utilitarian reduction of nature to a mere object to be manipulated and exploited. At the same time, it must not absolutize nature and place it above the dignity of the human person himself. The Magisterium finds the motivation for its position to a concept of the environment based on ecocentrism and on biocentrism in the fact that it is being proposed that the ontological and axiological difference between men and other living beings be eliminated, since the biosphere is considered a biotic unity of undifferentiated value330.


“the human person by nature is actively involved in his own development. The development in question is not simply the result of natural mechanisms, since as everybody knows; we are all capable of making free and responsible choices. Nor is it merely at the mercy of our caprice, since we all know that we are a gift, not something self-generated. In the face of such Promethean presumption, we must fortify our love for a freedom that is not merely arbitrary, but is rendered truly human by acknowledgment of the good that underlies it. To this end, man needs to look inside himself in order to recognize the fundamental norms of the natural moral law which God has written on our hearts.”331

Again, according to the Pope,

“The human spirit, increasingly free of its bondage to creatures, can be more easily drawn to the worship and contemplation of the Creator'”332. Technology enables us to exercise dominion over matter, to reduce risks, to save labour, to improve our conditions of life. It touches the heart of the vocation of human labour: in technology, seen as the product of his genius, man recognizes himself and forges his own humanity”.333

Care for the environment represents a challenge for all of humanity. It is a matter of a common and universal duty, that of representing a common good, destined for all, by preventing anyone from using with impunity the different categories of beings, whether living or inanimate-animals, plants, the natural elements-simply as one wishes, according to one’s own economic needs. Programmes of economic development must carefully consider the need to respect the integrity and the circles of nature, because natural resources are limited and some are not renewable. The

330Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 463 p262 .

331 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate , 2009.

332 Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 41: loc. cit., 277-278; cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 57.

333 Cf. Caritas in Veritate, 2009.



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present rhythm of exploitation is seriously compromising the availability of some natural resources for both the present and the future334.

The challenge of development today is closely linked to technological progress, with its astounding applications in the field of biology. Technology it is worth emphasizing is a profoundly human reality, linked to the autonomy and freedom of man. In technology we express and confirm the hegemony of the spirit over matter. Technology is the objective side of human action whose origin and raison d'etre is found in the subjective element: the worker himself335. For this reason, technology is never merely technology. It reveals man and his aspirations towards development; it expresses the inner tension that impels him gradually to overcome material limitations.


“Technology, in this sense, is a response to God's command to till and to keep the land (cf. Gen 2:15) that he has entrusted to humanity, and it must serve to reinforce the covenant between human beings and the environment, a covenant that should mirror God's creative love”336

Just because social communications increase the possibilities of interconnection and the dissemination of ideas, it does not follow that they promote freedom or internationalize development and democracy for all. To achieve goals of this kind, they need to focus on promoting the dignity of persons and peoples, they need to be clearly inspired by charity and placed at the service of truth, of the good, and of natural and supernatural fraternity. In fact, human freedom is intrinsically linked with these higher values. The media can make an important contribution towards the growth in communion of the human family and the ethos of society when they are used to promote universal participation in the common search for what is just.

One of the most important and crucial battleground in today's cultural struggle between the supremacy of technology and human moral responsibility is the field of bioethics, where the very possibility of integral human development is radically called into question.


“ In this most delicate and critical area, the fundamental question asserts itself force-fully: is man the product of his own labours or does he depend on God? Scientific discoveries in this field and the possibilities of technological intervention seem so advanced as to force a choice between two types of reasoning: reason open to transcendence or reason closed within immanence. We are


335 Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 5: loc. cit., 586-589. 336 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate 69, 2009.



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presented with a clear either/ or. Yet the rationality of a self-centred use of technology proves to be irrational because it implies a decisive rejection of meaning and value.”337

There is no doubt that closing the door to transcendence brings one up short against a difficulty: how could being emerge from nothing, how could intelligence be born from chance?338 Therefore, faced with these dramatic questions, reason and faith can come to each other's assistance. Only together will they save man. Entranced by an exclusive reliance on technology, reason without faith is doomed to flounder in an illusion of its own omnipotence. Faith without reason risks being cut off from everyday life.339

As we have seen, Paul VI had already recognized and drawn attention to the global dimension of the social question. Following his lead, we need to affirm today that the social question has become a radically anthropological question, in the sense that it concerns not just how life is conceived but also how it is manipulated, as bio-technology places it increasingly under man's control. In vitro fertilization, embryo research, the possibility of manufacturing clones and human hybrids: all this is now emerging and being promoted in today's highly disillusioned culture, which believes it has mastered every mystery, because the origin of life is now within our grasp.340


“In recent years pressing questions have been raised with regard to the use of new forms of biotechnology in the areas of agriculture, animal farming, medicine and environmental protection. The new possibilities offered by current biological and biogenetic techniques are a source of hope and enthusiasm on the one hand, and of alarm and hostility on the other341.”

This is a very dangerous ground and seriously delicate area that one must be careful about. Here above, we see the clearest expression of technology's supremacy. In this type of culture, the conscience is simply invited to take note of technological possibilities.


“Yet we must not underestimate the disturbing scenarios that threaten our future, or the powerful new instruments that the “culture of death” has at its disposal. To the tragic and

337 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate 74, 2009. 338 Benedict XVI, Address to the Participants in the Fourth National Congress of the Church in Italy, Verona, 19

October 2006; Id., Homily at Mass, Islinger Feld, Regensburg, 12 September 2006. 339 Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on certain bioethical questions Dignitas Personae (8

September 2008): AAS 100 (2008), 858-887. 340 Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 3: loc. cit., 258. 341 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 472 p268.



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widespread scourge of abortion we may well have to add in the future indeed it is already surreptiously present the systematic eugenic programming of births. At the other end of the spectrum, a pro-euthanasia mind set is making inroads as an equally damaging assertion of control over life that under certain circumstances is deemed no longer worth living.”342

For the Church,

“The application of various types’ biotechnology, their acceptability from amoral point of view, their consequences for human health and their impact on the environment and the economy are the subject of thorough study and heated debate. These are controversial question the involve scientists and researchers, politicians and legislators, economists and environmentalists, as well as producers and consumers. Christians are not different to those problems, for they are aware of the importance of the values at stake”343.

The question then is, how can we be surprised by the indifference shown towards situations of human degradation, when such indifference extends even to our attitude towards what is and is not human? What is astonishing is the arbitrary and selective determination of what to put forward today as worthy of respect. Underlying these scenarios are cultural viewpoints that deny human dignity. These practices in turn foster a materialistic and mechanistic understanding of human life. Who could measure the negative effects of this kind of mentality for development? Insignificant matters are considered shocking, yet unprecedented injustices seem to be widely tolerated.

For the Church,

“The Christian vision of creation makes a positive judgement on the acceptability of human intervention in nature, which also includes other living beings, and at the same time makes a strong appeal for responsibility. In effect, nature is not a sacred or divine reality that human must leave alone. Rather, it is a gift offered by the creator to the human community entrusted to the intelligence and moral responsibility of men and women.”344

The Church maintains that for that reason, the human person does not commit an illicit act when, when out of respect for the order, beauty and usefulness of individual beings and their function in the ecosystem, he intervenes by modifying some of their characteristics or properties.


342 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate 75, 2009. 343 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 472 p268.




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“Human intervention that damage living beings or the natural environment deserve condemnation, while those that improve them are praise worthy”345.

We should realise that, God reveals man to himself; reason and faith work hand in hand to demonstrate to us what is good, provided we want to see it; the natural law, in which creative Reason shines forth, reveals our greatness, but also our wretchedness insofar as we fail to recognize the call to moral truth. Here the two opposite natures of man come to play in which we must be careful not to mismanage them346.

While the poor of the world continue knocking on the doors of the rich, the world of affluence runs the risk of no longer hearing those knocks, on account of a conscience that can no longer distinguish what is human.347

I want us here to note that the question of development is closely bound up with our understanding of the human soul, insofar as we often reduce the self to the psyche and confuses the soul's health with emotional well-being. These over-simplifications stem from a profound failure to understand the spiritual life, and they obscure the fact that the development of individuals and peoples depends partly on the resolution of problems of a spiritual nature. With this clear in our mind, we notice that another aspect of the contemporary technological mind set is the tendency to consider the problems and emotions of the interior life from a purely psychological point of view, even to the point of neurological reductionism.

For the Church,

“The acceptability of the use of biological and biogenic techniques is only one part of the ethical problem which, when compared with every human behaviour, is also necessary to evaluate accurately the real benefit as well as the possible consequences in terms of risk”. When we lose this sense of evaluation, then we are lost348”.

In the realm of technological-scientific interventions that have forceful and widespread impact on living organisms, with the possibility of significant long-term repercussions, it is unacceptable to act lightly or irresponsibly.

By following this line of thought, we find out that man's interiority is emptied of its meaning and gradually our awareness of the human soul's ontological depths, as probed by the saints, is lost.

345 ibid

346 Cf. Caritas in Veritate 2009.

347 Cf. Caritas in Veritate, 2009. 348 compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 473 p268



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Development therefore must include not just material growth but also spiritual growth, since the human person is a “unity of body and soul born of God's creative love and destined for eternal life.349 The human being develops when he grows in the spirit, when his soul comes to know itself and the truths that God has implanted deep within, when he enters into dialogue with himself and his Creator. When he is far away from God, man is unsettled and ill at ease.350

Social and psychological alienation and the many neuroses that afflict affluent societies are attributable in part to spiritual factors. “A prosperous society, highly developed in material terms but weighing heavily on the soul, is not of itself conducive to authentic development.351” Therefore, the emptiness, in which the soul feels abandoned, despite the availability of countless therapies for body and psyche, leads to suffering. There cannot be holistic development and universal common good unless people's spiritual and moral welfare is taken into account, considered in their totality as body and soul. The new forms of slavery to drugs and the lack of hope into which so many people fall, can be explained not only in sociological and psychological terms but also and essentially, in spiritual terms.

I want us in this situation to realise that knowing is not simply a material act, since the object that is known always conceals something beyond the empirical datum. All our knowledge, even the most simple, is always a minor miracle, since it can never be fully explained by the material instruments that we apply to it.

The supremacy of technology tends to prevent people from recognizing anything that cannot be explained in terms of matter alone. Yet everyone experiences the many immaterial and spiritual dimensions of life. In every truth there is something more than we would have expected, in the love that we receive there is always an element that surprises us.352 Owing to this reason, we should never cease to marvel at these things. In all knowledge and in every act of love the human soul experiences something over and above, which seems very much like a gift that we receive, or a height to which we are raised.

The development of individuals and peoples is likewise located on a height, if we consider the spiritual dimension that must be present if such development is to be authentic. It requires new eyes and a new heart, capable of rising above a materialistic vision of human events, capable of glimpsing in development the beyond that technology cannot give.353 By following this path, it is

349 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes,

14. 350 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate 75, 2009. 351 Ibid. 352 Ibid 353 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate 75, 2009.



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possible to pursue the integral human development that takes its direction from the driving force of charity in truth.

7. CORRUPTION – A CHALLENGE TO DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION

According to JOAKIM ANGER,

“Corruption undermines development cooperation contributions and thereby the possibility of achieving stated goals. In turn, this creates the risk that the preparedness of tax-payers to support development cooperation will be negatively affected” 354.

All donors studied agree that corruption affects most sectors in development cooperation. For instance, corruption has a negative effect on health, education, infrastructure, the business climate, democracy and public institutions. Corruption thus constitutes a challenge to the very foundations of development cooperation.

Given the general trend in development cooperation in which an increasing amount of resources is being channelled to developing countries in the form of sector programme support or budget support, it will be increasingly difficult for individual donors to monitor and follow up what happens to their resources.

“NORAD, DFID and the World Bank have drawn special attention to this situation and have demanded that partner countries are able to show, in a credible way, that they are working to combat corruption in society, and that this is being done in their Poverty Reduction Strategies, Comprehensive Development Frame work”355.

354 JOAKIM ANGER: Corruption – Working Paper No 3 Anti-corruption strategies in development JANUARY 2004, Pg 5.

355 Ibid.



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8. RICH COUNTRIES CONTRIBUTE TO CORRUPTION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Explicit interventions to combat corruption have now been in place for more than five years and it is quite obvious that this is a relatively new working field for the donor organisations. The donor community is constantly seeking more effective methods in this field. Policies and strategies that are three or four years old are now on the way to be re-evaluated.

According to Joachim,

“The large amounts of financial resources that make grand corruption possible, in developing countries often come from more highly developed countries. Moreover, it is often possible to find public assets that have been stolen from the poor countries in banks in the more highly developed countries”356.

Some of the organisations studied (particularly OECD, DFID and Transparency International) have chosen to work in different ways to stop the supply side of corruption, for example by trying to prevent companies that do business in developing counties from using bribes in connection with procurements.

However, there are still no specific models for ways in which effective anticorruption programmes can be implemented. In particular, there are not many evaluations of ways in which development cooperation contributions have affected the level of corruption in developing countries. Nor is there any specific evidence that development cooperation contributions can be a particularly effective instrument against corruption. Even development cooperation funds that are the subject of strict controls make other financial assets in the economy available (for example domestic tax revenues), and it can be difficult or impossible to monitor and follow up the use of these funds.

The donor organisations have still to make a critical analysis of the ways in which they themselves contribute to corruption in developing -countries. Corruption in developing countries is just as much a matter that concerns countries that provide support as the countries that receive it. DFID is the organisation that has most clearly chosen a broad approach. It works with the issue at home (for example through British legislation on corruption) and in developing countries.

356 Op cit. Pg. 7.



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9. THE PRACTICABLE METHODS TO COMBAT CORRUPTION AGAINST DEVELOPMENT

During recent years the donor organisations have emphasised that,

“There are no simple patent solutions that others can copy. Instead strategies to combat corruption should be tailor-made to meet the level of corruption in the country concerned, the symptoms of the corruption, and expectations of ways in which forms of corruption can change in the near future.”357

In as much as I agree that corruption control is not an easy task, it my belief however, that corruption can be drastically minimized by the anti-corruption strategy as I have proposed above as the way out.

There are no simple solutions to the problem of corruption but several donor organisations have nonetheless reached agreement that certain conditions must be in place if combating corruption is to be possible at all. There must, for example, be a genuine political determination to combat corruption in the recipient country, a broad anticorruption strategy that covers most of the public administration, an active civil society, and a free press that can keep a strict watch on the public sector, as well as flexibility in the ways in which interventions to combat corruption should be started (entry points).

During recent years, several organisations have chosen to integrate the corruption perspective in programme and project support in all sectors of development cooperation.

“Experience gained by NORAD, DFID and the World Bank shows that the organisation must allocate considerable resources to make it possible to integrate the issues in practice. There should, for example, be an autonomous group in the organisation that has the specific mandate and political support to pursue the issues, both inside and outside the donor organisation. The group should have a strategy that covers several years and contains a work plan with specific and measurable goals, as well as its own budget”358.

357 JOAKIM ANGER: Corruption – Working Paper No 3 Anti-corruption strategies in development JANUARY 2004.

358 Op cit Pg. 13.



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10. CORRUPTION – A GLOBAL PROBLEM THAT AFFECTS EVERYONE AND DEVELOPMENT

The causes and consequences of corruption constitute a genuine global problem that affects all countries, regardless of their degree of development. In order to give developing countries a realistic opportunity to combat the causes of corruption, it is also necessary to take action against the countries in the rich world that make corruption possible. An approach of this type necessitates cooperation and coordination of a number of different stakeholders and interested parties in society.

Corruption –and its consequences are the critical issues of our time. The issue transcends national borders and can neither be handled within the framework of the nation state nor merely within the framework development cooperation.

Governance, accountability, ethics, integrity, transparency, tradition and the honour of public officials. In the international debate, among donor organisations and in this report, that is, the anti-corruption strategy as the way out, corruption is not merely considered from the legal perspective. It is also regarded as a social problem with significant negative socioeconomic consequences.

The causal relationship between corruption and poverty has also been given a prominent position in the UN’s new convention against corruption. When the UN General Assembly adopted the convention in 2003, the General Secretary, Kofi Annan, maintained that:

“Corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life, and allows organized crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish. This evil phenomenon is found in all countries – big and small, rich and poor – but it is in the developing world that its effects are most destructive. Corruption hurts the poor disproportionately – by diverting funds intended for development, undermining a government’s ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice, and discouraging foreign aid and investment. Corruption is a key element in economic under-performance, and a major obstacle to poverty alleviation and development”359.

All organisations included in the study state that corruption is one of the major causes of poverty. Combating corruption is consequently a decisive component in poverty reduction. The

359 UN General Assembly adopted the convention in 2003, on Its Corruption Perception Index, 2001.



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causal relationship between corruption and poverty has been well known for a long time, but it was only when the President of the World Bank, in a renowned statement in 1996, claimed that corruption is the main cause of shortcomings in economic and social developments, the causal relationship was also adopted by other members of the donor community. Shortly thereafter several other members of the donor community made a similar analysis360.

The poor are often directly affected by corruption (petty corruption) since they are often obliged to “grease palms” for social services which, according to the law, are free of charge, for example extra fees to doctors, nurses and teachers, and bribes to the police and courts and to the authorities that issue different types of licences. The poor are also affected indirectly by corruption (grand corruption), for example when politicians and senior civil servants plunder the national treasury, rig procurements, and buy votes in connection with general elections.

360 However, the relationship between corruption and strict economic growth and prosperity is not totally unambiguous. It is worth noting, for example, that Italy and Germany have lower rankings that Botswana and Chile on its Corruption Perception Index, 2001.



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CHAPTER 2

A. THE ETHICS OF HUMAN ACTS AS CONCEIVED BY THE CHRISTIAN ETHICS

1. WHAT IS HUMAN ACTS?

This is very important question here to be considered, since Corruption is not only a Social, Political, etc. problem, but also an ethical. This will help us to prove beyond reasonable doubts that man is culpable for man’s corrupt actions.

Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical letter “Redemptor Hominis” the Divine Dimension of the Mystery of Man, has this to say,

“We do not forget even for a moment that Jesus Christ, the son of the living God, became our reconciliation with the father. He it was, and he alone, who satisfied the father’s eternal love, that fatherhood, that from beginning found expression in creating the world, giving man all the riches of creation, and making him ‘little less than God’ in that he was created in the image and after the likeness of God. He and he alone satisfied that fatherhood of God and that love which man in a way rejected by breaking the first commandment.”361


“The fundamental message of Sacred Scripture proclaims that the human person is a creature of God (cf. Ps 139:14-18), and sees in his being in the image of God Imago Dei the element that characterizes and distinguishes him: God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27).362

It can be observed and rightly so that the term human act has a fixed technical meaning. It means an act (thought, word, deed, desire, and omission) performed by a human being when he is responsible; when he knows what he is doing and wills to do it. An act is perfectly human when it

361 Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical letter “Redemptor Hominis, Pg58.




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is done with full knowledge and full consent of the will, and with full and unhampered freedom of choice. If the act is hampered in any way, it is less perfectly human; if it is done without knowledge or consent it is not a human act at all. An act done by a human being but without knowledge and consent is called an act of a person but not a human act. In the terminology of classical realistic philosophy, a human act is actus humanus; an act of a person is actus hominis363.

Consequently, there was a fall of man from his original nature, a fall from grace. However, the Pope believes that man was not left in his fallen state but was lifted up through the redemption wrought by Christ. According to him,

“Because of the Redemption, the human person was newly created and restored to the dignity lost because of sin and made an heir of immeasurable greatness. Thus, he can draw near to Christ appropriating and assimilating the whole of reality of incarnation and redemption in other to find himself.364”

God places the human creature at the centre and summit of the created order. Man (in Hebrew, “adam”) is formed from the earth (“adamah”) and God blows into his nostrils the breath of life (cf. Gen 2:7).


“Therefore, being in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of knowledge, of self possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other person”365.

Man therefore, possesses knowledge, freedom and the ability of choice. And with these special qualities given to him by God which distinguish him from the other beings in the universe, he is able to act responsibly in relation to one another, to other being and to God.

According to Ming, J.

“Acts are termed human when they are proper to man as man; when, on the contrary, they are elicited by man, but not proper to him as a rational agent, they are called acts of man”366.

For the Church,

363 Ming, J. (1907). Human Acts. In The Catholic Encyclopaedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved

June 26, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01115a.htm 364 Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical letter “Redemptor Hominis, Pg59.

365 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 108 p 63.

366 Ming, J. (1907). Human Acts. In The Catholic Encyclopaedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved June 26, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01115a.htm



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“This marvellous vision of man’s creation by God is inseparable from the tragic appearance of original sin. With a clear affirmation the Apostle Paul sums up the account of man’s fall contained in the first pages of the Bible: Sin came into the World though one man and death through sin (Rom 5:12). Man, against God’s prohibition, allows himself to be seduced by the serpent and stretches out his hand to the tree of life, falling prey to death367. It is a sin of disobedience (cf. Rom 5:19) that separates man from God.368

The essential elements of a human act are three: knowledge, freedom, actual choice.

2. KNOWLEDGE.

A person is not responsible for an act done in ignorance, unless the ignorance is the person's own fault, and is therefore willed (vincible ignorance), in which case he has knowledge that he is in ignorance and ought to dispel it. Thus, in one way or another, knowledge is necessary for responsibleness.

3. FREEDOM.

A person is not responsible for an act over which he has no control, unless he deliberately surrenders such control by running into conditions and circumstances which rob him of liberty. Thus, in one way or another, freedom is necessary for every human act369.


368 Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2259-2261.

369 Ming, J. (1907). Human Acts. In The Catholic Encyclopaedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved June 26, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01115a.htm.



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4. ACTUAL CHOICES OR VOLUNTARINESS.

A person is not responsible for an act which he does not will, unless he wills to give up his self-control (as a man does, for instance, in allowing himself to be hypnotized, or by deliberately becoming intoxicated). Thus, in one way or another, voluntariness or actual choice enters into every human act.

Now, a human act is a willed act. It proceeds from the will, following the knowledge and judgment of the mind or intellect. Since what refers to the freewill is usually described as moral, a human act is a moral act. Since the will is free, a human act is a free act.

According to Ludwig von, Mises,

“Human action is purposeful behaviour or we may say: Action is will put into operation and transformed into an agency, is aiming at ends and goals, is the ego's meaningful response to stimuli and to the conditions of its environment, is a person's conscious adjustment to the state of the universe that determines his life. Such paraphrases may clarify the definition given and prevent possible misinterpretations. But the definition itself is adequate and does not need complement or commentary” 370.

For the Church,

“From revelation we know that Adam, the first man transgresses God commandment and loses the holiness and justice in which was made holiness and justice which were received not only for himself but for all of humanity: By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a falling state”371.

He, Adam then becomes responsible for his actions as man because of the three Properties; Knowledge, Freedom and Choice that are involved in his actions.

As we can see, human act comes from the will directly or indirectly. This is because, when the act itself is the choice of the will, it comes directly from the will and is said to be willed in se or in itself. When the act comes indirectly from the will, inasmuch as the will chooses rather what causes or occasions the act than the act itself, it is said to be willed in its cause or in causa. Thus a man, who wills to become intoxicated, wills it directly or in se; a man who does not wish to

370 Mises, Ludwig von Human Action: A Treatise on Economics: The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc.

Irvington-on-Hudson, NY Fourth revised ed., 1996, printed 1998 1949, Pg.111. 371 Catechism of the Catholic, 404.



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become intoxicated, but who seeks entertainment where, as experience tells him, he is almost sure to become intoxicated, wills the intoxication indirectly or in causa372.

According to Ludwig von,

“Conscious or purposeful behaviour is in sharp contrast to unconscious behaviour, i.e., the reflexes and the involuntary responses of the body's cells and nerves to stimuli. People are sometimes prepared to believe that the boundaries between conscious behaviour and the involuntary reaction of the forces operating within man's body are more or less indefinite. This is correct only as far as it is sometimes not easy to establish whether concrete behaviour is to be considered voluntary or involuntary. But the distinction between consciousness and unconsciousness is nonetheless sharp and can be clearly determined”373


“Man can turn to good only in freedom, which God has given to him as one of the highest signs of his image: For God has willed that man remains ‘under the control of his own decisions’ (Sir 15:14), so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter blissful perfection through loyalty to him”374.

We can then rightly say that, man’s dignity demands that he acts according to a knowing and free choice that is personally motivated and prompted from within, neither under blind internal impulse or by mere external pressure375.

I wish to point out here, that the unconscious behaviour of the bodily organs and cells is for the acting ego no less a datum than any other fact of the external world. Acting man must take into account all that goes on within his own body as well as other data, e.g., the weather or the attitudes of his neighbours. There is, of course, a margin within which purposeful behaviour has the power to neutralize the working of bodily factors.376

It is feasible within certain limits to get the body under control. Man can sometimes succeed through the power of his will in overcoming sickness, in compensating for the innate or acquired

372 Mises, Ludwig von Human Action: A Treatise on Economics: The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc.

Irvington-on-Hudson, NY Fourth revised ed., 1996, printed 1998 1949, Pg.111. 373 ibid

374 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 135 p75. 375 Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes, 17: AAS 58 (1966); cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1730-1732.

376 Ibid.



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insufficiency of his physical constitution, or in suppressing reflexes. As far as this is possible, the field of purposeful action is extended. If a man abstains from controlling the involuntary reaction of cells and nerve centres, although he would be in a position to do so, his behaviour is from our point of view purposeful377.

According to Catholic Encyclopaedia,

“it becomes necessary here that a distinction is made for more clarification, this distinction of direct and indirect willing (or direct and indirect voluntariness) raises a notable issue, and we have here two of the most important principles (that is, fundamental guiding truths) in all ethics. These are:

1. The Principle of Direct and Indirect Voluntariness: A person is responsible for the evil effect of a cause directly willed when three conditions are met: when he can readily foresee the evil effect, at least in a general way; when he is free to refrain from doing what causes the evil effect; and when he is bound to refrain from doing what causes the evil effect. But is the agent (that is, the doer of an act) not always bound to avoid what causes an evil effect? Is not the fact that the effect is evil a sufficient reason for rendering the act which leads to it unlawful? Not always, for sometimes the act has two effects, one good and one evil. In this case, the following principle applies:

2.The Principle of Twofold Effect: A person may lawfully perform an act which has two effects, one good and one evil, when the following conditions are met: when the act which has two effects is not in itself an evil act; when the evil effect does not come before the good effect so as to be a means to it; when there exists a reason, proportionately weighty, which calls for the good effect; when the agent B (that is, the doer or performer of the act) intends the good effect exclusively, and merely permits the evil effect as a regrettable side-issue. St. Thomas Aquinas and the scholastics in general regard only the free and deliberate acts of the will as human. Their view is grounded on psychological analysis. A free act is voluntary, that is, it proceeds from the will with the apprehension of the end sought, or, in other words, is put forth by the will solicited by the goodness of the object as presented to it by the understanding. Free acts, moreover, proceed from the will's own determination, without necessitation, intrinsic or extrinsic. For free acts, are those acts which the will can elicit, or abstain from eliciting, even though all the requisites of volition are present. They, consequently, are acts to which the will is determined neither by the object nor by its own natural dispositions and habits, but to which it determines itself. The will alone is capable of self-determination or freedom; the other faculties, as the understanding, the senses, the power of

377 Catholic Encyclopaedia, htt:www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm. Get the full contents of New Advent

(Catholic Encyclopaedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more) on CD-ROM.



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motion, are not free; but some of their acts are controlled by the will and so far share its freedom indirectly. The active indeterminateness of the will, its mastery over its own actions, is consequent upon the deliberation of reason``378.


“Man rightly appreciates freedom and strives for it passionately: rightly does he desire and must form and guide, by his free initiative, his personal and social life, accepting personal responsibility for it” 379.

I can say in fact, freedom not only allows man suitably to modify the state of things outside of himself, but it also determines the growth of his being as a person through choices consistent with the true good380. In this way, man generates himself, he is father of his own being381, and he constructs the social order382.

Sound human reason vindicates the value and trustworthiness of these two leading ethical principles (good and evil). The basic law of morals, called the natural law, is summed up in this plain mandate of reason: We must do good we must avoid evil. And, developing the second point, that is, the avoidance of evil, we have this basic rational principle: We must never do what is evil, even though good may be looked for and intended as a result of it. Human acts are modified, that is, affected, and made less perfectly human, by anything that hampers or hinders any of the three essentials of human action: knowledge, freedom, voluntariness. Chief of the modifiers of human acts are these.

“Ignorance is the absence of knowledge. In Ethics it regards two classes of objects viz., laws and facts. If a man does not know that marriage between third cousins is forbidden, he is ignorant of the law. If he is not aware that his betrothed is his third cousin, he is ignorant of the fact. Ignorance, whether of the law, or of the facts, is either vincible or invincible, when it cannot be overcome by the due amount of diligence, it is invincible; otherwise, it is vincible. The latter is said

378 Catholic Encyclopaedia, htt:www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm. Get the full contents of New Advent

(Catholic Encyclopaedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more) on CD-ROM. 379 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 135 p75.

380 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1733.

381 Cf. Gregory of Nyssa, de Vita Moysis, II, 2-3: p 44.

382 Cf, John Paul II Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 13: AAS 83 (1991), 808-810.



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to be gross or supine when scarcely an effort has been made to remove it; and if a person deliberately avoids enlightenment in order to sin more freely, his ignorance is affected”.383 And

According to Charles Coppens,

“Concupiscence is a strong impulse of the sensible appetite inclining the will to seek sensible good and to fly from sensible evil. When it arises unbidden by the will, it is termed antecedent; but when it arises at the command, or continues with the consent, of the will, it is called consequent. As soon as sensible good or evil is perceived, the appetite generally acts instinctively. This first impulse is not free, and consequently not imputable to us. In as far as concupiscence impels the will; it restrains our liberty, and thus lessens our accountability. Yet, unless the impulse be so violent as to deprive us for the time being of the use of reason, it does not dispossess our will of the power to refuse consent; hence, when the will yields, though its consent may be reluctant, it does so freely and we are responsible. Consequent concupiscence is a wilful intensification of consent, which therefore increases our responsibility”384

The ethical principle here is: Antecedent concupiscence lessens voluntariness and responsibility but does not take them away; consequent concupiscence does not lessen voluntariness and responsibility.

Of all the types of concupiscence which influence human acts, fear has a peculiar significance, and we have a special reasoned principle for it: An act done from a motive of fear is simply voluntary; the agent is responsible for it, even though he would not do it were he not under the sway of fear. Of course, if the fear is so great that it renders the agent insane at the moment of his act, he is incapable of a human act and is not responsible. Civil law makes provisions for the nullifying of contracts made under the stress of fear (that is, of threat, or duress), for the common good requires that people be protected from the malice of unscrupulous persons who would not hesitate to enforce harmful bargains by fearsome means.

1) Fear, “Fear arises from the apprehension of threatening evil, and prompts us to seek safety in flight. Our will is thus dragged along, as it were, and so its freedom is restricted and our responsibility is diminished to the same extent. Great fear sometimes exempts a person from acts enjoined by positive law.385”

383 JMC: Moral Philosophy/ by Charles Coppens, S.J. University of NOTRE DAME; Chapter 2. The Morality of

Human Acts, 62. I. http://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/mp02.htm 384 Op cit. 65. II.

385 Op cit. 66. III.



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2. Violence. Coercion or violence is external force applied by a free cause (that is, by human beings) to compel a person to do something contrary to his will. The ethical principle with respect to violence is: An act owing to violence to which due resistance is made, is not voluntary, and the agent is not responsible for it. As Charles Coppens puts it386,

“Violence is an impulse from outside tending to force the agent to act against his choice. It cannot affect the will directly i.e., the elicited acts of the will for we cannot will that which at the same time we do not will. But violence can sometimes affect our external acts. In so far as the violence is irresistible, we are not responsible for the external act. If, however, the will yields a reluctant yet real consent, we are blameable, though in a lower degree than if there had been no reluctance.387”

1. Habit. Habit is a readiness, born of repeated acts, for doing a certain thing. The ethical principle is: Habit does not take away voluntariness; acts done from habit are voluntary, at least in cause, as long as the habit is permitted to continue.388

According to Charles Coppens, S.J,

“Habits are defined as more or less permanent qualities which dispose a faculty to act readily and with ease. A habit results naturally from frequent repetition of the same act. Thus, by constantly restraining the passion of anger, a person gains facility in doing so; or, in other words, he acquires the virtue of meekness. A habit is said to be "a second nature," because though not constituting nature it greatly facilitates certain operations of the natural faculties. Good habits or those inclining us to do what is morally right, are called virtues; bad habits, or tendencies to what is wrong, are called vices. Brute animals are incapable of moral acts; hence they cannot form moral habits. Their power of imitation or the influence of peculiar circumstances may, it is true, enable them to acquire ways of acting which are not ordinary, which may indeed seem unnatural; as, when a bird is made to pronounce words. The power to act thus may be termed a habit, but, of course, not a moral habit. Man may also acquire habits that are more or less mechanical; but, besides these, he can form

386 Catholic Encyclopaedia, htt:www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm. Get the full contents of New Advent (Catholic Encyclopaedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more) on CD-ROM. /JMC: Moral Philosophy/ by Charles Coppens, S.J. University of NOTRE DAME; Chapter 2. The Morality of Human Acts, 67. IV 387 JMC: Moral Philosophy/ by Charles Coppens, S.J. University of NOTRE DAME; Chapter 2. The Morality of Human Acts, 67. IV

388 388 Catholic Encyclopaedia, htt:www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm. Get the full contents of New Advent (Catholic Encyclopaedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more) on CD-ROM.



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moral habits by the frequent repetition of free acts; and in Moral Philosophy we are concerned with only the latter class of habits.389”

5. STRUCTURES OF SIN

I find it very important here to discuss the structures sin a little bit in detail. This is to help us understand more fully the devastating effect of the structures of corruption on the human development. I see Structures of sin as a kind of habit, when formed, is difficult to overcome or reverse.

According to DeBerri E.P & Hug J. E,

“Structures of sin/Structures of Grace, looked at from a faith-based moral perspective, structures that support and facilitate authentic human development is called structures grace. Those that obstruct authentic development and obscure the universal common good are structures of sin. While both types begin in individual acts, they are gradually consolidated into structures that make change more difficult. They then influence and shape the graced or sinful acts of others.”390

Furthermore, Pope John Paul II identified two major and intertwined structures of sin in

Contemporally life: on the one hand, the all consuming desire for profit, and on the other, the thirst for power with the intention of imposing one’s will upon others. (The social concerns of the Church Sollicitudo Rei Socialis).391

The question here is has habit anything to do Structures of sin and if yes, what is habit? As we have seen is relation to human act,

A habit is said to be "a second nature," because though not constituting nature, it greatly facilitates certain operations of the natural faculties. Good habits or those inclining us to do what is morally right, are called virtues; bad habits, or tendencies to what is wrong, are called vices. Brute animals are incapable of moral acts; hence they cannot form moral habits. Their power of imitation

389 Op cit. 72.

390 Edward P. DeBerri, James E. Hug. Catholic Social Teaching; Our Best Kept Secret, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 1985, P 24

391 Cf, Edward P. DeBerri, James E. Hug. Catholic Social Teaching; Our Best Kept Secret, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 1985, P 24



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or the influence of peculiar circumstances may, it is true, enable them to acquire ways of acting which are not ordinary, which may indeed seem unnatural; as, when a bird is made to pronounce words. The power to act thus may be termed a habit, but, of course, not a moral habit. Man may also acquire habits that are more or less mechanical; but, besides these, he can form moral habits by the frequent repetition of free acts; and in Moral Philosophy we are concerned with only the latter class of habits. (On quote).

According to Cork,

“Catholic Social teaching employs the phrase, ‘structures of sin,’ to describe those social structures that are rooted in human sin, structures that give concrete expression to, and are formed to enable and further, personal sin. See, for example, this from Pope John Paul II (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 36):

If the present situation can be attributed to difficulties of various kinds, it is not out of place to speak of structures of sin, which... are rooted in personal sin and thus always linked to the concrete acts of individuals who introduce these structures, consolidate them, and make them difficult to remove. And thus they grow stronger, spread, and become the source of other sins, and so influence other people’s behaviour. Sin and structures of sin are categories which are seldom applied to the situation of the contemporary world. However, one cannot easily gain a profound understanding of the reality that confronts us unless we give a name to the root of the evils which afflict us.”392

Cork explains,

“I think we can use this concept to understand what went wrong with religious order, The Legion of Christ. It was created by Fr. Marcial Maciel, who formed some of its practices to ensure that he could continue to cover up his own evil. The Vatican statement dated May 1 is blunt. Maciel was an evil man and structures that he created to facilitate his sin must be changed.”393

I think that it is important here to present the Vatican statement for better and deeper understanding of what structures of sin mean and be able to apply it in relation to corruption as follows;

The apostolic visit has been able to ascertain that the behaviour of Fr. Marcial Degollado has had serious consequences for the life and structure of the Legion, such as to require a process of in-depth revision.

392 John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 36.

393 Bill Cork, wordpress.com/ecclesiastical structures of sin.



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The very serious and objectively immoral behaviour of Fr. Maciel, incontrovertible evidence has confirmed, sometime resulted in actual crimes, and manifests a life devoid of scruples and of genuine religious sentiment. The great majority of Legionaries were unaware of this life, above all because of the system of relationships built by Fr. Maciel, who had skilfully managed to build up alibis, to gain the trust, the confidence and the silence of those around him, and to strengthen his role as a charismatic founder.

Not infrequently, the lamentable discrediting and dismissal of whoever doubted his behaviour was upright, as well as the misguided conviction of those who did not want to harm the good that the Legion was doing, created around him a defence mechanism that made him untouchable for a long time, making it very difficult to know his real life.394

I want to say that the question facing us today in our various societies with regards corruption menace is similar if not the same with the question that faced Vatican at the time of Fr. Maciel. So for us to stamp out the corruption of this nature, we must be blunt. And be able to call a spade a spade no matter who it is. Just as the question that faced the Vatican was how to support those in the order who were faithful and sincere, that is, how to reform it and reorganize it so as to no longer facilitate sin, so also, we should fight hard to reform and organize our society battered by corruption.

As Cork puts it,

“I suggest the situation of the Legionaries can be considered a parable of the Reformation. The reformers of the 16th century looked at the evil of men like Leo X, Julius II, and other popes and said their personal sin influenced and helped to create the structures of the medieval church that inhibited the preaching of the Gospel. The medieval papacy as an institution, the corruption of votive masses that were bought and sold, the taxes and armies and everything else that was that was contrary to the spirit of Christ, all of this was a projection of human sin.”395

Consequently, just as the Catholic Church bluntly and positively stood their ground and condemned this regrettable behaviours without fear or favour, so also in the case of corruption, we all work together without fear or favour condemn corruption in all its forms, reform the society and punish the culprit adequately.

394 The Vatican statement dated May 1 is blunt. Maciel was an evil man and structures that he created to facilitate his sin must be changed.

395 Bill Cork, wordpress.com/ecclesiastical structures of sin.



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6. ENDS OF HUMAN ACTS

The great question here is, how can we determine the end of human act? The end is a purpose or goal. It is that for which an act is performed. It is the final cause of an act. An end intended for it is an ultimate end; an end intended as a measure or means of gaining a further end is an intermediate end. The first end (in order of attainment) is proximate; other ends are remote. An ultimate end is ultimate in a certain series of ends, or it is the crowning end of all human activity. The ultimate end of a series is called relatively ultimate; the crowning end of all human activity is called absolutely ultimate.396

For instance, “a young man entering medical school has, as proximate and intermediate ends, the passing of his exams, and the advance from the first to the second class; more remote ends are the exams and classes further on; the ultimate end of the whole series of his studies and efforts is the status of a physician. But this end is relatively ultimate, not absolutely so. Why does he wish to be a physician? Perhaps to do good and to have an honourable means of livelihood. But why does he want this for a full life, a rounded satisfaction in his earthly existence? But why does he want these things inevitably, in view of a still further end. For all human ends are directed, in last analysis, to an all-sufficing absolutely ultimate end. This is the completely satisfying end or good; it is the Supreme and Infinite Good; it is the Summum Bonum; and, for theists, it is God”. 397

This an end as a thing desired or intended is called objective. The satisfaction looked for in the attainment and possession of the objective end, is the subjective end.

For this reason, Man, in every human act, strives for the possession of good (for end and good are synonymous), and for infinite good or God. This is the absolutely ultimate objective end of all human activity. And man strives for the infinite good as that which will boundlessly satisfy; he looks for complete beatitude or complete happiness in the attainment and possession of God (bonum and bona). This is the absolutely ultimate subjective end of all human activity398.

These explanations are very important here because they explain the motive behind our corrupt and non-corrupt actions. And also explain why some actions are called corrupt and others not.

396 cf. Catholic Encyclopaedia, htt:www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm. Get the full contents of New Advent

(Catholic Encyclopaedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more) on CD-ROM. 397 Ibid.

398 Ibid.



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For instance, an applicant is looking for a good job, after finishing his university education for a better life, but he noticed that he is not qualified for the job he is looking for. But he desires the job to better his living. This applicant is faced with two problems, one, and the desire for a good job to better his life and two, the lack of qualification for the desired job. And this applicant knows that he is not qualified for the job. Here, comes the moral issue, he decides, whether to bribe his way through or not. If he decides, and gets the job through corrupt means, in which case, the means justifies the end, this immoral and corrupt act. And he is responsible for his corrupt actions.


“Saint and sinner alike are striving towards God. The Saint is striving in the right direction, and the sinner in the wrong direction. But it is the one Goal they are after, that is, the full, everlasting, and satisfaction of all desire. The good man in his good human acts and the evil man in his evil human acts are like two men digging for diamonds; the one digs in a diamond mine, the other perversely digs in a filthy heap of rubbish; the one works where diamonds are to be found, the other's work is hopeless of success. But it is to find diamonds that both are working”399.

Therefore, man necessarily (and not freely) intends or wills the supreme and absolute end of all human acts. Man freely (and not necessarily) chooses the means (that is, intermediate ends) by which he expects, wisely or perversely, to attain that end. Even in the case of the concept of pluralism, I believe that it is a matter of belief. In this belief in many gods, there are still gradations of these gods. For instance in our African traditional religion, where there are many gods, there are still Chukwu (chi-god, ukwu-big) that means the big god in contrast to the smaller ones. As the saying goes, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. These believers still ultimately desire the Chukwu.

7. NORMS OF HUMAN ACTS

simply speaking, we can say that a norm is a rule; it is the measure of a thing. The norm of human acts is the rule which shows whether the Human act measure up to what they should be, and indicates the duty of bringing them up to full standard of what they ought to be. The norms of human acts are law and conscience. More precisely, the one norm of human acts is law applied by conscience.400

399 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 200 4 no. 135 p75. 400 Catholic Encyclopaedia, htt:www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm. Get the full contents of New Advent (Catholic Encyclopaedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more) on CD-ROM. .



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For the Church,

“Law is an ordinance of reason promulgated for the common good by one who has charge of society. Fundamentally, law is an ordinance of Reason for all mankind and for every creature. In this sense, law means the Eternal Law which is God's plan and providence for the universe. Inasmuch as this law is knowable by a normal mind which reasons to it from the facts of experience, the Eternal Law is called the natural law. For when a person ceases to be a baby and becomes responsible, this is owing to the fact that he recognizes the following truth...There is such a thing as good; there is such a thing as evil; I have a duty to avoid evil and to do good."401

For this reason, a child of ten that knows no distinction between lies and truth, theft and honesty, obedience and disobedience, would rightly be classed as an imbecile. Indeed, we say that a person comes to the use of reason when he begins to have a practical grasp of three things: good, evil, duty. In other words, reason makes evident the basic prescriptions of the natural law.

The natural law is general. But man needs, in addition to general prescriptions for conduct, special determinations of the law such as, for instance, the enactments of the State in civil and criminal laws.

8. MORALITY OF HUMAN ACTS

It is important at this juncture to say morality is the relation of human acts to the norm or rule of what they ought to be. As we have seen, the norm of human acts is law applied by conscience. And the basic law is the Eternal Law, especially as this is knowable by sound human reason (it is then called the natural law). The squaring up of free and responsible human conduct with law as applied by conscience is the morality of human acts; the lack of such agreement of human acts with their norm is immorality. But, as we have indicated, morality is generally used to signify the relation (whether of agreement or disagreement) of human acts to their norm or rule. Thus we speak of morally good acts and of morally bad acts402.

“A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if the object is good in itself such as praying and fasting in order to be seen by men.403”

401 Catholic Encyclopaedia, htt:www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm. 402 Ibid.

403 Ibid.



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The object of the choice can by itself vitiate an act in its entirety. There are some concrete acts - such as fornication, that it is always wrong to choose, because choosing them entails a disorder of the will, that is, a moral evil.

It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances (environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply their context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently of circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit by reason of their object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil so that good may result from it.404

A human act considered as such, as an act, as a deed performed, stands in agreement or out of agreement with the norm of what it ought to be. Thus it has objective morality. Many mistaken people of our day, especially those of university training, are fond of talking as though a human act took all its morality from the intention of the agent, or from his viewpoint. They are full of expressions such as,

"As I see it ...," "To my mind . . . ," "I don't look at it in that way . . . ," "It's all in the point of view . . ." etc”405.

Now, there is an immense field for human opinion. Where certitude cannot be had, opinion is the best man can achieve. But in matters of essential morals, certitude can be had (as we have seen, by direct method, or, this failing, by the reflex method). Hence the lawfulness or unlawfulness of an act, its morality, in short, -- is never a matter of opinion, viewpoint, prejudice, or preference. It is a matter of fact. It is an objective thing. Human acts have objective subjective morality.

A person blamelessly mistaken about the objective morality of an act is exempt (by reason of invincible ignorance) from responsibility for such an act. Thus, a person who is invincibly ignorant of the fact that a lie is always unlawful, and who is convinced with full certitude that in certain circumstances a lie is permissible, is not guilty of formal falsehood for telling such a lie. But this does not mean that the objective morality of a lie is a fiction or an illusion; it does not mean that the morality of an act depends on the agent's convictions. The lie is objectively evil and remains so. Only, in the case mentioned, invincible ignorance excuses the agent from responsibility for it. And so much the worse for the agent, for ignorance is always blight and a burden.

404 CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH : 1755 and 1756:http://www.chritusrex.org/www1/CDHN/part3.html.

405 Catholic Encyclopaedia, htt:www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm.



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9. PROPERTIES AND CONSEQUENCES OF HUMAN ACTS

A property of an act is anything that belongs by natural necessity to the act. Now, a human act is a free and deliberate act of a responsible being who is its author. It follows, that such an act is imputable to its author, to his credit or discredit, that is, as a merit or a demerit.

A human act once performed sets a precedent for the agent. It marks a path which he has traversed. It cuts a groove, so to speak, for his action. And therefore he tends to act in the same way again. In a word, human acts tend to follow patterns called habits. By habit in the present instance we mean an operative habit, a habit of acting. Such a habit is an inclination, born of frequently repeated action, for acting in a certain way.

An operative habit that is morally good is called a virtue. An operative habit that is morally bad is called a vice. Virtues and vices are the consequences of human acts and the antecedents.

The chief-virtues are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. These are called the cardinal virtues (from the Latin cardo, stem Cardin-, "a hinge") because all other virtues depend on them as a door depends on its hinges.

Vice, or habit of evil doing, is a habitual defect, a habitual failure to measure up to the norm of right conduct and of the virtues. A single bad act is a sin, but not a vice. Vice is the habit of sin. It stands opposed to virtue either by defect or by excess, for Virtue stands in the middle. But in either case it is a habitual failure (a negative thing) to measure up to the standard of what a human act ought to be.

The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the three "sources" of the morality of human acts.

The object chosen morally specifies the act of willing accordingly as reason recognizes and judges it good or evil.

"An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention." (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec. 6). The end does not justify the means. A morally good act requires the goodness of its object, of its end, and of its circumstances together. There are concrete acts that it is always wrong to choose, because their choice entails a disorder of the will, i.e., a moral evil. One may not do evil so that good may result from it”.406

Examples of where vices are forced are:

406 Op, cit. Chapter 2. The Morality of Human Acts, 1757, 1758, 1759, 1760, 1761.



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9A. IN CASES OF STRCTURES OF SIN

Here, the victims are misdirected to thinking that they are doing the right thing. For example, the case of Fr. Maciel who deceived his followers into believing that they were in the right track. In this case, there seem to be violence/ habit which blur free choice of the right action.

9B. POLYGAMY AND EXTENDED FAMILY SYSTEM

Some cultural factors aid corruption. For instance, polygamy and extended family are among the African culture that have entrenched much corruption in the society. This is for the simple reason that many a times, the bread winners of the family find themselves in a fix regarding taking appropriate care of the family; consequently indulge in corrupt practices as a means of survival.

Again, when a public official has to take direct responsibility for extended family members; if his/her official income cannot meet their needs he/she will be enticed to convert public funds (if he/she happens to lay hands on it) for personal use. In this way, the official will be engaging in a corrupt act which could directly or indirectly harm the general public.

One observes here that this is a labyrinth issue because it is cultural. Public officials are sometimes pressurised into taking care of their extended family members even if their official or genuine income cannot realistically meet their needs. Unfortunately, communities believe it is their culture and should therefore not be discouraged. Any attempt at discouraging it, no matter the benefits it will accrue to the public, would be interpreted as an invasion or interference into their customs and traditions.

9C. POVERTY.

It should be noted that poverty is partly responsible for coercing somebody into corruption.

A public official who perhaps might have got some help from relatives when struggling to be what he/she is will find it extremely difficult to ignore their extra responsibilities. Communities generally see the issue of providing help (especially paying school or college fees for their promising children and/or relatives) as a form of safety net or life insurance. When these children become successful in life, they are expected to pay back what was expended on them. If they



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refuse, they are scorned and sometimes abhorred by their very relatives for being ‘ungrateful’ and ‘selfish.

This is very important point because, the fear of being rendered a ‘pariah’ usually coerces many public servants to embezzle public funds to meet the burgeoning or elaborate demands of their extended family members. Perhaps the only rift in the lute is for the government to create opportunities, for example, providing jobs for many able-bodied citizens to reduce the dependence that aids corruption.

10. SUMMARY

In this Section we have defined human act, and have determined its essential elements as knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness.

Also from the Catholic Encyclopaedia: We have considered the modifiers of human acts: ignorance, concupiscence, violence, habit. We have seen that a human act is necessarily directed to an end, and, in last analysis, to the absolutely ultimate end or Supreme Good which is God and that other names for the human act are free act, moral act, willed act.

And again have discussed voluntariness in see and in cause, and have learned two outstandingly important principles, viz., the principle of indirect voluntariness and the principle of twofold effect. We have noticed that man's freedom is freedom of choice of means to the ultimate end, not freedom to set up a new ultimate end and have learned the norm of human acts as law applied by conscience. We have also defined law, and have several classifications of it, and have contrasted it with precept. We have seen that conscience is the judgment of practical reason in matters of right and wrong, and not some mysterious inner voice like Kant's Categorical Imperative.

Furthermore and interestingly have noticed the necessity of man's acting with a certain conscience, and we have studied the direct and the indirect method of banishing doubt and achieving certitude. We have spoken of probabilism. We have defined the morality of human acts, and have investigated its determinants. We have indicated the properties of human acts as immutability, merit, and demerit; and we have seen that human acts tend to consequences called virtues and vices.407

I wish to point out here that, recent philosophic speculation discards free will conceived as capability of self-determination. The main reason advanced against it is its apparent incompatibility with the law of causation. Instead of indeterminism, determinism is now most

407 Catholic Encyclopaedia, htt:www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm.



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widely accepted. According to the latter, every act of the will is of necessity determined by the character of the agent and the motives which render the action desirable. Character, consisting of individual dispositions and habits, is either inherited from ancestors or acquired by past activity; motives arise from the pleasurableness or unpleasurableness of the action and its object, or from the external environment. Many determinists drop freedom, imputability, and responsibility, as inconsistent with their theory. To them, therefore, the human act cannot be anything else than the voluntary act408.

According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia,

“there are other determinists who still admit the freedom of will. In their opinion a free action is that which ´flows from the universe of the character of the agent`. And as `character is the constitution of Self as a whole`, they define freedom as the control proceeding from the Self as a whole, and determining the Self as a whole. We find freedom also defined as a state in which man wills only in conformity with his true, unchanged, and untrammelled personality”.

It can be observed here that, in like manner Kant, though in his `Critique of Pure Reason` he advocates determinism, nevertheless in his Fundamental Metaphysics of Morals` admits the freedom of the will, conceiving it as independence of external causes.

It is interesting to notice the will, for him, is causality proper to rational beings, and freedom is its endowment enabling it to act without being determined from without just as natural necessity is the need proper to irrational creatures of being determined to action by external influence. He adds, however, in explanation, that he must act according to unchangeable laws or else it would be an absurdity. Free acts thus characterised are termed human by these determinists, because they proceed from man’s reason and personality409.

But plainly they are not human in the scholastic acceptation, or in the full and proper sense. They are not such, because they are not under the dominion of man. True freedom, which makes man master of his actions, must be conceived as immunity from all necessitation to act. So it was understood by the scholastics. They defined it as immunity from both intrinsic and extrinsic necessitation. Not so the determinists. According to them it involves immunity from extrinsic, but not from intrinsic, necessitation. Human acts, therefore, as also imputability and responsibility, are not the same thing in the old and in the new schools410.

408 Ibid. 409Ibid. 410Catholic Encyclopaedia, htt:www.newadvent.org/cathen/06259a.htm. Get the full contents of New Advent

(Catholic Encyclopaedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more) on CD-ROM.



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Therefore, human acts are imputable to man so as to involve his responsibility, for the very reason that he puts them forth deliberatively and with self-determination. They are, moreover, not subject to physical laws which necessitate the agent, but to a law which lays the will under obligation without interfering with his freedom of choice. Besides, they are moral.

As the Catholic Encyclopaedia puts it.

“For a moral act are one that is freely elicited with the knowledge of its conformity with or deformity from, the law of practical reason proximately and the law of God ultimately. But whenever an act is elicited with full deliberation, its relationship to the law of reason is adverted to. Hence human acts are either morally good or morally bad, and their goodness or badness is imputed to man. And as, in consequence, they are worthy of praise or blame, so man, who elicits them, is regarded as virtuous or wicked, innocent or guilty, deserving of reward or punishment. Upon the freedom of the human act, therefore, rest imputability and morality, man's moral character, his ability to pursue his ultimate end not of necessity and compulsion, but of his own will and choice; in a word, his entire dignity and pre-eminence in this visible universe.”411

1. The circumstances under which one acts determines ones actions especially with regard to corruption. For instance, polygamous and extended family systems are circumstances where the bread winners in the family are most often due to hardship over stretched. For this reason, they are pushed into corrupt practices for survival.

2. The object: an end as a thing desired or intended is called objective. The satisfaction looked for in the attainment and possession of the objective end, is the subjective end. With regards corruption, the intended object must be good and this must be achieved through good means.

3. Free will: with regards corrupt actions, we must be free to exercise our freedom of choice in any given circumstances.

4. The way out: we should be responsible for our corrupt actions.

411. APA citation. Ming, J. (1907). Human Acts. In The Catholic Encyclopaedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved June 26, 2008 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01115a.htm.



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B. THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION ABOUT CORRUPTION

The Social doctrine of the Church in the efforts to answer the question posed by Corruption, which has bedevilled the nations of the earth, for so many years (Gaudium et Spes) wrote,

“Among the numerous implications of the common good, immediate significant is taking on by the principle of the universal destination of goods: God destined the earth and all it contains for all men and all peoples so that all created things would be shared fairly by all mankind under the guidance of justice tempered by charity”412.

For the church this principle is based on the fact that the original source of all that is good is the very act of God, who created both the earth and man, and who gave the earth to man so that he might have dominion over it by his work and enjoy its fruit (Gen 1:28-29)413

For this reason, the universal right to use the goods of the earth is based on the principle of the universal destination of goods. This universal destination of goods stipulates inter alia that each person must have access to the level of well- being necessary for his full development. When this principle is undermined, most often due to corruption and injustice, the society suffers as the result and so man itself.

When J. Svensson an economist, was confronted with the question on how to solve the problem of corruption, he exclaimed:

“I hope to be reborn as a custom official.”414

He observed that,

“when a well-paid CEO wishes for a job with lower pay just like a lower official pay in the government sector, due to collection of bribes and outright theft of public funds, then corruption is surely intended!”415



414 Jacob Svensson is Assistant Professor, Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University, and Stockholm, Sweden. He is also Senior Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank, Washington, D.C.; and Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, United Kingdom. His e-mail address is [email protected]_. Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 19, Number 3—Summer 2005—Pages 19–42

415 ibid



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In this way, many people in the public offices are corrupt due to greed which leads them to outright stealing of public fund still more, the most devastating forms of corruption include the diversion and outright theft of funds for public programs and the damage caused by firms and individuals that pay bribes to avoid health and safety regulations intended to benefit the public. For instance, an internal IMF report found that nearly $1 billion of oil revenues, or $77 per capita, vanished from Angolan state coffers in 2001 alone.416

It is observed that this amount was about three times the value of the humanitarian aid received by Angola in 2001—in a country where three-quarters of the population survive on less than $1 a day and where one in three children dies before the age of five. And in Turkey, the effect of the earthquake that took thousands of lives in 2004 would have been much less severe, according to the government of Turkey, if contractors had not been able to pay bribes to build homes with substandard materials.417

I agree with J. Svensson that, extrapolating from firm and household survey data, the World Bank Institute estimates that total bribes in a year are about $1 trillion418. While the margin of error in this estimate is large, anything even in that general magnitude ($1 trillion is about 3 percent of world GDP) would qualify as an enormous issue.

Looting therefore becomes the order of the day in Africa, giving rise to poverty and under development. For example, Transparency International, 2004, reported that,

“A conservative estimate is that the former President of Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko, looted the treasury of some $5 billion—an amount equal to the country’s entire external debt at the time he was ousted in 1997. The funds allegedly embezzled by the former presidents of Indonesia and Philippines, Mohamed Suharto and Ferdinand Marcos, are estimated to be two and seven times higher”.419

From the above discussion, we can see that giving and acceptance of bribes has cursed African continent a lot. This is because, according to public inquiry into Kenya Gold Scam, it was observed that,

416 Pearce, Justin. 2002. “IMF: Angola’s ’missing Millions.’” BBC News, October 18; Available at _http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2338669.stm_.

417 Kinzer, Stephen. 1999. “The Turkish Quake’s Secret Accomplice: Corruption.” New York Times. August 29, sec. 4, p. 3.

418 J. Svensson, Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 19, Number 3—Summer 2005—Pages 19–42 419 (Transparency International, 2004).



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“In the Goldenberg scam in Kenya in the early 1990s, the Goldenberg firm received as much as $1 billion from the government as part of an export compensation scheme for fictitious exports of commodities of which Kenya either produced little (gold) or nothing at all (diamonds)420.”

It is my wish to discuss here, the following points regarding corruption:

The Reality of Corruption, examples and the way out, using the frequently public asked questions about corruption as conceived by Svensson.421

I wish point out straight away here that these questions are not meant to be exhaustive but it will help us to understand more fully what corruption is, for us to be able to tackle and fight it effectively.

1. THE REALITY OF CORRUPTION.

I wish to say that an unfair society is a fertile soil for corruption. This is because when a given society functions abnormally corruption creeps in and consequently creates disorder in the society. To buttress this fact,

The social science encyclopaedia more narrowly speaking, defines corruption as,

“Abandonment of expected standards of behaviour by those in authority for the sake of unsanctioned personal advantage... In the business sphere, a company director is deemed corrupt if he sells his private property to the company at an inflated price, at the expense of the shareholders whose interest he is supposed to safeguard”422.

420 Bardhan, Pranab. 1997. “Corruption and Development: A Review of Issues.” Journal of Economic Literature.

35:3, pp. 1320–346., & Rose-Ackerman, Susan. 1999. Corruption and Government: Causes, Consequences, and Strategies for Reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

421 Jacob Svensson is Assistant Professor, Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University, and Stockholm, Sweden. He is also Senior Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank, Washington, D.C.; and Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, United Kingdom. His e-mail address is [email protected]_ Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 19, Number 3—Summer 2005—Pages 19–42.

422 The Social Science Encyclopaedia, published by Routledge and Kegan Paul in 1995, edited by Adam Kuper and Jessica Kuper 1995, pg 164.



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According to this definition, lawyers, architects and other professionals are similarly guilty of corruption if they take advantage of their clients to make undue personal gains.

For the Church,

“Looking after the common good means, making use of the new opportunities for the redistribution of wealth among the different areas of the planet, to the benefit of the underprivileged that until now have been excluded or cast to the sidelines of social and economic progress. The challenge in short, is to ensure a globalization in solidarity, a globalization without marginalization. This technology progress itself the risk being unfairly distributed among countries.”423

Due to the corruption in the world especially among those who are in charge of the distribution of good, there exist, a clear marginalization of some poor countries of the world.

This unfairly distribution of the common good is mostly as the result of the unchecked injustices and corruption among the world leaders..

As we have seen, and for the purpose of emphasis, one can say that corruption

“is a behaviour which deviates from the formal duties of a public role, because of private [gains] - regarding (personal, close family, private clique, pecuniary or status gains. It is a behaviour which violates rules against the exercise of certain types of [duties] for private [gains] - regarding influence”424.

According to this definition such behaviour as,

“bribery (use of a reward to pervert the judgment of a person in a position of trust); nepotism (bestowal of patronage by reason of ascriptive relationship rather than merit); and misappropriation illegal appropriation of public resources for private uses are seen as corruption.”425

Again, one can also see corruption as an outcome—a reflection of a country’s legal, economic, cultural and political institutions. Corruption can be a response to either beneficial or harmful rules. For example, corruption appears in response to benevolent rules when individuals pay bribes to avoid penalties for harmful conduct or when monitoring of rules is incomplete—as in the case of


424cf Nye,1967. 425 Victor E. Dike, Democracy and Political Life in Nigeria (Zaria, Nigeria: Ahmadu Bello University Press) 2001.



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theft. Conversely, corruption can also arise because bad policies or inefficient institutions are put in place to collect bribes from individuals seeking to get around them.426

Many see public corruption as we have seen above, as the misuse of public office for private gain. Misuse, of course, typically involves applying a legal standard. Corruption defined this way would capture, for example, the sale of government property by government officials, kickbacks in public procurement, bribery and embezzlement of government funds.

There are numbers of parallels of definitions which have been proposed above for thinking about corruption,

“although each of these parallels can be illuminating in certain ways, none of them capture the phenomena perfectly. As one parallel, corruption is often thought of as like a tax or a fee. Bribes, like taxes, create a wedge between the actual and privately appropriated marginal product of capital. However, along with the obvious point that bribes bring no money to government coffers, bribes differ from taxes in other ways. Bribes involve higher transaction costs than taxes, because of the uncertainty and secrecy that necessarily accompany bribe payments.427

Unfortunately, corrupt contracts are not easily enforceable in courts. This is because an official may forge an agreement with the bribe-payer or demand another bribe for the same service.428

It is interesting to notice here that,

“Bribing also has parallels to lobbying in the form of campaign contributions or influence buying through other means, but again, they are not perfect substitutes. Consider a situation in which a country has enacted tariffs or licence requirements for imports that affect all firms in a sector. A firm can avoid paying the tariff or buying a licence by bribing a custom official. Alternatively, firms in the sector may collectively lobby the government to provide the license for free or to remove the tariff. One difference between bribery and lobbying in this case is that a change in the trade regime through lobbying affects all firms in the sector, as well as future entrants. However, the return to bribing is typically firm specific, although potential externalities may arise both for other firms and consumers”429.

I agree with Svensson that a second difference is that a change in the trade regime through lobbying tends to be more permanent, because there is some cost to re-enacting the original law, while a bureaucrat cannot credibly commit not to ask for bribes in the future. A third difference is

426 Djankov, Simeon, Edward Glaeser, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes and Andrei Shleifer. 2003. “The

New Comparative Economics.” Journal of Comparative Economics. 31:4, pp. 595–619. 427 Shleifer, Andrei and Robert Vishny. 1993. “Corruption.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 108:3, pp. 599–617. 428 Boycko, Maxim, Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny. 1995. Privatizing Russia. Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press. 429Jakob Svensson. 2004. “Bribes, Lobbying and Development.” Mimeo, IIES, Stockholm University.



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that decisions about government rule making involve officials weighing the benefits of income from lobbying against the cost to the government of a rule change, while decisions about bribes are made by individual public officials who consider their private costs and benefits430.

I wish to observe here that, lobbying involves joint actions with associated collective action problems. The question why firms choose to lobby or bribe, and the consequences of this choice, is analysed in Harstad and Svensson.431 While corruption or more precisely bribes, is not the same as rent-seeking, although the terms are often interchanged. Rent seeking is the socially costly pursuit of rents, often created by governmental interventions in the economy, bribes are technically a transfer.

No definition of corruption is completely clear-cut. The emphasis here is on public corruption, but corruption can also take the form of collusion between firms or misuse of corporate assets that imposes costs on consumers and investors. As J. Svensson puts it,

“ Some activities will hover on a legal borderline: for example, legal payments that involve lobbying, campaign contributions or gifts can seem quite close to illegal payments that constitute bribery, or legal offers of postretirement jobs in private sector firms to officials and politicians assigned to regulate these same firms can seem quite close to illegal kickbacks”432.

430 Harstad, Bard and Jakob Svensson. 2004. “Bribes, Lobbying and Development.” Mimeo, IIES, Stockholm

University. 431 Ibid. 432 Jakob Svensson. 2004. “Bribes, Lobbying and Development.” Mimeo, IIES, Stockholm University.



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2. EXAMPLES: WHICH COUNTRIES ARE THE MOST CORRUPT?

The most important questions here are how do we know which countries are the most corrupt and what is the yard stick for the measurement? To measure corruption across countries is a difficult task, both due to the secretive nature of corruption and the variety of forms it takes. However, since corruption reflects an underlying institutional framework, different forms of corruption are likely to be correlated.

For the Church,

“An adequate solidarity in the era of globalization requires that human rights be defended. In this regard, the Magisterium points out that not only the vision of an effective international public authority at the service of human rights, freedom and peace has not yet been entirely achieved, but there is still in fact much hesitation in the international community about the obligation to respect and implement human rights. This duty touches all fundamental rights, excluding that arbitrary picking and choosing which can lead to rationalizing forms of discrimination and injustice. Likewise, we are witnessing the emergence of an alarming gap between a series of new rights being promoted in advanced societies-the result of new prosperity and new technologies-and other more basic human rights still not being met, especially in institutions of underdevelopment”433.

The Church mean here for instance, about the right to food and drinkable water, to housing and security, to self determination and independence-which are still far from being guaranteed and realized. The reason for all these inequalities and injustices are due to corruption434.

I wish to point out here that since ages people have made fruitless efforts on measuring the degree and level of devastating effects of corruption on different countries. But the past decade has seen an exponential growth in corruption cross-country studies on corruption of which three types of corruption measures have been exploited in the literature.

According to Keefer,

Knack, Mauro and Keefer the first type, used initially is based on indicators of corruption assembled by private risk-assessment firms”435


434 Ibid.



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It is interesting to note that, the corruption indicator published in the International Country Risk Guide has become the most popular, due to better coverage across time and countries. According to its creators, the International Country Risk Guide’s corruption indicator captures the likelihood that high government officials will demand special payments and the extent to which illegal payments are expected throughout government tiers.436

One important rating for me here is this second set of variables which is average of ratings reported by a number of perception-based sources. Among policymakers, the Corruption Perception Index produced by Transparency International is the most widely disseminated. The source of this index varies from year to year, but the data released in October 2004 are based on 18 rankings from 12 institutions.437

As Transparency International puts it,

“The essential conditions for inclusion are that a source must provide an ordinal measurement, or ranking, of nations and that the data must measure the overall extent of corruption and not the expected impact. For this reason, the corruption indicator published in the International Country Risk Guide is not included.”438

For the Transparency International, corruption indicator does not determine a country’s level of corruption, but the political risk involved in corruption.

According to Svensson,

“These two issues (perception index and the corruption indicator) can differ considerably, depending on, for example, whether public tolerance toward corruption is high or low. They derive a complementary measure, Control of Corruption, drawn from a large set of data sources. They have a broader definition of corruption and include most cross-country indices reporting ranking of countries on some aspect of corruption. They also use a different strategy than Transparency

435 Keefer. 1995. “Institutions and Economic Performance: Cross- Country Tests Using Alternative Institutional Measures.” Economics and Politics. 7:3, pp. 207–27. 436 The data are produced by Political Risk Services—a private firm providing risk assessments across countries,

_http://www.prsgroup.com/countrydata/countrydata.html_. According to Political Risk Services, over 80 percent of the world’s largest global companies (as ranked by Fortune magazine) use its data and information to make business and investment decisions. The current data are costly, although older versions are available on the web.

437 The Corruption Perception Index is produced by the University of Passau in Germany and by Transparency International. Data for 2004 and previous years back to 1996 are available for free at _http://www.transparency.org/surveys/index.html#cpi_.

438 The Corruption Perception Index is produced by the University of Passau in Germany and by Transparency International. Data for 2004 and previous years back to 1996 are available for free at _http://www.transparency.org/surveys/index.html#cpi_.



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International to aggregate the corruption indicators. In the end, definitions and aggregation choice seem to matter only marginally”.439

For Jacob Svensson,

“The simple correlation between Control of Corruption and the Corruption Perceptions Index (from 2003) is 0.97 and the correlation between Control of Corruption or the Corruption Perceptions and the corruption scores from the International Country Risk Guide (from 2001) is 0.75. The main difference between the three indicators is which countries and years are covered”.440

At this point, it is clear that the ranking assessment is not as simple as it appears. However, the subjective corruption measures discussed above are ordinal indices, although researchers have typically treated them as cardinal measures. At a minimum, this limitation should be kept in mind when interpreting changes in the indices across time and countries.

According to Jacob Svensson,

“At least two cross-country data sets on corruption provide cardinal measures of corruption, although few papers in the economic literature on corruption have utilized them. Both of them are based on survey data. The EBRD-World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey compile the experiences of more than 10,000 firm managers in 1999 and 2002. Firm managers were asked to estimate the share of annual sales firms like yours typically pay in unofficial payments to public officials”.441 And it is the perception of bribe or corruption that depends on the values of the respondent. Unfortunately, these data are only available for 26 transition countries.

It is very interesting to note that the International Crime Victim Surveys (ICVS), since 2003 under the responsibility of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, focus on individuals rather than firms. The surveys are designed to produce comparable data on crime and victimization across countries, using a combination of computer-assisted telephone interviewing techniques in

439 The Control of Corruption Index is available from the World Bank at _http://info.worldbank.org/ governance/kkz2002/tables. Asp_.

440 The aggregation procedures used by Kaufmann, Kraay and Mastruzzi (2003) and Transparency International presume that the measurement errors associated with each sub-indicator are independent across sources. This assumption allows them also to report measures of the precision or reliability of the estimates. In reality, the measurement errors are likely to be highly correlated, because the producers of the different indices read the same reports and most likely gauge each other’s evaluations. If the independence assumption is relaxed, the gain from aggregating a number of different reports is less clear. Moreover, the estimates would be less precisely estimated than the stated estimates suggest.

441 The data are available for free at _http://www.ebrd.com/pubs/econ/beeps/main.htm_.



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developed countries and face-to-face surveys in developing countries. In most developing countries, the survey data refer to the experience of urban households, since the surveys are only implemented in the capital (or largest) cities.

With respect to corruption, respondents were asked if government officials asked, or expected the respondent, to pay bribes for their service during the last year. These data can be used to derive the incidence of bribes across countries. To date, over 140 surveys in four waves have been done in over 70 different countries, although the latest round includes fewer than 50 countries. 442

Incidence of bribes is highly correlated with the subjective measures (simple correlation lies between 0.57 and 0.67), but the best predictor of the share of households that need to pay bribes is actually GDP per capita.443

Following this discussion closely, one can say that one obvious advantage with the EBRD-World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey and the International Crime Victim Surveys is that they provide hard evidence on corruption.

According to Jakob Svensson,

“But one must acknowledge the fact that collecting reliable data on corruption through traditional survey techniques is problematic. Respondents may choose to misreport or not report at all for many reasons. To the extent that these measurement error problems are not systematically related to country characteristics, however, this may be less of a concern when studying variations in corruption across countries”444.

But all hopes are not lost, this because the only disadvantage is that the hard evidence is only available for a smaller sample of countries. Moreover, the International Crime Victim Surveys only provide information on the incidence of corruption from a household perspective. The incidence and level of corruption are not necessarily highly correlated and may very well be driven by different factors. Clearly, they can also have differential impacts on economic and social outcomes. The subjective indices, on the other hand, are mainly constructed for the private sector, and particularly for foreign investors.

In this case as we have observed, the primary measure of corruption is related to doing business—but corruption may take other forms as well.

442 The data are available for free at _http://www.unicri.it/icvs/data/index.htm_. 443 In regressions using the incidence of bribes as the dependent variable and GDP per capita (in logarithms) and the

subjective corruption indices (each entered one at the time) as the independent variables, the coefficient on GDP per capita is highly significant while the corruption indicators are insignificantly different from zero.

444 Jacob Svensson, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, United Kingdom. Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 19, Number 3—Summer 2005—Pages 19–42 mmer 2005—Pages 19–42



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As we shall see, in the sub-heading (What are the Common Characteristics of Countries with High Corruption?) here, Table 1 lists the 10 percent of countries that have the worst rankings for corruption according to the four measures with broad regional coverage: the Control of Corruption index, the Corruption Perceptions Index, the corruption score produced by the International Country Risk Guide and the Incidence of Bribes from the International Crime Victim Surveys. Note that not all countries are ranked and that country coverage differs. For example, the Control of Corruption index includes many more countries. All three measures are rescaled such that a higher value implies higher corruption445.

Table 1 the most corrupt countries

Country CC Country CPI Country ICRG Country ICVS Equatorial 1.9c,i,v Bangladesh 8.7v Zimbabwe 5.8v Albania 0.75 Guinea Nigeria 8.6 China 5v Uganda 0.36 Haiti 1.7v Haiti 8.5v Gabon 5c,v Mozambique 0.31 Iraq 1.4v Myanmar 8.4v Indonesia 5v Nigeria 0.30 Congo, Dem 1.4c,v Paraguay 8.4v Iraq 5v Lithuania 0.24 Rep. Angola 8.2v Lebanon 5v Myanmar 1.4v Azerbaijan 8.2 Myanmar 5v Afghanistan 1.4c,i,v Cameroon 8.2v Niger 5c,v Nigeria 1.4 Georgia 8.2i Nigeria 5 Laos 1.3c,i,v Tajikistan 8.2i,v Russia 5 Paraguay 1.2v Indonesia 8.2v Sudan 5v Turkmenistan 1.2c,i,v Kenya 8.1v Somalia 5c,v Somalia 1.2c,v Cote 7.9v Congo, 5c,v Korea. North 1.2c,v d’Ivoire Dem. Rep. Zimbabwe 1.2v Kyrgyzstan 7.9i, v Serbia and

Montenegro 5v

Indonesia 1.2v Libya 7.9v Angola 1.1v Papua New 7.9v Haiti 4.8v Bangladesh 1.1v Guinea Papua New 4.8v Cameroon 1.1v Guinea

445 Jacob Svensson, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, United Kingdom. Journal of Economic

Perspectives—Volume 19, Number 3—Summer 2005—Pages 19–42 mmer 2005—Pages 19–42.



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Country CC Country CPI Country ICRG Country ICVS Niger 1.1c,v Sudan 1.1v Azerbaijan 1.1 Tajikistan 1.1i, v Sample size 195 133 140 44

(The bottom 10 percent most corrupt countries from each data set)

Notes: CC is the Control of Corruption Index for 2002 from Kaufmann, Kraay and Mastruzzi (2003). The index takes values between _2.5 to 2.5, with a higher score indicating higher corruption (rescaled). CPI is the Corruption Perception Index for 2003 from Transparency International. The index takes values between 0 to 10, with a higher score indicating higher corruption (rescaled). ICRG is the International Country Risk Guide’s corruption indicator for 2001 (average over 12 months). The index takes values between 0 to 6, with a higher score indicating higher corruption (rescaled). ICVS is the incidence of bribes in 2000 (share of households responding they need or are expected to pay bribes in 2000) from the International Crime Victim Surveys.

c indicates that the country is not included in the Corruption Perception Index ranking.

i indicates that the country is not included in the ICRG ranking.

v indicates that the country is not included in the ICVS survey446.

3. WHAT ARE THE COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF COUNTRIES WITH HIGH CORRUPTION?

This is another question to which the answer is an uphill task but when we take a look at the lists of most corrupt countries it offers us some hints about what characterizes countries with high corruption.

With regards to the balancing economic development and social progress, Catholic Social thought has this to say,

Many believe that countries with the highest levels of corruption are developing or transition countries. Strikingly, many are governed, or have recently been governed, by socialist governments. With few exceptions, the most corrupt countries have low income levels. Of the

446 Cf. Jacob Svensson, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, United Kingdom. Journal of Economic

Perspectives—Volume 19, Number 3—Summer 2005—Pages 19–42 mmer 2005—Pages 19–42.



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countries assigned an openness score by Sachs and Warner, all of the most corrupt economies are considered closed economies, except Indonesia.447

I wish to say here that, countries need to be open to other countries in their pursuit of wealth. In other words, they should not be closed to the international market as is the case with many corrupt countries. There should be justice in the distribution of the common good of the country.

According to the Catholic Social Thought,

“National wealth, in as much as it is produced by the common efforts of the citizenry, has no other purpose than to secure without interruption those material conditions in which the individuals are enabled to lead a full and perfect life. Where this is consistently the case, then such a people are to be judged truly rich. For the system where by both the common prosperity is achieved and individuals exercise their right to use material goods, conform fully to the norms laid down by God the creator.448”

Another very important question one would like to know about is how do these intuitive connections about the common features of countries with high levels of corruption compare with more systematic research? We can point out straight away here, that theories about the determinants of corruption emphasize the role of economic and structural policies and also the role of institutions. This is why, these theories are best viewed as complementary; after all, the choice of economic and a structural policy is one channel through which institutions influence corruption.

According to Lipset,

“the institutional theories can be decomposed into two broad groups. The first set of theories argues that institutional quality (and thus corruption) is shaped by economic factors. Simply put, institutions develop in response to a county’s income level and differential needs.”449

In the same way, the human capital theory—argues that,

447 The Sachs and Warner (1995) measure of openness considered an economy to be “closed” if it met any of five criteria: 1) average tariff rates above 40 percent; 2) nontariff barriers that cover more than 40 percent of all imports; 3) a socialist economic system; 4) a state monopoly of major exports; and 5) the black market premium exceeded 20 percent during the 1970s or the 1980s. Note that by construction, all socialist economies are defined as closed economies. Rodrı´gues and Rodrik (2000) argue that the Sachs-Warner indicator serves as a proxy for a wide range of policy and institutional differences, not only differences in openness to trade.

448 Catholic Social Thought: the Documentary Heritage/ edited by David J. O’Brien and Thomas A Shannon. Mary knoll, New York 1545. Eight printing, February 2001 no.74 pg 96

449 Lipset, Seymour M. 1960. Political Man: The Social Basis of Modern Politics. New York: Doubleday and Demsetz, Harold. 1967. “Towards a Theory of Property Rights.” American Economic Review. 57:2, pp 61–70.



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“growth in human capital and income cause institutional development. To buttress this fact, education and human capital is needed for courts and other formal institutions to operate efficiently, and government abuses are more likely to go unnoticed and unchallenged when the electorate is not literate”450.

These theories suggest that ‘looking at per capita income and education’ as causes of corruption.

The second set of institutional theories stress the role of institutions more directly as we have seen. These theories often emphasize that institutions are persistent and inherited.

For this, Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson argue that,

“In former colonies, the institutions were set for the benefit of the colonizer and only when Europeans settled in large numbers did this also result in institutions aimed at benefiting residents of the colony. The disease environment in the colonies, in turn, explains why Europeans settled or not. Thus, according to Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson, corruption should be more widespread in colonies with an inhospitable environment”.451 For instance, one case in question is Olo in Ezeagu local Govenment of Enugu State Nigeria.

On the other hand, La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer and Vishny, point to the identity of the colonizer and specifically the legal system transplanted from the colonizer to the colonies. According to them,

“French and Socialist legal origin countries (as opposed to former English colonies) regulate more, and this regulation consequently leads to corruption.” 452 This is the problem in Senegal, where corruption is still ravaging the populace.

I agree with these views simply because, some of these colonizers import their corrupt ideas to the countries which they colonize due off course to their selfish interests.

Landes also argues that,

“the spread of education and learning was, and potentially is, slower in Catholic and Muslim countries. Thus, politicians and public officials might be challenged less in Catholic and Muslim countries than in Protestant countries”.453

450 ibid

451 Acemoglu, Daron, James A. Robinson and Simon Johnson. 2001. “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation.” American Economic Review. December, 91, pp. 1369–401.

452 La Porta, Rafael, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes, Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny. 1999. “The Quality of Government.” Journal of Law, Economics and Organization. 15:1, pp. 222–79.

453 Landes, David. 1998. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton.



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Furthermore, another way in which historical traditions and colonization might affect the extent of corruption is through the influence of religion. For example, the institutions of the Protestant church, which arose in part as an opposition to state-sponsored religion, may be more inclined to monitor abuses by state officials.454

According to Besley,

“On the political side, a free press provides greater information than a government-controlled press to voters on government and public sector misbehaviour, including corruption.”455

I wish to observe that more generally, the right to re-elect politicians can provide incentives for the incumbent to reduce rent seeking and corruption. The form of political institutions—parliamentary versus presidential and proportional versus majoritarian—can also affect the level of corruption as it influences the incentives of politicians and voters’ ability to hold politicians accountable for abuse of power.456

According to Ades,

“Economic and political institutions, in the view of the second set of theories, influence the extent of corruption, especially in the ways that they restrict market and political competition. Variables that capture restriction in the marketplace include openness to external competition from imports and the extent of regulation of entry of start-up firms.”457

The important question one would be tempted to ask here is what is then the empirical evidence on these various hypotheses?

For Djankov,

“Figure 1(pg 126) plots the relationship between corruption, proxied by the indicator with the largest country coverage (Control of Corruption), and GDP per capita (in logarithms), and draws the line implied by the estimated regression of corruption on GDP per capita. The graph illustrates two facts. First, richer countries have lower corruption. Second, corruption varies greatly across countries, even controlling for income. Some of the countries far away from the regression line—

454 Treisman, Daniel. 2000. “The Causes of Corruption: A Cross-National Study.” Journal of Public Economics. 76:3, pp. 399–457.

455 Besley, Timothy and John McLaren. 1993. “Taxes and Bribery: The Role of Wage Incentives.” Economic Journal. 103:416, pp. 119–41.

456 Persson, Torsten and Guido Tabellini. 2004. “Constitutions and Economic Policy.” Journal of Economic Perspectives. 18:1, pp. 75–98.

457 Ades, Alberto and Rafael Di Tella. 1999. “Rents, Competition, and Corruption.” American Economic Review. 89:4, pp. 982–93.

The effect of corruption on Human development

and thus the most and least corrupt for a given level of developmentFor example, Argentina, Russia and Venezuela are ranked as relaincome. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are typically aligned close to the regression line, which shows that their perceived corruption is close to the expected level given these per capita GDP”458.

I agree with Djankov the strong relationship between income and corruption is consistent with the theories of corruption that argue that institutional quality is shaped by economic factors. However, it is a weak test of these theories, since economic development not only may credemand for good government and institutional change, but may also be a function of the quality of institutions. Moreover, the huge

458 Djankov, Simeon, Rafeal La Porta,

Entry.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 117:1, pp. 1



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and thus the most and least corrupt for a given level of development—are highlighted in the graph. For example, Argentina, Russia and Venezuela are ranked as relatively corrupt given their level of

Saharan Africa are typically aligned close to the regression line, which shows that their perceived corruption is close to the expected level given these per capita

e strong relationship between income and corruption is consistent with the theories of corruption that argue that institutional quality is shaped by economic factors. However, it is a weak test of these theories, since economic development not only may credemand for good government and institutional change, but may also be a function of the quality of institutions. Moreover, the huge variation around the regression line suggests that these theories are

Djankov, Simeon, Rafeal La Porta, Florencio Lopez-De-Silanes and Andrei Shleifer. 2002. “The Regulation of Entry.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 117:1, pp. 1–37.

The way out.

are highlighted in the graph. tively corrupt given their level of

Saharan Africa are typically aligned close to the regression line, which shows that their perceived corruption is close to the expected level given these per capita

e strong relationship between income and corruption is consistent with the theories of corruption that argue that institutional quality is shaped by economic factors. However, it is a weak test of these theories, since economic development not only may create a demand for good government and institutional change, but may also be a function of the quality of

ariation around the regression line suggests that these theories are

Silanes and Andrei Shleifer. 2002. “The Regulation of



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at best incomplete. What can account for this variation?

Note: The graph depicts the regression line of corruption (CC 2002) on real GDP per capita (in logarithms) 1995.

According to Djankov,

“The explanatory variables in each regression include initial GDP per capita and initial human capital (both measured in 1970) as control variables”.459

Here, J. Svensson used a series of country characteristics, one at a time, and tested if the coefficient is significantly different from zero. These partial correlations, of course, do not identify causal effects. Even so, the correlations are interesting because they reveal something about common characteristics of corrupt countries, adjusting for initial income and human capital.”460

What are the results?

Kaufmann believes that,

“Table 2 shows that corrupt countries have significantly lower levels of human capital stock, proxied by years of schooling of the total population aged over 25. This relationship holds independent of what measure of corruption is used”461.

Table 2 Corruption of Country Characteristics: Human Capital

Control of Corruption

Corruption Perception Index

ICRG Corruption Score


IVSC Incidence of Bribes

Dep. Variable

(2002) (2003) (1982-01) (2001) (2000)

459 Djankov, Simeon, Rafeal La Porta, Florencio Lopez-De-Silanes and Andrei Shleifer. 2002. “The Regulation of

Entry.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 117:1, pp. 1–37. 460 Jacob Svensson is Assistant Professor, Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University, and

Stockholm, Sweden. He is also Senior Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank, Washington, D.C.; and Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, United Kingdom. His e-mail address is [email protected]_. Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 19, Number 3—Summer 2005—Pages 19–42

461 Cf. Notes: Control of Corruption Index for 2002 from Kaufmann, Kraay and Mastruzzi (2003).

Figure 1 Corruption and Income



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Real GDP per capita (log)

_0.60***

_1.38*** _0.87*** _0.73*** _0.03**

(.123) (.33) (.20) (.19) (.01)

Years of schooling (log)

_0.62***

_1.53*** _0.53** _0.51*** _0.06*

(.18) (.52) (.27) (.28) (.03)

Sample size

91 79 83 83 26

Notes: Control of Corruption Index for 2002 from Kaufmann, Kraay and Mastruzzi (2003). The index takes values between _2.5 to 2.5, with a higher score indicating higher corruption (rescaled). Corruption Perception Index for 2003 from Transparency International. The index takes values between 0 to 10, with a higher score indicating higher corruption (rescaled). ICRG is the International Country Risk Guide’s corruption indicator for 2001 (average over 12 months). The index takes values between 0 to 6, with a higher score indicating higher corruption (rescaled). ICVS is the incidence of bribes in 2000 (share of households responding they need or are expected to pay bribes in 2000) from the International Crime Victim Surveys.

Real GDP per capita in 1970 is from the Penn World Tables. Years of schooling of the total population aged over 25 in 1970 is from Barro and Lee (2000). Robust standard errors in parenthesis.

*** Statistically significant at 1 percent level.

** Statistically significant at 5 percent level.

* Statistically significant at 10 percent level.

According to J Svensson,

“Corrupt countries do have some significantly different policy characteristics. Table 3 shows the regression results from a measure of openness to external competition from imports (imports of goods and services as percent of GDP).

Table 4 shows the regression based on the extent of regulation of entry of start-up firms (time it takes to obtain legal status to operate a firm).



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Table 5 shows regression results based on freedom of the press (a subjective score from Freedom House). The findings are robust across data sets, although the openness proxy is insignificant in some regressions.

Corrupt countries are less open and regulate both entry to the market and the press more. Replacing freedom of media with a broader measure of political freedom (like the broader Gastil index also produced by Freedom House) yields qualitatively similar results”.462

Table 3 Corruption and Country Characteristics: Openness






Dep. Variable

(2002) ( 2003) (1982-01) (2001) (2000)


_0.67*** _1.43*** _0.90*** _0.71*** _0.06**

(.12) (.32) (.21) (.20) (.01)


_0.51*** _1.36*** _0.47* _0.53*

(.18) (.50) (.27) (.28)

Imports/GDP

_0.01** _0.03*** _0.00 _0.01 _0.00

462 He also carried out parallel regressions using a variety of other explanatory variables that provided less robust results. Tables showing these regression results are in an appendix attached to the on-line version of this paper at the journal’s website, _http://www.e-jep.org_. A short summary of the results is that when settler mortality is included in this sort of regression (which is used as a proxy variable for whether it was attractive for Europeans to settle in a certain area), it cannot account for why some countries, given current levels of physical and human capital, are more corrupt than others. Countries with a French legal system or a socialist legal system tend to have more corruption, although the connection is not statistically significant in all data sets. The proportion of the population identified as Catholic is positively correlated with several corruption indicators; however, correlations between the proportion of the population that is Muslim and measures of corruption are not statistically significant. The religious and legal variables lose significance in a multiple regression with the policy variables as additional controls.



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(.00) (.01) (.00) (.00) (.00)

Sample size 89 77 83 81 44

Notes: For details on sources of data, see Table 2. Imports/GDP is imports of goods and services as

Percentage of GDP (average from 1980–2000) from World Development Indicators (2004).

*** statistically significant at 1 percent level.

** statistically significant at 5 percent level.

* statistically significant at 10 percent level.

According to J. Svensson,

“Using the incidence of bribes from the International Crime Victim Survey as the dependent variable, rather than one of the subjective measures of corruption, drastically reduces the sample size, as shown in the final column of the tables”463.

Somewhat surprisingly, only GDP per capita, the proxy for initial human capital stock, and regulation of the press remain significantly correlated with corruption. These associations suggest some general conclusions. First, corruption is closely related to GDP per capita and to human capital. These correlations are consistent with the economic and human capita theories of institutional development, but the correlations could also be driven by reverse causality or omitted variables.

Table 4 Corruption and Country Characteristics: Regulation of Entry






463 Jacob Svensson is Assistant Professor, Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University, and

Stockholm, Sweden. He is also Senior Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank, Washington, D.C.; and Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, United Kingdom. His e-mail address is [email protected]_. Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 19, Number 3—Summer 2005—Pages 19–42



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Dep. Variable

(2002) (2003) (1982-01) (2001) (2000)


_0.70*** _1.65*** _0.79*** _0.74*** _0.05***

(.17) (.37) (.24) (.22) (.01)


_0.18 0.12 _0.17 _0.03

(.31) (.61) (.40) (.34)

No. of business days to

0.33*** 0.98*** 0.27*** 0.34*** 0.01

obtain legal status (log)

(.09) (.20) (.10) (.10) (.01)

Sample size

61 60 61 61 35

Notes: For details on sources of data, see Table 2. Number of business days to obtain legal status is the time it takes to obtain legal status to operate a firm, in business days (a week has five business days and a month has 22) from Djankov, La Porta, Lopez de Silanes and Shleifer (2002).

*** statistically significant at 1 percent level.

** statistically significant at 5 percent level.

* statistically significant at 10 percent level.



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Second, for a given level of income, the extent of corruption still varies greatly. The cross-country evidence suggests that this variation can partly be accounted for by the degree of market and political competition”464.

Table 5 Corruption and Country Characteristics: Freedom of Media






Dep. Variable

(2002) (2003) (1982-01) (2001) (2000)


_0.55*** _1.29*** _0.81*** _0.68*** _0.06***

(.11) (.31) (.20) (.19) (.01)


_0.65*** _0.97* _0.18 _0.22

(.12) (.59) (.28) (.36)

Freedom of media index

_0.05** _0.10* _0.06** _0.05* _0.01**

(.02) (.06) (.03) (.03) (.00)

Sample size

91 79 83 83 44

Notes: For details on sources of data, see Table 2. Freedom of media index is the average score of the four criteria “Laws and regulations that influence media content,” “Political pressures and controls on media content,”

464 Svensson, Jakob. 2003. “Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much?” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 118:1, pp.

207–30.



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“Economic influences over media content,” “Repressive actions” for print and broadcast media, average over 1994–2001, from the Freedom House.

In conclusion, one can observe that some major factors were responsible for the persistence of corruption in the traditional colonial era. These factors include: 1. Low income level 2. Economic and structural policies, and also the role of institutions 3. Influence of religion and 4. Political factor.

1. We noticed that the most corrupt countries have low income levels, this is because the economy of these countries are considered closed economies, that is that these countries’ economies are not open to the international markets. This case with many corrupt countries. For us to solve the problem of persistent corruption in this regard, these countries concerned have to be open to the international market.

2. The role of economic and structural policies and institutions; they are viewed as complementary; after all, the choice of economic and structural policies is one channel through which institutions influence corruption. For instance, corruption should be more wide spread in colonies with an inhospitable environment. This due to the legal system transplanted from the colonizer to the colonies. French colonies regulate more and this regulation consequently leads to corruption. To reduce corruption in this regard, the colonizer should try to work together with the colonies, and avoid the introduction of foreign legal system.

3. The Religious Factor; another way in which historical traditions and colonization might affect the extent of is through the influence of religion. For instance, the institutions of the protestant church which arose in part as an opposition to state-sponsored religion may be more inclined to monitor abuses by state officials including the abuses of corruption. For corruption to be controlled in these countries concerned there should be no preferential treatment to any religion with regards to corruption control strategy.

4. On the Political factor; a free press provides greater information than government –controlled press to voters on government and public sector behaviours including corruption. For us to reduce corruption in this regard, free press is recommended.

Another question that one would be tempted to ask is; what is the magnitude of corruption? Following this,

I agree with J Svensson as we have seen above, that the rankings of countries as more or less corrupt are based on subjective judgments and as such cannot be used to quantify the magnitude of Corruption465. Comparism does not lead to an assessment of the amount of corruption.

As McMillan and Zooid puts it,


207–30.



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“Thus, until recently, the magnitude of corruption had to be assessed using anecdotal or case-study evidence.”466

I wish to point out here that although the survey was adjusted in several ways to encourage managers to report graft payments truthfully, some misreporting surely remains in the sample. Nonetheless, the results provide a gloomy picture of entrepreneurship in one of the fastest growing countries in sub-Saharan Africa in the last 10–15 years. For instance, in Ghanaian situation as we can see.

However, the past few years have seen a small but growing body of research on identifying and quantifying corrupt behaviour.467 For example, there is some firm-survey evidence on the magnitude of corruption. Svensson presents survey data from Ugandan firms.

According to J. Svensson,

“Over 80 percent of Ugandan firms reported needing to pay bribes. Avoiding graft comes at a cost, since the 20 percent of firms reporting that they had not paid, had also chosen to minimize contacts with the public sector. Of the graft-paying firms, graft, on average, corresponds to roughly 8 percent of total costs. Corruption is also widespread in public procurement and service delivery programs.”468

Furthermore, it is interesting to note that in another study in Uganda, Reinikka and Svensson examine a Public education program that offered a per-student grant to cover non-wage expenditures in primary schools. To estimate the magnitude of corruption, or diversion of funds, they compared the flows disbursed from the central government to the school districts with survey data from 250 schools on the actual receipts of cash and in-kind school material. Over the period 1991–1995, schools received only 13 percent of central government spending on the program. Most schools received nothing, and the evidence suggests that the bulk of the grants were captured by local government officials and politicians.469

466 As an example in this journal, see McMillan and Zooid (2004). They use recorded bribe transactions of and by

Peru’s former secret-police chief Montesinos and find that Montesinos paid television-channel owners 100 times in bribes what he paid judges and politicians. Using a revealed preference argument, they conclude that news media, consistent with the cross-country evidence discussed above, are the strongest check on the government’s power.

467 Again, the focus of this paper is on public corruption. There is a related literature on private corruption or collusion (for instance, McAfee, 1992; Porter and Zone, 1993; Duggan and Leavitt, 2002). There is also a related literature on the value of political connectedness (for instance, Fisman, 2001; Khwaja and Mian, 2004).

468 Svensson, Jakob. 2003. “Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much?” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 118:1, pp. 207–30.

469 Reinikka, Ritva and Jakob Svensson. 2004a. “Local Capture: Evidence from a Central Government Transfer Program in Uganda.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 119:2, pp. 679–705.



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Subsequent studies have indicated that the situation is similar in other sub-Saharan African countries. Olken, using a similar methodology, finds that,

“29 percent of funds allocated to a road building project and 18 percent of subsidized rice in a large antipoverty program in Indonesia were stolen470”.

This is a very ugly situation because the poor people for which these funds were allotted to continue to suffer as the result of miss appropriation and the embezzlement of the mapped out fund.

It is observed also that price comparisons can be another fruitful method to infer the magnitude of corruption.

According to, Di Tella and Schargrodsky,

“Compare prices paid for basic homogeneous inputs at public hospitals in the city of Buenos Aires. They show that prices paid fell by 15 percent during the first nine months of a crackdown on corruption in 1996–1997, providing a lower bound of corruption in procurement in Buenos Aires hospitals in the late 1990s.”471.

It is important here to note that corruption control strategy is of immense help in the reduction of corrupt practices as is in the case of Buenos.

Again, Hsieh and Moretti estimate the extent of under-pricing of Iraqi oil during the United Nations Oil for Food Program by comparing the gap between the official selling price and various estimates of the market price of Iraqi oil during and prior to the program.

Hsieh and Moretti argue that,

“Under-pricing was a way for the Iraq regime to obtain illegal kickbacks from oil buyers and estimate that Iraq collected $1 to $4 billion in bribes from 1997 to 2001, or about 2–10 percent of the total amount spent under the auspices of the program.”472

Unfortunately, I can say that the literature on quantifying and identifying corruption is still at its infancy. As of now, the studies discussed above suggest a huge variation in corruption, ranging

470 Olken, Benjamin. 2003. “Corruption and the Costs of Redistribution: Micro Evidence from Indonesia.”

Manuscript, Harvard University. and Olken, Benjamin. 2004. “Monitoring Corruption: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia.” Manuscript, Harvard University.

471 Di Tella, Rafael and Ernesto Schargrodsky. 2003.and 2004 “The Role of Wages and Auditing during a Crackdown on Corruption in the City of Buenos Aires.” Journal of Law and Economics. 46:1, pp. 269–92.




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from a few percent in the Oil for Food Program that affected Iraq to 80 percent in the primary education program in Uganda.473

However, the existing contributions are scattered and often context specific. Still, the literature conveys that corruption can be quantified in a variety of ways. As more studies and data points become available, one should also be able to say something convincingly about aggregate corruption. When comparing numbers, it is important to keep in mind that most studies do not claim to capture all corruption within the program or sectors. For example, the hospital procurement study in Argentina estimates the extent of corruption affected by an increase in monitoring.

As Hsieh and Moretti puts it,

“note that there likely were other irregularities in the Oil for Food Program that allowed Iraq to siphon funds from the program. How do these micro findings on the magnitude of corruption relate to the macro literature on the institutional determinants of corruption? Here the evidence is even more limited.”474 For me this observation is in order.

This can be seen for example, in the study discussed above, Reinikka and Svensson estimate the extent of corruption in a national school grant program and argue that,

“Economic development, here conceptualized as the community’s ability to organize and exercise voice, affects the local government’s incentives for corrupt actions”.475

I agree with them(Reinikka and Svensson) that this hypothesis is confirmed in the data: schools in better-off communities, controlling for other community and school-specific fixed effects, experience a significantly lower degree of corruption, and the size of the effect is economically important. Di Tella and Schargrodsky and Svensson also relate quantitative measures of corruption to policy.476

Again, in a cross-section of Ugandan firms, Svensson finds that,

“the incidence of corruption is highly correlated with the extent to which rules and regulations give public officials the regaining rights to extort bribe payments from firms. It is also observed that the


474 ibid. 475 ibid 476 Di Tella, Rafael and Ernesto Schargrodsky. 2003. and 2004 “The Role of Wages and Auditing during a

Crackdown on Corruption in the City of Buenos Aires.” Journal of Law and Economics. 46:1, pp. 269–92.



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level of reported graft payment, on the other hand, is driven by firm-specific factors, suggesting that corrupt officials condition their bribe requests on the firm’s ability to pay bribes”477.

Therefore, when we look closely, we notice immediately that the implication of this finding is that research on corruption should focus not only on the macro question of how institutional frameworks affect corruption but also on the micro question of how corruption varies across a given institutional framework.

4. DO HIGHER WAGES FOR BUREAUCRATS REDUCE CORUPTION?

There are increasingly more suggestions that higher wages reduce corruption. Among these groups are Aid donors and international organizations who routinely recommend fighting corruption by paying higher wages to public servants. As a historical example of this policy, Sweden, which ranks among the least corrupt countries on all current cross-country rankings, was considered as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Increased remuneration of civil servants combined with deregulation have been put forward as important explanation for the emergence of an honest and competent public administration in Sweden in the late nineteenth century478

I believe that the problem here is that, does not means less corruption. This is because when some people receive more money, their demand also increases as well. Higher wages does not always mean less corruption, it depends on individuals inclinations. Rather, I can say that it is poverty that can as a consequent breed corruption. This is because, blurs free will in some individual and can push them into corruption. Therefore every effort should be made to reduce poverty in the world. Hence, according to the church,

“The social teaching of the Church continued its efforts to identify the structural dynamics by which poverty is perpetrated and to propose strategies for the eradication of such wide spread economic suffering.” 479


207–30. 478 Lindbeck, Assar. 1975. Swedish Economic Policy. London: MacMillan Press. 479 Mary E. Hobgood, Catholic Social Teaching and Economic Theory Paradigms in Conflict. Temple University press Philadelphia. 1991 pg 131.



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For this reason many people believed that poverty would be eradicated through the application of the first world technology to the ‘underdeveloped’ Third World. The rich nations could initiate social progress in the poor ones through technological management of economic and political activity. John XXIII, shared the same view when he said,

“Capitalist methods of production could create vast amounts of goods in an efficient way (MM 68, 94)... that the underlying causes of poverty were due to the primitive stage of Third world economies, and that science and technology held the key to the alleviation of poverty and the creation of human solidarity (MM 163).”480

The systematic evidence on the relationship between pay and corruption is ambiguous. It is important here to note that the analytical underpinning to the policy recommendation to increase public sector wages stems from a seminal paper by Becker and Stigler, who show that

“by paying the official a wage above the official’s opportunity wage, one can ensure, under certain conditions that the official will behave honestly.”481

I agree with Mookherjee, that, when the bribe level is not fixed and third-party enforcement does not exist, the theoretical relationship becomes ambiguous. For example, if the official and bribe-giver bargain over the bribe, a higher wage strengthens the official’s bargaining power as it raises the expected cost of being corrupt and thus leads to higher bribes.482

According to some authors who have dealt with this problem, for example, in cross-country studies, Rauch and Evans, and Treisman find no robust evidence that higher wages deter from corruption,483 while Van Rijckeghem and Weder find that it does.484 These cross-country studies, however, are fraught with problems. Measuring the extent of corruption using rankings is problematic. It is difficult to tell whether higher wages are a function of low corruption or vice versa. In addition, these cross- country studies have aggregate data on wages, so that the data on corruption and the data on wages may refer to different groups of individuals.

480 Op cit. Pg 133

481 Becker, Gary and George Stigler. 1974. “Law Enforcement, Malfeasance and the Compensation of Enforcers.” Journal of Legal Studies. 3:1, pp. 1–19.

482 Mookherjee. Dilip and I. P. L. Png. 1995. “Corruptible Law Enforcers: How Should They Be Compensated?” Economic Journal. 105, pp. 145–59.

483 Treisman, Daniel. 2000. “The Causes of Corruption: A Cross-National Study.” Journal of Public Economics. 76:3, pp. 399–457. and Rauch, James and Peter Evans. 2000. “Bureaucratic Structure and Bureaucratic Performance in Less Developed Countries.” Journal of Public Economics. 75:1, pp. 49–71.

484 Van Rijckeghem, Caroline and Beatrice Treisman, Daniel. 2000. “The Causes of Corruption: A Cross-National Study.” Journal of Public Economics. 76:3, pp. 399–457.



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It is interesting here to note how; Di Tella and Schargrodsky avoid most of these problems in their study of how a crackdown on corruption in Buenos Aires affected the procurement policies of public hospitals. They divide the 19 months of data into three distinct periods: a period with low, high and intermediate audit intensity from the city government. Linking the wage premium—the difference between the procurement officer’s wage and an estimated opportunity wage—to the price paid for a set of homogeneous hospital inputs, they conclude that higher wages have a negative and quantitatively important effect on procurement prices, but only when audit intensity takes intermediate levels.485

For me, these results are not indisputable; this is because, in particular, there is some concern that variation in the wage premium is driven primarily by variation in the determinants of the opportunity wage—and these determinants may have a direct bearing on the incentives for corrupts behaviour. Still, the findings provide fairly convincing evidence that paying higher wages can deter corruption under certain circumstances.

It is observed that many of these hypotheses are flawed in one way or the other, for instance, should countries facing a high level of corruption react with a policy of higher wages for bureaucrats? In this case, many poor developing countries with widespread corruption probably lack the third-party enforcement assumed in Becker and Stigler or the outside audits examined in Di Tella and Schargrodsky.486

According to Becker,

“Yet the effectiveness of anticorruption wage policies hinges on the existence of an honest third party that can monitor the agent. In a similar way, Besley and McLaren show that paying high wages maximizes tax revenues only when the share of dishonest employees available to the government is high and the monitoring apparatus is effective”.487

From the above arguments, one can therefore rightly say that wage incentives can reduce bribery, but only under certain conditions. In which case, this strategy requires a well-functioning enforcement apparatus; the bribe being offered (or demanded) must not be a function of the official’s wage; and the cost of paying higher wages must not be too high. In many poor

485 Di Tella, Rafael and Ernesto Schargrodsky. 2003. “The Role of Wages and Auditing during a Crackdown on Corruption in the City of Buenos Aires.” Journal of Law and Economics. 46:1, pp. 269–92.

486 Becker, Gary and George Stigler. 1974. “Law Enforcement, Malfeasance and the Compensation of Enforcers.” Journal of Legal Studies. 3:1, pp. 1–19. and Di Tella, Rafael and Ernesto Schargrodsky. 2003. “The Role of Wages and Auditing during a Crackdown on Corruption in the City of Buenos Aires.” Journal of Law and Economics. 46:1, pp. 269–92.

487 Besley, Timothy and John McLaren. 1993. “Taxes and Bribery: The Role of Wage Incentives.” Economic Journal. 103:416, pp. 119–41.



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developing countries where corruption is institutionalized, these requirements appear unlikely to be appropriate.

5. CAN COMPETITION REDUCE CORRUPTION?

To use competition to control Corruption is another aspect of corruption control that raises serious dust among various authors. This is because some people believe that another common approach to control corruption is to increase competition among firms. Among these arguments is that as firms’ profits are driven down by competitive pressure, there are no excess profits from which to pay bribes.488 In reality, the connections between competition, profits and corruption are complex and not always analytically clear. This why Bliss and Di Tella construct a model where public officials have the power to extract rents from firms.489

According to Bliss,

“In the model, corruption does not need any pre-existing rents or imperfect competition, since the excess profits from which to pay bribes may be created by the official by inducing exit. The level of graft demanded per firm depends on the likelihood that firms in the market are more or less likely

to exit due to a marginal increase in graft demand, not on the number of firms in the market or the degree of “natural” competition”490.

For me, this matter is not as simple as it appears to be. One is then faced with relevant questions regarding the relationships between corruption and regulation of markets.

According to De Soto, the question here is,

“What then can account for the positive relationship between corruption and regulation of markets discussed above? One plausible mechanism has to do with bureaucratic powers. Government

488 Ades, Alberto and Rafael Di Tella. 1999. “Rents, Competition, and Corruption.” American Economic Review. 89:4, pp. 982–93.

489 Bliss, Christopher and Rafael Di Tella. 1997. “Does Competition Kill Corruption?” Journal of Political Economy. 105:5, pp. 1001–023.

490 Bliss, Christopher and Rafael Di Tella. 1997. “Does Competition Kill Corruption?” Journal of Political Economy. 105:5, pp. 1001–023.



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regulations that raise barriers to entry are often enacted because they give public officials the power to demand and collect bribes”.491

In this way, one observes that deregulation may reduce corruption not so much by increasing competition, but by reducing the extent to which public officials have the power to extract bribes.

From the above discussion, we can say in theory that increased competition at the level of the official receiving the bribes may also reduce corruption.492

As Rose-Ackerman puts it,

“At least when officials dispense a government-produced good, such as a passport, the existence of a competing official to reapply to in case of being asked for a bribe will bid down the equilibrium amount of corruption.” 493

However, there is as yet no convincing empirical evidence that competition among officials actually reduces corruption. Moreover, the mechanism will only work if the multiple officials can individually produce the good. If multiple officials must sign off on the good, each with the power to stop a project, extremely high bribe levels may result.

It is observed in public service delivery that competition may not necessarily lead to lower corruption.494 This is more so when we consider a parent in Uganda, faced with the diversion of public funds from schools. In this case, such parents have two choices: voice and exit.495 That is, they can either voice a complaint with some formal or informal authority, or they can send their children to some other school (or have them drop out of school altogether). But if parents react to public corruption through exit and by sending their children to competing schools, the likelihood of voice as the response to corruption is reduced—and corrupt local officials may be able to extract an even greater share of the school’s entitlements.

I agree with Djankov, that increased competition, due to deregulation and simplifications of rules and laws, is negatively correlated with corruption. This is mostly because it can be a difficult task to strike the right balance between enacting and designing beneficial rules and laws to

491 De Soto, Hernando. 1989. The Other Path. New York: Harper and Row and Shleifer, Andrei and Robert Vishny. 1993. “Corruption.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 108:3, pp. 599–617.

492 Rose-Ackerman, Susan. 1978. Corruption: A Study in Political Economy. New York: Academic Press. 493 and Shleifer, Andrei and Robert Vishny. 1993. “Corruption.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 108:3, pp. 599–

617. 494 There is a large literature on school competition in developed countries focusing on other implications of

competition. As a starting point, see Hobby (2003) or the exchange between Ladd (2002) and Neal (2002) journal.

495 Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.



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constrain private misconduct while also limiting the possibilities that such laws open the door for public corruption.496

6. WHY HAVE THERE BEEN SO FEW (RECENT) SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO FIGHT CORRUPTION?

For me the question as to why there are few successful attempts at the corruption control strategy did not come as a surprise. This is because so many efforts have been put in place to control corruption, but they seem to be fruitless. It can be seen that most anticorruption programs rely on legal and financial institutions, judiciary, police and financial auditors to enforce and strengthen accountability in the public sector. To date, little evidence exists that devoting additional resources to the existing legal and financial government monitoring institutions will reduce corruption. Hong Kong and Singapore are the most cited exceptions.

According to Klitgaard,

“In both countries, the reduction in corruption went hand in hand with the establishment and strengthening of an independent anticorruption agency with widespread powers. For example, in Hong Kong, the Independent Commission against Corruption created legal precedents such as “guilty until proven innocent”.497

The problem is that, the same types of anticorruption agencies have in many other countries been used as an instrument of repression against political opponents, not to fight corruption. Why then did they work in Hong Kong and Singapore?

For Klitgaard,

“In those countries, several reforms were implemented simultaneously, that is, comprising all corruption strategies with the strengthening of the enforcement agencies. For example, in Singapore, civil servants’ pay relative the private sector increased substantially; public officials were routinely rotated to make it harder for corrupt official to develop strong ties to certain

496 Djankov, Simeon, Edward Glaeser, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes and Andrei Shleifer. 2003. “The

New Comparative Economics.” Journal of Comparative Economics. 31:4, pp. 595–619. 497 Klitgaard, Robert. 1988. Controlling Corruption. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. and UNDP.

1997. “Corruption and Good Governance.” Discussion Paper No. 3, Management Development and Governance Division.



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clients; rewards were given to those who refused bribes and turned in the client; and importantly, rules and procedures were simplified and often published, permits and approvals were scrapped, and fees (including import duties) were lowered or removed. In both Hong Kong and Singapore, the top political leadership was committed to fighting corruption. In many developing countries, this commitment is also not taken for granted”498.

The tacit assumption is that more and better enforcement of rules and regulations will reduce corruption. It can be observed that in many poor countries, the legal and financial institutions are weak and often corrupt themselves. In such a setting, providing more resources to enforcement institutions may not be the right solution to the problem of corruption.

For Hay and Shleifer,

“When the elite units of the Russian police obtained more advanced guns to combat crime, they simply sold these guns to the mafia at higher prices than the previous, less powerful, weapons could fetch”. 499

We can also say that alternative ways to fight corruption exist. One method is to replace public with private enforcement of public laws through lawsuits, at least for a time.500 But litigation, just as deregulation, has its limitations.

Another complementary approach turns to citizen enforcement, by providing easy public access to information on the workings of public programs. This information enables citizens to demand certain standards, to monitor service quality and to challenge abuses by officials.

To the question how can one estimate the causal effects of improved access to public information? Reinikka and Svensson employ a two-step procedure.

First, they use a simple test administered to head teachers to measure knowledge of the program. Second, they measure the distance to the nearest newspaper outlet from the school. They find that head teachers in schools closer to a newspaper outlet know more about the rules governing the grant program and the timing of release of funds by the central government. Using distance as an instrument, they show that the more informed schools experienced a dramatic reduction in the share of funds captured by corruption. Importantly, prior to the newspaper

498 498 Klitgaard, Robert. 1988. Controlling Corruption. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. and UNDP.

1997. “Corruption and Good Governance.” Discussion Paper No. 3, Management Development and Governance Division.

499 Klitgaard, Robert. 1988. Controlling Corruption. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. and UNDP. 1997. “Corruption and Good Governance.” Discussion Paper No. 3, Management Development and Governance Division. 500 Hay, Jonathan and Andrei Shleifer. 1998. “Private Enforcement of Public Laws: a Theory of Legal Reform.”

American Economic Review. 88:2, pp. 398–403.



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campaign, it was discovered that proximity to a newspaper outlet and changes in capture were uncorrelated.501

It is important to note here, that some datum suggest that improving citizen access to information and giving citizens a greater right to action can reduce corruption.

As Reinikka puts it,

“In the mid-1990s, a survey revealed that primary schools in Uganda received only a small fraction of the funds allocated to them by the central government. As this evidence became known, the central government began to publish newspaper accounts of monthly transfers of the capitation grants to districts, so that school staff and parents could monitor local officials.502”

In this way, it becomes clear to Reinikka and Svensson that the newspaper campaign brought a large improvement. In 2001, schools received an average of 80 percent of their annual entitlements. 503

The success of the newspaper campaign happened in a particular context. The program was a simple entitlement program, which made monitoring easier, and parents and school staff in Uganda had institutions already in place to handle collective decision-making.

For Olken,

“In general, citizen enforcement or grass-root monitoring are subject to possibly large free-riding problems, that is, some problems that are left uncontrolled. At the same time, grass-root monitoring initiatives are becoming increasingly popular in many places. Examples include participatory budgeting in Porto Allegre, Brazil; citizen report cards in Bangalore, India; and right to information on public works and public hearings, or Jan Sunwais, in Rajasthan, India. Although there is no robust scientific evidence yet on the impact of these initiatives, the preliminary evidence suggests that corruption has been dramatically reduced”. 504

I agree with Yang, that another strategy to fight corruption is delegation of officials, or hiring people of integrity, from the private sector. In the past two decades, that is, from 1990s over 50

501 Ibid. 502 Reinikka, Ritva and Jakob Svensson. 2004b. “The Power of Information: Evidence from a Newspaper Campaign

to Reduce Capture.” Manuscript, IIES, Stockholm University. 503 Op cit 504 Olken, Benjamin. 2004. “Monitoring Corruption: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia.” Manuscript,

Harvard University.



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developing countries have hired private (international) firms to conduct pre-shipment inspection of imports and in few cases also handed over the responsibility for collecting customs duties.505

It becomes clear to me that, Pre -shipment inspection can reduce customs corruption in various ways: for example, it improves the monitoring ability of higher-level enforcers, and it generates independent information on the contents of a shipment that could increase the importer’s bargaining power vis-à-vis a corrupt customs officer. Yang finds that pre-shipment programs are associated with increases in the growth rate of import duties of 6 to 8 percentage points annually. The pre-shipment programs are accompanied by an increase in imports (possibly due to reductions in importers’ bribe payments) and a decline in measures of misreporting in customs506. Human resources are destroyed by corruption.

7. DOES CORRUPTION ADVERSELY AFFECT GROWTH?

This argument as to whether corruption adversely affects growth is a very important issue.

According to the Social Teaching of the Church,

“The extreme imbalance in the distribution of the word’s wealth requires not only a redistribution of that wealth but also a commitment to providing poor nations with the means of production necessary to move out of poverty. This means that the level of international collaboration must increase dramatically. Each nation must attain a sense of responsibility for all nations”.507

This provision of the poor nations with the means of production necessary to move out of poverty is very crucial to reduce corruption. This is mainly because Corruption could conceivably have a positive effect on economic growth.

And this is the obvious reason why the proponents of efficient corruption claim that bribery may allow firms to get things done in an economy plagued by bureaucratic hold-ups and bad, rigid

505 Yang, Dean. 2005. “Integrity for Hire: An Analysis of a Widespread Program for Combating Customs Corruption.” Manuscript, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan.

506 ibid

507 Modern Catholic Social Teaching; Commentaries and Interpretations- edit Kenneth R. Himes, O.f.M.(Ass. ed. Lisa Sowle Cahill, Charles E. Curran, David Hollenbeck, S.J., Thomas Shannon) Georgetown University Press Washington, D.C. 2004.Pg 304



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laws.508 It is interesting to observe these proponents maintain that, a system built on bribery for allocating licenses and government contracts may lead to an outcome in which the most efficient firms will be able to afford to pay the highest bribes.509 However, these arguments typically take the distortions circumvented by the corrupt actions as given. When the nation economy act in this then everything is wrong with the nation. In short, such nation is unhealthy. The world economy need to come together to resolve their problem.

According to the Social Teaching of the Church,

“Paul VI goes on in part 2 of PP to boldly assert that ‘the world is sick’. The source of this sickness not just the ‘unproductive monopolization of resources’ in the hands of a few, but rather a lack of a real sense of unity among individuals and nations.”510

This sense of unity among the individuals and nations are essential for us to solve the economic problem facing the world today.

Unfortunately and in most cases, distortions and corruption are caused by, or are symptoms of, the same set of underlying factors.

As Myrdal pointed out,

“Corrupt officials may not circumvent distortions, but instead actually cause greater administrative delays to attract more bribes”.511

One can observe here that in most theories that link corruption to slower economic growth, the corrupt action by itself does not impose the largest social cost. Instead, the primary social losses of corruption come from propping up of inefficient firms and the allocation of talent, technology and capital away from their socially most productive uses.512

In this way, when profits or potential profits are taken away from firms through corruption, entrepreneurs choose not to start firms or to expand less rapidly. Entrepreneurs may also choose to

508 Left, Left, Nathanial H. 1964. “Economic Development Behavioural Scientist. 82:2, pp. 337–41. and Nathanial H. 1968.

509 Lui, Francis T. 1985. “An Equilibrium Queuing Model of Bribery.” Journal of Political Economy. 93:4, pp. 760–81.


511 Myrdal, Gunnar. 1968. Asian Drama. New York: Random House. 512 Murphy, Kevin, Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny. 1993. “Why is Rent-seeking so Costly to Growth?”

American Economic Review. 83:2, pp. 409–14.



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shift part or all of their savings toward the informal sector, or to organize production in a way that the need or demand for public services is minimized.

According to Choi,

“If entrepreneurs expect they will be forced to bargain over bribes in the future, they have incentives to adopt inefficient fly-by-night technologies of production with an inefficiently high degree of diversibility, which allows them to react more flexibly to future demands from corrupt officials—and more credibly threaten to shut down operations.” 513

Furthermore, Corruption also affects the allocation of entrepreneurial skills.

As Murphy puts it,

“When corruption is widespread and institutionalized, some firms may devote resources to obtaining valuable licenses and preferential market access, while others focus on improving productivity.”514

It becomes clear to us that in some extreme cases, it may be financially more rewarding for an entrepreneur to leave the private sector altogether and instead become a corrupt public official.

What does the evidence say? The micro and case evidence tends to support to the theoretical predictions laid out above, but the macro evidence is inconclusive. This why, Bates, for example shows that,

“in many sub-Saharan African countries, peasant farmers avoided corruption by taking refuge in subsistence production, with a consequent subsequent decline in productivity and living standards”.515

Many formal sector firms, on the other hand, specialized in securing special advantages that they were unable to secure by competing in the marketplace. Again, De Soto documents similar effects in Peru, where high start-up costs due to regulatory constraints and corruption forced entrepreneurs to establish new firms underground and on a smaller scale.516

Another important question is, does corruption affect firms’ choice of technology and the allocation of talent?

513 Choi, Jay P. and Marcel P. Thum. 1998. “The 40 Journal of Economic Perspectives Economics of Repeated Extortion.” Columbia University Working Paper No. 9899-03. and Svensson, Jakob. 2003. “Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much?” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 118:1, pp. 207–30.

514 Murphy, Kevin, Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny. 1991. “The Allocation of Talent: Implications for Growth.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 106, pp. 503–30.

515 Bates (1981). 516 De Soto, Hernando. 1989. The Other Path. New York: Harper and Row.



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According to Svensson,

“Exploiting firm-level capital stock data on reported resale and replacement values, provides evidence suggesting that the amount of bribes a firm needs to pay is negatively correlated with the degree of reversibility of the capital stock—a result consistent with the fly-by-night hypothesis.”.517

It is interesting here to note that the Fisman’s findings on political connectedness in Indonesia suggest that some firms do specialize in corruption and rent seeking as means of growth and Khwaja and Mian’s results on borrowing and default rates of politically connected firms in Pakistan suggest that one of the reasons politicians start firms, or join existing ones, is that it enables them to capture public resources through corruption.518

I agree with Wade that, specialization in corruption also occurs in the public sector. For instance, Wade’s vivid account of corruption in the canal irrigation department in a south Indian state describes how some irrigation engineers raise vast amounts in bribes from the distribution of water and contracts, and redistribute part to superior officers and politicians.519

Unfortunately in this way, the system of corruption is institutionalized, and there is even a second-hand market for posts that provide the holder an opportunity to extract bribes. Thus, politicians and senior officers are able to obtain for themselves part of the engineers’ income from corruption by auctioning available posts. Moreover, those specializing in corruption—and thereby able to earn many times their annual official income though bribes—will be able to outbid other contenders less able or less inclined to exploit their official powers to extract bribes. In this example, competition results in higher corruption.

I want to point out here that Micro studies on corruption have also yielded insights about the long-run cost of corruption. Reinikka and Svensson, building on the Ugandan newspaper campaign study find that the reduction in corruption caused by the information campaign had a significant and economically large effect on school enrolment and academic achievement.520

517 Svensson, Jakob. 2003. “Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much?” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 118:1, pp. 207–30.

518 Fisman, Raymond. 2001. “Estimating the Value of Political Connections.” American Economic Review. 91:4, pp. 1095–102.and Khwaja, Asim I. and Atif Mian. 2004. “Do Provision in an Emerging Financial Market.” Lenders Favour Politically Connected Firms? Rent Manuscript, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

519 Wade, Robert. 1982. “The System of Administrative and Political Corruption: Canal Irrigation in South India. “ Journal of Development Studies. 18:3, pp. 287–328.

520 Reinikka, Ritva and Jakob Svensson. 2005. “Fighting Corruption to Improve Schooling: Evidence from a Newspaper Campaign in Uganda.” Journal of European Economic Association. Forthcoming. and Reinikka, Ritva and Jakob Svensson. 2004b. “The Power of Information: Evidence from a Newspaper Campaign to Reduce Capture.” Manuscript, IIES, Stockholm University.



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As Reinikka puts it,

“That human capital accumulation drives long-run growth; the results suggest an important mechanism through which corruption can hurt growth. Social service delivery in developing countries is often plagued by corruption of a variety of forms—bribes are charged for services to be provided and public funds are embezzled. Corruption is therefore a leading candidate to explain why the impact of public spending on growth and social welfare has been so disappointingly low in many countries.”521

I wish also to point out here, that some suggestive evidence also exists on the relationship between corruption and growth at the firm level.

For further clarification, I can say that it were, Fisman and Svensson use firm-survey data on the estimated bribe payments of Ugandan firms to study the relationship between bribery payments, taxes and firm growth over the period 1995–1997. Using industry-location averages to circumvent the potential problem of endogeneity, they find that both the rate of taxation and bribery are negatively correlated with firm growth. For the full data set, a one percentage point increase in the bribery rate is associated with a reduction in firm growth of three percentage points, an effect that is about three times greater than that of taxation.522

The question which comes to mind here is, what about the macro evidence? Many writers have contributed in different ways in the efforts to answering this, but in reality, Mauro is the first attempt to study the relationship between corruption and growth in a large cross-section of countries. Contrary to what is sometimes claimed, Mauro does not find robust evidence of a link between corruption and growth, although a broader measure of bureaucratic efficiency is correlated with investment and growth.523 I want to say here that corruption is like cobweb, it affects everything.

In

Table 6, as we shall see bellow, Jacob Svensson updated Mauro’s calculations. He ran regressions with economic growth (over the period 1980–2000) as dependent variable and

521 ibid

522 Fisman, Raymond and Jakob Svensson. 2001. “Are Corruption and Taxation Really Harmful to Growth? Firm Level Evidence.” Manuscript, IIES, Stockholm University.

523 Mauro, Paolo. 1995. “Corruption and Growth.” Quarterly Journal of Economics. 110, pp. 681–712.



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corruption (the international Country Risk Guide’s corruption indicator averaged over 1982–2000), initial GDP per capita and human capital as the explanatory variables524.

Table 6 Growth and Corruption

Dep. Variable Growth (1980–2000) Ordinary least squares

Growth (1980–2000) Fixed effects

Real GDP per capita (log) _0.82* _6.50*** (.47) (1.03) Years of schooling (log) 1.86*** 6.63*** (.66) (1.36) Corruption _0.33 0.11 (.24) (.24) Countries 85 86 Observations 85 335

Notes: For details on sources of data, see Table 2. Growth is growth in real GDP per capita over the period 1980–2000 in specification (1) and growth in real GDP per capita over the periods 1981–1985, 1986–1990, 1991–1995, 1996–2000 in specification (2). Real GDP per capita and years of schooling are measured at the start of the sample period (in 1980 for specification (1) and in 1980, 85, 90, 95 for specification (2)). Corruption is the International Country Risk Guide’s corruption indicator, average for 1982–2000 in specification (1) and average over 1982–1985, 1986–1990, 1991–1995, 1996–2000 in specification (2).525

I definitely agree with Svensson’s findings here, that the estimated coefficient on corruption in this regression is negative that is, that less corruption is correlated with higher growth but it is not significantly different from zero. He then added broad range of explanatory variables that have been suggested in the growth literature, but the coefficient on corruption remained insignificantly correlated with growth. Exploiting the panel dimension; that is, using five-year averages for


207–30. 525 Svensson, Jakob. 2003. “Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much?” Quarterly Journal of

Economics. 118:1, pp. 207–30.



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corruption and growth and country-specific fixed effects to control for time-invariant country characteristics, also yields insignificant results.526

When one has close look, one will notice that his finding seems to lead to a puzzle. This is simply because most of the theoretical literature as well as case study and micro evidence suggest that corruption severely retards development. However, to the extent we can measure corruption in a cross-country setting, it does not affect growth. We can also see that the puzzle may arise from econometric problems involved in estimating the effects of corruption on growth using cross-country data. In this way, for instance, the difficulties of measuring corruption may include omitted variables, like the extent of market regulation, and reverse causality, like whether modernization and rapid growth may increase corruption, as Huntington argued.527

Furthermore, another plausible explanation for the mismatch between the micro and macro evidence is that corruption takes many forms, and there is no reason to believe that all types of corruption are equally harmful for growth. Existing data, however, are by and large too coarse to examine different types of corruption in a cross-section of countries. I wish to affirm strongly that corruption must be condemned in all its ramifications; this is because corruption is an evil in itself.

8. CONCLUSION; THE WAY OUT

I found the frequently asked questions which Svensson posed about corruption very useful. However, some of the answers are often not clear-cut, and there are many issues about corruption we simply know too little about. As the study of corruption evolves, three areas are of particular importance. And it is my wish to discuss these areas.

Interestingly, I would say that the most urgent and very important observation he made is that, scanty evidence exists on how to combat corruption. Because traditional approaches to improve governance have produced rather disappointing results, experimentation and evaluation of new tools to enhance accountability should be at the forefront of research on corruption. This

526 Using the two other subjective corruption indicators yields, in some specifications, a statistically significant negative effect of corruption on growth. However, these indicators are measured at the end of the sample period, thus making it even more difficult to draw causal interpretations from corruption to growth.

527 Huntington (1968).



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observation is very important because it paved way for further research on corruption using new tools to enhance accountability.

Again, it should be observed that the differential effect of corruption is an important area for research. For example, China has been able to grow fast while being ranked among the most corrupt countries. Is corruption less harmful in China? Or would China have grown even faster if corruption had been lower? These types of questions have received some attention, but more work along what context and type of corruption matters is likely to be fruitful. This also a very important issue, especially when we look at the influence of culture and business behaviour regarding corruption.

Lastly and most importantly, It should be noted with particular attention that, the link between the macro literature on how institutions provide a more-or-less fertile breeding ground for corruption and the micro literature on how much corruption actually occurs in specific contexts is weak. As more forms of corruption and techniques to quantify them at the micro level are developed, it should be possible to reduce this mismatch between macro and micro evidence on corruption.

These and other shortcomings motivated me to continue to embark on all-encompassing Corruption Control Strategy “the Way – Out” as means of finding solution to the menace of Corruption on Human Development for which the Church calls us, and which she tirelessly promotes.528

(C) CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGIES IN GHANA

1. INTRODUCTION

According to the Modern Catholic Social Teaching,

“In the task of pursuing a complete human development, the ability to enter into healthy dialogue with others is essential. That is the way to draw people and nations together in solidarity.

528 Sollicitudo Rei Socialis,” cf. The Encyclicals of John Paul 11ed. By J. Michael Miller, C.S.B.Pg380-420. (§35.5), (§38.3). and (§40.4).



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That dialogue must first of all be based on the human person, not on commodities or things.”529(Populorum Progressio).

For the Church, what is at stake is not just material advancement but, more potentially human development. And for the Church, ‘development is the new name for peace’530.

This is why the social doctrine of the Church believes that the pursuit of peace requires a war on the ills of the society of which corruption, poverty, inequality etc, are not excluded.

According to the Modern Catholic Social Teaching,

“The pursuit of peace requires a war on poverty, human misery, and inequality.”531

It is on this note, that I deemed it necessary here to discuss the effect of Corruption on human development in Africa. And consequently suggest the way to declare war on (it) corruption. Etymologically, the word Corruption comes from “Corruptus” which means something that is broken and can be defined generally ‘as pervasion of standard.’532



530ibid




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Corruption, (Corruptus-Broken) as the name suggests, has devastating effect on the development of any country that contacts it. It therefore occurs, as earlier mentioned, in nearly all parts of the world to varied degrees, but is much more prevalent in less developed and developing countries.

For example, Sub-Saharan countries, except for the noticeable examples of Botswana, Namibian and South Africa, lie at the bottom of the pile and their Scandinavian counterparts make up the top of the listings. The higher occurrence of corruption in developing countries does not mean that Western countries are immune to such practises, large size scandals in France, the United States, Germany or Austria have appeared in the media to show this. For instance, in Austria we have seen in the Kleine Zeitung Graz, Sontag, 19. Feb. 2012: Die gekaufte Politik written by Prisching Manfred. Here, Manfred discussed in an Essay form the extensive damage done by corruption in the society especially in Europe.

To add to this, it must be said that the developed world, develop an organised type of corruption that makes it seem right. It might be hypocritical for one to say that corruption is more pronounced in the developing worlds. But corruption works differently in developed countries.

Mostly in Africa, people are sincere and straight-forward. They will like to tell you "give me this and it's done", they don't care whether they know you or not, whether you are a business partner or not but in the developed world it is different. The same things (corruption) that happen in Africa under broad day light happen in the developed world also but not under broad day light. That is often the difference.

I personally see corruption as an abuse of trust and power for self-enrichment, and it occurs worldwide.

2. SPECIFIC ASPECTS OF THE GHANAIAN SITUATION

In this draft, I follow Ayee and I discuss his idea533

The Church believes that human society ought to be one in which men communicate knowledge to each other in the light of truth, in which they can enjoy their rights and fulfil their duties and share the common good in justice and in love. As the Church puts it,

533 Ayee, J.R.A. Theories and concepts on why corruption occurs (especially in Ghana) A Decade of Public

Accountability under the PNDC Government in Ghana, Research Review, 1994, Vol. 10, and 2, pp. 61-71.



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“Human Society, venerable brothers and beloved children, ought to be regarded above all as a spiritual reality; one in which men communicate knowledge to each other in the light of truth; in which they can enjoy their rights and fulfil their duties, and are inspired to strive for the goods of the spirit. Society should enable men to share in and enjoy every legitimate expression of beauty. It should encourage them constantly to pass on to others all that are best in themselves, while they strive to make their own the spiritual achievement of others. These are the values which continually give life and basic orientation to cultural expression, economic and social institutions, political movements and forms, laws and all other structures by which society is outwardly established and constantly developed.”534

This statement by the Church is very important and helpful. I believe that because we do not most often see society in this way, that their abound many vices in the society including; injustices, lies, hatred, selfishness etc, and above all corruption.

According to Ayee, J, R, A.,

“The root causes of corruption in Ghana are believed to be attributed to a certain number of aspects, these include:

1) The persistence of traditional values which conflict with the requirements for a secular way of life

2) Poverty 3) Disrespect for regulations or legal requirements 4) Improper policies 5) Unqualified or unmotivated personnel 6) Ineffective supervision 7) Illegitimate laws and regulations 8) Contempt for constitutional requirements.”535

As Rose-Ackerman puts it,

“The notion that corruption adversely impedes development is no longer an issue of debate. Cross-country empirical work has confirmed the negative impact of corruption on institutions, growth and productivity, policy processes, property rights, and consequently, development.”536

534 Joseph Gremillion. The Gospel of Peace and Justice, Catholic Social Teaching. Since Pope John. November 1976 Orbis Books, Maryknoll, N.Y. 10545 no. 36 p 208-209.

535 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ã Decade of Public Accountability under the PNDC Government in Ghana, Research Review, Vol. 10, and 2, p. 61-71.

536 Ackerman, 1999; Kaufmann 1997 and 1998; Mauro 1997; Wei, Shang-Jin, 1997, Knack and Keefer, 1995.



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This statement holds true for Ghana also. Since Ghana as a country was not exempt from the menace of corruption. Ayee J, R, A., put forward several theoretical approaches to corruption. These theoretical approaches include:

1. Revisionist approach;

The revisionist approach consists of explaining corruption as a divergence of behaviour from accepted norms within a society and its existence by reference to social mores and deficiencies in economic and political systems.

2. Systemic approach;

The systemic approach brings to light the fact that one’s deviant behaviour cannot be blamed solely on him or her, but on the whole faulty organisation, which in turn actually protects the systemic corruption that is happening within that organisation; this time being the government.537 According to Ayee,

“To understand corruption as a social phenomenon, several theoretical approaches have been brought forward; one of them being the revisionist approach and another one the systemic approach. The revisionist approach consists of explaining corruption as a divergence of behaviour from accepted norms within a society and its existence by reference to social mores and

deficiencies in economic and political systems. Non-revisionists accept the revisionist approach’s explanations of what corruption is but believe that the revisionists’ approach even though it uses social variables; lacks the understanding that corruption does not occur in an individual form, or within individual terms but occurs within a system; that is, it does not recognise the existence of systemic corruption.”538

It is interesting here to note that corruption, under the revisionists approach, would be simply uprooted by chasing the ones accused because of its incidental nature instead of it being a structural one. He goes on to say that for revisionists, corruption is not the norm; it is by their own definition, exceptional. Once corruption is widespread enough not to be considered exceptional it ceases to exist because it has become the norm itself. The inadequacy of public institutions brings corruption as an alternative mean of allocation or of access to decision making539.

537 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ã Decade of Public Accountability under the PNDC Government in Ghana, Research

Review, Vol. 10, and 2, pp. 68. 538 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ã Decade of Public Accountability under the PNDC Government in Ghana, Research

Review, Vol. 10, and 2, pp. 61-71. 539 ibid



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For Ayee,

“Corruption comes about also possibly because of the too large influence a government can have on a society; coupled with excessive red tape and bureaucracy as well as a higher value placed on kinship and tribal attachments rather than a sense of nation. A sensible gap between government and citizens accentuates the possibility of occurrence of corruption; another cause of corruption may be the inadequate way in which the law is written, especially if deriving itself from colonial times, and are thus ‘irrelevant to the needs of society”540.

According to Lipset and Lenz,

“Corruption has been ubiquitous in complex societies from ancient Egypt, Israel, Rome, and Greece down to the present”541

According to Ayee,

“Corruption comes about as a tool to direct public procedures to one’s own favour, to ‘get around unrealistic administrative norms, to bridge lags in the value system of the community, to reallocate resources and services when disequilibrium arises between supply and demand, to stabilize the political system, to cut down uncertainty in decision making, to cut through bureaucratic red tape, and to increase the responsiveness and sensitivity of public organizations.”542

If there is a lack of control of corruption in every sphere in the nation, it is then like the old saying:

“When water chokes you, what do you take to wash it down?”543

From the above discussion, I can say that corruption can be regarded as the result of modernization in the absence of political institutionalization. Corruption can occur because of the lack of chances outside of the governmental posts to build personal fortunes, which, in effect, promotes corrupt activities. Corruption could arise, viewed from a perception of systemic corruption, because the society it is happening in thinks higher of organisational loyalty than of public interest. It also arises when notions of one’s responsibility for the good of the public is overshadowed, or brushed aside, for the exploitation of public function for private gains.

This true, for according to Ayee,

540 ibid

541 Lipset and Lenz 2000, pp. 112-113. 542 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ã Decade of Public Accountability under the PNDC Government in Ghana, Research

Review, Vol. 10, and 2, pp. 61-71. 543 The Philosophy of Aristotle, 451-ME2783, p.355.



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“The systemic approach brings to light the fact that one’s deviant behaviour cannot be blamed solely on him or her, but on the whole faulty organisation, which in turn actually protects the systemic corruption that is happening within that organisation; this time being the government. Two of the main points of the functioning of systemic corruption are that: violators are protected, and when exposed, treated leniently; their accusers are victimized for exposing organizational hypocrisy, and are treated harshly. Collective guilt finds expression in rationalizations of the internal practises and without strong external supports there is no serious intention of ending them.”544

I wish to assert that, the different concepts of corruption all come to the conclusion that corruption occurs more in a society or organisation that does base its belief in duties to the public but rather to private ends. Corruption seems to work better in a system where many engage in such activities, where corruption does not stem out as coming only from certain individuals but rather from many working within the same system. This is when corruption becomes of systemic nature; and it seems not unfair to describe Ghana’s governmental system as being riddled from the interior because of systemic corruption.

It should therefore be noted that corruption is a behaviour which deviates from the formal duties of a public role, because of private gains regarding personal, close family, private clique, pecuniary or status gains. It is a behaviour which violates rules against the exercise of certain types of duties for private gains regarding influence545

I wish to conclude by saying that, for corruption to be uprooted in Ghana there is the need for a critical overhaul of the Ghanaian culture that provides a fertile ground for corruption. The Guamanian culture unfortunately does base its belief in duties to the public rather to private ends. And it is observed that corruption seems to work better in a system where many engage in such activities, where corruption does not stem out as coming only from certain individuals but rather from many working within the same system. And this is why corruption in Ghana is of systemic nature; for this reason, one can rightly describe Ghana’s governmental system as being riddled from the interior because of systemic corruption. For instance, the revisionist approach consists of explaining corruption as a divergence of behaviour from accepted norms within a society and its existence by reference to social mores and deficiencies in economic and political systems. Non-revisionists accept the revisionist approach’s explanations of what corruption is but believe that the revisionists’ approach even though it uses social variables; lacks the understanding that corruption

544 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, A Decade of Public Accountability under the PNDC Government in Ghana, Research

Review, Vol. 10, and 2, pp. 61-71. 545 Nye, J. S., Corruption and Political Development: A Case-Benefit Analysis, The American Political Science

Review, 1967, pp. 417-427



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does not occur in an individual form, or within individual terms but occurs within a system; that is, it does not recognise the existence of systemic corruption.

I want also to blame the colonial masters in part for this unfortunate corruption situation in Ghana this is because, the colonial masters instead of fighting corruption or better put, create the awareness of corruption in Ghana as and when due, they were busy maximising profits for their own countries interest and agenda. They were interested in building the state that is public based and neglected the society and the individual. This attitude of the colonial master aggravated the corruption menace in the country.

3. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE OF CORRUPTION IN GHANA AND THE GOLD COAST

My aim for tracing the historical perspective of corruption in Ghana is to conclude whether or not the occurrence of past corruption issues have affected seriously the government’s role in levels of corruption around the country and whether or not there is enough conclusive evidence to say that Ghana has an inherent culture of political corruption. Corruption is as old as humans can remember, so its incidence in Ghana must have appeared,

according to Ayee,

“at the same time as the implementation of some type of state and government or even just some chiefdom was created on the land that is now Ghana. This may even have started by the gift of extra cattle to get through a border of an area controlled by someone else, or some extra beads to ensure one’s home from theft by the chief’s guardsmen.”546

Unfortunately, but very interesting to know that proper recording of corruption instances in Ghana was not there till 20th century. This does not mean that there was no corruption but as is in many other countries, the effects of corruption menace in these countries were not taking seriously.

According to Ayee,

“Many variant possibilities are plausible; nevertheless, these imagined examples are there to show that the first happenings of corruption in Ghana have no recordings. Apparently too, there are no recordings or reports of allegations or accusations of corruption in the Gold Coast before


Review, Vol. 10, and 2, pp. 61-71.



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the start of the 20th century. The oldest reports that are existent are the series of reports by the principal auditors of governmental accounts for the Gold Coast.”547

However, much evidence indicates that corruption has been around for thousands of years, but in recent years it has increasing attention. Does the attention reflect an increasing awareness or an increasing scope of problem?

According to Ayer,

“It has been impossible for researchers to inspect the recordings of these audits for the years preceding 1939. It is only after 1966 and Nkrumah’s fall that there is considerable literature because of a Commission of Inquiry appointed by the National Liberation Council (NLC). This shows there is no evidence for possible corruption cases before World War II in the Gold Coast Colony. The evidence for a historical and thus possibly cultural background for corruption is therefore slightly hampered by the lack of information available, though it is still sufficient to make possible suggestions on how corruption became such a public issue for Ghana mainly since the fall of ex-president Kwame Nkruma, and whether or not there is proof or evidence that political corruption dates back from an earlier period than the independence of Ghana.”548

How do we understand culture and the role it plays in the society in relation to corrupt practices? I believe that there has to be an inquisition into the role and function of culture in society to understand the importance of it within everybody’s daily life.

According to Ayee,

“Culture is the background in which one is born; it could be the familial culture as well as the community’s culture, which may differ ostensibly. The end result of culture on one’s behaviour is the way of life one has, which is woven around certain values, aesthetics and intellectual principles that produce a unique point of view on the world.”549

Culture has thus multiple dimensions a mental image and a material end. It is therefore a creation to keep social interactions working and it is worth noting that culture is thus functional, it plays a major role in the individuals psychological development. Indeed, there exists a functional relationship between the institutions of society and the intellectual make up of its members to the extent that each side affects the other in maintaining the status quo and bringing about historical


Review, Vol. 10, and 2, pp. 64-71. 548 ibid

549 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ã Decade of Public Accountability under the PNDC Government in Ghana, Research Review, Vol. 10, and 2, pp. 61-71.



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process of change. In this case, it is to see whether the behaviour of past governments have affected the way the incumbent government acts when having to make statements or proceeds that are in relationship with corruption.

4. PRE- COLONIAL YEARS

It is very interesting and significantly important to observe her that not much impact of corruption menace were recorded or noticed during colonial era in Ghana.

As Ayee puts it,

“The reports of Commissions of Inquiry, which are the basis of inquiry into the existence of a cultural background of practises of corruption, were only highlights of the central governments responses to it, and are thus not totally complete and are circumstantial by nature. Mr. Osei (The chairman, Research Review, a Decade of Public Accountability under the PNDC Government in Ghana) has to be credited with consistent good research; he was praised for his longevity, his tone and his careful manners since he was able to stay in his position long after the fall of Nkrumah in 1966. The overall trend that has been found in these reports from the years 1939 to 1956 is a general steady increase in corruption that coincided with the ‘Ghanaization’ of the civil service.”550

The question then is, were there no corruption menace in these colonial eras or were people ignorant of it or were they afraid to say it. Thanks to Amundsen who as early as 1938 had reports on corruption in Ghana.

According to Amundsen,

“The findings for the years 1938 to 1943 show no notable cases that could imply fraud or mismanagement of entrusted power except for some cases of purloining government stores. In the 1943-1944 report, there were thirty one cases brought to light, with irregularities going from £ 3 to £ 6,500, the latter being the theft of payment vouchers in the Medical Department. Out of the thirty other cases, twenty were incurred by officials where it was carrying strong implication that political corruption was involved. The 1944-1945 report talks of twenty six cases, where sixteen are cases of possible corruption. The 1945- 46 report has no precise number but describes a not

550 Amundsen, I. 1999, ˜Political Corruption: An introduction to the Issues of corruption. Pg 68 – 91.



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inconsiderable number of fraudulent acts. The 1946-1947 report denotes thirty seven cases, of which twenty could be considered as possible corruption.”551

From Amundsen, I validly infer there were Progressive increases in the awareness of the gravity of the corrosial effect of corruption in Ghanaian society.

According to Ayee,

“In the 1950-1951 report, there is a considerable leap in the number of cases, as they rise up to 152 cases, of which 88 are considered possible cases of corruption. The director of audit, Mr. Osei, describes the year’s situation on corruption as having a more frequent occurrence but having a similar nature, and points the finger to the Public Works Department’s cash and the deceitful cash removals from the Post Office Saving Bank. It has to be noted that by 1951 the Watson Commission Report had been published, and this document showed a deep belief that ‘a dereliction of responsibility …to ignore the existence of bribery and corruption in many walks of life in the Gold Coast and that the spread of corruption was predictable as further responsibility devolved upon the African.”552

For me, Mr. Osei’s audit report is an ‘Eye opener’ to many Ghanaians. This is because, the Watson Report concluded, with a foreboding warning, that the system of trade had brought upon itself ‘great abuses and encouraged bribery and excessive charges.’

According to Ayee,

“In the 1953-1954 report, 230 cases were reported, of which about 150 represented acts of corruption. An interesting detail is the fact that most irregularities were to be found in the Public Works, the Post Office, and the Health departments of the government.”553

I wish to observe with Ayee that, the latter two departments had already been cited and the other one (the public works department) is to become a major source of corruption allegations and outcries in the past couple of years. In the report of the 1954- 55 fiscal year, there were so many cases of fiscal irregularities that only cash losses over £ 10 and store losses over £ 25 were deemed valuable enough to be considered. The director of audit was once again sending a warning message through his reports indicating the steady and continuous rise of corruption cases and how the lack of sufficiently trained supervisors would pose a problem to the government. It is the reason why there has been (in about 1952) a decrease in the number of cases, down to 130, of which 85 could

551 Amundsen, I. 1999, ˜Political Corruption: An introduction to the Issues of corruption. Pg 68 – 91. 552 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, A Decade of Public Accountability under the PNDC Government in Ghana, Research

Review, Vol. 10, and 2, pp. 61-71. 553 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ñotes on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice under the 1992

Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 159-170.



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be linked to corruption practises. This steady increase in instances of corruption has to be questioned as to why it has been happening. It has been suggested that it is because of the increase in state corporations and marketing boards.554

It is interesting to notice that it is only then that the people of Ghana see the need to ask questions regarding corruption, and were requesting for better trained supervisors to look into the activities of these corrupt officials. But there were still so many loop holes created that are conducive for corruption to grow even more due to lack of effective corruption control strategy.

According to Ayee,

“In 1947, the Gold Coast Cocoa Marketing Board and in 1949, the Gold Coast Agricultural Products Marketing Board were created. These boards arose to give a large amount of opportunities to divert state money because of the extended nature of their bureaucracy, which only really gave corruption opportunities to lower level officials. The boards had to deal with petty traders, small farmers associations and many other forms of very small trade people. Some of them had built near monopolistic markets on certain commodities before the boards were set up; they were thus understandably unwilling to give up control of these markets. They were unable to compete with state marketing cartels, [so] they resorted to manipulating the boards’ grass-roots activities. This shows that by the early 1950s, before Nkrumah’s regime was set up, widespread amounts of ill-natured traffics involving large sums of money were taking place. The growth of corruption in the colony was clearly related to the increase in state activity: The scope for corrupt patronage has expanded with the state itself.”555

Another very interesting period in Ghana, I would say was when the Convention People’s Party (CPP) came to power; they wanted to take control of at least one of these boards(the Gold Coast Cocoa Marketing Board and the Gold Coast Agricultural Products Marketing Boards. Between 1952 and 1954, they obtained control of the Cocoa Purchasing Company, an auxiliary part of the Cocoa Marketing Board, one of the principal state agencies, and a major source of funding. One of the roles of this company was to give out loans for cocoa farmers, which meant they could effectively decide who was worthy enough to receive one. This usually included two criteria of major importance. These are the farmers’ loyalty to the party, which means the insurance of their vote and support whenever needed; and the farmers’ capacity to make bestowals to the CPP.

According to Ayee,


Review, Vol. 10, and 2, pp. 61-71. 555 Ibi.



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“ This had three resulting effects: firstly, that the CPP had effectively taken over the Cocoa Marketing Board; secondly, that the former could now mount considerable pressures on farmers that were unwilling to submit to corrosive practises; and finally that they received access to a near unlimited source of funds. The corruptive nature of Nkrumah and his political party had already started encroaching itself on the whole nation.”556

I agree with Ayee that the 1955- 56 report was the last one of the Gold Coast before its independence as Ghana. There were 156 cases that year, with more than half being corruption acts. The losses were starting to be of considerable nature, with a recorded £ 45,000 in losses, and that is not including undisclosed losses nor district or municipal council losses due to poor data collection. What is most interesting in this report is,

as Ayee puts it,

“Osei’s finger pointing at the then Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah for overspending. He had exceeded the official budget by 200%, or threefold; showing already his natural capacity for weighty spending of the public money. A good explanation of in what state Ghana was at the turn of independence is that, historical precedent and conditions, combined with the logic of contemporary bureaucratic expansion in the developing countries, have fostered the growth of extensive amounts of systemic corruption.”557

5. THE KWAME NKURUMAH YEARS (1957 – 1966)

Fortunately enough, at the time of independence, the 6th March 1957, Ghana was in a relatively prosperous financial situation; especially when compared with the monetary state of most sub-Saharan countries at the time of their independence. Ghana had a large foreign exchange balance, a good budgetary surplus, a relatively good economy and, moreover, a surfeit in tax revenues due to changes in the tax system.558

But according to Osaba,

556 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ñotes on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice under the 1992

Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 160. 557 Ibid.

558 Ibid.



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“Any society faced with the challenges of corruption will continue to find ways to break the circle...and cannot effectively control the menace of corruption in the nation by merely instituting probe panels” 559.

The corruption situation was becoming more apparent an unbearable that the Ghanaian society has started to feel the pinch of it on their skins.

According to Ayee,

“The Commission’s first report published after independence gives a chilling forewarning of the next years to come under Nkrumah’s rule: ‘The habit of liberality with Government funds, acquired during this period of buoyant revenue, is difficult to reverse whilst the formidable list of losses and frauds gives a disquieting commentary on standards of integrity. On the 1957- 58 report, some 202 cases are brought up to light, and over half of them could be attributed to corrupt dealings. These cases still amounted for total losses of approximately G£ 78,000. The 1960- 61 report starts showing that signs of extensive corruption practises were becoming the norm. Large scale defaults on loans and the failure of at least six governmental corporations are mentioned as being clear cases of corruption.”560

I believe that to fight corruption, one must be able to face the bitter side of the ‘truth’ and call a spade a spade, otherwise, we will achieve nothing at the long run.

According to Osoba,

“one of the reasons why the measures against corruption have not been fruitful... is that they have operated at a level of mere symbolism. Yes, in this way, corruption has defied all measures adopted to combat it..., apparently, because those wagging the corruption-wars are themselves corrupt”561.

No wonder then, according to Ayee, another

“report also gives a foretaste of the 1966 Commission of Inquiry by listing the different ill-natured practises among the government’s officials: excessive mileage claims, disproportionate family allowances, unnecessary contract payments, over inflated building contract estimates, purchase of goods out of Ghana that would be cheaper in Ghana, excessive accommodation

559 Osaba, Journal of Modern African Studies, 3, 2, 1996, p. 385.

560 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ñotes on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice under the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 164.

561 Osaba, Sklar, Richard L., Contradictions in the Nigerian Political System, Journal of Modern African Studies, 3, 2, 1965, p. 385, Lewis, Peter, The Politics of Economics, African Report, May/June, 1994, p.47 and Adam, Paul, Nigeria: Next Pariah? African Report, May-June, 1995, and 19 96 p.43; p.45.



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purchases, as well as many others. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is pointed at for its financial debauchery, as is shown by the London High Commissioner for that year, claiming near £ 19,000 simply for taxi and car rental in only four months. The 158 extra cases, of which 87 seem to be corruption acts, with losses of G£ 107,559 are said to be insignificant compared to the rest of the listings. A G£ 210,230 fraudulent payment for an agricultural scheme seems barely noteworthy.”562

It then became crystal clear that corruption has been eating deep into the fabrics of the Ghanaian society and must be taking seriously. This is because the situation of corruption has become a canker – worm that is about to destroy the society.

As Murphy puts it,

“When corruption is widespread and institutionalized, some firms may devote resources to obtaining valuable licenses and preferential market access, while others focus on improving productivity.”563

At this juncture, it does appear to me that the people at helm of affairs in the government have lost their ethical values and are now pursuing their own personal ego.

According to MacIntyre,

“without ethics, set of moral principles or values or principles of conducts governing an individual or a group in the conduct of the affairs of the nation, public and business, the apparent wars on corruption... will not be successful.”564

As Ayee puts it,

“The 1961- 62 and 1962- 63 reports show a similar pattern of behaviour amongst Ghana state officials, but with an even darker portrayal; frauds and irregularities being the norm. The total losses for each of the financial years are of over G£ 600,000. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again drew astringent comments because ‘Corrupt practises and financial maladministration in state corporations and boards now begin to come to light in the audits.’ The state of affairs was such that even the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly, supporters of the government, were starting to show great dismay in 1963- 64; nevertheless, powerful officials, such


Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 168. 563 Murphy, Kevin, Andrei Shleifer and Robert Vishny. 1991. “The Allocation of Talent: Implications for Growth.”

Quarterly Journal of Economics. 106, pp. 503–30. 564. MacIntyre 1981; Liebig 1990; Frankena 1963; Dike 2001, pp.103-104.



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as the Minister for Information, always made sure that the Committee’s capacity to enquire was always somewhat limited.”565

For me, what was startling was that the president’s contingency fund was not investigated, as some other agencies that trained guerrillas as well as spread Nkrumahist thought were not either. These were simply too dangerous if not impossible to investigate. In some cases, corruption cases became public affairs and Nkrumah had to intervene personally, but this was not to combat corruption, it was to avoid a dangerous political situation for the government in place.566

Consequent upon this, the Ghanaian finances were in a clearly crippled state by 1963, and it was widely accepted that the misappropriation of public money was the root cause for the near bankrupt situation of the country. There were two commissions created, one in 1964, the other the following year, to – officially – investigate into corruption allegations; but were in reality ‘two government attempts to find scapegoats for its own policy failures (the then government). Several commission reports, to be published in the later years of Nkrumah’s presidency, were censored, or at least the parts containing possibly embarrassing information about higher level officials were willingly left out of the public eye. The reports that were published could in reality only accuse low to middle level officials because they were not directly protected by the very highest levels of officials.567

It can be observed here that available evidence on Ghanaian political corruption up to 1966 is sketchy. In these documents, there is a lack of details of Nkrumah and his associates’ doings; however, the quantitative and qualitative data are sufficient enough to consider political corruption and personal enrichment with public money a usual practise amongst all levels of officials, be it from the president to the smallest state representative.

I wish to say here, that it is not surprising to know that when Nkrumah was overthrown by the police and the military on February 24, 1966 in a CIA backed coup, some more revelations about his financial whereabouts were to be made. He had inherited one of the richest countries of Africa, with a large reserve of foreign money; but because of his financial dilapidating habits that he went on with for nine years, Ghana was bankrupt, food and consumer goods were in short supply, and all government services had deteriorated beyond recognition.568


Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 159-170. 566 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ñotes on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice under the 1992

Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 167. 567 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ñotes on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice under the 1992

Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 169. 568Ibid.



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Naturally, and as one would expect, the NLC appointed a Commission of Inquiry within three weeks of its seizure of power to investigate into the former president’s assets. This was to be the first of more than forty commissions and other investigative bodies that were to scrutinize into public and private activities of Nkrumah during his presidency. There were two main reasons for the establishment of these inquisitive bodies, the first was to discredit Nkrumah’s regime as much as it was possible, and, secondly, resultantly legitimate their(the Military) own seizure of power.

According to Ayee,

“The Ghanaians were not surprised that the findings were plentiful; it seems as if the only advance this commission made was to provide a profusion of details of corruption acts and its main final use was to confirm the rampant nature of corruption among Ghanaian state officials. Nkrumah seemed to be involved in a number of acts of corruption, and apparently, the assassination attempt in January 1964 may have ‘unhinged him somewhat.”569

The former president did set up, during the pinnacle years of his regime, a special governmental agency to deal with the collection and the handling of bribes and other so-called gifts. Overall, it shows evidence that unmistakably proves that Nkrumah was personally involved in several corruption cases. One of the other many commissions came to prove that most, if not all of Nkrumah’s colleagues were too directly involved in corrupt transactions.

According to Myrdal,

“Corrupt officials may not circumvent distortions, but instead actually cause greater administrative delays to attract more bribes”.570

It turned out that at least five governmental bodies, officially legitimate, were in fact agencies institutionalised specifically for political corruption. These bodies neither had dubious funding sources, no rational employment policies nor were economically viable; moreover, they were all under the direct or near direct hand of Nkrumah to control them. The pre-coup commission always found it hard to get evidence, but the post-coup ones found plentiful amounts of data to discredit Nkrumah.

As Ayee puts it,

“This was specifically true with the scandal of grants for import licenses. This one commission listed 52 different corruption transactions with a total value exceeding five million Ghanaian Pounds, showing the incredible extravagance of the government under that regime but not


570 Myrdal, Gunnar. 1968. Asian Drama. New York: Random House.



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indicating any remedies as to how to combat this behaviour that was becoming nearly natural to officials now; this is only considered to be the tip of the iceberg in fraudulent affairs of the time.”571

Unfortunately but undeterred, still, the commission overtly showed the mechanisms of it all or instance, the Minister of Foreign Trade levied, if deemed needed, a commission on a transaction. The least connected one was to the government, and then to the party, the higher the commission percentage was on the transaction. The money was then dished out according to the number of people involved, to Nkrumah’s knowledge of the transactions and thus the need to put money into the party’s accounts. This shows a well-run and organised mechanism oiled from top to bottom so as to satisfy all levels of officials and agents involved in affairs of political corruption.572

I wish to recall here the words of Kofi Anan on the infectious nature of corruption. For Kofi Annan:

“Corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies. It undermines democracy and the rule of law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes the quality of life, and allows organized crime, terrorism and other threats to human security to flourish. This evil phenomenon is found in all countries – big and small, rich and poor – but it is in the developing world that its effects are most destructive. Corruption hurts the poor disproportionately – by diverting funds intended for development, undermining a government’s ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice, and discouraging foreign aid and investment. Corruption is a key element in economic under-performance, and a major obstacle to poverty alleviation and development”573.

The post-coup commissions came to find that political corruption was widespread among other governmental and quasi-governmental agencies and corporations, in municipal and urban councils, and in the country’s three universities. This shows that absolutely all parts of the Ghanaian society were riddled with corruption as being the normal way of life.

According to Azfar,


572 Ibid.

573 Cf. Kofi Annan Speech at UN General Assembly adopted the convention in 2003, on Its Corruption Perception Index, 2001.



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“In the 1965- 66 report by Mr. Osei, a description of the most corruption-ridden state agency, namely the State Farms Corporation, the root causes for such humongous deficits are: Political decisions, deficits on the revaluation of assets, lack of labour control, unproductive projects undertaken, bulk purchases of unsuitable vehicles and plant and machinery, poor management, inadequate control over expenditure and an inefficient accounting system were among the other factors which contributed to this colossal loss.”574

I agree with Ayee that the 1966 Commission of Inquiry report seems to have accomplished what it set out to do, that is to discredit Nkrumah’s regime; nevertheless it also seems quite clear that its task of finding old accounts of corruption have been completely inefficient in combating corruption in a country where not only the former party in government were involved in acts of corruption. It is believed, among scholars, that the recommendations of these commissions were regarded as a post-mortem without any positive effects on corruption.575

6. THE NATIONAL LIBERATION COUNCIL AND THE BUSIA YEARS (1966- 1972)

The debate about the fragile future of Africa and the Africans is closely related to the failure of the state in Africa and Ghana’s case is not different. The reasons for our political failure have been variously advanced, but there are still conflicting positions.

According to Kukah M. H.,

“While these ideological disputations go on over cause and effect, one fact remains incontestable. On all fronts, according to the World Bank reports, the coefficient indices for any modicum of development remain abysmal, life expectancy is in the decline, poverty rages on, death, despair and destruction hunt the continent and infrastructural designs are in decay.”576

In Ghana, this menace of corruption becomes more eloquent. In Ghana, according to Ayee,

574 Azfar, O. and Lee, Y. and Swamy, A. 2001, ˜The Causes and Consequences of Corruption, Annals of the American Academy of Political Science, vol.573, January, pp,42-56.


576 Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria, Published by Spectrum Books limited Spectrum House Ring Road. Ibadan Nigeria 1999. Pxiii.



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“The military rulers of the NLC wanted to legitimise their coup d’état by bringing to shame Nkrumah’s regime because of its state of hopelessness and by proving that there was no possible way to resolve corruption as long as the defunct government was still in power. This was done also in a way that implied that the new regime was fit to do so because it wanted to show that it was free from corruption itself.” 577

It has to be remarked that the military in Ghana did have a pretty clean past before the governmental overthrow, at least officially, except for the Awaithey corrupt dealings allegations in 1958, and some other rather insignificant instances of petty corruption. Once in power, the whole integrity of the army was shaken up when the then incumbent president of Ghana, Gen. Joseph Ankrah, was thrown into the midst of a scandal when it was revealed that he had wittingly sanctioned a covert collection of moneys on behalf of his own possible candidature for the country’s presidency. There were no other major scandals that came up to public eye during the NLC’s stay in power.578

It is interesting to observe that the 1972 military coup also immediately demanded an inquiry into the past government’s financial whereabouts, quite certainly for the same reasons as they had implemented their own coup d’état. The three interim reports of the Anin Corruption Inquiry showed that corruption was still existent among the Busia government, but that the level of its common nature had slightly decreased compared to the ones incurred when Nkrumah was in office.

In the pursuit of the fight against corruption, Busia himself was asked to testify before the Taylor Assets Committee and he subsequently refused to do so, which meant he came to be officially under presumption of illegal acquirements, due to political corruption acts until proven otherwise. Many of these inquiries were about dubious cash deposits, gifts to friends and relatives, and overspending on property acquisition. All of these matters have become, over only a few decades in Ghana, the usual material ends one gets when he or she ends up in a position of power.

Unfortunately, and as one would expect, the reports from 1967 to 1969 reveal that in reality nothing or, at maximum, very little had changed since the Nkrumah years. In the 1967- 68 report, 102, and in the 1968- 69 report, 90 out of 142 local government units did actually give reports on

577 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ñotes on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice under the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 159-170.

578 Ibid.



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the state of their accounts, showing the already decrepit nature of the institutions in Ghana, supposed to be powerful vectors of the societal construct of the country.579

As Ayee puts it,

“Over two years, out of the government units that did give reports, 65 percent showed losses, in total amounting for over $465,000; moreover, an estimated 90 percent of them were due to corruption acts made by officials, in total representing 15 to 25 percent of the budget of most government’s local units. For the 1967 to 1969 period, the total amount of losses for absolutely all public instances was of nearly $38,000,000; near five percent of the expenditures for the entire government body. These figures were not even included in the $161,000,000 two-year national budget deficit. This shows the huge scale to which political corruption had encroached itself on the Ghanaian society, and how it was becoming, or had already become a culture of itself. It is believed that it would be quite literally impossible to assess the entire costs of corruption because of its widespread nature.”580

From this, one can infer that Ghana, by 1972, was said to have a culture of political corruption. It appears that the documentary evidence permits the conclusion that a case (a case of political corruption) has been established for the existence of an incipient Ghanaian culture of political corruption. This embryonic culture grew because of the effects of rationalising corruptive behaviour, such as was done by Nkrumah and his specially appointed government body to deal with and handle bribes in a near official manner. In the same year, a work was published that discredited the functionality of the commissions into bribery and corruption it is firmly believed that even when the motives for these official investigations of corruption are not suspect, they are seen as futile.

It seems the fight against corruption has since then, and probably before, been taken with a cynical approach, because now the people involved in researching and thus combating corruption were also involved in Ghana, at least, statutes appear to have had relatively little effect thus far on corruption. One reason may be that in Ghana those charged with eliminating corruption were themselves tainted with it. Indeed, under such circumstances both investigations and remedial legislation tend to be ineffective and pointless, or to become elaborate exercises in hypocrisy. The people who were caught seemed unashamed by their actions and came back to plunder some more once freed and given the opportunity to do so.

579 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ñotes on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice under the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp.171.

580 Ibid.



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The implementation of commissions, however much a deterging effect they had, were or might have been of complete uselessness, as the auditor’s report clearly denotes between 1967 and 1997 the persistence of such disquieting practises as award of contracts without recourse to tender procedures, payments unsupported by any contract agreement, expenditure in excess of agreed contract prices, and fraudulent substitutions of inflated quotations for prices originally quoted by contractors.

7. THE RAWLINGS YEARS AFTER HIS 2ND COUP (1981- 2000)

JERRY RAWLINGS was born on 22 June 1947 in Accra, Gold Coast Ghana. He is a former leader of Republic of Ghana and now the African Union envoy to Somalia. Rawlings ruled Ghana as a military dictator in 1979 and then as the first elected president of the Fourth Republic of Ghana from 1993 to 2001. He initially took over the power in a coup d’état, but in the 1990s following sustained political and economic pressure from international institutions and the governments began a process of economic and political liberalization. He founded the National Democratic Congress which won the 1992 general election. He took office in 1993, and was re-elected in 1997.

However, Rawlings appeared on the Ghanaian political scene on May 15, 1979, leading a group of junior officers in the Ghana Air Force in a Coup attempt on the regime of Fred Akuffo which resulted in his (Jerry Rawlings) arrest and imprisonment. He was court martialled in public and sentenced to death.581

It is interesting to note that on the June 4 military officials overthrew Akuffo government and released the Rawlings group from prison just weeks before general elections were scheduled.

Furthermore, it is important here to mention that Rawlings and company formed the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and conducted what it termed a housecleaning exercise where large sums of stolen government money were retrieved into government coffers and inflation was stabilized.

According to Chinua Achebe,

“It is totally false to suggest, as we are apt to do that Nigerians are different fundamentally from any other people in the world. Nigerians are corrupt because the system under which they

581 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/jerry_Rawlings.



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live today makes corruption easy and profitable; they will cease to be corrupt when corruption is made difficult and inconvenient.”582

This is true also with Guamanian society. The system is corrupt and therefore makes it almost impossible for the people to be free of corruption.

According to Jeong, H.,

“Rawlings' second coup, on December 31, 1981, was later claimed to have been undertaken because of the growing amount of evidence of corruption in public office under Limann’s rule. Ironically, a large number of Ghanaian citizens were starting to feel antagonistic towards Rawlings in particular for having deprived others of their economic resources as a result of his anti-corruption campaigns of 1979”.583

I wish to conclude that these contradictory behaviours tend to prove that the incipient culture of corruption that existed at the start of the seventies in Ghana was by the start of the eighties a fully grown culture. This is because its participants could claim to have been placed in a disadvantageous position by having been removed from their functions for acts they did not deem corrupt, thus immoral and illegal.

Rawlings, once in office again, pledged for a holy war on corruption, accusing the PNP of being criminals unable to keep their promises concerning their house-cleaning exercise. When the Provisional National Defence Committee (PNDC) came to power, the first issue they discussed was to bring according to Khan, M.H.,

“A new system of justice by establishing the means not only to bring those guilty of corruption to trial but also to ensure constant monitoring of public officials”.584

Consequently, two institutions were quickly created to deal promptly with the problems; these were the People’s Defence Committee (PDC) and the Workers Defence Committee (WDC). The role of the former was to protect local people from abusive local officials, and the latter’s role was to protect workers from mismanagement and corruption. Unfortunately, these

582 Chinua Achebe, the Trouble with Nigeria (Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1983), p. 37.

583 Jeong, H. 1995, Liberal Economic Reforms in Ghana: a Contested Political Agenda, Africa Today, n.4, pp. 82-103.

584 Khan, M.H. 1996, Ã Typology of Corrupt Transactions in Developing Countries, IDS Bulletin, Vol. 27, n.2, pp.12-21.



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committees did not meet any more success than the previous attempts. The PDC ended up engaging in personal vendettas, harassment and intimidation actions.585

The WDC ended up ousting managers of factories and then trying to manage them even though they had no skills to do so.

As Ayee puts it,

“The worthiness of these committees was once again underpinned by their own leaders because they had engaged in corrupt activities such as illegally accessing commodities and embezzling funds for themselves. The PDC and the WDC were merged to try to keep governmental control upon them, as well as being renamed to the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR) in November 1984. This renamed committee became more a mean to explain the aims of the revolution to the people than a way to ensure accountability and fight corruption, becoming thus more of an agent of propaganda for the government than anything else.”586

These committees could not achieve the purpose for which they were set, and one would expect,

in 1982, the public tribunals, another institution, were set up as a supposed catalyst to fight corruption. The harsh sentences that were pronounced by them had, at best, a deterrent effect on people engaging in such practises.

According to Ayee,

“With no surprise, these tribunals ended up being useless because some of the chairmen and people involved were ejected from their positions due to the undertaking corrupt practises. In the same year, the Citizens Vetting Committee (CVC) was created. It was an institution working on investigating people whose assets were way beyond their official means of acquisition. It was an investigative body, thus it found much evidence of corruption and tax evasion, kept records of those who travelled by air, but it seems as if it never really engaged in legal procedures with the evidence found.”587

1982 which is a year marked by the creation of so many anti-corruption bodies, saw the creation of yet another of them, this time under the name of the National Investigation Committee

585 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ñotes on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice under the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 159-170 .

586 Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ñotes on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice under the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 159-170 .

587 Ibid.



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(NIC), and supposed to investigate corruption in public office. The whole effectiveness and purpose of this body was annihilated when it was carrying out its own implementation because,

as Lui, F.T. puts it,

“A bizarre provision stipulated that those being investigated had the right to confess their guilt or sins and offer reparation to the state in atonement for their crimes. This provision is in itself a corrupt loophole to escape justice; it is a way of corrupting justice against corruption”588.

Rawlings decided, after an attempted in 1982, to go against his façade ideologies and made heavy handed economic reforms with a helping hand from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, mostly leaning towards economic liberalisation. By 1992, the results were disappointing: foreign investment was low; Ghana was still overly dependent on cocoa and gold as export goods; international recession obviously not helping.

For seven years as the head of state, Rawlings had gone to great lengths to combat corruption by creating institutions made to fight it;

“Nevertheless, corruption, bribery, embezzlement and injustice were still part of every day’s life for Ghanaians, especially if they were part of the civil service. Rawlings admitted that corruption and injustice were still rampant in a speech given the same year: There is still injustice and corruption…we have not learned in the past 10 years how to build a just and decent society in which every patriotic Ghanaian can find avenues to exercise his or her responsibility and moral authority. […] Indeed, it is quite intimidating to recognize how much there is still to be done.”589

In 1992, a new constitution was approved by consultative assembly and with it came the start of the 4th Republic of Ghana. The concerns Rawlings had expressed in 1989 were still valid enough for there to be a Code of Conduct for Public Officers as an integral part of the constitution. The fight against corruption had never attained such a high profile institutionalisation.

According to Ayee,

“The financial disclosure of the code demanded that every single public officer gave a written declaration of their assets, and for those in office at the time, they had three months to comply and give them to the Auditor-General. The ones not complying would be regarded as contraveners and

588 Lui, F.T. 1985, Ãn Equilibrium Queuing Model of Bribery, The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 93, nÂ°4, pp.760-781.




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would thus be put under investigation by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ); the anti-corruption agency able to prosecute them.”590

As one would expect considering the corrupt situation of the country, this new provision under the constitution faced many problems from the moment it was supposed to be enforced. Firstly, within three months, most civil servants had failed to produce the written evidence that was demanded from them; moreover, six months after the enforcement of the new constitution, 75% of public officers still had not declared by writing the origin of their assets. Secondly, the Auditor’s reports up from 1993 to 1998 have pointed the finger to a continuation of the expansion of all types of ill-gotten wealth that are related to corruption practises.591

I wish to say here that the corrupt situation has reached a height that the government offices have become a do or die affair where people do whatever they like and go away with it unabated. This is an ugly situation and worthy to be worried about.

According to Odey O.J,

“I am worried because things have not gone the way we thought they would if the military vacated. The military has been replaced by another set of people – Lions and Tigers in sheep’s skin. That is the unfortunate thing. So since the commencement of democracy, we have gone into one trouble or the other with the Shylocks – people who think that they can only make a living being in government and that if they are not in the government, that government must not survive.”592

This is true of the leadership and politicians of Ghana Society.

According to Ayee,

“The CHRAJ, unhappy with the enduring unethical behaviour of the government, started investigating ten top officials in January 1996. One of the ones investigated had an annual expenditure nearly seventy times larger than his annual salary. The results provided found that some were implicated in corrupt activities whilst others were not; nevertheless, the government did

590Ibid.


592 Odey O.J ‘This Madness Called Election 2003’. Printed by Snaap Press Limited Enugu, Nigeria. pg. 24.



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not take action against any of them for apparently not finding enough evidence against them even though some of the top officials involved did resign from their office.”593

Unfortunately, the Code of Conduct was not helpful in its implementation because the civil servants of Ghana earn one of, if not the, lowest salaries on the African continent. This induced the public officials to not only turn a blind eye on certain practises but also to take advantage of their positions for personal ends. This implementation of the code in the constitution marks in some way the last step of institutionalising corruption within the Ghanaian society. It did not promote ethical behaviour because the government has never shown political will to do so. The code, in itself, is nothing more than a mere list of prohibitions; it does not give an actual code of conduct for officials to follow, thus having the similar useless and ineffective purpose as most, if not all, commissions were found to have previously. It has even been argued that, and correctly, that these codes are ‘counterproductive, unenforceable and meaningless.594

This list of codes of conduct was in fact already covered by other legal codes and statutes. After nearly twenty years in office, Ghana was still in a state of economic decrepitude; as Ayee puts it,

“Rawlings and his government had failed to ‘slay the monster of political corruption’ and his governmental system was unmoved because it was still burdened with ‘excessive corruption, embezzlement, misappropriation, misapplication, and mismanagement – the very things he usurped the throne and leadership to conquer.”595

I agree with Ayee finally, that corruption in Ghana has outlived every single government and their economic and political reforms. Social agitation has never uprooted either what is in reality a culture that was emergent already thirty five years ago. A generation to be generous has since then lived on a land where bribery, embezzlement and all types of corruption have thrived for so long. Societal and moral values are cankered by habit that, for the most, advantages only the ones that are already in a position of convenience. The different governments have, in reality, only institutionalised behaviour of unethical nature that has made society suffer enormously despite resenting it, whilst at the same time, in a resigned manner, tolerate and accepts it. This is an unwilling and unyielding society that can conveniently accommodate corruption or dishonesty.”596



595 Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Summary Record of Proceedings of a Workshop to review the Commission Guidelines on Conflict of Interest, 26 October 2005, Accra, Ghana

596 Fage, J.D. with Tordoff, W. 2002, A History of Africa, Routledge, London, UK.



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My own advice to the Ghanaians is that they should never lose hope in their efforts to wage war against corruption,

for according to Fredrick Douglass,

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favour freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all they get. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”597

8. ROLE OF ANTI-CORRUPTION BODIES AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS

The first few commissions that were set up might have been done in an, at least at start, honest manner with a real belief that they would change Ghanaian society for the better. But this were not true because the elected leaders were more interested in acquiring power than helping the people for whom they were elected.

According to Dare Babarinsa,

“The elected leaders of the people are more interested in the theatre of power than in creating enduring structures. That is the lure of sirens, the long convoys of cars howling through the cities that are jungles, and jungles that are barren lands, it is such a shame that we have learnt very little from our strings of tragedies and downfall.”598

I agree with Ayee that,

“Throughout the fifty years of its independence, Ghana has shown a tremendous ability in implementing an amazingly large number of different commissions of inquiry into bribery and corruption. Most of the ones set up before the investiture of the 4th Republic, if not all, were done so for the nearly unique reason of discrediting the pre-incumbent regimes. The more commissions

597 Cf. Odey O.J ‘This Madness Called Election 2003’. Printed by Snaap Press Limited Enugu, Nigeria. pg. 19.




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were set up the less the higher ranked officials of the government were threatened by them; at least as long as it was the same government in place.” 599

The reports of the Auditor-General not only document, and thus prove, the widespread nature and growing evolution of corruption in Ghana throughout time but also show that from the start, the capacity of people or commissions inquiring into corruption allegations and accusations was very limited. Their capacity was, at best, giving some proof about corruption allegations but rarely bringing the accused to justice. The accused people, even if brought to justice, would not contribute to the combating of corruption; they would merely represent a fraction of the wrong doings of so many officials.

I agree with Soyinka that most of our problems stem from arrogance of an insensitive government. According to him,

“When the arrogance of power, even where hidden, becomes institutionalized in politics to an extent that it glorifies, or even merely appears to glorify criminality, we recognize immediately the preliminary steps towards the enthronement of fascism.”600

This is true because, the fact that by the 1970s, the ones in charge of inquiring into fraudulent behaviour would in reality only bring the middle and low level officials who had been involved in cases of bribery and embezzlement to light shows that the inquisitors also were involved in corruption. And they were working hard to make sure that neither they nor their colleagues at the highest levels of officialdom would become involved in publicly known allegations of corruption. This shows that the earlier commissions were factually inefficient in rooting out corruption of Ghanaian society.601 According to Wikipedia,

“Rawlings did create, like his predecessors, a near unquantifiable number of bodies that were supposed to deal with corruption. Once again, it seems that these anti-corruption bodies actually helped in doing the contrary of what they were originally set out to do; it would not be






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unfair as to say that the more anti-corruption bodies were created, the more institutionalised corruption became in Ghanaian civil society”. 602

I believe that this statement might not be entirely true; still, it demonstrates that these anti-corruption bodies have overall been completely inefficient in uprooting corruption evils out of Ghana. Today’s agencies, such as the CHRAJ, seem to be able to get some results, because of, for example their ability to bring down major actors of the Ghanaian civil society, such as Mr. Anane, the ex-Minister for Road Transport; nevertheless, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), a local chapter of Transparency International (TI), published a corruption perception survey of southern Ghanaian urban households with raw data and charts as well as their findings, conclusions and recommendations – which are to be useful in the different corruption perceptions section that bring up to light Ghanaian citizen beliefs on corruption in their country in a very dry and statistical manner603.

According to Wikipedia,

“The exact same findings were then published in their (TI) quarterly newspaper over three pages only two months later, this time in a more journalistic style. This shows that the anti-corruption bodies are very good at recycling data for different usages, highlighting their still existent inefficiency in combating corruption and its root causes, as well as helping cure the problem that corruption brings to any society; Ghana, this time, being the unfortunate example.”604

I can say that the CHRAJ and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) constitute the two main anti-corruption bodies actively existing in contemporary Ghana. The former has pretty much the same role as all other commissions of inquiry that have existed in the past, its role is to investigate deeply into all types of allegations of corruption and report their findings to the Attorney General who then decides of the procedures to be undertaken under legal requirements. It has nevertheless a role that was not given to any other precedent commissions, that is a mission to educate the public on their human rights and freedom. Its jurisdiction is limited because it cannot investigate certain matters which are, overall, to prevent it to engage in unnecessary litigation and confrontation with the government of the day.

However, I wish to acknowledge that the unique praise that was possible to give to the CHRAJ was its mission to educate the masses about their civil and human rights as well as about the evils of corruption. The only section existing on education was a series of nine educational leaflets, aimed at the younger, about corruption and published in cooperation with the World Bank and the

602 Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, 2007. ‘Historical and cultural perspective of corruption in Ghana and the Gold Coast’.

603 Op, cit. 604 Ibid.



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Department for International Development (DFID). The best example that can be given to show the CHRAJ’s ineffectiveness in this domain is the fact that the first two leaflets in the series were inexistent in the library and that the librarian seemed utterly unconcerned of their whereabouts and, moreover, that the author (these educational leaflets were published in cooperation with the World Bank and the Department for International Development (DFID) actually cared about them. This is to show that, even internally, the CHRAJ does not seem overly concerned about educating the masses on corruption, and thus combating corruption and its root causes because it has been institutionalised into Ghanaian society.

In conclusion, I agree with Ayee that, the point that has been argued throughout this work, is to show that anti-corruption bodies have not only been ineffective in combating corruption but furthermore that they helped with the high tolerance level of corruption in Ghana as well as, in a word, institutionalising corruption in Ghanaian society is backed by this single summarising quote: The establishment of the SFO (its role as an agency of the government – under the responsibility of the Minister of Justice – is to monitor, and possibly prosecute the ones committing serious frauds that would be financially or economically consequential to the state) seems to be an institutionalisation of corruption.605

9. POINT OF VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS

It is important at this point to see the role played by the International Community through some of its agencies in effort to control Corruption menace in the Society.

According to Ayee,

“The Transparency International (TI) has been, on a yearly basis, trying to inform all the ones interested about the state of corruption in as many countries as it is possible for them to pursue studies on this subject. This is a table showing the result found for the last ten years: (The table of corruption ranking of countries.)




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Table 8, is very useful in showing us the evolution, or in this case more the non-evolution of Ghana in the matter of corruption. The first score Ghana recorded in 1998 was 3.3/10, which is identical to the score registered in 2006.”606

Table 7 Corruption in Ghana

Year of study

Corruption Perceptions Index Score (Out of a maximum score of 10)

Ranking of Ghana in the study

Number of countries involved in the study

Ranking of Ghana amongst African countries

Number of African countries involved in the study

2006 3.3 70th 163 7th tied with

Egypt 46

2005 3.5 65th 158 7th 44

2004 3.6 64th 146 6th 35

2003 3.3 70th 133 6th tied with

Egypt and Morocco

29

2002 3.9 50th 102 6th 21

2001 3.4 59th 91 6th 17

2000 3.5 52nd 90 6th tied with

Senegal 21

606 Cf. Ayee, J.R.A. 1994, Ñotes on the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice under the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution, Verfassung Und Recht In Ubersee, Vol. 27, n.2, pp. 159-170.



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Year of study

Corruption Perceptions Index Score (Out of a maximum score of 10)

Ranking of Ghana in the study

Number of countries involved in the study

Ranking of Ghana amongst African countries

Number of African countries involved in the study

1999 3.3 63rd 99 11th tied

with Egypt 19

1998 3.3 55th 85 10th tied

with Senegal 18

1997 Ghana not

included into the study that year.

Ghana not studied that year so not ranked.

52

Ghana not studied that year so not ranked.

2

I wish to remark here that these ratings from the Transparency International are very important for us to know where Ghanaian society stands compared to other countries of the world in relation to their corruption status. This will enable them (Ghanaian society) to find the means of tackling this endemic disease called corruption. It is interesting to find out in the ranking that there are not many changes for the better noticed for some number of years.

According to Ayee,

“The same score was given to Ghana another two times within a nine year period; even though a 3.9/10 was awarded in 2002, this table is a clear indication that little has changed over the last decade in terms of combating corruption in this country. Ghana’s gradual fall in the placement from 55th to 70th in corruption ranking can be solely attributed to the addition of so many other countries in the studies over the years. The fact that Ghana was incorporated into the study in 1998 shows it is relatively easy to obtain information about corruption in this country.”607




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One can see that the ranking of Ghana within African countries went from around tenth to around sixth between 1999 and 2000; nevertheless, this should not be thought of as being a positive evolution for Ghana. The fact that Ghana is tied amongst African countries with Senegal and Egypt when around the tenth position as well as when around the sixth position shows that it is a worsening of affairs for other African countries rather than a progression in combating corruption in Ghana, especially when taking into account the stagnation of Ghana’s score throughout the decade.608

This table has provided us with an array of facts that confirm the argument put forward regarding the endemic corruption in Ghana; that is that different Ghanaian governments have set up anti-corruption bodies to tackle corruption, but these bodies have been ineffective and very nearly useless in doing so. As Oliver, puts it,

“The only effect these anti-corruption bodies have had, especially talking of those active in the last ten years, is that of making people believe that the Ghanaian society are useful and effective when all they do is institutionalising corruption by actually not tackling corruption and its root causes but helping corruption continue by making more complex the road to combat it”609.

The social perceptions of corruption in Ghana are two-fold. In Ghana, on one hand, there is a clear perception that many institutions are corrupt and that a majority of people have to contend with it on a near regular basis; on the other hand, there is a clear lack of understanding by the majority, slight as it be, that these anti-corruption bodies are not totally independent and thus that they are not able to correctly fight away corruption and its evils from the Ghanaian society

10. CONCLUSION

I agree with Ayee that in this dissertation, a definition of corruption has been made, assembling other definitions into a single clear and simple one, thus providing the reader with an understanding of what corruption is. The presence of corruption worldwide has been shown, as well as its high level of occurrence in sub-Saharan countries.

608 Ibid.

609 Oliver, A.O. and Atmore, A.E. 2005, Africa Since 1800, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.



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The different concepts and theories brought forward in this work have come together to conclude that corruption has to be understood not only in individual terms but more as part of system that feeds and grows on corruption from the inside.

The historical perspective has been able to uncover details about corruption from before Ghana’s independence, and has shown that when Nkrumah inherited of the country, its monetary funds were plentiful and very healthy to say the least. Nkrumah dilapidated Ghana’s finances in his nine years rule, and was ousted by a coup because of the numerous allegations of corruption that surrounded him and his government. Successive governments have since then implemented a near incalculable number of commissions of inquiry and other anti-corruption bodies to investigate and discredit previous governments. It was found that by the start of the 1970s, an incipient culture of corruption existed in Ghana but it was also founded on the colonial tradition.. This burgeoning culture grew steadily larger and larger throughout time, and it was found that the numerous anti-corruption bodies actually helped corruption grow to such proportions, even up until nowadays.

The anti-corruption agencies, their role and their effectiveness have been carefully scrutinised and criticised to finally conclude that they were an agent, if not a catalyst, in the institutionalisation of corruption within the Ghanaian society. They have been found to never have been entirely independent and that the incumbent governments could easily apply pressure on them so as to nullify their efforts. Finally, the study of the state of corruption in contemporary Ghana has brought up to light certain facts; firstly that corruption is present widely and is accepted as a part of the society Ghanaians live in, secondly that there is very little will, even from the society itself to uproot the causes of corruption in their own country, thus helping the ones in government to be able to continue with their malevolent practises.

Overall, this study has proven that the implementations of anti-corruption agencies have institutionalised corruption and that they have fooled to some extent people into believing that their governments were actually trying to combat corruption, which is very debatable.



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D. CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGIES IN SIERRA LEONE

1. REPORT ON THE GOVERNMENT’S FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN SIERRA LEONE AS CONCEIVED BY THE NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION

STRATEGY (NACS)610

The report on the Governments of Sierra Leone fight against corruption shows that they (Sierra Leone) are not immune from the menace of corruption which has bedevilled the countries of the world. Corruption affects everybody including the atheist.

According to Juan Arias, as an atheist, he loves justice and progress but hates enslavement which people experience due to corruption.

As he puts it,

“I am an atheist. This does not mean that I believe in nothing. But the only reality I accept is what I can see and touch. I accept man, who is always both an exploiter and the exploited at the same time. My God is struggle, justice and progress. He is the opposite of the world’s mad rush of anger, of hatred, of vengeance, of oppression, of fear, of war, of neurosis, of pain, of sorrow, of death. For the moment, however, all I can do is cry to you, the unknown and still undiscovered God, my uncertainty and the anger that wells up from the hearts of men enslaved.”611

From this, we can see that corruption is great enemy to be fought by everyone and every nation. This is because if it is allowed to creep in, it can shatter the whole fabric of a nation.

As we have seen, corruption can simply be defined as the abuse of power, most often a time for individual gain or to benefit particular group(s) of which the individual owes allegiance. While politicians or civil servants most often interpret the term corruption to mean the abuse of public power, it goes beyond that in Sierra Leone, because it includes also a pattern of bad, unacceptable and harmful behaviour that affects the public virtually in every sphere of life.

For The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS),

610 “The NACS is the manifestation of the political will and commitment of the Executive arm of government to fight corruption at all levels in the Sierra Leone society”. Abridged Version of the NACS report page - 1

611 Juan. A.T. Robinson, Honest To God, (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1963), p. 8.



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“The ten years civil war with its attendant imbroglio and savagery violently rocked the Sierra Leonean state thereby disrupting lives and activities and reversed the development of the country for perhaps one generation. The war has ended and the country now found itself at the bottom of the UNDP Human Development Index. The country has been occupying this unenviable position in recent years and in spite of the plethora of efforts that seem to have been made by the government, donors and other stakeholders to reverse this negative trend, very little has been achieved so far.” 612

This is an unfortunate development, because as the result of corruption, many in the society became so poor that it became almost impossible for them to eat one square meal a day.

In the words of Martin Luther King Junior,

“like a monstrous octopus, poverty seem(s) to have spread its reprehensible and choking tentacles to every hamlet and city...”613

According to the UNDP Human Development Assessment during 1990-2002,

“about 57 percent of the population lived below US$1 a day and about 75 percent lived below US$2 a day . This can be interpreted to mean that the majority of Sierra Leoneans are marooned in the doldrums of poverty.” 614

Again, the 2002 General Elections were more crucial in a sense because they were the first democratic elections held after the decade long war.

According to NACS,

There was mass participation of the people in the political processes and this was widely acclaimed nationally and internationally as democratic. Very recently also, (May 2004) Local Government Elections were held country-wide after a long lapse of 32 years. The resuscitation of Councils marked a new epoch in the new democratic process in the country since power and authority would eventually have to be transferred from Freetown to the provincial areas. It should be borne in mind that the rejuvenation of these Councils is intrinsically part of the post-war rebuilding process whereby citizens after four years would have to elect local representatives (Councillors) to undertake development programmes gearing towards the interests of the people in their localities.”615

593 The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS), Anti – Corruption Commission Annual Report 2003, p.6.

613 Martin Luther King Jr. A Testament of Hope. P 46. 614 Sierra Leone Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Page-20 5. 615 The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS), Anti – Corruption Commission Annual Report 2003, p.14.



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It is important here to note that the terms ‘Transparency’ and ‘Accountability’ have become more popular in the new democratic discourse in Sierra Leone and other new democracies.

One is tempted here to ask the critical questions, why the increasing uses of the terms ‘Transparency’ and ‘Accountability’ in almost every facet in the public and even private sectors. What is the level of Transparency and Accountability in the public and private sectors? What is it that people want transparent and accountable?

According to NACS,

“The underpinning reason for the increasing use of these terms in recent years stem from the historical track-record the country has of ingrained institutional corruption. During past regimes it was somewhat anathematic for people to publicly question the unchecked spate of corruption that was prevalent in the country. With the ushering in of a democratic regime in 1996, freedom of expression was to a very large extent respected, and so there was and is still a clarion call by citizens and donors to ‘clean up’ public institutions of dampened and decayed corruption.”616

Most Sierra Leoneans and donors realised that if serious efforts are not made to mitigate, or if possible eradicate corruption in the country there is virtually very little hope to salvage the vast majority of people from the sharp clutches of poverty. It was as a consequence of the cries from many citizens for the government to do more to halt corruption; backed with pressure from Sierra Leone’s development partners which in recent times has risen to astronomical proportions that greatly compelled the present government to establish the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) which is a partly government funded agency officially charged with the responsibility to design strategies and undertake programmes to curb corruption.

According Franz Fanon,

“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it.”617

It is on this note that it becomes imperative if not mandatory for the people of Sierraleone to take the fight against corruption seriously. It is on this note that the then government of Ghana decided to inaugurate another commission of inquiry known as Anti-Corruption Commission. It should be noted that the mission of the Anti-Corruption Commission is,

“the effective prevention and control of corruption in all its forms and at all levels in Sierra Leone”618.

616 The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS), Anti – Corruption Commission Annual Report 2003, p.22. 617 Cf. Odey J.O. The Ant –Corruption Crusade- The Saga of a Crippled Giant, pub., in Eboyi State Nigeria, 2001. Pg 82.



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The ACC was formally launched on the 7th July 2001 which legitimised its drive to fight corruption in all spheres in the country.

According to NACS,

“The existence and the work of the ACC are known by many Sierra Leoneans especially in Freetown and other big towns like Bo, Kenema and Makeni in the provinces. In spite of the operations of the ACC over the past years however, most people seem to be disillusioned with what they perceive to be the inadequate progress it has made so far in curbing corruption in the country.”619

For this reason, most people have a pervasive (especially enlightened/educated ones who live in bigger towns where corruption is rampant) feeling that it is a losing battle being fought. Some people have even gone as far as to say that the Commission itself is corrupt and that there is no political will by the government to bolster its work; and consequently its plan to check corruption might soon collapse. These are just some of the biting indictments that the Commission has to or is presently contending with.

I wish to point out here that the mistrust among the populace is not unfounded; this is because establishment of commissions of inquiry is no more news to them. Many of these commissions of enquiry did nothing or not enough to bring them out of poverty. They needed justice; they needed to come out of poverty. They have had enough of stories without positive result.

As Fanon puts it,

“What counts today, the question which is looming on the horizon, is the need to redistribution of wealth. Humanity must reply to this question, or be shaking to pieces by it.”620

In Sierra Leone, according to NACS,

“corruption is most likely to occur where the public and private sectors interface - especially where there is a direct responsibility for the provision of a desired service or the application of specific regulations or levies. This includes, for example public procurement and contracting, licensing activities such as the granting of import or export permits, the re-zoning of land and the collection of revenue, whether through taxation or customs duties.” 621

618 Anti-Corruption Commission Annual Report, 2003 p 6 . 619 The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS), Anti – Corruption Commission Annual Report 2003, p.24. 620 Cf. Odey J.O. The Ant –Corruption Crusade- The Saga of a Crippled Giant, pub., in Eboyi State Nigeria, 2001. Pg 106.

621 The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS), Anti – Corruption Commission Annual Report 2003, p.30.



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It should be noted that generically and as we should expect, systems to collect taxes or customs revenue in most developing countries are particularly vulnerable to corruption especially in a country like Sierra Leone where some past governments have cared very little about instituting measures to reduce/eradicate corruption at best or worst, condoning/pampering the act. Corruption is also frequently reported in the appointment or election of public officials. At the basement of the pyramid, but one that directly and seriously affects the public, corruption involves incalculable unpaid services such as the granting of driver’s licences, passports and business permits. Such activities which unfortunately have been practiced on a colossal scale have effectively hampered the socio-political and economic wellbeing especially of the already powerless and marginalized sectors of the society.

However, I agree with NACS, that most Sierra Leoneans have come to accept, even expect corruption to take place (as a way of satisfying their individual interests). The poor who constitute over half of the country’s population suffer the most. They are denied access to education, health care and medicine, due to their inability to make the extra payment demanded by some corrupt officials. They are too often denied justice in the courts more so when the legal system has also been stigmatized as being corrupt and hampering access to justice for the poor. They also suffer when as a consequence of corruption scarce resources end up in the pockets of some public officials instead of executing pro-poor development projects that could serve the dual purpose of removing the poor from the pool of poverty and attracting essential domestic and international investments. The ACC Act provided for among other things the formation of a national Anti-Corruption Commission with a mandate which includes powers to prevent and investigate all corrupt practices in the country.622

According to NACS,

“This research will therefore seek to discover how far the then government (through the ACC) has gone to actualize one of its key pro-poor policy pronouncements to fight corruption in the country.”623

622 The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS), on Anti – Corruption Commission Annual Report 2003, p.26 623 ibid



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2. PROJECT OBJECTIVES

According to NACS,

“The overall objective of the project was to assess how far the government (through the ACC) has gone to fulfil its promise to fight corruption in Sierra Leone; proffer recommendations that could be used by the ACC and other relevant stakeholders to design new strategies to tackle corruption in the country.”624

3. METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

Data for this research were gathered from both primary and secondary sources as conceived by National Anti-Corruption Strategy Ghana.625

I am particularly impressed by the depth of research order, the precise detailed account given and enormous amount of efforts put forward by this group in other to achieve the set objectives. This is impressive though they are not without limitations as one would expect. They were able to explore both the primary and the secondary sources. The primary and the secondary sources according to ACC are as follows;

1. “For primary sources, consultations were held with staff members of the ACC headquarters in Freetown who provided valuable information about the work of the Commission.

Focus group discussions were also organized in the North, South and Eastern Regions of the country. The six districts used as pilot areas were Bo and Moyamba (in the South); Kambia and Bombali (in the North); and Kenema and Kailahun (in the East). The selection was mainly to have

624 ibid

625 The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS), on Anti – Corruption Commission Annual Report 2003, p.26



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a more representative sample of the country’s population. A total of one hundred and twenty (120) communities (ten per district) were surveyed.”626

I wish to point out here that I am impressed by the openness of the NACS to form discussion group involving the North, the South and the Eastern Regions of the country. This involvement gives room for objectivity. According to NACS,

“It was agreed that the researchers for the project should have at least resided in the districts for a considerable period and have worked on issues bordering around transparency and accountability. A total of thirty carefully selected prospective researchers were given two days of intensive training on the rubrics of conducting research of this nature”627.

Furthermore, the NACS here showed the necessity of training and of experience regarding the issues bordering around transparency and accountability with respect to corruption control strategy. This quite encouraging because in this light, they were taught the general techniques involved in conducting social research, the purpose of the research; generally how to deal with answer sheets; how to select participants for the focus group discussions; and the significance of meeting deadlines in research.

According to NACS,

“Two researchers (per district) were eventually contracted to do the work. Each researcher randomly selected ten communities in their respective districts where they conducted focus group discussions and administered questionnaires that entailed both pre-coded and open-ended questions. Great efforts were made to ensure that each group comprised of at least ten participants from different walks of life, sex and age in order to elicit the views of all shades of society.”628

Again,

“A different set of questionnaires was administered to the head of the ACC branch office in Bo Town.”629

I believe that this method of involving the local people in the inquiry is very laudable. This is because it gives the local community the sense of belonging and participation and will help them to open up to the members of the ACC.

626 The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS), on Anti – Corruption Commission Annual Report 2003,

627 ibid

628 ibid

629 During the period this research was undertaken, Bo had the only functioning ACC office outside Freetown



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As NACS puts it,

“The reason for administering this questionnaire was to assess the level of corporation between the local people and the ACC field staff; and to know the prospects and challenges that lie ahead. Perhaps it would have been much simpler to get the broad information about the work of the ACC office from its head office in Freetown, but to obtain it first-hand from field staff made a great difference. For example, questions relating to collaboration/networking with community people (which are very essential to the Commission’s work) can better be answered by the staff on the ground.”630

2. For secondary data, textbooks, published reports and the internet were utilized. Some of the main reference materials used for this exercise was the Anti-Corruption Act, the Abridged Version of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy - NACS, and the Commission’s annual reports”.631

I wish to say that these three major sources used by ACC in the course of their work, showed that, ACC were not parochial in their views, rather they extended their research to most of the major sources of information available to them. With the use of internet, they can gather and disseminate information faster. This will make the people of Sierra Leone to see the ACC report on corruption as credible.

4. LIMITATIONS TO THE STUDY

I am not surprised that the people of Sierra Leone were disgusted with their politicians and consequently politic. One would expect their negative feelings when yet new enquiries launched. Most did not waste time to reject the idea of new inquiries.

According to NACS,

“Most respondents from the six pilot districts bluntly expressed their disillusionment with the research topic (government’s fight against corruption in the country) which according to them was a ‘wild goose chase’ and therefore no need to waste their precious time canvassing something they knew was unattainable. As a consequence, it took a painfully long time for the researchers to be


631 ibid



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able to convince them to participate in the exercise. Given the tight schedule of the research, the long time it took to get them interested was disheartening because it was not a constraint that initially had been for-seen. The domino effect of this state of affairs was that the researchers were unable to meet their deadlines to submit the research findings, which in turn put inordinate pressure on the lead researcher to compile and publish the report.632

I wish to observe here that, for the fact the politicians were not living up to the standard, should not be enough reason for one to run away from the problem which corrupt politicians brought upon the society or could make one run away from politics. This is because if things are left the way they are, the situation in the society will get worse.

As Odey puts it,

“If people turn their backs against politics because it is a dirty game, they are implicated by political decision made without their contribution. When they become part and parcel of the political machinery that makes decisions, they are involved in politics. In brief, therefore, we all are politicians in certain degree. As long as we are part and parcel of our larger societies, subject to the laws and the ordinances that govern them, we cannot escape from all that will accrue to that membership.”633

I wish to agree with Odey that politics is not dirty in itself; it is some politicians who play politics who are dirty and corrupt. I encourage good people to enter politics so as to not allow the corrupt politician to come into politics.

Since the government’s pledge was to fight corruption in its entirety in the country, it would have been prudent to conduct the research in every district so as to get a more representative data, but there was not adequate funding to go that far. A country-wide assessment would have enhanced a more comparative analysis, especially so when opinions and perceptions would have been analysed district by district


633 John Odey, Mahatma Ghandi: A Profile in Love, Peace and Nonviolence (Enugu: Snaap Press, 1996), p. 234.



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5. A BRIEF ASSESSMENT OF THE NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY (NACS).

“The NACS is the manifestation of the political will and commitment of the Executive arm of government to fight corruption at all levels in the Sierra Leone society”.634

I want to observe that although; the NACS examined the following areas: Health, Education, The Judiciary, Agriculture, Local Government and Mineral Resources. This was commendable but not sufficient. Though surveys have deemed these areas to be hotspots of corrupt practices, it could have been better if other public institutions were examined as well so as to provide a comprehensive strategy to combat corruption in the public sector. It is pertinent to note that the NACS only looked at corruption in the public domain.635

It would have been more appropriate for it to examine the private sector where it interfaces with the public sector. To examine the public and private sectors in juxtaposition would have been a Herculean task however due to the inadequate resources (especially human and material) that are required for the exercise. If corruption is to be addressed with the seriousness and timeliness it deserves, that both the public and private domains should come under examination by a reputable and competent agency to ensure accountability and transparency in the delivery of goods and services to the public.

It is important to point out here that, the summarized version of the NACS report provided a series of recommendations (by sector) to address corruption in the public sector. The report did not only provide invaluable recommendations, but also painstakingly identified hotspots in these institutions that are worth looking at as well. In one sense, the NACS report is like the torch that identifies the grey areas in these institutions so as to enable the relevant stakeholders to take measures to forestall corruption. The report identifies at least some of the major areas that should come under thorough scrutiny in these public institutions.636

Furthermore, the report among other things provides the basis for knowing the form/manner in which corruption is practiced in these sectors which makes it a little easier to address them. A few concerns have however been raised: are staff of the Investigation Department of the ACC now ready to utilize the report and work assiduously to checkmate anomalies in these identified trouble spots? Is this report (like many other well-researched documents) going to meaninglessly occupy a

634 Abridged Version of the NACS report page – 1. 635 ibid .

636 Abridged Version of the NACS report page – 1.



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space on office shelves? Are there plans for taking serious and honest measures to address corrupt practices in these public institutions? As in many other reform documents in Sierra Leone, the implementation phases are the most crucial.

I wish to confirm that, the NACS report clearly identifies areas where opportunities exist for corrupt practices to take place; how corruption occurs in the public sector; how Sierra Leoneans perceive corruption, the manner in which it is practiced in their different localities; and above all the reports provide a gamut of cogent recommendations/suggestions to tackle corruption in the identified institutions and areas.

For the Commission in tandem with partners (both state and non-state) to research, compile and submit the NACS report at such a material moment when corruption in the country is rife, was a laudable idea. The publishing of the report however should not be misconstrued to mean the only answer to solving the issue of corruption in the public sector. A lot still has to be done.

The NACS at the moment is an eye-opener and a morale booster to curb corruption in the country. It should be noted that the report is comprehensive but new, and that people should not expect miracles to take place immediately. The onus rests mainly on the shoulders of the Commission’s staff to convince Sierra Leoneans that this time round rock-hard efforts would be made to stem corruption in the public domain. Due to the rampant nature of corruption in the country, and the (right or wrong) perception and conviction of most Sierra Leoneans that senior public officials do often engage in serious corrupt practices like the siphoning or deliberate misappropriation of public funds and get away with it, it is needless to emphasize that a lot still has to be done to change the mind set of people to think that corruption cannot only be drastically mitigated, but that the ACC has the propensity and capacity to do it.

According to NACS,

“Most people are expecting the ACC to make immediate follow–ups on the report, conduct investigations, prosecute and punish those that could be found culpable of engaging in ‘destructive’ corrupt practices. If this does not seem to happen, unfortunately most people (especially those who are convinced that endemic corruption is responsible for their impoverished state) will lose faith in the work of the Commission altogether.”637

Most people are anxious and even desperate to see corruption hastily brought down to its knees. It is therefore important for the Commission to note that expectations are very high and these needs to be managed effectively.

637 The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS), on Anti – Corruption Commission Annual Report 2003, p.41.



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I wish to point out here that some people because of the negative things they have already experienced about politics made them doubt and suspect almost all government proposals. According to Olisa Agbakoba,

“Partisan politics is not the same as human right activism. It is about lying, cheating, deceiving, disloyalty and all other evil things we have in this world. The only way you can win politics today is to have money. And you must be ready to do anything including killing and maiming people. I predict that Nigeria will not begin to turn around in 30 to 50 years. Good men don’t thrive where there is evil. So, unless there is a kind of revolution things will not change.”638

This is true also in Sierraleone, as some critics constantly accuse the government of not properly harnessing the 2001, 2002 and 2003 Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) reports, most are still pessimistic that the NACS report could suffer the same fate. For example the 2001, 2002 and 2003 PETS reports consistently showed discrepancies in the allocation of public funds from Freetown to the provinces especially in the education and health sectors.639

I agree with NACS, that even if appropriate measures were taken against those public servants who might have been found culpable of misappropriating public funds, perhaps because they were not publicly named and shamed (as most people would have preferred), consequently they frequently unequivocally and frustratingly accuse the government of at best not setting bright examples to halt corruption in the country or at worse covering up its supposed corrupt officials. These are burning feelings that should not be ignored, especially as some people are convinced that corruption is responsible for their indigent state.640

The NACS report defines corruption as,

“the misuse of public office for private gains.”641 It is significant when the report states ‘The strategy is a responsibility that falls on all of us, with the sincerity of purpose and commitment of all Sierra Leonean the tasks ahead are hardly insurmountable.”642

638 Cf. Odey J.O. The Anti –Corruption Crusade- The Saga of a Crippled Giant, pub, in Eboyi State Nigeria, 2001 Pg 74.



641 Op cit-42.



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This clearly shows that it is not only the ACC that has the responsibility to fight corruption – Civil Society, government, donors, and the general public should put their shoulders to the wheel as well. This is all the more important when the report states that

“…it is not a static document but one that will be constantly updated as measures are implemented and new possible threats are identified….”643

Because as methods are employed to investigate and where necessary punish corrupt public officials, it would not be uncommon for public officials to alter their behaviour. They may still engage in corrupt practices and attempt to cover up their tracks in the process. In this vein, it is but proper for the strategies to be periodically revisited in order to address future corrupt threats.

It is also significant when the report mentioned that the NACS is not “a magical wand for solving all forms of bad governance”644.

I believe that this point is noteworthy because there seems to be a perception by some people that the ACC strives to ameliorate all forms of poor governance, which is obviously not the case. The ACC has its areas of focus and limits. There are confirmed reports of members of the public taking cases/reports to the Commission that do not fall within its purview. For example, civil cases instead of being reported to the Police are said to be frequently reported to the Commission. When advised to take these reports to the appropriate institution (the Police) they usually end up feeling disappointed that their issues were not taken ‘seriously’ or were ignored. One thing is certain though, the ACC does not have answers to some of the questions, let alone all the answers to all the questions.

6. AN ANALYSIS OF THE 2001, 2002 AND 2003 ACC ANNUAL CASELOAD.

According to Odey,

642 Ibid. 643 Ibid. 644The National Ant-Corruption Strategy (NACS), on Anti – Corruption Commission Annual Report 2003, p.43.



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“One of the greatest sources of fear for the common man is that those who make laws to

protect common interest have their easy ways and means of circumventing the same laws.

Having been deceived so many years, the masses see so much discrepancy between word,

creed and deed.”645

But for the case of the ACC, there appeared to be some rays of hope, for the simple fact that the ACC has a precedent of publishing annual reports is indicative of its poise to be transparent to the public. The reports though not very widely disseminated, do get accessed by most government ministries/institutions/agencies, civil society, and development partners. Through these aforementioned institutions, some members of the public have had the opportunity to examine these annual reports. Since information is power, it was in this light that the Commission thought it prudent to annually inform the public of its strategies, methods, successes, constraints and recommendations.

I agree with ACC, that these reports facilitate public discussions and contributions, which correspondingly helps to make the fight against corruption more transparent in the country. These reports also inform development partners and other stakeholders of its areas of intervention; the types of cases frequently investigated; common cases at a particular period; and the status of unfinished cases towards the end of the year. The commonly investigated cases include: accepting bribes; evasion of customs duties; fraudulent conversion; perjury; offering bribes; misappropriation of government funds; false report to ACC; soliciting bribes, misappropriation of public funds, accepting an advantage, falsification of teacher certificate; false pretences and misappropriation of subvention.646

Another quite important thing I want to point out here is that, the reports also gives the public the opportunity to know which person, group of people, or institutions that are being investigated and for what, and the level of punishment inflicted on convicts. The reports also shed floodlight on the ACC Auditor’s Report which enables the general public, government and donors to at least have some knowledge of the Commission’s income and expenditure periodically.

Let us at this point examine, the 2001, 2002 and 2003 ACC Annual Caseloads.

According to the ACC reports,

645 Odey J.O. The Anti –Corruption Crusade- The Saga of a Crippled Giant, pub., in Eboyi State Nigeria, 2001. Pg 106.

646 ACC 2001 Annual Report pages – 31-34.



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“the year 2001, twenty-two (22) cases were investigated. Eight (8) among the twenty-two (22) cases were being charged to court; eight (8) were never prosecuted at all; and only one (1) conviction was made.”647

I wish to observe here that, though only twenty-two (22) cases were investigated that given year it is nevertheless appreciable given the time (7 July 2001) the Commission was officially launched. The fact that only one among the twenty-two (22) cases investigated led to conviction is less encouraging, if not a cause for concern. Even the one conviction was hanging because the accused sought an appeal (which was still pending at the time the report was published). Eight cases were still in court whose outcomes were uncertain.

As ACC puts it,

“It was difficult to prognosticate whether any of the eight cases would have led to conviction. Eight of the twenty-two (22) investigated cases were never prosecuted.”648

Unfortunately, this shows that either these cases were not properly investigated before being taken to the Attorney General’s (AG’s) desk or the AG’s office, in his wisdom, deemed them unfit for prosecution.

Again, according to the ACC,

“for the year 2002, forty-three (43) cases were investigated. Among the 43(forty-three) cases investigated it is pertinent to note that only one (1) reached conviction stage; ten (10) were still in court; twenty-eight (28) awaited the Attorney General’s (AG) decision; two were never prosecuted; one (1) was eventually handed over to the Police while another awaited the AG’s confirmation to be handed over to the Police at the time the report was published.649

Writing under the caption, A Nation On Trial, the famous writer, Pat Utomi, argued that,

“When the NET building went ablaze, the conscience of a nation burnt with it. Not even the tortured cry of an angry and bereaved nation could ameliorate the collective guilt that we share for the touching of our grandest national edifice and the premature and unwarranted cremation of our fellow citizens who died in the towering inferno. Nigeria is on trial...As a society grew more to identify with material success, scrutiny of how such material was acquired declined. Therein lies

647 ACC 2002 Annual Report pages – 49-54.

648 Ibid.

649 Ibid.



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the fire that has burnt our conscience to the point that human life and wanton destruction of property is not found repugnant if it can protect our dirty part to displayable wealth.”650

In these statements, were contained the microcosm of the wide spread anger and despair that gripped the people of Sierraleone. Due to the great expectations Sierra Leonean have in the ACC to curb corruption; among a number of forty-three (43) cases investigated for there to be only one conviction should not be a cause for jubilation. It shows the arduousness of the task at hand, and the unbearably long period it might take Sierra Leone to be a corrupt-free society.

This brings to mind the comment made by The President Tejan Kabbah that,

“The problems faced by the Anti-Corruption Commission are many and varied. I expect that the Commission would be the first to accept that there are still shortcomings to be addressed.”651

Unfortunately again, for up to twenty-eight (28) cases to be awaiting the AG’s decision is symptomatic of the delay inherent in the procedures in dealing with corruption cases. If cases continue to delay in this way people might lose faith in the efforts of the Commission, and might think that the Commission will not actualize its vision of seeing

“…a Sierra Leone that is free from all forms of corruption to enhance the rule of law in order to create an environment of good governance and reform, which is the cornerstone for development and the eradication of poverty for the benefit of all its citizens”652

I want to make it clear here that this critical way of analysing the issues should not be mistaken to mean a deliberate attempt to trigger hysteria in the reader but rather for them to understand the true situation of things.

Quite interestingly again, for the year 2003, the Commission investigated forty-three (43) cases. Sixteen (16) of these cases were never prosecuted (as per the AG’s advice); Six (6) awaited the AG’s decision; one (1) appeal was pending; two (2) on the AG’s advice were passed over to the Police; thirteen (13) were still in court; and eleven (11) were eventually convicted and punished by the law at the time the report was published.653

It is significant to note, according to NACS that,

650 The National Concord, February 12 1983, p 3.

651 15th Presidential Address on the Occasion of the State Opening of Parliament, June 2003. 652 ACC Annual Report page – 2.

653 Ibid pages –42-49 16.



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“in both the 2002 and 2003 Annual Reports an equal number of forty-three (43) cases were investigated. With a dramatic increase from one (1) conviction in 2002 to eleven (11) in 2003 it is an appreciable achievement. At least it shows that efforts are being made by the Commission and other partners to curb corruption in the public sector. The sixteen (16) cases that were never prosecuted at all are still a cause for concern. It repeatedly shows over the years that the ACC’s mechanisms for reviewing cases before sending them to the AG’s desk still need further improvement.”654

The above reports are impressive, but I wish to add that a lot needs to be done if the scourge/vestige of corruption is to be effectively removed from the Sierra Leonean society. The ACC should however not be judged solely on the basis of its weaknesses, but on its strengths as well. When it started operations in 2001, it was bargaining with a series of problems including limited capacity, logistics and funding among others to execute its work. It has been able over the years to make incremental successes. It should be credited for that. It is a praiseworthy initiative for the Commission to be annually publishing its reports which could invariably invite criticisms, comments and recommendations that could be harnessed to improve its work.

7. ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

I agree with NACS that the government’s bold pledge to tackle corruption in a holistic way is a prudent and bright initiative. In this light, the people’s awareness of the existence of the corruption as ‘plague’ is the key to its eradication. If people for example, do not have knowledge of what corruption is, they might be engaging, condoning or failing to report damaging corrupt practices which could lead to the country’s underdevelopment.655

According to the NACS report,

“communities were asked whether they actually know what is meant by the term corruption. The majority of respondents in one-hundred-and-nine (109) communities stated that they did whilst the minority/majority in eight (8) said they did not know; and three (3) were unsure of what to say.



655 Op cit –p 24



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This result is positive. It shows that the Commission has largely done its work of sensitizing the Sierra Leonean public about corruption.”656

I wish to say here that this result is indicative of the fact that most Sierra Leoneans now know what corruption is, which is the first successful step to its reduction/eradication. The public can only be meaningfully enlisted in the fight if they are aware of the issue(s) at play. This is a commendable achievement made by the Public Relations Department of the Commission.

I want to draw our attention to the fact that though similar, there is a marked difference between these two questions: what in your opinion is a corrupt act; and how does corruption take place in your community? People were asked both. The tendency existed for some respondents to have a panoramic/global view of corruption (especially those who have access to radio/television/satellite) or do travel to other places where they could have the opportunity of seeing how corruption is unfolding; but not necessarily as it happens in their immediate localities. It was therefore considered important to document the manner in which corruption is practised in the communities.

The reason for that is, according to NACS report that,

“since corruption is multidimensional, and people have a way of looking at issues with peculiar lenses, what perhaps one person, a group of people or one community could interpret as a corrupt act would not be the same for another. Conversely, what perhaps a person, group of people or a community could consider an acceptable way of living could be perceived as a corrupt act by another. The inference this analysis is drawing is that corruption is a matter of perception. By getting the views and perceptions of people living in different settings, it could greatly help the government agency responsible for fighting corruption to design peculiar strategies to address corruption in different areas of the country.”657

I definitely agree with this view, this is because; some are influenced by the environment in which they are. And this environment automatically affects the way they see things and even their actions.

According to the research findings,

“the majority of respondents within seventy-three (73) communities cited misuse/misappropriation of public funds or property; whilst most in twenty-seven (27) mentioned bribery; and twenty (20) said that the misuse of power constitutes a corrupt act. The fact that a colossal number of seventy-three (73) communities mentioned that what they see mainly as a

656 ibid




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corrupt practice is the misuse/misappropriation of public funds or property is perhaps rooted in their conviction that corruption is responsible for their present impecunious state.”658

Unfortunately, this is not surprising, given their knowledge (through the mass media and other means) of huge sums of money given to senior public officials or allocated to government ministries/agencies/departments to undertake well-publicised projects in certain areas without seeing tangible results at the end of it. People have seen and heard in the past, and are still seeing and hearing on a regular basis of public servants converting huge public funds for personal aggrandisement, risking very little or no punishment at all. It is an open secret that the expenditures of some public servants are not commensurate with their official income. In other words, their expenditures sometimes far outweigh their official income; which raises questions as to where they usually obtain the extra money to finance their private projects.

As NACS report puts it,

“Systems to monitor the outcomes of government projects are very ineffective, at best. Aside from the new Local Government Act, an only official who have been nominated by the Executive to a public position and have to present themselves to parliament need to declare their assets and so as one of the main tools of transparency and accountability this is proving to be largely ineffective.”659

It is interesting to point out here that, the so-called declaration of asset(s) system which has been practised in the past; and is still practised especially in government circles; and was supposed to be one of the main tools of accountability and transparency is ineffective. Assets need to be checked during their stay in office and on leaving office if this method is to have any effect at all.

Again, I want to bring to your notice that the twenty-seven (27), communities that identified bribery as constituting corruption underpins the fact that it is a crucial issue that should be addressed urgently. Bribery could facilitate square pegs in round holes in public or private institutions; allowing the rich to trample upon the poor; letting criminals get away with their infamous acts etc. which could correspondingly lead to instability and underdevelopment. Ten communities affirmed that the misuse of power is what constitutes a corrupt act. This might seem comparatively small, but it is significant.

The survey reveals that communities are greatly concerned over the issue of political leaders misusing their positions for whatever reasons there are. When these powers are grossly misused it is the masses that bear the brunt of it. Communities are convinced that the misuse of power is one

658 Ibid.




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of the many ways corruption is practised, as is reflected in the results. Measures should be instituted to address this.

I wish to affirm that this is true taking cognisant of the fact that a lot of the times there are entrenched cultural practices especially in the rural communities that could encourage or discourage corrupt practices; communities were asked to list and explain these practices. The rationale was to ascertain whether there are existing cultural practices in the target communities that could be utilised to fight corruption. In the same vein, the question was geared towards identifying bad or harmful cultural practices that could fuel corruption, and see how they could be harnessed best to muzzle corruption in the communities.


“Most of the respondents in sixty-five (65) communities of a total of one-hundred-and-twenty (120) communities identified the extended family-system; whilst the majority within thirty-five (35) communities demanding or sometimes compulsorily collecting “gifts” from people to prepare for political visitors; and most in twenty (20) stated polygamy as cultural practices that encourages corruption.”660

I agree with the ACC report that, some cultural factors aid corruption. For instance, polygamy and extended family are among the African culture that have entrenched much corruption in the society. This for the simple reason that many a times, the bread winners of the family find themselves in a fix regarding taking appropriate care of the family, consequently indulge in corrupt practices as a means of survival.

There are yet other cultural factors that appear to be fetish but are effective in corruption control strategy in some societies. For instance, are public mockeries, cultural practices that discourage corruption, e.g. Mystical powers, etc.


“the majority in seventy (70) communities among the one-hundred-and-twenty (120) communities said public mockery–through singing of provocative songs against culprits; thirty (30) cited swearing; and twenty (20) mentioned identifying wrongdoers with mystical powers as cultural practices that discourages corruption. This clearly shows that before the setting up of the ACC, Sierra Leonean had their own ways of addressing unacceptable behaviour in their communities. Conversely, some of their cultural practices have unfortunately been aiding, and are still aiding what they deem to be corrupt practices.” 661


661 NACS report p 27.



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I wish to say here that the opportunity the ACC now has is to critically examine these cultural practices to see whether it could improve on any, some or all of them to form part of the strategy to tackle corruption. It should also look into some of the cultural practices that encourage corruption especially the one relating to compulsory collection of “gifts” to prepare for political visitors, which if given serious attention can be mitigated. The majority that cited the extended family system are of the opinion that when a public official has to take direct responsibility for extended family members; if his/her official income cannot meet their needs he/she will be enticed to convert public funds (if he/she happens to lay hands on it) for personal use. In this way, the official will be engaging in a corrupt act which could directly or indirectly harm the general public.662

One observes here that this is a labyrinth issue because it is cultural. Public officials are sometimes pressurised into taking care of their extended family members even if their official or genuine income cannot realistically meet their needs. Unfortunately, communities believe it is their culture and should therefore not be discouraged. Any attempt at discouraging it, no matter the benefits it will accrue to the public, would be interpreted as an invasion or interference into their customs and traditions.


“Poverty is partly responsible for this. A public official who perhaps might have got some help from relatives when struggling to be what he/she is will find it extremely difficult to ignore their extra responsibilities. Communities generally see the issue of providing help (especially paying school or college fees for their promising children and/or relatives) as a form of safety net or life insurance. When these children become successful in life, they are expected to pay back what was expended on them. If they refuse, they are scorned and sometimes abhorred by their very relatives for being ‘ungrateful’ and ‘selfish’.”663

This is very important point because, the fear of being rendered a ‘pariah’ usually coerces many public servants to embezzle public funds to meet the burgeoning or elaborate demands of their extended family members. Perhaps the only rift in the lute is for the government to create opportunities, for example, providing jobs for many able-bodied citizens to reduce the dependence that aids corruption.

Another cultural factor which I consider very important is ‘gift’.


662 ibid




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“The fact that when people are compelled to give ‘gifts’ to political and other high-powered visitors was ranked second as a cultural practice that aids corruption is serious. Most community people are very poor and if they are going to be constantly taxed for making preparations for especially political visitors, this is unacceptable. It is a subtle scheme to rob the poor to satisfy mostly well placed people in society.”664

Fortunately and quite encouraging to, some communities are becoming more strongly averse to this, as was reflected in the number of communities that brought it up. Even some local leaders are alleged to be using this practice as a vehicle to improve their lot (using some of the money or goods collected for themselves). Some of these ‘gifts’ are compulsorily demanded from people, and it is from this point of view that communities stated that it is a form of corruption.

Furthermore, I see public mockery as another powerful cultural factor of corruption control strategy.

As NACS puts it,

“The fact that a majority of the communities attested that the most effective cultural practice that discourages corruption is public mockery; should be used by the Commission as part of its overall strategy to curb corruption. For example, at the national level, if public officials are investigated and proved in a Court of Law, to be corrupt, this information should be made very public. People by disposition are averse to or loathsome to public shaming; and therefore the Commission should utilize this cultural practice to discourage corruption in the public sector.”665

I agree With NACS that the people’s knowledge of the existence and work of the Commission is vital in the fight against corruption. If people for example know what the ACC stands for and the kinds of cases or issues it is dealing with it would definitely energise them to render whatever help they could offer. They need to be able to distinguish the kinds of cases they should report to the Police or the ACC. In this light, communities were asked as to whether they had heard of the ACC, and through which means; and whether they know its main function666.


“One-hundred-and-five (105) among the one-hundred-and-twenty (120) communities surveyed stated that they had heard of the ACC; three (3) said they had not; and two (2) commented that they were unsure of their answer. When further asked to state through which means they had first

664 the NACS report p 28

665 ibid




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heard of it, and through which channel they regularly heard of its work, sixty (60) said through the local F.M radio; forty-five (45) through word of mouth; and fifteen (15) through workshops. The data clearly showed that most communities were aware of the existence of the ACC.”667

Quite interestingly, this shows that the public awareness arm of the Commission has been quite successful in its work. For most communities to have first heard of the ACC through the radio is a pointer to the fact that the Commission has been harnessing one of the fastest mediums of communication to disseminate information to the public. I believe that this is a good initiative which should be exploited further to get more Sierra Leonean involved in the fight.

For the Commission,

“Community people were given the opportunity to assess the rate of corruption in their localities themselves. They were therefore asked to use their own lenses to assess whether there was an increase or decrease in the rate of corruption in their communities. Most within seventy-five communities affirmed that there was an increase; while the majority in forty-five (45) stated that there was a decrease.”668

It is glaring from the data that most Sierra Leonean is convinced based on experiences that corruption is rampant in the country. Though the communities were not using any scientific method to measure the rate of corruption, through the local F.M radio stations, public discussions and personal experiences they were able to assess whether it was increasing or decreasing.

Considering the fact that ‘ordinary people’ themselves could partake in corruption in their own ways, a question was carefully designed to elicit information on whether they sometimes engage in corrupt practices in order to access public services in their communities.


“The majority of people in eighty-five (85) communities noted that they are sometimes compelled by circumstances to engage in corrupt acts while most in forty-five (45) communities said they had never been forced at any point in time to indulge in the act. This data unfortunately reveals that due to the corrupt practices of some public officials; most Sierra Leoneans have at one time or the other been forced by circumstances to engage in corrupt practices as well.”669

667 The NACS report p. 34.

668 Ibid.


669The NACS report p 29.



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This presents a conundrum. The paradox here is that the very communities the ACC relies on tremendously for information and other kinds of support to fight corruption have been forced to be corrupt. The communities should not be blamed entirely for this ugly situation because if for example, an individual is sick he/she might be forced to go to a government hospital/clinic for treatment. All that the patient will seek is the regaining of his/her health. Even if the treatment is supposed to be free, and he/she is told to bribe before obtaining it, though he/she may know that bribery is a form of corruption, in order to get well he/she will be compelled to consciously engage in a corrupt act. This example is just one of the many cases where citizens do engage in corrupt practices. The ACC therefore has to grapple with the dual responsibility of “cleaning up” public and private institutions from corruption whilst entreating ordinary citizens to desist from contributing to the quagmire of corruption.

When questioned, according to NACS,

“to show the frequency in which they do engage in these corrupt practices, most within sixty-five 65) communities said very frequently; most within fifteen (15) said not too frequently; and forty (40) said not at all.”670

Here again, the data shows that the majority of Sierra Leoneans does not only indulge in corrupt acts, but they do so frequently. Therefore, the majority of people in a total out of one-hundred-and-five (105) out of the one-hundred-and-twenty (120) communities surveyed do engage in some form of corrupt practices whether frequently or infrequently to access public services. This is a scaring proportion. The ACC should therefore move at full throttle to prevent corrupt practices in order to facilitate socio-economic development.

Interestingly, communities were asked as to whether they will be willing to provide support to the ACC, and if yes, what kind of support they could provide. The majority of respondents in one-hundred-and-eighteen (118) communities commented that they would be willing to support the ACC. This is remarkable. It is indicative of the willingness of Sierra Leonean to join hands in the fight against corruption. Though most people seem to be pessimistic about the ACC’s objective to eradicate corruption, they are nonetheless willing to support it in their own way. The ACC should make use of this opportunity. This overwhelming support is not surprising given the belief that the drastic reduction/eradication of corruption could pave the way for socio-economic development and this shows that most Sierra Leonean look at corruption as a national concern that should not be handled only by the ACC.



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When further asked according to NACS,

“to state what kind of specific support they could provide, most within ninety-eight (98) communities stated that they could support through the timely reporting of suspected cases of corruption to the ACC; while the majority in twenty-two (22) communities mentioned that they could help through sensitisation of other people. These are two realistic ways the people can simultaneously help the ACC in its work.”671

I believe that with this kind of overwhelming willingness from the vast majority to support the Commission especially in information sharing, the ACC will indirectly have eyes in every corner of the country.672

In addition, the fact that many showed a willingness to educate others about the ills of corruption is good because in spite of the proliferation of radio stations across the country not all Sierra Leonean have access to the radio to get information.

Again when asked according to NACS,

“ whether they are convinced that the ACC will be able to prevent/stop country in the country, most in sixty-five (65) communities noted that they are not; the majority in fifty-one (51) communities said they are; and four (4) were unsure of what to say.”673

As one would expect, the majority of Sierra Leonean surveyed did not seem to have faith in the ACC’s work. What should however be noted though is that the ACC is at its embryonic stage and is grappling with challenging problems which makes it difficult despite its remarkable progress for the majority of people to have faith in its work. Understandably, most Sierra Leonean are desperate to see corruption drastically reduced or eliminated so expectations also need to be managed by both the ACC and the government generally.674

For NACS,

“ fifty-one (51) communities manifested their confidence in the Commission that it will be able to eradicate corruption.”675


672 The recent offer by the Commission, of a reward of up to Le 20,000,000 (Twenty million Leone’s) for those who report corrupt officials can only serve to further bolster people’s willingness to partner with the ACC.


674 Ibid.




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I want to point out here that the fifty-one (51) communities that do manifest their confidence in the ACC do not represent the majority view, but the proportion is encouraging. The Commission should seek some solace in this because it shows that a good number of people still have faith in the Commission. The level of trust can rise or fall contingent upon the degree of progress being made to fight corruption. Though it is the responsibility of every Sierra Leonean to help in the fight, the onus mainly rests on the shoulders of the Commission to work laboriously and gain public confidence and support thereby promoting socio-economic development.

The recent offer by the Commission, according to NACS,

“of a reward of up to Le 20,000,000 (Twenty million Leonean) for those who report corrupt officials can only serve to further bolster people’s willingness to partner with the ACC. It was realised that eliciting data from the average Sierra Leonean alone would not make the research balanced. The need to get information on the activities of the only functional district ACC office in Bo Town67620 was seen and it was from this perspective that a separate questionnaire was designed and administered to the head of the office there. When he was asked to state some of the activities that they had undertaken in the fight against corruption, the personnel responded that they have radio discussions, community education meetings and, community theatre activities. They stated that they had established integrity clubs and coalition building with institutions that have regional offices in the south, all geared towards reducing or eradicating corruption in the country.”677

I can say that from the above expositions therefore, it is noteworthy that the office has been and is still undertaking many activities in the Southern Region to fight corruption. As has been extensively dilated above, radio discussions, community theatre activities and community education/sensitization programmes are vehicles for carrying information to the people. With these activities, especially the radio sensitization, a large number of people can be reached and educated within a short period and with little cost. This is a good technique to sensitize people especially those living in distant areas that are not motor able. Coalition building with institutions in both the public and private sectors which the Commission is embarking on are crucial to the eradication of corruption. This is a way of involving other established institutions that have a reach in remote areas help in the fight.

Again, when asked whether the office had been working with local people to curb corruption, the reply was positive (yes). When further asked to show the way(s) that this was done it was noted that the community people have been providing useful or meaningful

676 At the time this survey was conducted. 677 Ibid.



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suggestions/recommendations at community education meetings; reporting suspected corrupt practices within their chiefdoms to the office; and educating the masses through theatre performances during community meetings. This patently shows the willingness of the masses to help the Commission.678

I wish to add that this information is also in agreement with what the communities stated that they had been helping the Commission through information-sharing, which involves the reporting of suspected cases of corruption; and embarking on sensitization ventures. The recommendations provided by the people during community education meetings help the Commission in designing strategies to curb corruption. Information sharing is very essential in this kind of battle. It is only when people willingly share information that the office will get to know of certain harmful corrupt practices especially in areas that they are not present. If the majority of citizens are willing to report suspected cases of corruption in a timely manner (as the survey has revealed) it will put fear in some people who may want to engage in corrupt practices like the embezzling of public funds.

However, when asked to comment/explain more on some of the factors that limit or have the potential to limit these CBOs, NGOs, and other partners from providing help to the ACC the head of the office commented,

“that the nature of ACC’s work itself warranted a lot of caution since the tendency exists for non-ACC staff to impersonate as staff members perhaps with the aim of taking bribes from people to satisfy their selfish interests. This will invariably tarnish the Commission’s image which staff members are keen to protect.”679

I have the feeling that perhaps their great caution stems from the myriad of usually unfounded allegations that ACC staff is themselves corrupt. Therefore, this kind of caution has been counterproductive to the Commission’s work because it has been limiting its coalition partners’ level of support. In other words, due to ACC’s principles/regulations coalition partners have been hampered from providing full support that could have made a great difference in its work. It is therefore pertinent for the Commission to put mechanisms in place to deal with the problem of impersonation while simultaneously harnessing the full support of coalition partners.680

In another note, when asked According to NACS,


679 The NACS Report p 36.

680 Op cit.



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“ to show some of the challenges/difficulties (if any) that they face in the execution of their duties in the district the reply was that illiteracy, tension between Councillors and traditional authorities affects communities and the ACC’s work. Most communities according to him only want to corporate in activities that could give them immediate benefits. This immediate benefit issue is a relic of the ten years civil conflict that made many communities gets used to relief supplies.”681

I agree with NACS that these are very grave challenges. The Commission can better deal with corruption in communities where there is political stability. Political squabbles between local leaders will invariably starve the Commission of corporation from both the community leaders and the people. This immediate benefit issue is also symptomatic of the endemic poverty situation in the country which makes some people care only about ways of satisfying their immediate personal interests. The unflinching fact is that these challenges are natural and it is only with socio-economic development that they might be eliminated. Communities should realise however that it is only with their corporation that corruption can be reduced/eradicated in the country, which will in turn propel growth and development. Community leaders, according to the head of the office are very supportive because they serve as Chairmen in meetings and they articulate messages and disseminate information to the people.682

8. CONCLUSION

I wish to affirm that from the forgoing analysis, it is crystal-clear that eradicating corruption in the country is a daunting exercise. The ACC has the unenviable task of reducing/eradicating corruption in a country that has a seemingly unparalleled track -record of endemic and systemic corruption perfected over thirty years of misrule. This research has been able to collect a gamut of information including the Commission’s methodologies, successes and constraints in its fight against corruption in the country; the willingness or non-willingness of citizens, coalition partners and local leaders to join in the fight, and a lot of other issues.

The survey according to NACS shows that,

“there is an agreement between the data collected in the communities and the district ACC office. It revealed that collaborative work has been going on between community people and the


682 The NACS Report p 39.



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District ACC office towards eradicating the vestige of corruption in the Sierra Leonean society. Though the research revealed that many Sierra Leoneans are pessimistic about the Commission’s mission to eradicate corruption in the country, they are nonetheless willing to provide their invaluable support through timely reporting of suspected corrupt cases; mass sensitization of other people through theatre performances during community education meetings and on a one to one basis.”683

In other words, the research affirms that the majority of people are willing to render pro-bono services to fight corruption. It also graphically reveals that most Sierra Leoneans are convinced that corruption is on the increase and that the misuse or embezzlement of public funds or property is one of the main ways corruption is being practised in the country. Another conclusion from the research findings is that most people are being led into corrupt acts by public servants due to their quest to satisfy their own private interests.

I am particularly impressed by the commission due to the very fact the Commission has made some remarkable progress in the fight especially in the areas of sensitization because the result of the survey confirms that most Sierra Leoneans know what corruption is; how it is practised in their communities; and some of the important ways they could contribute towards its eradication in the country. The majority of Sierra Leoneans however still have no confidence that the ACC is up to the task at hand. The communities have valuable cultural practices that if improved upon could help mitigate corruption in the country. There are also certain cultural practices in the communities that create the opportunities for corrupt practices to take place. What the ACC ought to do is harness some of these cultural practices to form part of the overall strategy to fight corruption in the country.

Impressively also the research shows that local F.M radio stations are very effective tools for filtering down information to communities, as the survey revealed that it was through the local F.M radios that they first got to know of the existence of the ACC and the general understanding of corruption. The research also concluded that the majority of Sierra Leoneans indulge in some form of corrupt practice either frequently or infrequently.

The fact that the Commission has published the NACS report is symptomatic of its readiness to take the challenge of fighting corruption very seriously, although it was meant to have been written at least one year into the establishment of the Commission.

I wish to point out however, that it is also clear that much progress has not been made in the area of investigating cases that could lead to conviction, which could have a multiplier effect by scaring other corrupt officials from engaging in the act. The war on corruption has not yet been

683 Ibid.



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won and it will be unrealistic to give a deadline as to when it will be minimised within Sierra Leonean society despite the fact that much has been done.

It is my conviction however, that if the Commission is provided with additional support by the government, international donors, other relevant stakeholders, and the people of Sierra Leone it will accelerate its drive to dramatically reduce corruption at least to an affordable level.

E. CORRUPTION AND CORRUPTION CONTROL IN NIGERIN SOCIETY

It is very important to discuss the situation of corruption in Nigeria and the untold damage it has done in Nigerian society. Corruption situation in Nigeria is deplorable. Anyone who has visited, stayed or lived in Nigeria observes that becoming corrupt in Nigeria is almost unavoidable, as morality is relaxed, because to survive people have to make money. Corruption so to say has become the order of the day in Nigeria. However, that does not mean that everybody or everything in Nigeria is corrupt. There are people just like in every country of the world who are good and who condemn corruption no matter the situation. This group of people feel very bad about the degree of corruption in the country.

I wish to say that some factors just like other countries of the world are particularly responsible for corruption menace in Nigeria. The Factors include; 1. Social structure 2. Tribalism 3. Poverty and Political factors

These factors are responsible for the corruption that has eaten deep into the society. Though it was they before, but in 1996 the Transparency International opened the wound.

For instance, according to Moore,

“The 1996 Study of Corruption by Transparency International and Goettingen University ranked Nigeria as the most corrupt nation, among 54 nations listed in the study, with Pakistan as the second highest.”684

684 Moore, Stephen, Power and Corruption, Visions Paperback, 1997. pg.4.



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As one would expect, this ranking was devastating and discouraging for many Nigerians. This is because, though many people know that there is corruption, but not this extent as declared by the Transparency International.

As if this was not bad enough, the 1998 Transparency International corruption perception index (CPI) of 85 countries, Nigeria was 81 out of the 85 countries pooled (Error! Reference source not found. column 2001).685

Furthermore, as many Nigerians were asking why the situation of corruption in Nigeria is becoming deplorable it was even clear that more corruption was looming. And some started to point accusing fingers on government and some individuals, things continued getting worse, to the extent that; again, in the 2001 corruption perception index (CPI), the image of Nigeria slipped further down south (ranked 90, out of 91 countries pooled), with second position as most corrupt nation, with Bangladesh coming first (Error! Reference source not found. column 2003)686.

Table 8 Corruption Perception Index (The top 10 and bottom 10 countries)

1998 2001 2003 Country Rank Country Rank Country Rank Denmark 1 Finland 1 Finland 1 Finland 2 Denmark 2 Iceland 2 Sweden 3 New Zealand 3 Denmark 3 New Zealand 4 Iceland 4 New Zealand 4 Iceland 5 Singapore 5 Singapore 5 Canada 6 Sweden 6 Sweden 6 Singapore 7 Canada 7 Netherlands 7 The Netherlands 8 The Netherlands 8 Australia 8 Norway 9 Luxembourg 9 Norway 9 Switzerland 10 Norway 10 Switzerland 10 Vietnam 75 Russia Angola 124

685 Lipset, Seymour Martin, and Gabriel Salman Lenz, Corruption, Culture, and Markets, in Culture Matters, Lawrence E. Harrison, and Samuel P. Huntington, eds., (New York: Basic Books, 2000), p.112.

686 The Transparency International Corruption Index, 1998; and Lipset, Seymour and Salman Lenz, "Corruption, Culture, and Markets," (2000), In Culture Matters, Harrission and Huntington (eds.), 2000, and 2003, p.113, The Transparency International Corruption Index, 2001; pp. 234-236.



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Russia 76 Tanzania 82 Azerbaijan Ecuador 77 Ukraine 83 Cameroon Venezuela 78 Azerbaijan 84 Georgia Colombia 79 Bolivia Tajikistan Indonesia 80 Cameroon Myanmar Nigeria 81 Kenya Paraguay Tanzania 82 Indonesia 88 Haiti 131 Honduras 83 Uganda Nigeria 132 Paraguay 84 Nigeria 90 Bangladesh 133 Cameroon 85 Bangladesh 82

© Source (s): The Transparency International Corruption Index, 1998; and Lipset, Seymour & Salman Lenz, "Corruption, Culture, and Markets," (2000), In Culture Matters, Harrission & Huntington (eds.), 2000, p.113 The Transparency International Corruption Index, 2001; pp. 234-236

I want to say unequivocally and without mincing words that Corruption upsets ethnic balance, and exacerbates problems of national integration in developing countries. For instance, if a corrupt but popular ethnic leader is replaced in his or her position, it may upset ethnic arithmetic and the cohorts may revolt. This is the case with the Nigerian society, when Moshood Abiola won an election but due to corruption, this election was cancelled. But this cancelation was met with strong resistance from the Nigerian public.

According to Suberu,

“The social brawl that followed the Moshood Abiola's 1993 elections rebuff is one of the many cases dotting Nigeria's political landscape. Southerners (mainly Yoruba from ethnic Southwest) rioted, as they felt they were mistreated by the northern oligarchy. Similarly, some politicians from the northern part of the country seem to have forgotten the atrocities committed by Generals Buhari, Babangida, and Abubakar during their regime (they even refused to testify before the Oputa Panel), because they are their home boys. Any attempt to bring them to justice would lead their cronies to ethnic and social conflicts and possible loss of innocent lives”687

687 Suberu, Rotimi T., The Democratic Recession in Nigeria, Current History, May 1994, p, 216; p.213. 687 Ibid.



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Furthermore it is observed that Corruption can destroy the legitimacy of a government. The Shehu Shagari administration was written off as inept because of the magnitude of corruption in the administration, and its lack of policy direction.688

Again, corruption may alienate modern-oriented civil servants and may cause them to reduce or withdraw their service or to leave the country. Corruption is one of the reasons for the 'brain drain' phenomenon in Nigeria (talented professionals leaving the country in search of employment somewhere else).

As Oloja puts it,

“In Nigeria, you can hardly enter an office and get your file signed except you drop some money. Even the security personnel at the door of every office will ask for (bribe) tips? In other words, corruption leads to slow moving files that get through the desk of officers once the interested parties have compromised themselves. It also leads to missing files that [would] resurface immediately the desk officer is settled, unnecessary bureaucracy and delays until fees are paid.”689

Unfortunately, by dolling out money to politicians, General Abacha got many of the nation's political class to commit political suicide in 1998. Many of them lined up en masse to proclaim him as a 'dynamic leader' and the only person qualified to lead Nigeria. Similarly, recently according to Oloja,

“Many politicians from the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) recently trooped to President Obasanjos Ota Farm in Ogun State to beg him to run for a second term. Even General Abubakar's visible timidity to address the issue of corruption in Nigeria was alarming and discouraging, as he retained the military officers accused of looting the national treasury with General Abacha.”690

Again, it is clear that Corruption is also destructive to governmental structures and capacity. The NEWS, in its July 11, 1999 issue ‘The Face of a Liar’, broke the news of forgery and perjury committed by the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ibrahim Salisu Buhari. Through corrupt means, Alhaji Ibrahim Salisu Buhari amassed wealth (he made millions working for NEPA), and bribed his way to the fourth highest position in the land.691

688 Ibid.

689 Oloja, Martins, How Civil Servants Engage In Corruption, By Experts; The Guardian Online, April 21, 2002 690 Ibid.

691 The NEWS a weekly Magazine (Nigeria), The Face of a Liar, July 11, 1999.



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This scandal dominated the political agenda of Nigeria for some time. It is a national shame that a crook was in-charge of the House of Representatives the body that makes the laws of the land. What type of laws could he have made for Nigeria?

As Richard puts it,

“President Olusegun Obasanjo disappointed the world by granting Alhaji Salisu Buhari a state pardon, despite his apparent campaign to transform Nigeria into a corruption-free society”692. The Buharigate, as the scandal was called latter, nearly destroyed Nigeria’s democracy-experiment.

However, corrupt military is not peculiar to Nigeria.

According to Osoba,

“Juan D. Peron of Argentina and Batista of Cuba, among others, were also known to have deposited their ill accumulated wealth in Swiss banks and other foreign financial institutions, instead of investing the loots in their local economy”.693

In the similar way, it is observed that with brute force Augusto Pinochet of Chile bastardized the nation’s economy, and killed many of the people who opposed his regime694.

Again, during one of his Inaugural Speeches on May, 29, 1999, Olusegun Obasanjo vowed to tackle the menace of corruption in Nigeria, he said:

"Corruption will be tackled head-on. No society can achieve its full potential if it allows corruption to become the full-blown cancer it has become in Nigeria." And he vowed that "there will be no sacred cows in his (President Obasanjo) process to stamp out corruption in the society”.695

But it is self evident that the corrupt big cows are still walking freely in the streets of Nigeria.

In summary, corruption diverts scarce public resources into private pockets, literally undermines effective governance, endangers democracy and erodes the social and moral fabric of nations. As it has been noted the lust for power and corruption is not strictly a Nigerian problem.

692 Sklar, Richard L., Contradictions in the Nigerian Political System, Journal of Modern African Studies, 3, 2, 1965,

p. 385, Lewis, Peter, The Politics of Economics, African Report, May/June, 1994, p.47 and Adam, Paul, Nigeria: Next Pariah? African Report, May-June, 1995, p.43; p.45.

693 Osaba, Sklar, Richard L., Contradictions in the Nigerian Political System, Journal of Modern African Studies, 3, 2, 1965, p. 385, Lewis, Peter, The Politics of Economics, African Report, May/June, 1994, p.47 and Adam, Paul, Nigeria: Next Pariah? African Report, May-June, 1995, p.43; p.45.

694 Ibid. 695 Obasanjo, Obasanjo Inaugural Address May 29, 1999.



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Corruption is a global phenomenon and manifest in both Petty and Grand forms. Will it be possible for Nigeria to effectively tame the scourge of corruption in the society?

1. Democracy, the Military Dictatorship, the Common Good, Religion and the Anti-corruption Strategy in Nigeria.

National, communal and family values seem to have become the first victims of the long drawn of crisis of the Nigerian State. Tragically, rather than consolidating the gains of nationhood, the country has experienced severe internal civil wars as nationalities, tribes and clans constantly clash in search of new identities and frontiers.

I want to point out here that so much has been written about democracy that it is not really of much use for us to start a process of seeking definitions.

According to Kukah M.H.,

“The quibbling among scholars has taking enough time, energy and space. At the level of the daily lives of ordinary citizen, it is even doubtful whether our people really interested one way or the other in what the intellectual ideas may really be. It is the manifestation of their collective cynicism towards these laudable I feel ought to worry us. Unless we are able to capture the reason for this drift, we run the risk of merely speaking to ourselves.”696

Consequent upon this, if one were to conduct a survey on what ordinary Nigerians imagine democracy mean to them, there are many chances that the researcher will be met with many derision. This is irrespective of whether it is on the streets or classrooms. Most respondents will, proverbially, do what Nigerians love doing best; answering questions by asking other questions. In response to the question what is democracy, most Nigerians would simply shoot back, ‘Can democracy feed us’? Wetin be dat (what is that?).

696 Fela Anikulapo Kuti (1938-97), Africa’s acclaimed Afro beat musician stands out as one of the most eccentric personalities on the Nigerian social and political scenes During his time he was imprisoned scores of times by Federal Govenment of Nigeria. Such records of his like Zombie, ITT, Coffin for Head of State took on themes that ordinary Nigerians were afraid to address.



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But on the other hand, some other respondents might just find the acerbic Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s definition of democracy as “dem-all-crazy”697 (they are all crazy) to be a much more befitting summary than any pre-occupation with Platonian, Aristotelian or Athenian conceptions.

Youth everywhere are occasionally lullabied by such concepts as leaders of tomorrow, treasures/owners of the future, as a means of firing them to higher dreams and idealism, but here in Nigeria, cynicism has become so deep that they seem to have also disengaged from the nation-state. Talk of the need for the cultivation of keen interest in such aspects of national life like politics, civics, governance, leadership, which should serve as the platform for some form of training for our youth, only draws a sceptical yawn from them.

According to Kukah M.H, for example,

“Sometime in 1996, Mr. Frank Olize, the affable anchor man of a popular Nigerian television programme (Newsline), devoted to public service; set out to deal with this problem. On that programme, one of the reporters went on the streets and to the University of Lagos where she spoke to a wide range of ordinary Nigerians on the issue of leadership. The question went something like this: “What is the name of your state? What is the capital and who is the present governor of your state” It was shocking to many viewers that some of the well-dressed ladies and gentlemen, many of them with university education, admit that they did not know the name of the military governors of their states.”698

What was even more outstanding was the fact that they all showed absolutely no emotional feelings of remorse or embarrassment at the thought that they had been caught out in public glare! In fact, the most telling comment came from a pretty female undergraduate. When she could not name the governor of her home state, the reporter tried to impress upon her the fact that this was not a laughing matter. The reporter was rather surprised that the young lady was laughing, insisted that as a student, she ought to have known the names of the leaders in government as a part of her general knowledge programme. The young girl stopped smiling, and now went on the offensive. She told the reporter,

“I have more important things to do with my brain than to waste it memorising useless things. Learning these useless things is not what brought me here. I am not just interested. What use is it anyway? After all, you can memorise all of them today and tomorrow you have to start all over again. They either keep changing them, or you hear that there has been a coup. As far as I am concerned, it is a waste of time.”699

697 Kukah, M.h, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria. 2003. p. 219.

698 Kukah, M.h, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria. 2003. p. 2. 699 Op cit.



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The tragedy of this situation lies in the fact that this cynicism has become an all-encompassing phenomenon. For example,

According to Kukah,

“even among so-called politicians themselves, there is no much self-deplication, self-immolation, stone-throwing, name-calling, buck-passing, bickering, treachery, blackmail and wrangling that there are many who would argue that it is their incoherence, more than anything else, which has made the epileptic military interventions become so much part of our nation’s political life.”700

Unfortunately enough, I want to point out here that the average Nigerian politician does not seem to know how to spell failure as far as the contest for office is concerned. They apportion blame on everything but themselves.

As Kukah puts it,

“Those who lose elections blame first, their opponents, then local government, state government, the electoral commission and its security agencies, the polling booth, the date, date and time of the elections, the weather or the heavens (too much rain or sunshine) etc. In an environment saturated by suspicion such as ours, where Nigeria have a tendency to resort to the native ways when the going gets really tough and conventional means fail, your fortune or misfortune in any venture could be hinged in seemingly innocuous event such as time of the day when you act, gender or physical state of the first person sighted in the day (a blind or lame woman or man), a snake crossing your path from the left or right etc. As such, the political state is sometimes a pantheon inhabited by deities of various shapes, sizes, persuasions or tongues.”701

I agree with Kukah that from this view of his, it becomes clear that the Nigerian politician has no time for the thought that being a gallant loser or a magnanimous victor are the bricks for the foundation on which democracy is built. He can only take responsibility for winning, but not for losing. Losing an election is the handiwork of evil extra-terrestrial species or their agents employed on earth by the enemy inform of any of the agents listed above. That is why the common expression of contestants who lose in any election is, I was rigged out, the enemies have done their worst, etc.702

700 Ibid.

701 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria. 2003. p. 3.

702 Ibid.



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Although the above observations are not meant to be a final judgement of the electoral conduct of Nigerian politics per se, its violent characteristics line in the uneven nature of the landscape of expectations of the participants and the observers.

The war to keep Nigeria one seemed to have ironically been a test run! Everywhere has become a battleground. Unfortunately, political instability which military rule introduced is at the heart of all our violence and incoherence.

As Kukah puts it,

“By dabbling into politics, the military lost its professional sense. By resorting to banditry, and looting of the nation's wealth, it lost its concentration and moral authority to administer. By creating a climate of violence, it succeeded in traumatising and militarising the nation. By abandoning its vocational duty post, it has left its flanks open and various foot soldiers have therefore moved in search for territory to conquer and control the emergence of new enemies.”703

The military, by gaining legitimacy through violence, have psychologically elevated and institutionalised as part of the artefacts on the altar of the quest for power at all levels. That is why for any loser, waiting till tomorrow for another election is seen as an exercise in futility.

Those who wine spend so much time, energy and resources building barricades to defend their newly conquered fiefdoms that by the time the electoral wheel turns, the gap between them and their losers/enemies becomes insurmountable. Even the process of this greedy construction by a vulnerable political class is very often interrupted by soldiers who come bandying a superior architectural design through their coups. Yet how one would wish that the Nigerian political class, or what is left of it, could heed the words of Edward Judson, who once said,

“Success and suffering are vitally and organically linked. If you succeed without suffering, it is because someone else has suffered before you, if suffer without succeeding, it is that someone else may succeed after you.”704

Clear enough; Nigerians have tended to shift the focus of the debate over the anarchical behaviour of their political classes and the attendant instability by resorting to all forms of excuses. Basically, it is agreed that the quest for blind, naked power and the drive towards primitive accumulation are the driving forces for politics in Nigeria. That is why politics is an end game. However, according to Kukah,

“There are tendencies which overarch the political spectrum across ethnic, religious, or regional lines in Nigeria. These tendencies constitute a cabal of sorts, and their project is the control and

703 Ibid. 704 Paul Lee Tan: Encyclopaedia of 7700 Illustrations, signs of the times.(Assurance Publishers New York.) p1372.



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domination of power in Nigeria. The nature and character of these cabals have not been clearly defined in objective terms. It is however held that the interests of the members of these cabals, being largely accumulation of wealth and power, cut across politics.”705

Quite interestingly, these cabals see political stability only as the protection and preservation of their interests. When the interests are threatened by major political realignments, a coup could be engineered as a means of derailing these fundamental structural realignments.

Very unfortunately, in this way they engineer anarchy within the political system when their interests are endangered.

Unmistakably, according to Bala, Takay and Soni Tyoden,

“this reference is always made to the Northern Nigeria where this perceived power is said to reside in the puppet strings of a cabal known by various names. Sometimes it is called the Hausa/Fulani Ruling Class, the Northern Oligarchy, the Caliphate or the Kaduna Mafia.” 706

This thesis is plausible and in many instances is cited to justify the seemingly intractable hold which the so-called Northern ruling Class over the rest of Nigeria in matters of political power; I believe it leaves many questions unanswered!

I wish to say here straight away that we can raise some other observations regarding this whole debate about a mafia and it’s seemingly influence in Nigerian politics like military interventions. Nigerian military coups cannot be explained by one cause. However, certain trends are discernible.

The coup that overthrew General Ironsi in July 1967 was engineered by Middle Belt officers who saw in the coup, an attempt to overthrow the existing social order which had humiliated northerners and threatened to reduce them to the periphery, though so many Nigerians did not seem to understand the hidden agenda.

According to Kukah,

“The fact that the first coup (January 1966) had been led by young Igbo Military officers and that an Igbo man benefited from it have been used to explain why the successful coup of 1967 was referred to as a return march. The installation of a Middle Belt Christian as the head of state was a


706 Bala, Takaya and Soni Tyoden, The Kaduna Mafia: A Study in the Rise, Development and consolidation of a Nigeria Power Elite (Jos University Press, 1987).



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statement of the strength of the soldiers from that part of Nigeria at the time as opposed to a Kaduna Mafia motif.”707

Secondly, the coup of December 31, 1983 overthrew the civilian government of the period, but although it installed a military government, two things were instructive, as now.

For Kukah,

“First of all, if we argue that the coup was engineered by the above cabal as has been popularly explained; later developments still left many unanswered questions. For example, although the coup brought in two fierce soldiers who were both Muslims and northerners, there was no open negative reaction against the government from any section of the country. In any case, the government it had overthrown had itself been led by a northern Muslim (Aljahaji Shuhu Shagari) who had been careful enough to have a southern Christian, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, as his Vice.”708

Consequent upon the frequent coups and instabilities, lost for power and power struggles, selfishness, avariciousness, Corruption and ethnicism that engulfed Nigeria, I am compelled to agree with Kukah,

“that the social cost of military rule can be calculated on the basis of the new identities which have emerged: tribal war-lordism, secret societies, cults, ritual murders, human traffic, street children, `àrea boys, `` to name a few. The nation is confused and everyone wonders what the ancestors would have thought.”709

Even the new religions which we have adopted to replace traditional ones have offered very little succour as Christians and Muslims have spent more time in internal wars than rebuilding the nation. Indeed, the words of Yeats made famous by Chinua Achebe seem to be apt: Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.

Claude Ake has therefore captured this Hobbesean choice which we face by arguing as follows:

“The only thing we seem committed to is unrelenting cynicism which we parade as a mark of honour. Scratch the surface however and you will see that it is only the other side of insecurity and despair, we wear it like a protective armour against the discomfort of looking at reality in the face, against the obligation of caring and of the burdens of taking responsibility...The Nigerian ruling elite survives against all odds. There is no legitimacy to draw on. It has run out

707 Matthew Hassan Kukah: Religion, Politics and Power in Northern Nigeria (Spectrum Books Ltd., 1993) p 39.





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of ideas, even bad ones...we are always looking up to some else, forever, searching for good leaders to see us through... The Nigerian state is a negative unity of takers in which collective enterprise is all but impossible”.710

In summary, the sense of what we shall refer to here as the Common Good is threatened. Here we are forced to ask a very important question. Under this condition, how do we make progress towards creating a civil society that can enable us to respond to the challenges of building a democratic polity in Nigeria that can help us fight the menace of Corruption adequately? To answer this question, I wish to go back at the question raised about the implications of our deep cynicism and fatalism on the project of civil society and democracy. I do not see how we can make progress until we seriously address these questions and give people a sense of meaning and belonging in their lives.

I want to argue that this sense of belonging has to be developed by Nigerians before they can mobilise for action in any direction. After all, when the Igbo’s felt threatened as a people, they mobilised themselves under the banner of a Biafran nation. The myth of Biafra would later become an idiom for galvanising them into action when the Igbo youths pleaded with Ojukwu to give them guns.

Similarly, the rest of Nigeria mobilised to defend Nigeria as an undivided entity under the banner that `` to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done. `The sense of pride that exists from belonging does not seem to exist in Nigeria any more. Nigeria has become totally alienated from the Nigerian state and they now experience it only at the level of its oppression from taxation, law infringement, arbitrary detentions, and various manifestations of scarcities of various items of personal, domestic and national survival, unemployment among others. What can restore the sense of belonging in our nation again? I argue that what we need is to restore the balance arising from the ideals of the social contract thesis.

I wish to further argue here, that the civil society can only function within the context of a clear appreciation of the concept of the Common Good. To address this, I will use the Catholic Church's Social Teaching on this theme to call attention to the fact that whether we call it the social contract, the Common Good, or Good Governance, the idea is the same: namely, the attainment of the good of the whole. But first of all, I will try to address the failure of the Government to achieve the Common Good by relating the fall of civil society to the emergence of military dictatorship which engendered high rate of Corruption in Nigeria.

710 Claude Ake: „The Nigerian Federation. Its foundation and Future Prospects “in Omafune Onoge: Nigeria the Way forward, (Spectrum Books, Ibadan.1993 pp. 14 -25.



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2. MILITARY DICTATORSHIP; CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE COMMON GOOD IN NIGERIA.

The first lesson that anyone involved in the struggle for the evolution of a vibrant civil society must learn is the fact that civil society and dictatorship cannot co-exist. This includes any form of dictatorship at all, be it military or civilian, benevolent or tyrannical. Unless we make this connection, no number of transition programmes will bring us democracy in the real sense of the word. Civil society is the engine of democracy, and since dictatorships destroy civil structures, it is expected that unless we put the structures of the civil society back on track, we can only have truncated dictatorship masquerading as democracies. So important is the project of civil society that Crawford Young literal ascribes a certain level of nobility to its cause when he says:

“Civil Society is indeed an elusive concept and a more fugitive reality...The quest for a civil society that can reinvent the state of its own admittedly idealized image is a drama of redemption whose potential nobility commands our admiration.” 711

Giving the lack of conceptual clarity, the fragility and fractured nature of our land scape, these realities dictate that this struggle has to assume the characteristics of a long distance runner. It has been noted that the years of military rule managed to completely destroy civil society in Nigeria. It can therefore be said of our situation what Gellner has said of civil society under the various dictatorships across the world in the last two centuries, namely, that;

“Civil society seemed distinctly covered with dust...it has been taken out and thoroughly dusted, and has become a shining emblem.” 712

Gellner Further argues:

“The absence was felt acutely in societies which has strongly centralised all aspects of life, and where a single political-economic-ideological hierarchy tolerated no rivals and a single vision defined not only truth but also personal rectitude. This caused society to approximate an atomised condition, and dissent then became a mark of heresy or, in the terminology of modern democracy, an enemy of the people.”713

In a society where the one in government is seen and cast in the mould of a man of the people, the one who opposes in any shape or form is naturally considered to be an enemy of the people. This should not be so. Since dictators do not want to tolerate any form of opposition to their views

711 Crawford Young; „In search of Civil Society” in John Herbeston et al: Civil Society and State in Africa, op. Cit.p.48.

712 Enest Gellner: Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals. (Hamish Hamilton. London. 1996).p.1. 713Enest Gellner: Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals. (Hamish Hamilton. London. 1996).p.1.



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or programmes, the relationship between various organs of civil society, rather than complementing one another end up being conflictual. Yet, in its proper understanding, As Gellner puts it,

“Civil Society is that set of diverse non-governmental institutions which is strong enough to counterbalance the state and, while no preventing the state from fulfilling its role of keeper of the peace and arbitrator between major interests, can nevertheless prevent it from dominating and atomising the rest of society.”714

With the intensity of military rule, we have now come to witness a retreat of the state in Africa. This, no doubt, has immense implications for citizens. Where the states attempted to democratise, the elite tended to embark on a bloated state ostensibly to create more jobs for the boys and their cronies. The bloated state would later create contradictions that would weaken the state and reduce its structures to caricatures of the real thing. This partly explains why this bloated state is always the first line of attack by international financial organs like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the World Bank.

In mono economies like Nigeria, according to Kukah,

“we notice that the personalisation of power is indeed an attractive position. This is what military dictatorship has successfully done in Nigeria. The retreat of the state has witnessed the subsequent retreat of the government from areas of public welfare. The result has been the resort to what one might call contractocray as a form of governance. This is a government by contract, for contractors, by contractors and with contractors. The result of all this for us in Nigeria is that the entire civil service has been reduced to a charade as morale has falling low.”715

The Nigerian state, in its quest for the personalisation of the instruments of power, has sought to domesticate every area of national life, especially those areas considered to be juicy by the elite. The retreat of the state coincided with the convergence of the instruments of power into the bosom of the ruler.

This leads to what according to Kukah,

“ may be called M̀yownisation of power’. Power becomes my own, and because I am the one who has taken control.”

The Myownisation of power in Nigeria came to a head under the regime of General Babangida and has continued. It can be argued that although corruption has been with us and has been accepted as

714Ernest Gellner: Conditions of Liberty, Op. Cit. P 5. 715 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria. 2003. p. 4



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part of the political process, there have been dramatic divergencies over time. For this reason, according to Kukah,

“Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu, sated his coup ostensibly to rid Nigeria of those he called ‘ten percenter,’ these are the corrupt officials who collect 10% money equivalent of every contract that is giving through their influence directly or indirectly. The poor man would turn in his grave because access to these resources has now become raison d´être for military intervention in our polity.” 716.

It is from this view that Nigerians generally seem to be of the opinion that the military took corruption to new highs in Nigeria. But every author has this opinion.

That is why for Tom Forest,

“This may be so but, it does not address other issues as to why the same degree has manifested itself in almost all other facets of the Nigerian national life. Many commentators argue also that corruption in Nigeria came to a vicious head under the dictatorship of General Babangida. Again, although there was certainly a quantum leap in its score, we have to address two questions, namely, the roles of various segments in the Nigerian society and the issue of personal responsibility.”717

The legendary ubiquity of corruption in Nigeria is not something we can explain by resort to monocausality. Clearly, President Babangida's administration, by manipulating the economy under the infamous Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), flooded the country with bad money. In fact even the President himself did say in a national interview at the height of this charade,

‘’That he was shocked by the fact that despite the blatant mismanagement of the Nigerian economy, the nation has not grounded to a halt. “718

The main question is after all said and done, what we shall do to remedy this utterly ugly situation of corruption in the Nigerian Society. One may be tempted to ask further, what is the place of religion and its prophetic mission vis- a- Vis Nigeria Corrupt situation?

I find the words of Pope St Gregory to be remarkably relevant to our discussion in this Chapter. In one of his Pastoral rules, he observed that:


717 Tom Forest: Politics and Economic Development in Nigeria. (West view Press, London. 1996) p.246

718Kukah, M.h, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria. 2003. p. 219.



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‘’A religious leader should be careful in deciding when to remain silent and be sure to say something useful when deciding to speak. In this way, he will avoid saying things that would better not be said, or leaving unsaid...ill advised silence can leave people in error when they could have been shown where they were wrong. Negligent religious leaders are often afraid to speak freely and say what needs to be said for fear of losing favour with the people... they are acting like hirings, because hiding behind the wall of silence is like taking flight at the approach of the Wolf. If a religious leader is afraid to say what is right, what else can his silence mean but that he has taken flight? Whereas if he stands firm in defence of his flock, he is building up a wall for the house against its enemies. Anyone entering the Priesthood accepts the office of herald and must by his words; prepare the way for the terrible judgement of the one who follows. If then the Priest neglects his preaching, what sort of warning cry can he, a dumb herald give? That is why the Holy Spirit settled on the first religious leaders in form of tongues: because those whom he fills, he fills with his own eloquence. “719

Again, many people, I am sure, are familiar with the famous statement credited to Stalin who was said to have asked: HOW MANY DIVISIONS HAS THE POPE? Well, that question was revisited when the Catholic world woke up to the News that his Eminence, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla, had been elected the Pope on Oct. 17 1978 the first Polish Pope in world history. He has lived through and suffered terribly under Communist rule in his native land Poland. His election excited the entire world, being the first non-Italian to be elected Pope in 445 years!

But it was his own country that served as a sounding board for the battles that lay ahead. His experiences with the politics and history of his country drew him closer to the heart of battle for the soul of Poland.

As Kukah puts it,

“More importantly, unlike a lot of men in his position, having been a man of the Arts, History and Literature of Poland, he was deeply patriotic and concerned about political future of his homeland. His coming to the Papacy would set in motion a chain of events that would later turn the world history around. In the process, it would once again rekindle the debate about the role and place of religion in the social and political transformation of society. After he had conquered Communism with the sword of faith, many Christians, nay, Catholics began to discuss the possibility of transforming their society with the same tools.”720

719A Reading from the Pastoral Rule of Pope Gregory. Divine Office, Book Two, (Vatican City. Vol. 3, 1974.) p. 609.




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3. THE CRAKS ON THE WALL

If things are allowed to continue the way they are now, according to the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria,

“corruption will bring about the death both of the individual Nigerians and the nation itself because corruption always kills ultimately. It destroys both its victim and its perpetrator in the long run.”721

Many years ago, after he has closely studied the life of the Hindu saint, Mahatma Gandhi, Louis Fisher, an American journalist, wrote:

“At the root of innumerable wrongs in our civilization is the discrepancy between word, creed and deed. It is the weakness of Churches, states, parties and persons. It gives men and institutions split personalities. Gandhi attempted to heal the split by establishing harmony in place of discrepancy....in him; word, creed, and deed were one.”722

This of marching word and action has not been met with, as Fisher rightly pointed out above. This is because; UNO has not succeeded in making true their promises. Some looted monies are still dumped in the foreign banks where they have been deposited. An example of such country is Nigeria. Let us here examine some of these resolutions.

To buttress this point of marching word and actions, the UNO QATAR: draft resolution , 2004 for preventing and combating corrupt practices and transfer of funds of illicit origin and returning such assets to the countries of origin has this to say,

“The General Assembly, recalling its resolution 58/205 of December 2003, on preventing and combating corrupt practices and transfer of funds of illicit origin and returning such funds to the countries of origin, recalling also the Monterrey Consensus of the International conference on Financing for Development,723 which underlined that fighting corruption at all levels is a priority, and the Plan of implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (“Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.”724

721 The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, Lagos Nigeria, 2010

722 Louis Fisher, ‘Gandhi’ : His Life and Message for the World (New York: Mentor Books, 1954) p.40. 723 On behalf of the States Members of the United Nations that are members of the Group of 77 and China. Report of

the International Conference on Financing for Development, Monterrey, Mexico 18-22 March 2002 (United Nations publication Sales No E.02.II.A.7), chap I, resolution 1, annex

724 Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 August-4 September 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No E.03.II.A.1 and corrigendum), chap I,



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I wish to say here that the recognition of the negative impact of corruption on the world order by the UNO is very much appreciated. Most especially the diversion of money and resources away from the various countries concerned with particular reference to Nigeria is a thing of concern. This type of corruption has adversely affected almost all the levels of the society negatively. This why according to the UNO Draft Resolution,

“recognizing that corruption at all levels is a serious barrier to development and diverts resources away from activities that are vital for hunger and poverty eradication and economic and sustainable development, reiterating its concern about the seriousness of problems posed by continuing corrupt practices, which may endanger the stability and security of societies, undermine the values of democracy and civil ethics and jeopardize sustainable and political development, in particular when an inadequate national and international response leads to impunity, Considering that the prevention of corrupt practices and transfer of assets of illicit origin and the return of such assets to the countries of origin have not been adequately regulated by all national legislations and international legal instruments,

Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on preventing and combating corrupt practices

and transfer of funds of illicit origin and returning such assets to the countries of origin; Recognizes the efforts of Member States that have enacted laws to prevent and combat corrupt practices and the transfer of illicitly acquired assets and for the return of such assets to the countries of origin, in accordance with the United Nations Convention against Corruption and encourages Member States that have not yet done so to enact such laws;

Also encourages all Member States that have not yet done so to require financial institutions to properly implement comprehensive due diligence and vigilance programmes that could facilitate transparency and prevent the placement of illicitly acquired funds.”725.

Like Louis Fisher, I wish to say that even here in Nigeria, one of the greatest sources of fear for the common man is that those who make laws to protect common interests often have their easy ways and means of circumventing the same laws. As Louis Fisher puts it,

“Having been deceived for so many years, „the masses see so much discrepancy between word, creed and the deed in the lives of our leaders that it is very difficult for them to

725 Above is a cache of http://www.un.org/esa/documents/draft87cCorruptpractices.pdf. United Nations general assembly c 2 59 l agenda 87 October 2004. The web site itself may have changed. You can check the current page (without highlighting) or check for previous versions at the Internet Archive.



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vouch for the sincerity and the credibility of their leaders until they have seen their action become louder than written anti-corruption slogans”726.

The following is enough to illustrate what I mean. According to Kukah,

“At the height of Sani Abacha's numerous crimes against Nigeria and Nigerians, when he looted our money with demonic insatiability, imprisoned some people, maimed some, killed others and planted bombs here and there to distract our attention from his venal atrocities, the same Abacha had the delusive tendency to set up a fake human right commission to confuse the world by selling his image as a benevolent human right defender. Yet that did not stop him from declaring war against corruption and sending the real human rights and pro-democracy activists who clamoured for justice and equity in the country either to prison, to exile or to the grave, leaving a medley of military millionaires, civilian sycophants, political crowns, spineless mediocrities, mindless opportunists and other accomplices who teamed up with him to impose an unspeakable decree of distress on the nation.”727

Driven by his survival instinct, the same Sani Abacha equated his morbid obsession for personal security with national security. Hence,

“in addition to the existing security networks such as the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), the State Security Services (SSS), the Federal Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (FIIB), he created the most dreaded Presidential Body Guards and the Strike Force’’ 728.

Kukah goes on to compare Abacha’ insensitivity to human sufferings to that of Hitler’s;

“Like Adolf Hitler's SS men, both the Body Guards and the Strike Force provided the killing machinery which facilitated the assassination of all those only sin was that they did not like Abacha's evil ways.”729

We need brave and honest people who are ready to stand up in the face of evil and condemn it ought rightly. For that, J.Odey exclaimed!

“I respect Gani Fawehinmi (a Nigerian Politician and human right activist). I found it impossible not to be impressed by his altruistic approach to our country's social, economic, political and religious malaise. In a word, I am one of his millions of admirers all over the world. Whether you

726 Odey J.O, Anti-Corruption Crusade-The Saga of a crippled Gint, 2001.P 106 727 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003 p 202.

728. Odey J O Anti-Corruption Crusade-The Saga of a crippled Gint, 2001.P 107 729 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003 p .202.



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admire him as I do or not, the truth remains that Gani is a man you cannot afford to ignore as far as the struggle for better Nigeria is concerned.”730

Take for instance in Nigeria, when Ibrahim Babangida came under the camouflage of a saviour, riding roughshod on our right to exist, our right to choose a leader, our right to be free and on our right to own and enjoy the abundant resources God has bestowed on us, Gani was the first person who openly and fearlessly told him that he came to destroy and not to save us. If we were in need of a saviour, certainly it was not the type of Babangida. Babangida did not take the warning as his regime plunged the nation from one major economic and political disaster to another.

In March 1989, Gani declared that,

“his government was infested with socio-economic AIDS. And as a result, it was not going to deliver a socio-economic-free civilian regime.”731

He berated the regime as the first military government in the country that had openly legitimized corruption and consciously initiated programmes for the total collapse of the Nigerian economy and consciously implanted high-grade poverty amongst our people. He predicted that Babangida's sham transition programme would be aborted by Babangida himself through his neurotic ambition to be in power732.

For being so daring, Babangida's government taught him a lesson by arraigning him to court charged with saying things according to Babangida,

“calculated to encourage the Nigerian Public and particularly the military to prejudice and undermine the realization of the political programme as set out in the schedules to Transition to Civil Rule (Political Programme) Decree 1987.“733

As soon as Babangida's time was up, he was pushed aside by the people’s verdict. Then came Sani Abacha.

In the embattled political history of Nigeria Abacha's regime has remained the worst as far as the sins against humanism are concerned. In April 1998, Pope John II paid his second visit to Nigeria. His special appeal to Sani Abacha to release innocent political prisoners and reduce the economic and other unbearable hardships he inflicted on the nation fell on deaf ears.

For defying the People’s pleas, Gani likened Abacha to

730 J.O the Odey Anti-Corruption Crusade-The Saga of a crippled Gint 2001.P. 107

731Odey J.O The Anti- Corruption Crusade-the Saga of a Crippled Giant 2001.p.58 732New Horizon, March1989, p. 6. 733New swatch, February 12, 1990, p 4.



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“a mad dog that has gone astray and would no longer listen to the whistle of the hunter.”734

Barely two months later, had divine providence proved Gani right when Abacha went to the yonder world to give account of his stewardship.

As Odey writes,

“Today it is my firm conviction that if we must recover our honour, our hope and our dignity which has been destroyed by the military in this country, we must listen to the people like Gani Fawehinmi. Since God does not speak to us directly but through the instrumentality of our very selves, I see Gani as the greatest prophet of our time and circumstance. I see him as God's message to a tortured Nigeria, to a bleeding Nigeria, to a dying Nigeria. If we ignore what he says, we might do so to our collective peril. If we leave him to struggle alone, we do so to our collective peril.” 735

The violent military fashion with which the president handled the crisis of Odi, Bayeslsa State in June 1999 confirmed Gani's view. This made him to describe the president as a civilian dictator or a military dictator in a civilian garb. Explaining further, he said that,

“the president is not the proper and the fit person for the running of a democratic apparatus because, as somebody who had spent his entire life physically and psychologically in bloodletting, it is in his blood to kill.”736

In his assessment of the president's leadership after one year, Gani says,

“It is a nasty grill of failure, hopes shattered, expectations dashed. Nigerians have moved from hatred for the military to disenchantment with the politicians, from opposition to the military to frustration to the civil rule; one year of disaster, one year of debacle and Insecurity of lives and property have heightened. Mayhem has taken over. Ruthless religious bigotry, insensitive bloodletting, continual assassinations and incessant robberies becomes the order of the day. Life is cheap, brutish and in a primitive state. “737

Similarly, he has a lot of misgivings about the present's anti-corruption crusade. He has the following poser for the president:

“How do you talk of anti-corruption, how do you set out to abolish corruption, how do you now want to tell the Nigerian people that corruption does not pay when those men who made corruption to thrive in our society are not touched and have become sacrosanct, sacred cows in the

734TELL April 27, 1998 p. 21. 735John Odey, Christians, Politics and the Nigerian Dilemma (Enugu: Snaap Press, 1999) pp. 69-70. 736The Source, January 17, 2000, p. 12. 737The Source, June 5 2000, p, 10.



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society? Those who made away with our resources, either the Gulf war oil scoop or the bogus IMF conditionality’s that attracted so much money to them or plain stealing of the resources, just because one of them bank-rolled his election, he suddenly became a saint when every Nigerian smells faeces of corruption on his body, except you the head of state...are the only one who is not smelling the faeces on Babangida's body, the faeces of corruption.”738

The irrepressible legal icon and voice of the voiceless is yet to know from the president why

“no single military man, no single ex-general, no single ex-head of state, no single ex-commissioner, no single ex-military Administrator and no single ex-minister who have been architects of all the country's corruption tragedies has been taken to court within the 365 days of Obasanjo's administration”.739

Based on all these and many more, Gani draws the following startling conclusion:

“If there is one enemy of this civil rule, it is the president.”740

While taking over the mantle of leadership from General Abdul salami Abubakar on May 29, 1999 President Obasanjo expressed his awareness of the wide spread cynicism and total lack of confidence in all, of which arose as a result the bad faith, deceit and evil actions that characterized the many years of ruthless military administrations.

According to ‘The News’,

“Where official pronouncements are repeatedly made and not matched by action, said the president, government forfeits the confidence of the people and their trust.”741

In view of this, he assured Nigerians that his administration was determined to implement quickly and decisively measures which would restore confidence in governance. To achieve the desired aims and objectives of his administration, he listed among other things, the following priority issues that would need his immediate attention:

“The crisis in the oil producing areas, Laws and order with particular reference to armed robbery and Cultism in our educational institutions. Exploration and production of petroleum, Macro-economic policies, particularly, exchange rate management, Supply and distribution of petroleum products, Corruption, drugs, organized fraud such as the 419 activities and crimes leading to loss

738. The Source, June 5 2000, p. 11. 739Ibid. 740John Odey Anti-corruption crusade-The Saga of A crippled Giant.2001, p.,67. 741 The News, June 14, 1999, p. 24.



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of lives, property and investment, Job creation and creation of conducive environment for investment and Poverty alleviation.”742

Having listed these priorities, the president raised our hopes more by assuring us that he was determined to make significant changes in them within one year of his administration.

According to Odey J,

“Despite all these bogus ideas and its non-fulfilment, the lack of confidence exacerbated by bad faith has continued to hunt the administration. Moreover, the administration wobbled so much in the face of so many national hiccups that it does not seem to possess the knowledge, the skill and the courage needed to bring the country out of the woods and thus realize its good intentions for the citizenry.”743

It should be noted that the crisis in the oil-producing areas reached its climax under this administration. Armed robbers have virtually taken over the country. This has not only raised so many questions about the usefulness of police, it has given rise to emergence of parallel vigilante groups and or ethnic militias. These militias include, the Oodua People's Congress (OPC) and the Bakasi Boys who have become the people's darling to the consternation of both the federal government and the police.

In the same vein, as Odey, puts it,

“the menace of cultism in our educational institutions has remained one of the greatest thorns in the flesh of the president's administration. Far from curbing the menace, the administration has been perching on the fringe like a lame duck watching the gruesome drama.”744

At the inception of the administration, it seemed to have possessed all that was needed to drive out the demon behind the persistent fuel scarcity that has paralyzed the nation for so many years. Unfortunately, we went back to where we were as the biting and inexplicable scarcity of petroleum products in the country remained one of the greatest shames of the administration.

According to the TELL,

“to this insult, the president added injury when he raised the pump price of petrol from N20.00 to N30.00, diesel from N19.00 to N29.00 and kerosene from N17.00 toN27.00 on June 1, 2000. The wrong timing of the price increase which came at the wake of his offer of N10 billion with which to

742Ibid. 743 John Odey Anti-corruption crusade-The Saga of A crippled Giant.2001, p., 67.

744 Ibid.



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alleviate poverty among over 150 million Nigerians did not help matters. It was due to corrupt tendency and by a cruel and grossly miscalculated political naivety that the president so aggravated the poverty he claimed to have come to alleviate.”745

Among other reasons, we were made to believe that the rise in the prise became necessary because it would act as a deterrent to smugglers. A very good reason indeed! However, the president and his advisers seemed to have forgotten that they were addressing people who have some level of intelligence, so that by giving such a spurious reason as a justification for the price hike he was indirectly telling us that he was no longer in control. That reason did not go down well with Nigerians who immediately pointed out that smuggling is one of the most sickening forms of corruption and that it is wrong for the president to leave those who committed the crime to go free only to punish the innocent masses who bore the brunt of the price hike.

Furthermore, according to Odey,

“people asked the president to tell them what the security men guarding our seas and our territorial borders do each time that the smugglers carry on their illicit trade along the seas and along the borders. They reminded him that hiking fuel price because those guarding the borders had colluded with smugglers to carry on their nefarious trade was like punishing some poor villagers during a war because the soldiers detailed to guard their village were asleep when enemies came, took over and lavished the village. They reminded the president that smugglers are not spirits but Nigerians who’s God-fathers hold key positions in government and so are covered no matter what they do.”746

In the final analysis, the president was compelled by the masses of the people, who always feel the pinch of executive high-handedness to swallow his words as he shaved off as at that time, according to the TELL,

“N8.oo from the N30.00 he announced for petrol price, making it N22.00 per litre. Kerosene came down to its original price of N17.00 per litre while diesel came down to N21.00 a litre. The people's spontaneous reaction and his concession are a big lesson which we should never lose sight of. No leader particularly, in a democratic setting, has the right to do whatever he likes. A leader's main job is to be the servant of the people and not their master.”747

745 TELL April 27, 1998 p. 21.

746 John Odey Anti-corruption crusade-The Saga of A crippled Giant.2001, p., 75.

747 TELL April 27, 1998 p. 21.



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The positive impacts of the administration's much vaunted macro-economic policies were yet to be felt by the people as the astronomical devaluation of the naira becomes more and more a matter of an economic disaster. Currently it is exchanging at N200.00 or more to a dollar. What a national tragedy!

Despite the good intentions of the government, the poverty alleviation scheme was yet to achieve its grandiose aims and objectives as the only things majority of Nigerians have in common are poverty and hapless future.

Then come as one would aspect, the hydra-headed monster called corruption into the Nigerian society. As if to tell the president that his touted ant-corruption crusade has remained a mere populist political racket, in September 2000, the transparency international, the very anti-corruption body that helped to raise him to a very high pedestal, delivered its bombshell that Nigeria is the most corrupt country in the world.748

This is certainly painful and it is a big dent on an administration which expects the world to recognize it as seven-horned dragon that has come to eat up all the demons of corruption in the country. It is most painful when one recalls that prior to Obasanjo's assumption of office; Nigeria occupied the 27th position on the corruption chart.

According to Odey,

“It is very sad. The passage of every day brings us closer to the bitter truth that in spite of the president's stunning moral courage and commendable effort to fight against corruption, there are still many cracks in the wall. And these cracks, if not checked, will mar the Nigerian resolve the discard the old wine in Nigeria's system of governance and build a new system of ethics and morals to suit an age which abhors oppression and corruption but yearns for freedom, justice and fair play, probity and accountability.”749

Apart from the problems mentioned above, the first and the greatest threat to the president's war against corruption is his marriage of convenience with Ibrahim Babangida and his voluminous silence over the popular clamour to probe him. The president is treating Babangida as a sacred cow in spite of his assurance to the nation that there would be no room for sacred cows in his administration. In his book, The Sharia And The Rest Of Us, Odey J. Enumerated what Nigerians

748 The News, February 28 2000, p. 13.

749 John Odey Anti-corruption crusade-The Saga of A crippled Giant.2001, p., 75.



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pointed out as ample evidence of Babangida’s corruption that makes it impossible for them to swallow the president's claim that those who say that he is corrupt are „just malicious.“750

In the book, Odey J. Pointed out that the most stunning revelation of Babangida's corruption was made by Alfred Rewane in September 1995 shortly before he was assassinated by Abacha's killers when he made the following generous assessment of what Babangida would have earned as salary for the 30years he served the nation as a military man:

“Ibrahim Babangida joined the Nigerian army in 1964. When he retired in 1993, he has served for nearly 30years. Assuming that he was paid N1 million per month while he was in the service and did not spend one kobo from it, he would have earned N 12 million a year or about N360 million for the whole period of nearly 30years. The question may be asked; where and how did Babangida then find the money to build his 50-bedroom castle at Mina in Niger State, estimated by some sources to have cost up to N2.6 billion, to which he has retired and where he now lives. L`quenement du Jeudi, a French weekly, in 1998 put Babangida's net worth at 30 billion French francs (about N450 billion).”751

Granted that the president still believes there is no evidence to prove that Babangida was corrupt, he is challenged to uncover the big riddle surrounding how he was able to make such a huge amount of money. Does the President wish to convince us that the alleged corrupt role which Babangida played in Nigeria can be treated with kid-gloves, brushed under the carpet and trampled into the oblivion? If he does, that in itself looks like a high level corruption because it is a direct attack on all that we value and cherish as a people. If he does, that is a big dent on Nigerian anti- corruption crusade.

But as if to add insult to injury, while Nigerians pensively watched to see whether the president would harken to their call to probe Babangida, he rather went ahead and appointed him to head a university.

At the end of his eight years of dictatorship in office, Babangida bequeathed to us a legacy that has put this country in a coma. By banning the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and ASUU, he castrated education and left the nation in intellectual darkness. What legacy then did the president wish him to bequeath the young ones in the university who are the future leaders of this country? How a person like Babangida could be put in a position to direct the educational policy and values of a new Nigeria that is struggling to repair the damage that the same Babangida and his likes inflicted on her.

750 The News, February 28 2000, p. 13.

751 Ibid.



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For me, the writer Chukwudum Ikeazor most aptly depicted the wrathful feelings and the righteous indignation which Nigerians harbour for those corrupt persons who are shielded by presidential immunity in this way,

“The leader may be forgiven for the mistakes of the head, in his efforts to steer the ship of state, but the people condemn themselves to Psychological enslavement, abuse of office and corruption when they appear to forgive a commander-in-chief, a presidential liar and robber...for crimes of...grand corruption and theft, corruption of the value system and all those that damage the very fabric of society, no one is authorized or equipped to forgive. No one. If Nigeria is unwilling to bring to book, not a few token figures, but all the knaves and villains that have brought ruin to the country, the country is unfit to survive.”752

If Obasanjo means well for Nigeria, he should have harkened to people's feeling about corruption in high places, and among the big fish and not simply in the low places and among the small fish. If Nigeria must be rid of corruption, every one of us must be exorcised of the evil spirit of corruption. This can be done by building up a good valued-system for example, truth guided in charity. But for an effective, positive and lasting result, the exorcism which has begun with small fish must continue with the big fish.

Unless this is done, we shall only be scratching the tip of the iceberg. And no matter how many years it takes us to do so, we may end up being completely destroyed by corruption rather than eradicating it.

I want to say here right away, that selective Justice leads to bad leadership and enhances lack of trust in governance. In his book, Mahatma Gandhi: A Profile in Love Peace and Nonviolence, Odey. Writes:

“Some people are bound to be richer than others as long as the world lasts. Inequality is an irreversible part of social existence, but living and thriving at the expense of others is a crime.”753

But we must continue the fight against corruption, injustices and for freedom. Aime Cesair, the Martinique-born West Indian Poet, is known to be one of the earliest persons who injected some vibrant blood into the veins of Comatose black people, particularly in Africa, to fight for their God-given freedom. While he was still a student in France, he introduced and developed the idea of negritude into an indomitable black consciousness ideology which eventually paved the way for the political independence that swept through the whole of Africa in 1960s.

In his book, Black Skin, White Masks, Franz Fanon quoted Cesaire as follows:

752The Source, June 5, 2000.p.8 753Odey J the Ant-corruption Crusade-The Saga of a crippled Giant 2001. p. 100.



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“When I turn on my radio, when I hear that Negroes have been lynched in America, I say that we have been lied to: Hitler is not dead; when I turn on my radio, when I learnt that Jews have been insulted, mistreated, persecuted, I say that we have been lied to. Hitler is not dead; when, finally, I turn on my radio and hear that in Africa forced labour has been inaugurated and legalized, I say that we have certainly been lied to: Hitler is not dead.”754

After reading the above, I could not but discover a startling similarity between what Cesaire said many years ago vis-a-vis the fate of the oppressed races, the blacks and the Jews, and the fate of Nigerians before their corrupt leaders and after the reign of terrible human being called Abacha and his likes.

Certainly, according to Odey,

“Abacha and his likes are Nigerian version of Germany's Adolf Hitler. While Hitler was the terror of the Jews, these corrupt leaders like Abacha represent the terror of Nigerians. Hence, when he died on June 8, 1998 Nigerians heaved a big sigh of relief that he also could surrender to the cold grip of death and thus, give way for goodness, justice and equity to reign in the land.”755

While we are certainly better off today than we were in the days of Abacha and Obasanjo, the truth remains that we still have a long way to go in terms of realizing our lofty dreams to a better Nigeria.

In other words, As Odey puts it,

“like Cesaire, I am tempted to say that when I read The NEWS magazine and hear that Nigerian Senators and legislators, have abandoned their sacred duty of making laws that would bring hope and succour to a people so badly battered by many years of military madness and turned into an assemblage of greedy and fraudulent contractors, I say we have been lied to: Sani Abacha is not dead.”756

When I think about the allegation that the speaker of the House of Representatives awarded a contract to the tune of N28 just for the planting of flowers within the corridors of the of the legislators' chamber alone, and that his travel expenses as at December 1999 stood atN180 million, I say to myself, they have lied to us: Sani Abacha is not dead.

754Ibid. 755 Ibid.

756 John Odey Anti-corruption crusade-The Saga of A crippled Giant.2001, p., 102



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When I think of the same person inflating a Street Lighting project contract from N57 million to N175 million and inflating an office complex contract from N4 million to N11 million,757 I to I, they have lied to us: Sani Abacha is not dead.

When I think of reading the News watch magazine and discover that the senators who were sent to Abuja to fashion out ways and means of repairing the great harm inflicted on this country by the military have decided to plunder the nation with reckless abandon, I say we have been lied to: Sani Abacha is not dead. He is still alive and prowling like a rapacious wolf.

When I read the TELL magazine and find out that the Senate president allegedly used a whopping sum of N70 million to buy Salah cow for some senators, (that is, at the cost of N660.000.00 per cow assuming that each of the senators got a cow),758

When I look around and discover that any typical pauper who joins politics today automatically becomes a millionaire tomorrow, who can boast of a fleet of private and public vehicles, many houses in London, Paris, New York and Canada, I say that we have been lied to: Sani Abacha, the greatest thief that ever ruled this country, is not dead.

When I look around and see that many workers' salaries are not paid for many months while many political thugs who have become Lords within the rank and file of the ruling party, carry home allowances that could pay thousands of workers, I say to myself that they have lied to us: Sani Abacha, the man whose government had billions of naira to spread on the youths who were rented to earnestly ask for him to continue to rule us against our will but had no money to pay poor workers their pitiable wages, is not dead.

When I look around and see that many honest business men and women are dying in abject hunger and poverty on daily basis for lack of fund and material while almost every lazy man who is a political sycophant is swimming in affluence, I say to myself, they have lied to us: Sani Abacha is not dead.

When I think of reading the Punch newspaper only to be informed that a state governor who claims that he has no money to pay workers a minimum wage of N5,000.00 can afford to spend N50 million in a single overseas trip, I say to myself that we have been lied to: Sani Abacha is not dead.

When I read about how governor Ahmed Sani Yerima of Zamfara state, the Sharia guru who presented religious intolerance as food and shelter to his poor people, angered his people to no end by spending a month overseas with a large entourage, and how his people would want him to tell

757Op. cit. p 101. 758Op .cit 102.



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them where he got all the money that financed his globe-trotting spree,759 I say to myself, Sani Abacha, the man who wanted to blackmail God, is not dead.

When I think about the fact that more than a half of Nigeria's over 150 million people live below the poverty line and that in this same Nigeria very few people called legistrators, who live in the palatial city of Abuja every conceivable comfort is provided, instead of caring and feeling the pinch of that poverty, which they are largely the cause of, play the Oliver Twist by asking for more, I say to myself that they have lied to us: Sani Abacha is not dead.

When I think of the fact that inspire of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme, no president, no minister, no state governor, no commissioner, no local government chairman has dared to put his child in the common primary or secondary school, that instead of doing so, they use billions of naira to build exclusive elite school for their children/and or send them overseas to study at our collective expense while the rest of the nation's children are left to make do with ramshackle schools, I say that they have lied to us. Sani Abacha is not dead.

When I think of reading the Champion newspaper and find out that some of our senators collect fat estacodes for scheduled trip overseas but simply put all in their pockets and sleep soundly at home, I say to myself, they have lied to us: Sani Abacha is not dead.

When I read on the pages of the Vanguard newspaper about some of our senators awarding contracts and inflating contracts sums by about 300t 400 higher than what the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), the agency responsible for such matters estimated them, I say to myself, they have lied to us: Sani Abacha is not dead. He is still arriving and the sordid drama of the Ajaokuta steel complex still goes on.760

In a situation whereby majority of Nigerians have found themselves in another messy political and economic mix-up, where their unanimous response to the activities of their representatives is a barrage of a nagging questions such as who gave what approval, how many billions were approved, were the normal procedures followed, who will account for the missing millions and so forth, we are compelled to conclude that we have been lied to: Sani Abacha is not dead.

One therefore wonders, when the spirit of Sani Abacha that has continued to wreak an appalling havoc on the nation through some of our honourable legislators will be exorcized to enable Nigeria rise up once again and to ensure that generations yet to be born will not have a cause to look back to say that this generation discovered its mission but betrayed it.

One of the major problems according to Odey J,

759Odey J The Anti-corruption Crusade-The Saga of a Crippled Giant 2001, p 103. 760 Ibid.



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“ is that That Third World Presidents including Nigeria hardly stay in their own countries with the result that they hardly know what the countries truly look like or what actually happen in them. They are unfortunately more familiar faces in London, America, Canada, France and so forth, but strangers in their own countries.”761

Like many other heads of state president Obasanjo has equally fallen into the temptation of too much travelling within the short period of his presidency. In his article, FOREVER ABROAD, a journalist, Calistus Oke, gave a run-down of the president's foreign trips within sixteen months of his administration and came out with the startling revelation that within those sixteen months, the president made about forty-five foreign trips.

Hereunder is the list of such trips, including countries visited and dates of visit:

1) Republic of Benin March 12, 1999 2) Tanzania March 13, 1999 3) Mozambique March 14, 1999 4) Kenya March 14-15 1999 5) Egypt March 14, 1999 6) France March 18, 1999 7) United Kingdom March 20-23, 1999 8) Italy ( Rome) March 26, 1999 9) United States of America March 26-30, 1999 10) Brazil April 4-5, 1999 11) China April 11-12, 1999 12) Japan April 14-15, 1999 13) South Africa June 16, 1999 14) Algeria July 12-14, 1999 15) Morocco July 23, 1999 16) New York Sep. 23-27, 1999 17) Washington D.C. Oct. 28.Nov. 1, 1999 18) Sierra Leone Nov. 5, 1999 19) Guinea & Liberia Dec. 3, !))) 20) Togo Dec. 10-11, 1999 21) Germany Dec. 13-18, 1999 22) Mozambique Jan. 15, 2000 23) India Jan. 24-28, 2000 24) France Feb. 6-10, 2000

761Op, cit. P. 116.



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25) Portugal Feb. 10, 2000 26) Togo March. 15, 2000 27) Egypt April. 2-4, 1999 28) Cuba April. 9, 2000 29) Senegal April. 26-28, 2000 30) Algeria April. 28-30, 2000 31) Chad May, 4, 2000 32) Canada May. 10-13, 2000 33) Egypt June. 18-19, 2000 34) Norway & Switzerland June 25-29, 2000 35) Japan, South Korea & Turkey July. 19 -25, 2000 36) Liberia July. 26, 2000 37) The Republic of Chad July 27, 2000 38) Italy Sept. 11, 2000 39) Liberia & Sierra Leone August 21, 2000 40) London Aug. 23, 2000 41) United States of America Sept. 4-10, 2000 42) London Sept. 13, 2000 43) Togo Sept. 24, 2000 44) Cote D' Ivories Sept. 25, 2000 45) Venezuela Sept. 26-28, 2000762

The president and his thriving coterie of sycophants and political jobbers have been doing all that is within their powers to convince us that his glob-trotting spree is in the best interest of Nigeria. According to Odey,

“Good! He has been going round the world to convince them that the coast is now free, that Nigeria is now a haven for business opportunities and that they should return to take the places reserved for them since the inglorious days of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha when they fled the country and helped once more to lift the country from the wreckage of her economic disaster.”763

Without casting any aspersions, on the president's good intention, what many Nigerians are saying is that he has not learn to put his priorities right by virtually living abroad and chasing foreign investors instead of concentrating at home to put the home front in order first. Instead of

762The Source, October 9, 2000, pp.36-37. 763 Odey J The Anti-corruption Crusade-The Saga of a Crippled Giant 2001, p 103.



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going to America, cap in hand, begging Presidents of America like Bill Clinton and or Obama to forgive and cancel our debt, the president should start at home and ask those who borrowed the money and diverted it into their private accounts overseas to give account of how they spent it. By doing so, he will command more respect from Clinton and all those before whom he has reduced his self-esteem as a begging president.

I believe that the president understands that this is what president Clinton alluded to when he said, while addressing the joint session of the National Assembly in Abuja:

“We face, course, another obstacle to Nigeria’s economic development, the burden of debt that past government left on your shoulders....We are prepared to support a substantial reduction of Nigeria's debts on a multilateral basis, as long as your economic and financial reforms continued to make progress, and you ensure that the benefits of the debt reduction go to the people.”764

Here, Clinton made his point. If benefits of whatever money taken from IMF or any other body has gone to the people, Nigeria would not have been in the mess she is today. Secondly, America is prepared to reduce Nigeria's debt burden on the condition that no big thief will be the sole beneficiary of such reduction at the expense of the people.

Now, leaving the sycophants aside, some Nigerians, summoned the courage to call a spade a spade by telling the president that he has succeeded in putting himself in the mode of that proverbial care-free Landlord who chose to go on picnic or chase after a rat while his house was on fire. Nigeria has been on fire for too many years. The president himself has been badly touched by that fire.

As Odey puts it,

“That is why many Nigerians rejoiced when he emerged as the landlord of the large house that is Nigeria and promised to quench the fire once and for all. Our reasoning was based on the truth that it takes the pain of incarceration to understand what lack of freedom means. Under Sani Abacha, he tasted a bit of hell. He had no place to lay his head though he had a home that can give the comfort which any home anywhere in the world can give. He was nearly starved to death, though he has the largest farm in black Africa. He was denied access to medical treatment when he was sick, though as a former head of state, he was entitled to go for medical treatment in any part of the globe, and all at the expense of the whole nation.”765

That was why many people felt that he was a Daniel come to judgement when he became our president. But all of a sudden, and while the fire still rages on with impunity, he had decided to

764The News, September 11, 2000, p.64. 765 Odey J The Anti-corruption Crusade-The Saga of a Crippled Giant 2001, p 109.



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spend more days checking his flight tickets, junketing all over the globe counting his generous estacodes by way of lodging, entertainment and feeding allowances.

Certainly, the President and his advisers should be wise enough to understand that we did not bargain for that type of anomaly after the five years of Abacha's madness.

As Odey, puts it,

“the question is how can Nigeria’s rate a president whose house is on fire, and instead of going for fire service men to douse it, has decided to trot the globe in an attempt to make a good image for him abroad? The President should be wise enough to understand that keeping his house in order is the most effective way to attract benevolent visitors and not by claiming that one is living in a peaceful palace when one's house is a hell on earth.” 766

The saddest irony of his desperate effort to woo foreign investors- to convince them through his too many international circuits that his country has become a haven of limitless opportunities – was that he did not seem to realize that those foreign investors will dread having any business deal with Nigeria the more, when they come here and discover at very close range that (Cheaters) known as 419 kingpins are still on the prowl, looking for someone to devour, that armed robbers have virtually taken over the nation, and in order to live to their full span, Nigerians have resorted to vigilante groups such as the Oodua People's Congress and the Bakasi Boys, that nobody is safe in Nigeria except those who have limitless access to the nation's security agents and security apparatus and that foreigners, particularly investors, are special targets for the men of the underworld (that is armed robbers), and that the criminally neglected people of the oil-producing areas are still spitting fire and brimstone.

According to the SOURCE,

“Instead of going round the world trying to win investors to Nigeria, the president ought to understand better that once he puts his house in order; there will be no need for him to go round the world to woo investors. They will come in droves because Nigeria is a costly bride for economic suitors. Apart from the fact that constant overseas trips make the president a stranger in his own country, the financial cost of such trips is simply scandalous. For instance, each time he travels out, he is accompanied by at least two governors, five ministers, and a coterie of aids and journalists. While on the trips he is entitled to N3oo, ooo.oo per night as estacodes. Any governor on the trip with him is entitled to N100, 000.00 per night while the ministers and other senior aides are entitled to N50, 000.00 each per night.”767

766 Ibid.

767The Source, October 9, 2000. p.34.



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Often, the president is said to travel with about 30 persons. Should he travel with such a great number and they stay a week or more, you and I are left to guess the type of financial strain such will impose on a nation that is already bleeding economically.

According to Odey,

“For the anti-corruption to achieve its desired aims and objectives, the president should listen to and respect public opinion even in such money-guzzling matters like his endless foreign trips. In a country of about 150million people where N10 billion is allocated to the much vaunted poverty alleviation programme, it cannot be in the interest of the common man, the rest of us, for the president to be pocketing N300,000.00 each night while on foreign trip in the name of estacodes. That in itself is a form of corruption. And it has to be eradicated.”768

In his book, The Parable of the Wasted Generation, Odey. Told a story: The Parable of the Dirty Stream; The Story goes like this,

“A stream flows from somewhere in Abakaliki to Enugu. At the source of this stream, some fellows constantly pour in all sorts of filth which the stream carries and spreads along as it flows. All of a sudden, somebody comes out with the novel idea that he is going to keep the stream clean. However, instead of going to the very source and stopping this pouring filth into the stream, he travelled down to somewhere, around Nkalagu Junction, about fifty kilometres from its source, and decides to cleanse the whole stream from there.

What do think will happen? Do you think he will ever make the stream clean? He will never succeed in that way. If he truly want to make the stream clean, he must stop those pouring filth into it at the very source of it. Once this is done, the flowing stream will take good care of itself and become clean.”769

In another of his book, The Days of the Jackals, Odey recalled a sarcastic story told about Alexander the Great. According to him,

“It is said that Alexander's soldiers once arrested three bandit barons. On being arraigned before the emperor, the spokesman of the bandits said: Your Majesty. We are following your good examples. We have only seized some few villages and killed only those who resisted us, whereas Your Majesty, you have seized countries and numerous crowns. Having been impressed by the sheer force of the bandit's blunt logic, Alexander immediately gave his verdict: `Not Guilty.` the robbers went home free.”770

768 Odey J The Anti-corruption Crusade-The Saga of a Crippled Giant 2001, p 108 769John Odey, The Parable Of A Wasted Generation (Enugu: Snaap Press, 200, pp. 63-65. 770John Odey, The Days of the Jackals: The Roots of Violence and a Search for the Meaning, 1999, p.46.



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The aim of these stories is to illustrate the fact that the foundation of goodness has been destroyed in Nigeria right from the top, while corruption and all that belie our aspirations have been put in its place.

If ever we will come out of the woods, corruption must be attacked right from the top. And it must not be selective attack whereby some Nigerians who are small fish are probed and removed from office, while the big fish Nigerians go free and boast that no Jupiter can probe them.

As the NEWS puts it,

“When some of those who are supposed to make the laws that will eradicate corruption and make the country move forward are believed to spend millions of naira in planting flowers around their houses, when they furnish their houses with millions of naira, when they put millions of naira in their accounts in the name of Christmas gift; when they bleed the national coffer dry in the name of all the sitting, standing, running, travelling, sleeping. Breathing, living and possibly dying allowance and so forth.”771

What do they expect those who watch them from below to do? In other words, the thousands of corrupt men and women who are everywhere in this country are, like Alexander the Great's soldiers telling our law makers that while they still our money in millions and baptize their corrupt practice into a culture through official sanction, they, on the on the other hand, are only stealing in hundreds and thousands of naira.

Who should blame who? When the big thief tells the small thief that his head looks like that of a thief or that he will deal with him, you know what that means! It means that the big thief will aid and abet the small thief's escape from the jaws of the law because both of them are in the same business. It means the big thief will teach the small thief the secret of his successful escapades with the nation's treasury. It means the big thief takes everybody else in the country for a ride because he is a member of an untouchable robbery syndicate.

At the beginning of this chapter, we talked about the problem of general mistrust and cynicism on the part of the people as a result of so much discrepancy among word, creed and deed in the lives of our leaders. A great man, Edward Beecher, once said:

“ Great changes do not begin on the surface of Society, but in prepared hearts; in men who, by communion with God, rise above the apathy of the age, and speak with living vital energy, and give life to the community and tone to the public mind.“772

771 The News, September 11, 2000, p.64

772 Quoted in Odey Ant-corruption Crusade- The saga of a Crippled Giant, 2001 p 124.



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Are the president, his cabinet and our legislators prepared to rise above apathy of profligate spending and guzzling of public money at the expense of the masses? Are they prepared to go beyond mere promulgation of an anti-corruption act and thus redirect and give tone to the public mind? Are they prepared to rise above the apathy of official corruption? Are they prepared to bring about the rebirth by word and action? If they are prepared, there millions of Nigerians who are prepared to follow their good example. If they are prepared, let them understand that what Nigerians need most today, as far as curbing corruption in the land is concerned, is some sincerity and commitment on the part of our leadership. If they are prepared, I wish to conclude, in the words of one of the most renowned social justice crusaders, Henry David Thoreau, that,

“It matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever. “773

4. OPTIONS FOR CIVIL SOCIETY

Victor Azaria, in his analysis, refers to the choices that are available under these circumstances and narrows them to two: Voice and Exit. He says that:

“Voice is a participation option; it involves an engagement, a willingness to take risk of retaliation by the opposite side. The risk is taking because of one's belief in one's ability to make a difference and one's sense of responsibility and duty to try it. Exit, conversely, is an evasion of such responsibility, an avoidance of the risks of involvement, a withdrawal or disengagement from public action. “774

We must not lose sight of the fact that civil society, like democracy, is not a perfect alternative to society. But as Winston Churchill said, democracy is perhaps the most unreasonable venture to embark on, were it not for the alternatives. The contestation for a better society in Nigeria will not position the White Angels vs. the Black Devils775.

This battle is not scene out of a cowboy movie that pitches the good guys against the baddies, and victory is not gained by whoever pulls the trigger first. We are all citizens of the same Nigeria. Since one finger has touched the oil of corruption, as the saying goes, all of us in our various ways have been soiled. The real question is: how can we rediscover ideals around which we can congregate as individuals or groups without losing our various individualisms or communitarianism’s so as to pursue the higher goods of our society? There is need for us to find

773Henry David Thoreau, Walde and Civil Disobedience (New York: Penguin Books, 1986), p. 398. 774Victor Azariya: civil Society, op. Cit. 97-98. 775 Kukah H.M. Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria, 1998, p. 235.



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those values around which we can develop certain ties that will bind, ties that will stand the test of time, and ties that will survive the vagaries of nation building.

I believe that the Catholic Church's social teaching holds for us a key for understanding and dealing with some of the problems we have been discussing. These teachings have coalesced into the concept which has come to be known as the Common Good, indeed, so crucial are these teachings in shaping the socio-political and economical life in societies that an American scholar, taking us into this rich corpus of teaching referred to it as „our best kept secret.“776 The Catholic Church's social teachings progress from a belief which has been summed up by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales as follows:

“We believe each person possesses a basic dignity that comes from God, not from any human quality or accomplishment, not from race or gender, age or economic status. The test therefore for every institution or policy is whether it enhances or threatens human dignity and indeed human life itself. Policies which treat people as only economic units, or policies which reduce people to a passive state of dependency on welfare, do not do justice to the dignity of the human person“.777

This an echo of what Pope John XXIII had stated in his encyclical, Populorum Progressio, when he said.

“We do not approve of separating the economic from the human or of considering of

development apart from the civilisation to which it belongs. In our opinion, great value is to

be placed on man, each man, group of men and human society as a whole.“778

The focal point of the Church's teaching is the dignity of the human person. This dignity is based on the fact that the human person is a special creature of God. The tradition of this teaching goes back to the time when the Church decided that there was need for an important understanding of how society functioned and the mechanism needed to regulate human conduct. This quest began with urgency as a result of the industrial revolution. Post-industrial Europe had become a theatre for ideological conflict between Marxism and Laissez-faire capitalism. Both systems argued over the superiority of their beliefs in organising society. Both systems believed that the human person

776Michael Shultheis et al: Our best kept Secret: The Rich Heritage of the Catholic Social Teaching (CAFOD)

London, 1988. 777The Common Good and Catholic Church's Social Teaching: A statement by the Catholic Bishops of England and

Wales Reprinted by Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria with permission. (Sovereign Ventures Lagos 1997), p. 12. 778Populorum Progressio, (Vatican City 1969), Paragraph 14.



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is subjected to the mechanical laws of economical determinism. The result was the subordination of the human person. The Catholic Church therefore argued that no matter the righteousness of the claims, their subordination of the human person made them suspects. The Catholic Church's official reaction came about with the publication in 1981 of the Encyclical, Rerum Novarum, by Pope Leo XIII. The Pope argued that:

“Just as the symmetry of the human frame is the result of the suitable arrangement of the different parts of the body, so in a state is it ordained by nature that these two classes should dwell in harmony and agreement, so as to maintain the balance of the body politic. Each needs the other: Capital cannot do without labour, nor labour without capital.”779

This radical teaching of the Church on solving the contradictions of the social question centring on the contradictions arising from the immoral cohabitation of wealth and property, life and death etc., would come to be known as the social Encyclical. Briefly, these encyclicals took up two main teams as the foci of their teaching. These were the principles of subsidiarity and Solidarity. Some of the often mentioned Social Encyclicals included the following: Mater et Magistra (1961), Pacem in Terris (1963), Gaudium et Spes (1965), Populorum Progressio (1969), Laborem Exercens, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1988). Centesimum annum. (1991).

Today, many Church scholars have devoted energy to highlighting the need for an urgent recourse to these teaching as a means of dealing with socio-political problems of misgovernance across the third world where deep spirituality lives side by side with grinding poverty amidst enormous wealth. From Fr. Donald Dorr, Msgr. Obiora Ike, Fr. Kukah M, Fr. Odey J. and Ehusani G. the Message remains the same.780

Yet, we have achieved so little. What has gone wrong? It would seem that among other things, ignorance on the part of the Catholics has contributed in no small way to the predicament of „our best kept secret.”

Over and above this, the inability of the Catholic Church to establish tertiary institutions to address the socio-political needs and aspirations of the laity has led to a laid-back laity who are unable to address the problems of political participation and how these relate to their spiritual lives.

The issues we have raised above regarding the Common Good go beyond doctrine, politics or denomination. In places like Latin America and other parts of Europe where these teachings have been giving the attention they deserve, there has been noticeable changes not necessarily due to a preponderance of Catholics in their society. An example of this is the United Kingdom. After Mrs

779Quoted in Donald Dorr: Option for the Poor: A Hundred Years of Vatican Social Teaching (Gill and McMillan.

London.1983) p.17. 780Ibid.



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Thatcher's unmitigated economic disaster known as Thatcherism left many people severely wounded, it was /not surprising that when the Catholic Bishops' Conference produced their land mark document, the Common Good, the Christian Socialist movement within the Labour Party seized on it and went on to win the British elections decisively. The Maastricht treaty, for example, adopted the secular language of Subsidiarity as part of the contribution of British to the debate.781

The principle of Subsidiarity demands the wide dispersal and devolution of power to the various component units of civil life. The idea then is to ensure that everyone performs at least according to their God giving abilities. This concept is summed up thus:

“Just as it is gravely wrong to take from the individual what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater or higher association what less and subordinate organizations can do...The supreme authority of the state ought, therefore to let subordinate groups handle matters and concerns of lesser importance, which would otherwise dissipate its efforts greatly. Thereby the state will more freely, powerfully and effectively do all those things that belong to it alone because it alone can do them: directing, watching, urging, restraining, as occasion requires and necessity demands. Therefore those in power should be sure that the more perfectly a graduated order is kept among the various associations, in observance of the principle of the Subsidiarity function, the stronger the social authority and effectiveness will be, the happier and more prosperous the state will be.“782

As globalization sets in, the role of the state is in retreat and therefore the barriers are broken down. The result of all this is that we are in an interdependent world. The time-tested nature of the Church’s Social Teachings shows that even these developments have been foreseen. The Church argues that the struggle for justice must by definition respond to these dynamics.

As such Pope John Paul has argued that:

“The fact that men and women in various part of the world feel personally affected by the injustices and the violations of the human rights committed in distant countries, countries which perhaps they will never visit, is a further sign a reality transformed into awareness: This then is not a feeling of vague compassion or the shallow distress at the misfortune of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the Common Good; that is to say the good of all and each no matter how much wealth there may be in

781The Common Good and the Catholic Church's Social Teaching, Op.cit. Par.18. 782Quadragessimo Anno ( Vatican City !931) Par. 80.



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a giving area, the country cannot be said to be economically prosperous if its people do not have opportunity to share equality in its wealth.”783

Indeed, what has come clear in the Catholic Church's social teachings is the fact that very little has changed over the years. The emphasis and trust remained the same: the human person was created by God. God Himself is good and has giving enough to His creatures. There is a sense in which it is a sin to wallow in poverty amidst plenty.

That is why Pope John Paul II has spoken of what he called the STRUCTURES OF SIN as the main obstacle to the realisation of the dignity of the human person. It is the Church's duty to be in the vanguard of combating these obstacles. The principles of which the first of these Encyclicals was anchored still remain the same: dignity of Labourer and his labour, right to private property, the right to establish professional associations and freedom of conscience. All these are a total package and not to be taken in isolation.

The Church further talks of what it calls the common destination of earth's goods. This theme is taken up and developed in most fascinating way in the Church's new catechism.784 In the discussion under the 7th Sacrament (thou shall not steal), the Catholic Church gives Stealing a wide-ranging interpretation which centres on the fact of various manifestations of the destruction of the fabric of the common destination of good.785 This explains also why corruption is very damaging in the life of the society at large and must be fought at all cost.

Furthermore, the freedom of association which has both Church and State guarantee by way of constitutional provisions means that any Christian or believer in the principles of Common Good, who thinks that neutrality in the face of injustice and corruption is an option, is a guilty bystander. In dealing with civil society, Wlodzimierz Welowski has dealt with various aspects of the ties that bind civil society. Our daily lives are regulated by membership of these associations and their ties.

According to him, (Wlodzimierz Welowski) the following are the typologies; 1. Associative ties, 2. Communal ties and. 3. The Communitarian ties

783 Donald Dorr: Options for the Poor. Op.cit.p. 83

784Catechism of the Universal Catholic Church.N0.3687 (iv): Violations of the economic and social order p.380 ff. (Vatican Press. 1989).

785Catechism of the Universal Catholic Church, 3075(v) p 381.



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5. ASSOCIATIVE TIES

Those who develop ties on this have the following characteristics:

Individuals join and leave freely as they please.

Issues are usually discussed before an engagement is reached

There tend to be a strong tie of internal loyalty among members.

There is respect for others as members, no superiority.

It is generally a union of unions.

6. COMMUNAL TIES

(i) The Ties are innate; you belong because we are born into the group.

(ii) There common symbols (flag, ancestry).

(iii) There tends to be an otherness, an ‘us vs. them’, ‘we are different.’

(iv) The bonds are religious or ethnic.

7. COMMUNITARIAN TIES

(i) There are appeals to universals (justice, love). (ii) Emphasis on co-operation, mutual aid and the good of all. (iii) Emphasis on society above the state.786

If we look closely at these rather imperfect models of classification, we shall discover that somehow, there is a space for everyone to belong. In any case, each and every one of us has a place in almost all the above categories. As such, perhaps the first obstacle to come relates to the need

786Wlodzimierz Welowski: „The Nature of Social Ties and The Future of Communist Society: Poland after solidarity,“ in John Hall. Civil Society: Theory, History Comparism. Op.cit.p. 120.



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for the individual to be guaranteed minimum security. After all, ties are built on the basis of the search for an umbrella of shelter/security in whatever form. I wish to argue that this security can only be realised by a clear understanding of the Common Good.

According to Kukah,

“The principles of the Common Good are not bound by any religion. The challenges for a new Nigeria lie partly in whether those who understand this teaching can take up challenge across artificial border of ethnicity and religion.”787

When Fr. George Ehusani, Deputy Secretary-General, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, published his book, The Prophetic Church, it stirred up some feathers. Although the book does not even come close to some of the issues raised in many of the Encyclicals, many who would consider themselves Orthodox or Conservative Catholics seemed to have taken some exception to the book's radical interpretation of the Biblical and pontifical texts.

According to Donald Dorr,

“As with Latin America, it was the Medellin Conference of 1968 that served as their radical spark. This landmark Conference took four themes: structural Injustice, A Poor Church, Conscientisation and the Struggle for Liberation. The Conference identified the organic nature of the sub- themes and concluded that salvation lay in the Church adopting what has become to be known as the òption for the poor`”788

This became the anchor of liberation theology. African's sons and daughters who are theologians and church leaders are called to do no less. This is what the Synod on Africa was all about. The proclamation of the findings of the Synod has offered us a radical point of departure in our quest for a new interpretation of our faith.789

Even with a clear mission and a gauntlet, Church leaders in Africa remain lukewarm on the challenges of the social role of the Church. This I think is because fear being victimized by the church authorities. This is a tragedy.

So far, a new initiative has been started by Solomon Asemota Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) who, deriving his inspiration by reading the text of the Common Good, has taking the bold step of setting up of what he calls the Common Good Society. In part, the aims of the Society are.

787 Ibid.

788Donald Dorr: Option for the Poor, Op.cit. p. 158. 789The Church in Africa and Her Evangelising Mission towards the Year 2000 (Vatican City 1994)



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to create awareness among all people of the social teachings of the Church, with particular reference to justice, peace, human rights and to provide a channel though which the social action of the teaching is realised;

“To bring into consciousness the contradictions between these teaching and the growing situations of inequality, discrimination and marginalisation”790

According to Kukah,

“For all the talks about option for the poor, liberation theology, structures of sin, etc., not much will happen unless lay people fully assume their role in the Church and society. Whether in politics, economy or social life, there is very little that the clerical class can do in terms of bringing about direct political change unless the Laity (civil society) is fully educated and equipped to take the ball and run as the saying goes.”791

Liberation theology took hold of rampant oppression in Latin America because there was laity that was sufficiently prepared and therefore ready for a role. Centuries of Catholic education from the cradle to the university meant that, by and large, even if the people in Latin America were not actively church goers or Catholics, the catholic ethos had permeated society. The same can be said to a great extent of Asian countries like Indonesia where the Catholic Church’s deep involvement with education at all levels has helped to shape the thought process of the citizens towards the ideals of human development and democracy.

These developments have occurred without prejudice to the faith of the individual citizens who were not Catholics. Indeed, today in such Arab countries like Jordan, Iraq and even Palestine, the influence and the impact of the Catholic ethos which came through by way of the church's involvement with education has led to accommodation in many ways.792

I believe that these lofty objectives, were they to be pursued across ethnic, religious and other parochial lines, will help in building a viable foundation for a democratic nation. This is also because of the fact that the idea of the Common Good has resonance in African traditional societies.

Unbridled greed has no place in African Culture. Such proverbs as, `he who eats alone dies alone, ` underline the significant of the ideals of the Common Good and Community life. Were

790The Constitution of the Common Good Society (Lagos 1997) Article 2 (A&B) 791 Kukah H.M. Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria, 1998, p. 235.

792For example, Taiq Azeez, the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq is said to be an active and practising Catholic.



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these ideals to sink in, they would indeed give a new lease of life to our democratic quest and also help to move our country away from dependency to interdependency.793

These issues canvassed here have been tried elsewhere and have yielded fruits and that partly explains our interest in introducing them for consideration in our quest for democracy. For example, Edward Lynch, a scholar and former consultant to President Ronald Reagan, in his studies of the impact and the influence of Catholic Social Thought in Latin America notes that:

“Since church officials cannot participate in politics without threatening the Church's independence, lay people have the responsibility to bring Catholic wisdom and virtue into politics. To exert such an influence, lay intellectuals throughout Catholic Europe and America in the early twentieth century founded study groups and associations devoted to Catholic political theory. Later, they tried putting theory into practice through political parties. Christian democracy was born.” 794

Indeed, Lynch further states that,

“since 1964, when Catholics began to translate the Catholic Church's social teachings into action well up to 1993, out a total of forty-two national elections in which they have contested in eleven countries, they won forty-one!”795

I am aware that a Christian Democratic Party may be a far cry for a multi-cultural society like Nigeria. However, were Catholics themselves to even imbibe these values and incorporate them into the polity through their political, economic and social conduct, they would both be making important contributions in the sanitisation of their national life and fulfilling their responsibilities as Christians called to witness to the values of the Gospel.

Without threatening the polity by turning these teachings into weapons of direct propaganda, as Kukah puts it,

“their good works could force others to seek to influence the polity by the application of the positive values of their faith. In that way, religion would be fulfilling its role as the harbinger of peace, justice, harmony and as an antidote to corruption.”796

What greater and better pillars could democracy have than these? Kukah continued,

793From Dependency to Interdependency: Impulses and limits of the Dependency Theory (Published by The German Bishops' Conference Research Group on the Universal Tasks of the church. Bonn. 1994).

794Edward Lynch: Catholic Social Thought in Latin America. (Orbit Winter, 1998), p. 106. 795Ibid. 796 Kukah H.M. Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria, 1998, p. 235.



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“In Malawi, when Catholic Bishops risked their lives and set in motion a process that led to the fall of Kumuzu Banda, it was a Muslim who emerged as the new President in 1996!”797

In conclusion, while we abuse and curse our nation and leaders, we genuinely must address the problems of our personal and collective failures in standing up for what are right. You and I should take up the assignment as part of our search for a better understanding of our nation and how best one can contribute to its growth and development.

The Nigeria of my dreams is a Nigeria that is, caring and democratic. The search for this ideal is not a quixotic excursion into the sunset of blind idealism and unguarded ambition. We should search and long for a Nigeria where we can be one another's keepers not necessarily because we worship in the same church or mosque. Our search must be anchored on the belief that our nation is as Kukah puts it,

“one big road between the Jericho of fear and anxiety and the promise of a Jerusalem of Peace, Justice and love. In between, there are hills and valleys, sharp bends and rocks inhabited by dangerous charlatans. On this road, we must beg for the eyes to enable us recognise the difference between good and bad, between peace and war, between freedom and slavery, between justice and injustice.”798

However, the organisation and energisation of civil society has become problematic in Nigeria because the military has managed to do main things: they have destroyed the middle class along with the intellectuals who constitute a major component of the class, and they have destroyed the bureaucracy. The result of these has been profound on the entire society. That is why, for many, politics has become a major preoccupation to which only those who have money to waste can go.

Indeed, for this reason, Bayart, has stated,

“The social actors who are in position to reduce state control, may, for different responses, remain outside politics. Some fail to enter politics because they cannot conceive of such a thing; the political level is beyond their understanding.”799

Again, Dwayne Woods has argued:

“Intellectual opposition to one party rule has largely been anaemic and opportunistic in nature...with little evidence of a counter hegemonic strategy.”

797 Kukah H.M. Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria, 1998, p. 238

798 Ibid.

799Bayart: „Civil Society in Africa. “in P. Chebal (ed) Political Domination in Africa. Op.cit. p. 121.



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That is why we have shown that professional bodies such as those of lawyers, doctors, academics, labour etc. must never allow themselves to be emasculated or co-opted during the legitimacy crisis. The functionalization and fragmentation of these groups and their co-option by dictatorships is what has accounted for regime legitimacy. In conclusion, I believe that, among other things, for a just democratic society free from corruption to emerge in Nigeria, we may need to examine more closely some of the following issues:

8. A NEW CONCEPT OF THE NATION-STATE

Part of the chaotic nature of African politics today is directly related to what Basil Davidson has referred to as the black man's burden and the curse of the nation-state.800

In their studies, Olkoshi and Laakso have come to the conclusion that the crisis is actually turmoil. According to them:

“At the heart of this turmoil, is the crisis of individual and group identity which, in the context of deepening social inequality/fragmentation, weakened the administrative and policy apparatuses of the state. The decline of the ideologies of communism and anti-communism, and accelerated process of globalisation has called into question some of the basic premises of the contemporary nation-state project.”801

As a result, the endless crisis into which military maladministration and executive arbitrariness have brought us as they seek to address these identity are to be found in the violent response to the so -called state and local government creation. Although the idea is to create a sense of belonging for many, these programmes have been pursued with a narrowness of vision that they have proved to be a cure that is worse than the diseases itself. The loss of a sense of allegiance to the nation-state is what has led many young men and women to cultism while their fathers are increasingly drawn into secret societies. We all need Nigeria to give us a sense of citizenship. Under the military, we are merely subjects to an army of occupation and corruption.

800Basil Davidson: The Black Man's Burden: African and The Curse of the Nation-state (Spectrum Books, 1993). 801Liia Laakso and Adebayo Olukoshi: „The Crisis of Post-Colonial nation state project in Africa. “In Challenges

to the nation state in Africa, 1996. pp. 7-39.



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9. RULE OF LAW AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

It is very difficult to find out what else needs to be added to this matter. The gross violation of human rights and the distortion and the subversion of the legal system which has taken place, have left the judiciary mortally wounded. With the crisis surrounding the Bar Association as we have noted earlier, the military has brought justice under its jackboot, the result has been what Kukah M, calls, “tribunalisation of justice.“802

According to Kukah,

“Although some experts have tried to argue that Special Military Tribunals do guarantee quick justice, others argue that their ad-hoc nature, the fact that the military arrogate to themselves the right to appoint chairmen and members, in it constitutes part of the problems with them. The military believe that these tribunals guarantee speedy justice, yet they forget that sometimes, speed kills.” 803

It has become very clear to us that only a civilian government has the legitimate basis to provide at least an opportunity for the creation of the instruments of justice. The Supremacy of the constitution (the first causality of the military rule), the existence of an opposition, no matter how weak, and other pressure groups all go a long way to offer some respite and hope for clauses, no-go areas, etc., justice tends to either go to the highest bidder, the cronies of the dictatorship or its surrogates.

10. A JUST NON-DISRIMINATORY SOCIETY.

Despite the Constitutional provisions, the Nigerian government has done very little to address the question of perceived discrimination in our society. The shrill cries of marginalisation by many segments of the society across ethnic, regional and religious lines is evidence that there is something fundamentally wrong with the power equation in Nigeria804

Various segments continued to complain of domination and lack of equal access and opportunities. In many parts of Northern Nigeria, for example, there are myriads of complaints, constant harassment and victimisation of Christians on the question of freedom of worship and

802Justice Amina Augie: „ Aligning the Jurisdiction of tribunal and the Regular Courts in our Justice System of the Next Century,“ ( Paper presented at the Nigerian Law Conference on the Challenges of Legal Practice in the 21st century Nigeria, Lagos 26/11/97.

803 Kukah M. Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 1998,p. p. 284.

804Arthur Nwankwo: Terminus: Power, Hegemony and Endgame doctrine op.cit.



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access to power. Although this problem predates independence, it has remained unresolved and continues to constitute one of the greatest threats to the corporate existence of the nation-state in Nigeria.805

11. A PLACE FOR WOMEN

Despite changes and challenges in the world on the new Roles for women, the condition of women remained largely unchanged in Nigeria.

According to Arthur Nwankwo,

“Their (women) access to the various sections of the Nigerian power structure remains largely a herculean task. Even when they have made progress, their progress has been dogged by endless controversies.”806

More importantly, giving the phenomenal contributions of women in the arena of politics and economy, it is imperative that the society creates an avenue for the management and channelling of our women's enormous energy. The tragic cases of the abuse of widows and other anti-women practices, for example, are issues that deserve our attention.

For Arthur Nwankwo,

“Organisations like the Constitutional Rights Project have drawn attention to these discriminations, the elimination of which is a basic pre-condition for justice and democracy”807

805Yusuf Taraki: The British Colonial legacy in Nigeria: A Social -Ethical Analysis of the Colonial and Post-

Colonial Society and Politics in Nigeria (Challenge Press. Jos 1993) 806Kukah m „ Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 1998, p. 284. 807Ibid.



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12. A FUNCTIONALLY LITERATE SOCIETY

This issue of functional literacy as a vital component of democracy remains something we must quickly address before we talk of the project of democratisation. According to a new World Bank report, on education in Nigeria,

“half the Nigerian population is illiterate (Ghana is 40%, Zimbabwe is 33%, Indonesia 23%, while Brazil and Mexico are both under 20%. Over 20% of children between ages of 6 and 11 have no access to primary education, while 80% of children between the ages 12 and 17 have no access to secondary school education even within these limitations, the report argues that: The circle of poverty is clear: poor children in both urban and rural areas face time constraint associated with affordability as well as basic access, once in school, the facilities are grossly inadequate, teachers' morale is low and standards are unsatisfactory, the children are tired and hungry which reduces their concentration.”808

It should be noted that illiteracy is a source of corruption. What you cannot gain by knowledge, you try to gain by corruption.

This is very unfortunate and shocking owing to the fact that Nigeria is a very rich country, endowed with many natural resources, manpower, technological know-how etc. But due to corruption, the country has lost its bearing league of nations.

13. A HEALTHY MIND IN A HEALTHY BODY

The problem of health remains as thorny as many other problems which have been generated by many years of misrule and unconscionable prolificacy. Poor health programmes are a sad reflection of the manifestations of poverty. On this manifestation of poverty, the World Bank Report says that 34.7 % were estimated to be poor in 1992. Not surprisingly the tribe of the poor was made up of illiterates. It is evident that there direct correlation between poverty and illiteracy. For example, the Report explains the predicament of the poor thus:

“Increasingly limited diets, weakened linkages to opportunities, increasingly cramped accommodation, lower demand for goods and services of self-employed artisans, declining accessibility and quality of government social services, marginalisation and isolation of the

808Nigeria: Prospects for Development, World Bank Report (Draft) (October 28tth, 1996), p. 11.



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entire communities...erosion in traditional values, weakening of local safety nets and the special vulnerability of women and children.”809

Even when governments hoist the dubious figures of economic growth based on intelligible linguistic gymnastics, these fig leaves still do not cover the nakedness of the poor. For example, even the sharing of the benefits from this growth has shown, according to the report that,

“The poorest of the poor, however did not benefit, poverty worsened and for the lowest income households, extreme poverty increased nationally from 10 to 14 million people.” 810

The Report again concludes that:

“Since 1991, events have eroded many of the positive changes that took place in the late 80s. With the reversal of many of the policies put in place then, Nigeria's fragile economy has fallen on hard times.”811

It is my submission that true democracy and its ideals subsist better in a healthy mind and a sound body.

14. A NEW ROLE FOR THE MILITARY

It is self-evident that Nigerians have become terribly resentful of military rule. The discussions are no longer at the level of such intellectual fore like seminar halls. Nigerians no longer fear soldiers.

According to Kukah,

“The balance of power is therefore changing fast. In a paper presented at a national seminar on democracy organised by the justice, peace and development Commission of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, Col. Umar (rtd) came to the conclusion that although the Military has to go, certain conditions must be addressed. These, according to him, included the following:

1) the military should be accorded dignity and respect by a civilian government; 2) creation of an enabling environment for an effective and coherent military; 3) restructuring, training and professionalism for the military; 4) adoption of strategies for popular resistance by citizens in favour of democracy;

809Nigeria: Prospects of Development, Op.cit.p. 12. 810Ibid. 811Nigeria: Prospects for Development, op.cit. p. 13.



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5) combat of cliquism within the military; 6) Demystification of the military.812

On the Streets of Lagos in 1998, as the pro-democracy activists confronted the military, the greatest of this defiance of the military was the decision by the activists to dare the security agencies by marching even despite warnings and threats of arrests.

According to Kukah,

“One of the popular lyrics that pro-democracy activists had composed went something like this:

1) How many people soldiers go kill? 2) Oo dem go kill us tire, how many people soldiers go kill 3) How many soldiers we people go kill? 4) Oo we go kill dem many. How many soldiers’ people go kill? 5) (How many people will the soldiers kill? 6) Oo they will get tired of killing us. 7) How many people will the soldiers kill? 8) How many soldiers shall we kill? 9) We shall kill many. How many 10) Soldiers shall we kill?”813

From the lyrics, the ordinary people are saying that they will no longer be killed in vain. Even they too wish to kill some Soldiers, although the soldiers “kill us tire” (tired of killing us) since they are armed (we are 120m and they are only150, 000!) but we will kill many though we have no guns.

The interesting thing here, is not so much the question of whether one accepts violence (after all, that is the definition of military rule anyway), but the significant change in the balance of power is very important. The ordinary Nigerian is ready to stand up and defend democracy with their lives. This the first sign of the readiness of citizens to water the seed of democracy. Examples of this are the uprisings going on now around the world against bad leadership, Corruption and injustices in places like; Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Syria and some parts of Europe like Greece etc. The Nigerian populace will soon be saturated and the reaction will be an untold story.

812 Abubakar Umar: „The Military, National Cohesion and Security,“ ( paper presented at the national conference

on: Towards a Just, Democratic Nigeria. At st. Leo Catholic Church, Lagos, 18-19 June, 1998), pp. 13-18. 813 Kukah M, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 1998,p. p. 284.



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15. VIBRANT PATRIOTIC PRESS

There is no doubt that in the struggle for democracy in Nigeria, the role of Media cannot be over emphasized. Their place is not only important but necessary.

In a comprehensive study, Chris Ogbondah has captured the trial of the Nigerian Press over the last forty years and there is very little that needs to be added. According to him,

“The Print Media has done far more than the electronic media in the defence of human rights. Perhaps this is not unconnected with the capital and the legal requirements of both institutions.”814

Again according to Michelle Maringues,

“The advocacy journalism with such media outlets like TELL, The NEWS, and TEMPO, to name a few, embarked on, in the 90s, was an expression of the frustration of the time. Their efforts have been very aptly referred to as guerrilla journalism.”815

Though, they did not do enough, they were better than none.

Given the realities of the times, indeed, that was the type of journalism that was called for. Although the efforts are commendable because of the socio-political circumstances in which they found themselves, there is no doubt that much later, in democratic setting, this kind of journalism can reduce national discourse to vendetta and ridicule. There is no doubt that a new democracy will have to call for a journalism of moderation, responsibility, thoroughness in investigation and other crucial indices and ideals of journalism. For democracy to take firm roots in our nation there is no doubt that the media will have to be at alert to their duties and responsibilities as a genuine watchdog, to help to see that corruption is reduced to the barest minimum.

According to Mr. Ray Ekpu,

“Quite clearly, even constitutional provisions have hardly been adequate in addressing the problem of the media in Nigeria. However, it is important that the new climate of economic liberalisation which has opened up opportunities in the media for private ownership calls for responsibility. The inability of the media to clean up its act has made government interference a daily event.”816

These tensions have been captured by Mr. Ray Ekpu ‘the editor of the NEWS WATCH’ in addressing the problems of the Media and Democracy.

814 Chris Ogbandoh: Military Regimes and the Press in Nigeria, 1966-1993 (University Press of America 1995). 815Michelle Maringues: Nigeria: Guérilla Journalis (Rapporteurs San Frontières. 1996). 816 NEWS WATCH, Feb. 2003. P 4.



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16. A GENUINE WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION AND INDISPLINE

Over the years, the leadership of Nigeria has been taken to task for its executive indiscipline. Every government has made pretentions at instilling discipline. However, lacking the moral fibre, they have been unable to convince their citizens. It is not for want of trying. It is just that they cannot, in truth, give what they do not have.

According to Michelle Maringues,

“Corruption and subversion of the common will have made it impossible for the military to even instil proverbial professional discipline on the polity, since the essence of governance has not shifted beyond the confines of personal aggrandisement. Yet the project of democracy cannot get off the ground unless we find ways of genuinely instilling in the conduct of our national affairs.”817

General Buhari came in with War against Indiscipline (WAI) and General Babangida only sought to modify it. Even General Abacha's government waged a War against Indiscipline and Corruption (WAIC). The agencies set to propagate these lofty ideals such as the National Orientation Agency ((NOA), have not attained any credibility in the minds of citizens. Nigerians know that beyond providing jobs, for cronies, these institutions in themselves run parallel to, and sometimes subvert other Federal institutions. I submit that a genuine war against indiscipline and corruption cannot be fought by the government itself, since the government is a major cause for corruption.

As Kukah puts it,

“That war must be waged by Nigerians and the major institutions of civil society and non-governmental organisations such as Transparency International, Integrity, Civil Liberty Organisation, Constitutional Rights Project, Concerned Professionals, etc.”818

I agree with Jega that it is too much for us to assume that civil society is made of merely having civil associations. This is because the conservative stratum of society can reproduce itself by way of such associations, the so-called Northern Elders' forum (NEF) or the dubious and subversive

817 Michelle Maringues: Nigeria: Guérilla Journalis (Rapporteurs San Frontières. 1996). 818 Kukah M. Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 1998,p. p. 290.



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Association for a Better Nigeria (ABN), or even such renegade organisations like the Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha (YEAA) come to mind.819

However, Yega argues that there are shortcomings which the organs of civil society such as the NGOs should deal with. He distinguishes between what he calls,

“Democracy Inclined Civil Society (DICS) as opposed to anti-democratic ones such as those above. In a paper, „Strengthening Civil Society,”820

He came to the following conclusions which I think are remarkable and applicable to our analysis for the future of civil society.

According to him,

“Many NGOs fall victim to the following shortcomings:

1) wastage or inefficient use of resources; 2) dissipation of resources through unnecessary duplication of efforts and petty quarrels and

rivalries based on exaggerated suspicions; 3) urban bias in organisation and mobilization; 4) lack of sensitivity to the plural nature of Nigeria; 5) crass opportunities/narrow-mindedness of leading cadres and activists; 6) Lack of internal democracy and transparency. 7) To become more effective and efficient as tools for a vibrant civil society and sustainable

democracy, he suggests that these agencies should engage in: acquisition of basic facilities and equipment’s necessary for organisational efficiency;

promotion of increased and focused networking; training of cadres in grassroots mobilisation; promotion of collaborative advocacy programmes; Diversification of sources of funding through creative revenue generation.”821

Judging from the these discussions, I firmly believe that for there to be unity, and for the country to be strong and fight corruption and maintain justice, the Constitution of the Federal

819 A Jega: „Strengthening Civil Society in Nigeria“ ( A paper presented at the workshop on the 1995 Constitution

organised by civil Liberties Organisations, constitutional Rights Project and National Human Rights Commission, 13-16 october,1998 at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja) p. 4.

820 Ibid.

821A Jega: „Strengthening Civil Society in Nigeria“ ( A paper presented at the workshop on the 1995 Constitution organised by civil Liberties Organisations, constitutional Rights Project and National Human Rights Commission, 13-16 october,1998 at Sheraton Hotel, Abuja) p. 4.



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Republic of Nigeria in addition to the above other measures, must be operated to the letter and not subject to the brazen breaches we have observed to be the order of the day.822

No matter how deficient the 1999 constitution of Nigeria may be, to operate according to that constitution will mean doing justice to all and sundry, irrespective of tribe, language, religion, social status, state of origin, place of birth, political affiliations and so on. What are the implications of this?

It means that if you are a public servant, you will render your service diligently and take your legitimate wage at the end of the day and no more.

It means that all the public servants who are in the position to employ others for will be contented with their pay and that if they extort even a kobo (Nigerian currency) from any person before offering him/her job, they will pay highly for it.

It means that the public servants who inflate contract figures and/or commission non-existent contract jobs and then transfer millions or hundreds of thousands of our money into their personal accounts will be told that they cannot go on with that moral rot.

It means that those who are supposed to be public servants but have decided to transform themselves into greedy confiscators who dispossess people of their lands in the name of land use decree and annex them to their own until they alone virtually become the sole owners of the land, will have to be challenged.

It means that those who divert public money into their private bank accounts, those who embezzle public money and build residential houses, petrol stations, and hotels, those who buy fleet of transport vehicles on the road will, in justice, be asked to explain how legitimate or otherwise their incredible wealth is within so short a period of time.

It means that all public servants, beginning from our local government councillors to the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, will be accountable to the people they claim to serve. The president will tell us how he spends our money, how much he gives to each state. The governor will tell us how much he gives to each local government and how he spends the rest. And every local government chairman will tell us how he spends the money and so forth. Then, all of them will be made to understand that the people whom they claim to serve have the right to insist that they be accountable to them.

To operate according to the constitution means that Nigerians will no longer sit by, fold their arms and watch their leaders devastate the country and rape the economy in the name of leadership.

822Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria, (Enugu: Fourth Dimension, 1985), p. 12.



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It means that government income and expenditure will no longer remain a state secret; that people will demand that government income and expenditure are published periodically and that in cases of irregularities, somebody will be held to account for them.

It means that the people will make our leaders understand and respect their wish that all the tax money which each local government collects from market women and men, market stalls, taxi drivers, okada (these are motor bikes that are commonly used in Nigeria as means of transportation) drivers and so forth belongs to all of us and that we have the right to know how much it is and to what use it is put.

It means that people will begin to insist on their right to know how many contracts our leaders award in public interest, the process through which they are awarded how much they cost and how effectively or otherwise they are executed.

It means that the masses will rise up and tell our leaders that Nigeria cannot survive without living up to the ethos of public accountability and trust and that the time has come to punish those who violate these principles.

It means that the people will have the gut to tell our leaders that they have rigged political elections to the detriment of the masses and that nobody can rig votes and get free with it any longer.

It means that people will claim their right to question a situation whereby a poor public servant who has vowed to serve the public wakes up tomorrow to become scandalously rich, as it keeps happening in this country.

It means that poor Nigerians will become sensible enough to understand how badly politicians have deceived them, exploited them, used them and dumped them at the end. And then, Nigerians henceforth, refused to be used as guinea pigs to prop up the politicians' selfish ambitions any longer.

It means that the poor and the oppressed people from the North, South, the East and the West will understand how the rich and the powerful from the North, the South, the East and the West have teamed up to deceive them, exploit them, used them and dumped them at the end. Having realised this, they will now team up and turn their own heat against the rich and the powerful who are their common enemies and not against themselves who are their common victims.

According to Odey,



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“When our leaders begin to operate according to the constitution, Olusegun Obasanjo can no longer be the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Minister in charge of petroleum products at the same time.”823

In summary, to operate according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the principles of the Common Good, means putting justice in place and then allowing Nigerian unity to take its natural course. As Odey puts it,

“It means acknowledging the truth that what is good to the geese is equally good to the gander. If the president of Nigeria can have constant power supply for himself from the National Electric Power Authority, and that power is provided with our oil money, there is no justification why those living in other remote villages of Nigeria should not have the right to have constant supply of light also. If the Money got from the nation's oil can be used to turn a near-arid desert like Abuja into a paradise on earth in a few years, there is no justification why those whose backyards produce the oil money should be left to suffer and die through criminal neglect.”824

What we have said so far, is precisely what the presidents and his men (past and present) are not prepared to do. Yes, talking about unity and being united one’s kind does not cost much if it costs anything. But preaching justice and doing justice is very costly because justice is like truth. It has no boundary. It cannot be confined. You can neither change nor apply it to suit your taste, your whims and caprices.

For instance, according to Odey,

“a state governor who, having secured from Abuja his state's monthly statutory allocation, can decide to summon his cabinet, put a huge sum of the money for himself and then share the remaining among his men. Yet, such a person will dare to convince himself that he has done the right thing, since the beneficiaries of his largesse are all members of his ruling party. He has acted in the basis of unity. But there is no way a person can do a thing like that and go ahead to bend the arms of justice to approve of it.”825

In ending this work, I believe that we should pay homage to the father of democracy himself, the great American president, Abraham Lincoln. His dogged commitment to democracy and its ideals should serve as an example to all lovers of this system that patience, commitment to idealism are the values that we require to sustain our dreams. We tend to remember him as a

823 Odey Ant-corruption Crusade- The saga of a Crippled Giant, 2001 p. 132.

824 Ibid.

825 Odey Ant-corruption Crusade- The saga of a Crippled Giant, 2001 P 132.



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president without knowing the cost of his struggle. Giving that, patience is a scarce commodity among us and our politicians, I will leave you with the fall, rise, fall, rise, fall, fall, and the rise, and rise and rise of Abraham Lincoln which climaxed in his historic place in the annals of world history and democracy today. Nigerian politicians, who never seem to accept defeat or have the patience to try again, should learn a lesson or two from these realities. Briefly, this is a sketch of President Lincoln's chequered career.

1) 1831-failed business 2) 1832-defeated for legislative seat 3) 1833-another failed venture 4) 1834-elected to legislature 5) 1835-sweetheart died 6) 1836-had a nervous breakdown 7) 1838-defeated for speaker 8) 1840-defeated for Elector 9) 1846-defeated for congress 10) 1848-defeated for congress 11) 1855-defeated for senate 12) 1856-defeated for Vice President 13) 1858-defeated for senate 14) 1860-elected President 826

I therefore, wish to leave the last words in our faltering steps in the quest for democracy, civil society and the fight against corruption in Nigeria to Salvador Giner, who, reflecting on the future of civil society noted that:

“Civil society, or its equivalent, may, in future, go by another name. Yet, if the women and men of tomorrow wish to remain free citizens, capable of a decent degree of autonomy in order to carry out their own business both public and private, they will have to continue to dwell in the universe which must be, in a fundamental sense, not dissimilar to that represented until today by civil society. That tomorrow's citizens will wish to so live well to a large extent depend on today's democrats, for whom the defence of autonomous sphere of civil society and the presence of the strong centres of countervailing power are an essential part of a truly modern and rational conception of freedom. They ought to be aware however, that often people of power throughout our societies no longer truly believe in its virtues and benefits, though they are forced, constitutionally as it were, to pay their public respect to it. For many of those who still

826Paul Lee Tan: Encyclopaedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (R.R. Donnelley & Sons. 1990), pp.1373-

1373.



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proclaim the need for a flourishing civil society actively help the advent of a bleak universe in which, were there successes there would be no need whatsoever for it.”827

Finally on democracy, we have established that it cannot survive without being nurtured by civil society. The military remains the cog in our wheel. On this, Claude Ake has the last say. He has noted:

“Military rule is not so much the aberration we often call it as the negation of what is uniquely human in the way we relate. The military can never engender democracy because it is the ant-thesis of democracy as regards to its norms, values, purposes and structure. The military addresses the extreme and the extraordinary while democracy addresses the routine; the military values, discipline and hierarchy, democracy values freedom and equality; the military is oriented to law and order, democracy to diversity, contradiction and competition; the method of the military is violence and aggression, that of democracy persuasion, negotiation and consensus building...After many years of discrediting politics, aggressing and humiliating politicians virtually everyone is discouraged from politics except those who have a neurotic attachment to power, no other means of livelihood or self-esteem.”828

My prayer is that the military, civil society and politicians will now realise that neither the people of Nigeria nor the international community is ready to continue to watch the tragic replay of our tape of failure as a result of unchecked corruption in the society. I hope we can seize the moment and move into the next century fully prepared to take our place as the leading nation in the black world and a prominent prayer in the global team. Without democracy and concrete and well defined anti-corruption strategy as the Way-out, these dreams could transform into a nightmare which no one wishes to contemplate.

17. Other suggestions For effective control of corruption in Nigeria

For us to effectively control corruption, we must first of all be able to respect the value of the human person, his individuality in charity and love based on truth. Love that does not base on truth produces negative effects among of which corruption is of the results. Therefore, for effective control of corruption, these basic principles are needed, namely, love /charity that have their bases

827Salvador Giner: Civil Society and its Future, op cit. p.324. 828Claude Ake: Is Africa Democratising? (Lagos, Malthouse Press. 1996).



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on truth. That is why Pope Benedict XVI on the authentic development of every person and of all humanity said that,

“Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity”829.

For effective control of corruption, one can not overlook the place of justice and peace.


“Love (Caritas) is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God's plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:32).830”

For me the basic problem in the society especially in Nigeria is lack of love that is built on truth as a guiding principle. I believe strongly that if we Nigerians base our efforts on the fight on corruption on this basic principles-love and justice based on truth, corruption will be radically reduced in our country step by step.


“Love faces a vast field of work and the Church is eager to make her contribution with her social doctrine, which concerns the whole person and is addressed to all people.831 In the light of this, there are so many needy brothers and sisters who are waiting for help, so many who are oppressed waiting for justice, so many unemployed who are waiting for a job, so many people are waiting for respect.832 One wonders how it can be even today there are still people who are dying of hunger. Condemned to illiteracy? Lacking the most basic medical care? Without having a loof over their head?”833


830 ibid.

831 cf. Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No5. P.2

832 ibid

833 Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No5. P.2



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“These latter often affect financially affluent sectors and groups which are nevertheless threatened by despair at the lack of meaning in their lives, by drug addiction, by fear of abandonment in old age or sickness, by marginalization or social discrimination...”834

Charity therefore gives real substance to the personal relationship with God and with neighbour; and for this reason it is the principle not only of micro-relationships (with friends, with family members or within small groups) but also of macro-relationships of (social, economic and political ones). For the Church, instructed by the Gospel, charity is everything because, as Saint John teaches (cf. 1 Jn. 4:8, 16) and as the Pope recalled in his first Encyclical Letter, “God is love” Deus Caritas Est.):835

“Everything has its origin in God's love, everything is shaped by it, and everything is directed towards it. Love is God's greatest gift to humanity it is his promise and our hope”836.

In this regard, Pope Benedict XVI is of the opinion that,

“Charity has been and continues to be misconstrued and emptied of meaning, with the consequent risk of being misinterpreted, detached from ethical living and, in any event, undervalued. In the social, juridical, cultural, political and economic fields the contexts, in other words, that are most exposed to this danger, it is easily dismissed as irrelevant for interpreting and giving direction to moral responsibility. Hence the need to link charity with truth not only in the sequence, pointed out by Saint Paul, of VERITAS in caritate (Eph 4:15), but also in the inverse and complementary sequence of caritas in Veritate”837.

For the Pope Charity and truth is inter connected and that is why according to him,

“Truth needs to be sought, found and expressed within the “economy” of charity, but charity in its turn needs to be understood, confirmed and practised in the light of truth”838.


834. Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No5. P.3

835 Cf. Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no.1

836 Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Es, loc. cit., 219. 837 Ibid.

838 Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no.1.



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“How can we remain indifferent to the prospect of an ecological crisis which is making vast areas of our planet uninhabitable and hostile to humanity? Or by the problems of peace, so often threatened spectre catastrophic wars? Or by contempt for the fundamental human rights of so many people, especially children?839”

I agree with the Pope that by looking at Charity and Truth in this perspective,

“not only do we do a service to charity enlightened by truth, but we also help give credibility to truth, demonstrating its persuasive and authenticating power in the practical setting of social living. This is a matter of no small account today, in a social and cultural context which relativizes truth, often paying little heed to it and showing increasing reluctance to acknowledge its existence and thereby making corruption possible”840.

This relativization of truth in social and cultural context especially in Nigeria has in no small measure contributed to the Problem of corruption and its attendant devastating effect that we are suffering today. Without objective truth as we see it in our society, then corruption is inevitable, since everybody or group see truth in their own way. We must not allow this to happen. It is therefore necessary to see and work with truth in the light of charity. With this in mind, we can reduce corruption and help to make the world a better society.

I agree with the pope, that in the light of this close link with truth, as we have seen above, charity can be recognized as an authentic expression of humanity and as an element of fundamental importance in human relations particularly in Nigeria, including those of a public nature. The world especially Nigeria that only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived and only in it is an anti-corruption strategy possible. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Corruption is therefore a bane to these beautiful supernatural gifts of God to man.841


“Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point

839 cf. Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No5. P.3

840 Cf. Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009.

841 Ibid.



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where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in the God of the Bible, who is both Agápe and Lógos: Charity and Truth, Love and Word”842.

This is the problem with the Nigerian society, their so-called love and efforts to fight corruption were not based on truth, charity has degenerated into sentimentality and loves an empty shell, corruption then abound.

According to Osoba,

“One of the reasons why the measures against corruption have not been fruitful in Nigeria is that they have operated at a level of mere symbolism. Yes, in this way, corruption has defied all measures adopted to combat it in Nigeria, apparently, because those wagging the corruption-wars are themselves corrupt”843.

In the name of turning Nigeria into a corruption-free society, the nation has experimented with many policies. It has tried the judicial commissions of enquiry, the Code of Conduct Bureau. It had wrestled with the Public Complaints Commission to no avail. Also it fiddled with the Mass Mobilization for Social Justice and Economic Recovery (MAMSER), and the National Open Apprenticeship (NOA), but corruption instead blossomed. Then, General Buhari clobbered Nigerians with his horsewhip branded the War against Indiscipline Council (WAIC), without success. The civilian administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo has instituted an Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), which seems to have power only over the corrupt poor.

For Osaba,

“Any society faced with the challenges of corruption will continue to find ways to break the circle. Nigeria cannot effectively control the menace of corruption in the nation by merely instituting probe panels” 844.

It was suggested by Osoba that,

“to tame the surge of corruption in Nigeria, the general population should be re-orientated to a better value system”845.

842 . Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no.2. p2. 843 Osaba, Sklar, Richard L., Contradictions in the Nigerian Political System, Journal of Modern African Studies, 3,

2, 1965, p. 385, Lewis, Peter, The Politics of Economics, African Report, May/June, 1994, p.47 & Adam, Paul, Nigeria: Next Pariah? African Report, May-June, 1995, and 19 96 p.43; p.45.

844 Ibid. 845 Osaba, Journal of Modern African Studies, 3, 2, 1996, p. 385.



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The value system that Osaba talked about here, should include, ‘Love/Charity based on truth’- a really love Agape.

This is because, according to Dike,

“Nigerians have for long been living on the survival of the fittest and grab-whatever-comes-your-way mentality.846

I want to say here that the re-orientation of the youth in Nigeria to a good value system like honesty and hard work could help in the war against corruption. The World Values Survey of 1990-1993 has a lot of attitudes and values information, which note a relationship between values and corruption (World Values Study Group, 1994).847

Again, preaching the gospel and practice of virtue is the ultimate solution to behavioural change and reduction in corruption. Their productivity could increase, which would mean enough goods and services, prosperity and economic growth, and which would in turn allow the citizens the freedom to live a meaningful life.

Again, I want to observe that some human ailments could require many doses of medicines to be treated. Similarly, the menace of corruption, which has eaten deep into the fabric of Nigeria, would require all the necessary medicines to effectively control it. In other words, no single and simple remedy will do it; and the problem cannot be solved overnight, because, as we have noted, corruption has been ingrained into the fabric of the society.

“Nigeria has, in theory, the solutions in the book to tackle corruption; but like other issues (poverty, etc) bedevilling the nation, implementations of the laws are the Achilles heel (a vulnerable point) of the society”.848

Similarly,

According to Robert A. Dahl;

“Achilles heel of the small state is its military weakness in the face of a large state” 849

846 Dike, Victor E., The philosophy of Transforming Nigeria into a Corruption-free Society: Are the probes the Solution? Online Publication: Nigeriaworld.com/feature/article/corruption.html, October 6, 1999 (Dike, October 6, 1999; Dike, February 5, 2002)

847 World Values Study Group, World Values Survey Code Book, ICPSR 6160 (Ann Arbour, Mich., August 1994). and The World Values Surveys of 1990-1993.

848 The Guardian, July 10, 2002. 849 Robert A. Dahl (1998, p.112).



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This adage means that because of endemic corruption in Nigeria, Nigeria which was formerly seen as the giant of Africa has become the dwarf of Africa instead. In other words, our weakness is corruption. This is actually the problem with Nigeria.

As the ‘Vanguard Newspaper’ puts it,

“However, while the Justice Oputa Panel and the Justice Akanbi commission were cruising the cities interrogating the poor corrupt individuals involved in petty thefts, the politicians and the known corrupt ex-military Generals have been busy politicking around the nation with money stuffed in their Ghana-must go ( this is a famous bag made locally with which Ghanaian migrants in Nigeria were meant to travel back home with when there were no more place for them in Nigeria due to unemployment) unperturbed. But to win the apparent war on corruption in Nigeria, the Obasanjo´s slogan of ´there must be no sacred cows,´ should not be a mere political rhetoric. It should be put into practice by prosecuting all the known corrupt political heavy weights in the society, as they contribute in making the nations inchoate laws inoperable”850.

As Kanu Agabi, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice noted at a meeting with state commissioners of police,

“Some of our leaders are doing everything they can to make the work of the police impossible. Big men are the greatest criminals and except you go after the big criminals and bring them to book, the rate of crime may not reduce. But if you bring three or four of these big men to book, the rate of criminal activities would reduce. He (Kanu Agabi) declared, arrest ministers, arrest the big people and others would fear”.851

But why has President Obasanjo made a deal with the Abacha family if his chief law enforcement officer has such a wonderful idea? He should have used the opportunity afforded by the Abacha saga to show the world that he is serious with his avowed war on corruption.

For Dan-Ali,

“The agreement made by civilian administration with the Abacha family would allow them to keep $100 million (of the money stolen by the late General), so that they could return about $1 billion of the loot to the federal government”.852

850 The Vanguard News Paper, 30th March 2002.

851 Kanu Akambi, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice noted at a meeting with state commissioners of police, Federal Republic of Nigeria 2000-2003.

852 Dan-Ali, BBC News, May 20, 2002.



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As many critics have noted, this deal would encourage the many economic opportunists (the die-hards hanging on the fence waiting) to grab whatever government funds they can lay hands on, since the federal government would allow them to keep a part of the money, if and when, they are apprehended.

For us to win the war on corruption, adherence to ethical standards in decision-making must be the foundation of the nation’s policies.

According to MacIntyre,

“without ethics, set of moral principles or values or principles of conducts governing an individual or a group in the conduct of the affairs of the nation, public and business, the apparent wars on corruption in Nigeria will not be successful.”853

In other words, without ethics, any money budgeted toward fighting corruption in Nigeria is a thing cast to the wild cat. Nigeria has to make laws and implement them to the letters.

As Aristotle insists,

“the aim of ethical philosophy is practical - to make us better men”.854

And to win the war on corruption Nigeria has to fortify the institutional checks and balances among the country’s major social forces and the separation of powers within the government.855 The nation has to make sure that those entrusted to execute the war on corruption are men and women of virtue - those who recognize and always do what is right.

For MacIntyre,

“Virtue is an acquired human quality, the possession and exercise of which enables us to achieve those goods which are internal to practices, and the lack of which effectively prevents us from achieving any of such goods. Virtuous leaders [in government and business] are persons of honesty, integrity and trust”. 856

Armed with ethics and virtue, the nation should then set out to reduce personal gains to corrupt behaviour with tough penalties on the culprits. Making tough rules with vigorous enforcement can deter corrupt behaviour.

According to Sen,

853. MacIntyre 1981; Liebig 1990; Frankena 1963; Dike 2001, pp.103-104. 854 The Philosophy of Aristotle (with introduction and commentary by Renford Bambrough), A Mentor Book, 451-

ME2783 (not rated), p.355. 855 Dahl, Robert, On Democracy (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998), p.73; p.112 856 MacIntyre 1981; Liebig 1990; Frankena 1963; Dike 2001, pp.103-104.



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“The nation should not grant too much discretionary powers to officers who are in position to grant favour to others (businessmen in particular), such as officials who issue out licenses and passports (These officers often create artificial scarcity to attract bribes from the desperate public). There is the temptation to be corrupt when the officials who have a lot of power are themselves poor”.857

The mass media have a crucial role to play in the campaign to educate the people on their rights as citizens, and in exposing the rogues. Nothing chills nonsense more than exposure to thin air. The nation should erect permanent structures in the society to constantly tackle corruption, instead of setting up ad-hoc corruption-panels here and there.

The citizens have a role to play in the war against corruption: they should always try to resist the temptation to offer bribes to corrupt government officials, as it takes two to tango.

One of the reasons for the upsurge of corrupt activities in Nigeria is that many Nigerians have not had the chance to live under the rule of law, as the society has independence from Britain since 1960, been under the claws of the military.

As Edward De Bono notes in his book,

“Society needs to give a high priority to this aspect of life (the rule of law), because poor quality here downgrades everything else.”858

The Nigerian police should be upgraded in status, and be well trained, well equipped and well paid (and on time too). The police should become an elite profession, which would be open only to those with good moral character. If the police and other security agents (for instance, customs and the military), will learn and understand their limits (not to harass and kill innocent citizens) and follow the rules, things might improve in Nigeria.

This is not to suggest that upper level officers could not be corrupt. Top bureaucrats with excessive powers could abuse them. Cases abound, but the cases of Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha are well documented.

The effects of power on those who wield it are well stated in 1887 by Lord Acton, who noted that,

“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”859

Sadly, corruption is now a high-profile issue in Nigeria; and those in political power are the main culprits.

857 Sen 2000, pp. 275-276. 858 Edward De Bono ‘Future Positive, Law and order are a basic part of the fabric of society’ 1990. Pg 54. 859 Lord Acton in Dahl 1998, p. 73.



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William Pitt observed in a speech that,

“Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it”.860

However, an Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), presided over by Justice Mustapha Akaxanbi, has been instituted in Nigeria to fish out those whose hands were tainted while in office in the society.

Sadly, corruption is now a big Problem in Nigeria; and those in political power are mostly involved. For instance, according to ‘This Day News,’ an Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), presided over by Justice Mustapha Akanbi, has been instituted in Nigeria to fish out those whose hands were tainted while in office in the society. The members of the Commission include, Alhaji Zubairu Mohammed, Hairat Ade Balogun, and Pro. Sayeed Hamzat Malik, Alhaji Muhammed Mahmud Maishanu, Alphonso Olufunmilayo Fadaka, Mrs. Salome Audu Jakanda, Rev. Fr. Moses Orshio Adasu, Prof. (Mrs.) Uche Modum, Dr. Asikpo Essien-Ibok, Ms. Adeline Elemechi Uwanaka, Gabriel Taimu Aduda, with Peter Eyiamenkue Odili as secretary.861

It is unfortunate that the ‘News of Corruption’ always oozes out from the National Assembly, but nobody has been prosecuted. And many of whom often engage in frivolous overseas trips (with hordes of cronies and praise-singers) while civil servants in their states go for months without getting paid their salary (the President is also guilty of this). And some are known to have acquired landed properties in the United States and Britain.

According to Syed Hussein,

“To deal with corruption in ancient times, many bureaucrats were paid a corruption-preventing allowance of money called ‘yang lien’ as incentive to remain clean and law-abiding in Singapore.”862

To Amartya Sen,

“a payment system of this kind can help reduce corruption through what he calls its income effect, as the officer who gets this payment may be less in need of making a quick buck. This type of payment will also have what he calls substitution effect. The officer receiving the payment would know that corrupt behaviour may involve serious loss of a high-salary employment if things were

860 William Pitt also, Ibid. p. 73 861 This day News, June 24, 2002. 862Alatas, Syed Hussein, The Sociology of Corruption, Singapore, Times Book, 1980 and Klitgaard, Robert,

Controlling Corruption Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988, p.7 Alatas, 1980; & Klitgaard, 1988.



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to go bad that is, if he or she is caught with his or her hand in the ‘cookie jar’ that is corrupt activities.”863

In some cases, how people behave in a society depends on how they see and perceive others behave. If the prevailing behaviour in a country is bad, others could imitate the behaviour. However, the lousy argument would be that others do the same. This was one of the cited reasons for corrupt behaviour when the Italian parliament investigated the linkage between corruption and the Mafia in 1993. Thus, corrupt behaviour encourages other corrupt behaviour, moreover when the culprits go unpunished. But respects for rules, honest and upright behaviour are certainly bulwark against corruption in many societies.864

The commission had its bait in the water, but so far it has not landed any big fish. Or, has it caught any fish at all? How far, this commission had gone to sanitize the already corrupt society remained to be seen.

It is appropriate to emphasise the importance of good and enforceable policies toward controlling corrupt behaviour. And policies should be reviewed periodically to close any loophole and to catch-up with events in the society.

Toward this, Robert S. McNamara, former president of the World Bank and Ford Motor Corporation, has argued that for any campaign against corruption to be successful in Sub-Saharan Africa, certain characteristics should be common in the plans against corruption.

His suggestions on how to control corruption in the region include t:

1) “Require direct, clear and forceful support of the highest political authority: the president or prime minister;

2) Introduce transparency and accountability in government functions, particularly in all financial transactions;

3) Encourage a free press and electronic media to forcefully report to the public on corrupt practices in the society;

4) Organize civil society to address the problems of corruption brought to light by the process of transparency and the activity of the media;

5) Introduce into government watch-dog agencies - anti-corruption bureaus; inspectors general; auditors general and ombudsmen [government official appointed to receive and investigate complaints made by individuals against abuses or capricious acts of public officials, etc.] - which will identify corruption practices and bring them to public attention;

863 Amartya Sen 2000. 864 Op, cit. P.277.



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6) Minimize and simplify government regulations, particularly those involving the issuance of licenses, permits and preferential positions, thereby restricting opportunities for rent seeking by corrupt means.

7) Insert anti-bribery clauses into all major procurement contracts and with the assistance of both international financial institutions and bilateral aid agencies insist that international corporations, bidding on African procurement contracts, accept such clauses and the penalties associated with their violation.

8) Introduce similar anti-bribery clauses into contracts relating to privatization of government enterprises, and the development of natural resources.

9 Ensure that enforcement is predictable and forceful; and 10 To criminalize the acts of bribery; prohibit the deduction of bribes for tax purposes; and

erect barriers to transfer to western financial institutions of financial gains derived from corrupt practices (United States Information Agency, Nov 17, 1997).

11 Other steps authorities could take to control corruption include: Declaration of Assets: The state should require that all high-level Nigerian officials (Presidents, Ministers, Legislative officers, Central bank governors, Police and Customs Chiefs, Military Generals), sign a statement granting permission to banks (both local and foreign), real estate or investment house to disclose any personal assets they may hold. Breaking this veil of secrecy, it has been argued, is crucial if assets declarations are to be verified and accountability enforced (Diamond, 1992);

12 Withholding of Aid: International donors (the IMF and World Bank) can be helpful by cutting off completely distribution of assistance to any country marked for high-level corruption; and

13 Scrutiny for sources of income: As was pointed out above, scrutinizing individual depositors of huge sum of money, by financial institutions for sources, would go a long way to curbing looting of national treasury by civil servants”865.

It has been reported that the Commonwealth of Nations have started work on a program that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for banks and other financial institutions to accept monies looted from the national treasury of a Commonwealth member nations.

The former scribe of the Commonwealth of Nations, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, disclosed this at Obosi (Anambra State) in January 1999. The Organization of African Unity (OAU), which recently changed its name to African Union (AU), should emulate other international organizations

865 Robert S. McNamara, former presidents of the World Bank and Ford Motor Corporation, address against

corruption United States Information Agency, Nov 17, 1997



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to work toward stamping out corrupt and dictatorship from its midst. Merely changing its name without a change in ideology is just like putting an old wine into a new calabash.866

18. CONCLUSION

Many laws are already on the book to fight corruption in Nigeria (including those crafted by the international organizations). But what is important now, as Peter Eigen, chairman of the watchdog group, Transparency International has noted,

“ is the political will to fight corruption at home countries.”867

And as Robert McNamara remarked,

“every country has to determine its own priorities on the war against corruption. But each society should focus on concrete actions that can yield measurable results, and publicly report whether results are being achieved.”868 (See Odyssey, Washington File Staff Writer, and May 31, 2001).

Above all, Nigeria cannot be seen as secure and free until the people's human right are respected and protected by the government. The world cannot be considered secure if human rights are being violated. And more importantly, the world cannot be considered secure if many people lack the elementary condition for life worthy of man.

Similarly, as Morrison puts it,

“Nigeria cannot be considered secure if millions of people go hungry, do not have a roof over their heads and jobless and sick indefinitely, with the most basic human right lacking, and when the right to life is disregarded869"

866 The Guardian News Paper, Jan. 2, 1999.

867 Peter Eigen, chairman of the watchdog group, Transparency International, 1999.

868 Cf. At the end of the Second Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity at The Hague May 31, 2001,

869 Morrison 1988. p 6.



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Through it all, to tame corruption, Nigeria has to use words as well as actions in a multifaceted approach. However, has Nigeria been monitoring the effectiveness of her many (but not serious) anti-corruption strategies?

Finally, good governance, transparency, accountability and the rule of law are the keys to tackling corruption in the society, as corrupt leaders cannot wage an effective war against corruption without these basic principles.



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CHAPTER 3

A. Corruption Control Strategies on Human Development in Africa

1. INTRODUCTION


‘‘A political society is to be considered well- ordered, beneficial and in keeping with human dignity if it is grounded on truth. As the Apostle Paul exhorts us: Where therefore, put away lying and speak truth each one with his neighbour, because we are members one another. Eph 4; 25. This indeed will be the outcome when reciprocal rights and duties are sincerely recognized.’’ 870

But when the opposite is the case as it is in the most African countries the society is sick or so to say, something is wrong with it. And in our own case, what is wrong is corruption. Corruption has become endemic problem in African states to the extent that if something is not done urgently, it will become almost incurable dieses.

The previous discussions outline some of the reasons for corruption’s tenacity, its effects on development, and why reducing the debilitating effects of corruption has become a priority in a majority of African countries. The urgency has been demonstrated in myriad ways resulting in some scholars like, Kaplan , suggesting that,

“some of these actions relate to the so- called “coming anarchy” in Africa, where crimes and social crises are parts of its characteristics.”871

The Church believes that if we build our political society on truth, we have no reason to be afraid of corruption, and the seemingly incurable dieses due to corruption will be curable.


870 Joseph Gremillion. The Gospel of Peace and Justice, Catholic Social Teaching. Since Pope John. November 1976 Orbis Books, Maryknoll, N.Y. 10545 no. 35 p 208.

871 Kaplan, R.D., 1994, “The Coming anarchy”, The Atlantic Monthly, Feb. pp 44-72; 1996 The ends of the Earth, New York Random House; 1997, ‘Was Democracy Just a Moment?’, The Atlantic Monthly, Dec., pp. 55-80



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‘‘Human society will be such as we have just described it, the citizens, guided by justice, apply themselves to respecting the rights of others and discharging their own duties; if they are moved by such favour of charity as to make their own the needs of others, and share progressively closer fellowship in the world of spiritual values.’’ 872

I agree with the Church that, it is our duty individually and collectively to respect the dignity of others if we must live in a free and dignified society.

According to the Church,

“Human society is realized in freedom, that is to say, by ways and means in keeping with the dignity of its citizens, who accept the responsibility of their actions precisely because they are by nature rational beings.”873

Kaplan believes that due to corruption, crimes and social crisis have become common characteristics of the African states.

One dimension that is consistent with Kaplan’s analysis is that we now see dissidents or rebel groups in Africa organized into an armed clique, ready to fight to overthrow an incumbent government alleged to be corrupt. This new dimension has borrowed military government’s ideas, particularly in West Africa where corruption was supposed to be one of the primary reasons for the overthrow of civilian governments.

According to Kaplan,

“Three events in Africa have given this new phenomenon visibility: (1) the overthrow of Mobutu’s corrupt government in Zaire, (2) the overthrow of the government in Sierra Leone and (3) Charles Taylor’s long fight in Liberia to overthrow Samuel Doe.”874

Kaplan went on to give instances of these armed cliques and rebel groups that borrowed the military government ideas to overthrow the apparent corrupt government in Africa.

According to him,

“ in Zaire, Laurent Kabila claimed that he was fighting to overthrow Mobutu Administration due to rampant corruption. In Sierra Leone, rebel forces joined the RUF under Foday Sankoh as a brutal


873 ibid

874 Ibid



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insurrectionary force, which claimed the initial fighting was to overthrow the corrupt All People’s Congress (APC) government that had been in power for about twenty-three years. And in Liberia, Charles Taylor fought Samuel Doe’s government for several years and the ECOMOG peacekeeping force that tried to stop him. Another rebel group headed by Prince Johnson – one of Taylor’s rivals, eventually killed Samuel Doe. Taylor eventually won elections to become President of Liberia in 1997.”875

From this analysis of various violent means through which some of the soldiers and politicians take over power from the existing government, shows that violence is the order of the day in the African continent. This act of violence breeds corruption in these affected countries of Africa.

For Kaplan,

“Violence is just one of a variety of strategies African countries have adopted to eliminate corrupt governments. Strategies include national campaigns that focused on Corruption inquiries, training, capacity building, ant – corruption agencies; local or citizen level campaigns, which emphasize community oversight, investigative reports from the media; private sector efforts, which include chapters of Transparency International; populist initiatives such as military coups, moral campaigns; and civil servants purges, and International efforts by the World Bank, IMF, Transparency International, OECD, and other bi-lateral donors.”

2. TYPES OF ANTI-CORUPTION STRATEGIES AND THEIR GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

A. LOCAL OR “CITIZEN’’ EFFORTS’ LEVEL

The society is supposed to be a place where people feel fulfilled, enjoy a measure of justice and freedom. It is this atmosphere of fairness that is put into jeopardy by corruption in the society. We must therefore do everything within our power to eschew corruption and make our society a better place.


875 Kaplan, R.D., 1994, “The Coming anarchy”, The Atlantic Monthly, Feb. pp 44-72; 1996 The ends of the Earth,

New York Random House; 1997, ‘Was Democracy Just a Moment?’, The Atlantic Monthly, Dec., pp. 55-80.



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“The Society must function according to the norms of justice; it should be inspired and perfected by mutual love, and finally it should be brought to an ever more refined and human balance in full freedom.”876

This ever more refined and human balance in full freedom, as mentioned by the Church, should not only be verbal but also be put into practice. We should in all earnest device means of controlling the excesses of the corruption menace in our society. We should be able to decipher out the characteristics, the symptoms, and the cause of this endemic disease called corruption and be able to root it out. Hence we should prescribe corruption control strategy as the way out.


“The general characteristics include; Community Oversight, Media, coalitions with stakeholders, Ombudsman – complaints and redress; Local chapters of Transparency International promoting “pillars of integrity”; decentralization and deregulation; protection against arbitrary nature of the state; service delivery surveys on public services; business enterprise surveys on corruption.”877

In Local or Citizen Efforts level, it is observed that the influence of the Transparency International has raised the stakes in the political economy of addressing corruption. Several countries including Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have established local chapters that continue to push for reform.


“Between1996 and 1999, Transparency International in partnership with the World Bank Institute organized National Integrity Workshops in Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, and several other African countries. Additionally, this collaboration conducted investigative journalist training aimed at improving journalists’ skills and confidence, and cultivated a renewed commitment to the fight against corruption. More recently, with the assistance of the World Bank Institute’s Core Course Program on Anti – Corruption, several countries have formed coalitions. For example, the Ghana Anti – Corruption Coalition was organized by a variety of stakeholders, including the representatives from government, to work more closely in implementing a national strategy. In Tanzania, civil society, media, and private sector representatives formed the Tanzania Civic


877 Kaplan, R.D., 1994, “The Coming anarchy”, The Atlantic Monthly, Feb. pp 44-72; 1996 The ends of the Earth, New York Random House; 1997, ‘Was Democracy Just a Moment?’ The Atlantic Monthly, Dec., pp. 56.



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Monitor (TACIMO) to monitor the implementation of the National Anti – Corruption Action Plan.”878

I wish to point out here that establishing civil society organizations to perform the function of community oversight is encouraging. It is a home grown strategy, which demonstrates ownership and improves chances for sustainability.

As Johnston puts it,

“A strong civil society is essential for the kind of structured political competition that can remedy problems inherent in system where there is a lack of civil liberties and political freedoms, and incentives. More importantly, it can reinforce the political will needed for reform.”879

I wish to add here however, that civil societies in African countries traditionally have been weak and divided, and consequently, its contributions to improving sporadic governance. In the early 1990s, the pro – democracy movements in Africa drew large numbers of people into political debate and organization. This is in an effort to fight against corruption that was becoming rampant in many African countries at that time in the name of privatization and structural adjustments. The leaders of Benin’s public employees union, for example, opposed privatization and criticized structural adjustment measures.

According to Johnston,

“They contended these measures placed the burden of reform on the lower grades of civil service rather than the plunders and corrupt ones who initiated the program.”880

Several African countries have not been able to build on the momentum of the pro – democracy movements due to repressive law that squashed the media and organized citizen protests; or governments do not encourage genuine political competition and/or citizen participation.

According to Harsch, E.,

“In Cote d’ Ivoir, the Syndicat National de Recherché et d´ Enseignement Superieur, the teacher union, demanded that the immense fortunes illicitly acquired and stashed abroad should

878 Ibid.

879 879 Johnston, `Fighting Systematic Corruption: Social Foundation for Institutional Reform` in Robinson (ed.), 1998. and Kpundeh, 1998 `Political Will in Fighting Corruption’ in Corruption and Integrity Improvement Initiatives in Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.).

880FBIS Daily Report: Sub – Saharan African, Nov. 22, 1991, p.25, Washington, DC.



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be brought back, and that personalities who obtained huge loans through state guarantees should be summoned to repay them”881

I wish to say here that, civil society organizations have been ineffective because few have the support of government in their efforts. Institutions such as Ombudsman in Malawi, the commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in Ghana, Public Complaints Commission in Nigeria, and other organizations that address complaints from citizens and/or protect them against the arbitrary nature of the state, have in most countries been in constant conflict with government officials.

For Harsch,

“Although many are constitutionally established institutions, most governments view them as adversaries and attempts to stifle their progress through intimidation of their officials and control of their budgets. In Ghana for example, President Rawlings identified the Director of CHRAJ during his address to Parliament in his regime, as the person who has been reversing government decisions designed to address malfeasance.”882

The agency is guaranteed in the constitution, but it is difficult to be effective when the government considers the organization its adversary. Additionally, budgetary constraints have required CHRAJ to supplement its operations from bilateral donors. Some of these organizations have also taken on the role of a civic monitor in conducting service delivery surveys designed by local experts to help public managers and policy makers determine the effectiveness of government services and its delivery system.

According to Harsch,

“These surveys have been useful in countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, and Zimbabwe, and allowing consumers an opportunity to conveying strong messages to service providers. The results have been used as a mandate to design specific strategies to improve service delivery.”883

881 Harsch, E., 1993 Àccumulators and Democrats: Challenging State Corruption in Africa` Journal of Modern

African Studies, Vol.31, N0.1, pp.31-48. 882 Harsch, E., 1993 Àccumulators and Democrats: Challenging State Corruption in Africa` Journal of Modern


African Studies, Vol.31, N0.1, pp.31-48.



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B. POPULIST INITIATIVES

Another aspect of corruption control strategy in Africa is Populist Initiative. The Populist Initiatives deals with Military coup d’états; public humiliations and executions; quasi-official tribunals; property seizure, heavy fines; and imprisonment; moralization campaigns; civil servant purges.”884

Consequently, the Church believes that in our efforts to control corruption, we should take cognisance of the importance of the dignity of the human rights, individual liberty and religious welfare.


“In a remarkably even handed manner Pope Leo XIII laid anathema on both liberal capitalism, which released the individual from social and moral constraints and socialism, which subordinated individual liberty to social well-being without respect to human rights or religious welfare.”885

It is important here to note that the Church places more importance on the dignity and right of the individual human person his freedom and welfare. When these aspects of the human person are neglected then, corruption and injustices and other ills come in the society.

For the Church,

“Economic life, like political life, should reflect the dualistic nature of the person, Pope Leo XIII argued, providing for bodily needs and facilitating the quest for salvation.”886

This is a strong argument to condemn wage slavery which consequently brings about corruption in the society.

The Populist Initiatives must heed the advice of the social doctrine of the Church for it to effectively be a vehicle for anti-corruption strategy. The question then is Populist Initiative.


884 Kpundeh, `Political Will in Fighting Corruption’ in Corruption and Integrity Improvement Initiatives in Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.). 1998 p 72.

885 Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage. Ed. By David J. O’Brien, and Thomas A Shannon Feb. 2001, Maryknoll, New York 10545 no. 1. P. 13.

886 Ibid.



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“The general characteristics of populist initiatives include; Military coup d’états; moralization campaigns; civil servant purges; public humiliations and executions; quasi-official tribunals; property seizure, heavy fines; and imprisonment.”887

It should be observed that Populist Initiatives such as civil servant purges, arrests, detention, and public humiliations of senior government officials are more prevalent following military coup d’états. In some countries,

as Kpundeh puts it,

“corrupt officials are beginning to receive harsher punishments including executions in Ghana under Rawlings in 1979 and in Liberia under Samuel Doe in 1980. Some military regimes have confiscated the property of some government officials as in Sierra Leon after the military coup in 1992. It is generally characteristic of military governments to institute commission of enquiry to investigate the deposed government officials for embezzling and mismanaging government funds.”888

It should be noted that after the military coup in 1992, the military government of Valentine Strasser immediately established three commissions of enquiry. These enquiries were charged with the investigation of the former senior government officials in the Momoh and Stevens’s regimes, and all public officials, members of the board and employees of parastatals, the armed forces, and the police force.889

In the Sierra Leoneans case and in others such as Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, etc

According to Olowu,

“quick – fix measures – anti- corruption purges and moralization campaign instituted by military regimes to deal with corruption have not been successful. Dele Olowu, argues that the existence of political will to genuinely tackle corruption must not be assumed on the basis of policy pronouncements by political leaders. Those most vocal often turn out to be the ones who aid and abet corruption most.” 890

887 Kpundeh, `Political Will in Fighting Corruption’ in Corruption and Integrity Improvement Initiatives in Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.). 1998 p 72

888 Kpundeh, Sahr, 1999a ‘Controlling Corruption in Sierra Leone: An Assessment of Past Efforts and Suggestions for the Future’ in Hope, K. R. Sr. and B. Chikulo. P 64

889 Kpundeh, Sahr, 1994, `Limiting Administrative in Sierra Leone` Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 32, n. pp139-157.

890 Olowu, Dele, 1993 `Roots and Remedies of Governmental Corruption in Africa’, Corruption and Reform, Vol.7, no.3. p 6.



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This observation proved true in Sierra Leone. Despite the military’s stated mission to eradicate mismanagement and institutionalized malfeasance, the administration was plagued with accusations of corruption. Its own members ignored its policies aimed at infusing morality and discipline. Senior military personnel including the Head of state Strasser lived luxurious lives, probably better than those they kicked out. The public’s trust dissipates when people witness wide spread abuse, disrespect for human rights, and a blatant lack of transparency and lack of accountability.891

According to Olowu,

“In general, populist initiatives have not been successful in Africa. They have mainly focussed on quick- fix- measures and meting out punishment to deposed government officials. The record of failure is exceedingly high for measures that use the blunt instrument of prosecution (or the fear of prosecution) as their principal tool compliance. Corruption and other crimes are based upon motive, opportunity, and means, and how these elements are built into relationship between private citizens and government agents.”892

It is important here to note that a general lack of understanding and appreciation of the institutionalization of corruption by military governments have largely been responsible for their focus on individuals. For military officials, it seems corruption is viewed as a problem of individuals with excessive ambition and greed. If it were the case,

as Olowu puts it,

“then a quick-fix strategy of throwing out the rotten apples ought to work. But then this action has been taken, for example Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Nigeria, etc., corruption has persisted and sometimes flourished. Exposure, humiliation, prosecution, and/or disciplinary action against corrupt officials, remove the offender, but fail to eliminate the offence.”893

I wish to point out that despite all this, corruption has continued unabated in these countries. This is because, institutional weaknesses have not been addressed and the culture has remained unchanged, consequently, the circumstances that produced the corruption still subsist in most cases, recur, and are now entrenched in the system.

891 Kpundeh, Sahr, 1999a ‘Controlling Corruption in Sierra Leone: An Assessment of Past Efforts and Suggestions for the Future’ in Hope, K. R. Sr. and B. Chikulo.

892 Olowu, Dele, 1993 `Roots and Remedies of Governmental Corruption in Africa’, Corruption and Reform, Vol.7, no.3.

893 . Olowu, Dele, 1993 `Roots and Remedies of Governmental Corruption in Africa’, Corruption and Reform, Vol.7, no.3.



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C. NATIONAL EFFORTS

In order to fight corruption, the national efforts are very vital element of corruption control strategy. This is because; it is the responsibility of every nation or the government of every nation to see to it that its individual citizen enjoys a reasonable measure of freedom, justice and peace. They should make sure that they enjoy the fruit of their labour in dignity, freedom and justice.

As Pope Leo XIII puts it,

“Pope Leo XIII insisted that wages be determined not by economic considerations alone, but by taking into account the basic needs of the individual. Property, too, was subject to social and moral restraint; while all had a right to use that property without reference to the needs of the community.”894

This is true because when the nation neglects the individual dignity of its people and pursues their own selfishness alone, then there abound corruption and all sorts of societal ills.

From its characteristics, we notice that in fact, we cannot do without National efforts as a means of corruption control strategy.


“The Characteristics include: Corruption inquiries; training within states and public institutions; Islands of integrity; Legal approaches; Anti- corruption agencies; Auditor General and Parliamentary Oversight Committees; Police and Inter-Agency Cooperation; Capacity Building, Codes of conduct for Public Officials, and Declaration of assets.”895

From these characteristics, one can obviously notice without doubt the fundamental importance of the national efforts in the corruption control strategy. When corruption control strategy presumes to function in isolation, without other stake holders, it achieves little or nothing at all.

As Kaplan pointed out,

“National efforts to fight corruption in Tanzania are fundamentally government-driven without much involvement from other stakeholders. The most common examples of anti-corruption

894 Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage. Ed. By David J. O’Brien, and Thomas A Shannon Feb. 2001, Maryknoll, New York 10545 n. 1 P. 13.

895 Kaplan, R.D., 1994, “The Coming anarchy”, The Atlantic Monthly, Feb. pp 44-72; 1996 the ends of the Earth, New York Random House; 1997, ‘Was Democracy Just a Moment?’ The Atlantic Monthly, Dec., pp. 57.



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institutions such as the - Inspector General of government in Uganda, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority, the Prevention of Corruption Bureau in Tanzania, the Commission on human rights and Administrative Justice, the Serious Frauds Office in Ghana, the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Malawi: While their levels of authority vary from country to country, their general purpose has been to induce fundamental changes in the attitudes of public officials through awareness raising campaigns, investigating allegations of corruption, and prosecuting those who have violated the public’s trust.” 896

I wish to say here right away that these institutions have produced mixed results due to a combination of factors including their vulnerability to regime changes, lack of sufficient autonomy, lack of political support from the political leadership, and in most cases and most important, a lack of resources.

In Uganda for example, according to Kpundeh,

“the Inspectorate General of Government has worked to uncover corruption cases, demanded severe punishment, and constructed a new strategy that focuses on grassroots awareness. Despite these accomplishments, the Inspectorate continues to be constrained by insufficient funding; inadequate staff; and a shortage of vehicles, computers, photocopiers, and investigative equipment such as video cameras and recorders.” 897

I agree with Kpundeh that, Parliamentary oversight committees have had little, if any, impact. Only a few countries such as Uganda, Kenya, and Ghana have effectively utilized legislative committees. For example in Uganda, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has vigorously demanded proper accountability of government expenditures from ministries and government agencies. Many senior officials have been prosecuted and dismissed as a result of its inefficient work. The PAC has exposed malfeasance in all areas of the Ugandan Government, forcing some government ministers out of office and censoring others. To ensure its continued success, some of its functions have decentralized and are now handled by the District Accounts Committees.898

We can see that this, According to Kpundeh,

“has strengthened the auditing function at all levels of government and society. It is harder for aberrant behaviour to go unnoticed. In countries such as Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Tanzania

896 Kaplan, R.D., 1994, “The Coming anarchy”, The Atlantic Monthly, Feb. pp 44-72; 1996 the ends of the Earth, New York Random House; 1997, ‘Was Democracy Just a Moment?’ The Atlantic Monthly, Dec., pp. 58

897 Kpundeh, Sahr, 2000 Ìnstitutional Reform Efforts in Uganda` in Heidenheimer, Johnston, and Le Vine (eds.) forthcoming. p 10.




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where this kind of institutional strategy has not contributed to the fight against corruption, it is argued that the institutional arrangements and the dominance of the ruling party in Parliament are obstacles. In Tanzania for example, members of its public accounts committee are often rotated, prohibiting continuity in policies.”899

Despite the fact that, Codes of conduct for senior government officials and civil servants have been introduced in Tanzania, Uganda, Mali, and Malawi, while top government officials and high – level civil servants are required to adhere to a leadership code of conduct, which in most cases includes provisions for declaration of assets, income, and liabilities but regrettably, these procedures are usually ineffective because they are not enforced. For example,

As Riley puts it;

“Less emphasis is placed on the monitoring of declarations, drastically reducing its utility to prevent illicit enrichment. The lack of capacity and political will to verify declarations also has been a major factor in its ineffectiveness. Several countries influenced by organizations such as Transparency International and other donors have adopted integrity pledges and islands of integrity which are verbal commitments to introduce integrity in governance and in public administration.”900

I agree with Kaplan that, national strategies can make inroads when they are supported by strong political will at all levels of government. However, the constraints identified above have led to a general cynicism from the populace as to the national level’s sincerity to address the problem. In some countries,

according to Kpundeh,

“Usually the small fry is prosecuted for wrongdoing and big fish go untouched. There so many examples of this behaviour in Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, etc. that this seem to be the rule and no exception. One of the greatest dangers to the preservation and development of a society is the loss of trust and faith not only in governments, but also in its institutions. Selective law enforcement, focusing mainly on small fry and opposition members has undermined public outreach and awareness raising campaigns that preach about the evils of corruption.”901

899 Kpundeh, Sahr, 1994, `Limiting Administrative in Sierra Leone` Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 32, n. pp139-157.

900 Riley, Stephen, 1998 `the Political Economy of Anti-Corruption Strategies in Africa`, in Robinson (ed.), 1998.pg 42.




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People recognize that the benefits of corruption outweigh the costs, and consequently find the awareness message inconsistent with reality. It is difficult to sustain a reform program without a credible messenger and strong political will, especially from critical areas such as enforcement.

D. INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS

Again, international efforts deal with World Bank and IMF policies; OECD effort to criminalize trans-national bribery; Transparency International’s interventions; bilateral donor efforts. International Efforts are other corruption control strategies that play major role in corruption control in Africa. Their international Character is very helpful in poverty alleviation and corruption control.

For Kaplan,

“The major Characteristics include: World Bank and IMF policies; OECD effort to criminalize trans-national bribery; Transparency International’s interventions; bilateral donor efforts.”902

I wish to point out that based on the agenda, of the international organizations such as the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, the UNDP, OECD, and the bilateral donors have developed new policies that are demonstrative of governments to institute policies to control this malaise. Through technical and other forms of assistance, multi and bilateral donors aiding African governments in the implementation of reform measures that reduce opportunities corruption, building capacity, reform the public sector, and strengthen institutions that will contribute to improving the quality of governance.

According to Riley,

“Efforts at the international levels highlight the seriousness of the fight against malfeasance as on the new development agenda to reduce poverty. This new agenda involves sustaining reform efforts in developing and transitioning countries to enable market economies and liberal democratic political system to grow. Additionally, it is constructed to prioritize the interests of the poor and the marginalized within the context of higher ethical standards in donors and an enabling state.”903

It can be observed that recent regional initiatives have promoted good governance. For example, the African Governance Forum, a deliberative process that includes Sub-Saharan Africa countries

902 Kaplan, R.D., 1994, “The Coming anarchy”, The Atlantic Monthly, Feb. pp 44-72; 1996 the ends of the Earth, New York Random House; 1997, ‘Was Democracy Just a Moment?’ The Atlantic Monthly, Dec., pp. 58.

903 Riley, Stephen, 1998 `the Political Economy of Anti-Corruption Strategies in Africa`, in Robinson (ed.), 1998.pg 42.



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and their external partners, is an opportunity for regular dialogue and interaction on good governance. The forum held its first meeting in July 1997 in Ethiopia, focussing on governance, and it’s second in Ghana, June 1998, focussing on accountability and transparency.

For Kpundeh,

“The Africa Development Bank (ADB) has adopted governance and corruption as performance factors in credit worthiness when considering loans to regional member countries. Under the auspices of the Global coalition for Africa (GCA) ministers and senior officials from Benin, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda have adopted a set of twenty – five anti- corruption principles demonstrating a concerted and collaborative effort to combat corrupt practices.”904

I believe however that, international and regional initiatives to address corruption will meet with little success unless they are supported and co-ordinated with effective action against domestic abuses.

According to Masland,

“Switzerland, for example has made some strides in helping to discourage the laundering of ill-gotten and embezzled funds by agreeing to freeze and return stolen wealth deposited in its banks. For example, at the request of Nigeria’s Obasanjo Government about $650 million was frozen in 140 accounts throughout Switzerland and President Clinton and some European governments also pledged support.”905

Again, in April 1997, Swiss authorities agreed to return US$2.2million to Mali repatriated funds of the former President Troare. They were responding to claims by the successor government that embezzled funds had been illegally deposited in Swiss Banks.906

According to Hope,

“In May 1997, Switzerland also agreed to freeze assets of former Zairean President Mobutu, which were found in the country. Authorities subsequently announced that they had been able to identify US$3.4 million in bank accounts belonging to Mr. Mobutu and his relatives.”907

904 Kpundeh, Sahr, 2000 Ìnstitutional Reform Efforts in Uganda` in Heidenheimer, Johnston, and Le Vine (eds.)

forthcoming. p 12. 905 Masland, Tom and J. Bartholet, `The lost Billions’, Newsweek, March 13, p.39-40. 906 Johnston, `Fighting Systematic Corruption: Social Foundation for Institutional Reform` in Robinson (ed.), 1998.

907 Hope, K.R. Sr. and B. Chikulo (eds.) 1999, Corruption and Development in Africa: Lessons from Case Studies (Macmillan Press, Ltd.).



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I agree with Masland that this concerted international effort to deal with corruption is a far cry from the Cold War days when despots like Mobutu often had the backing of Western capitals. Because kleptocrats like Mobutu resisted Communism, the developed World condoned their schemes to get rich fast by plundering national treasuries and shipping the money to banks in the United States and Europe.908

Fortunately, as Masland puts it,

“ the battle against corruption is now becoming a priority for Western powers trying to bring stability and prosperity to global markets. In the United States, for example, at least three pieces of legislation, one a Clinton Administration initiative, have been proposed to make the handling of corrupt money a crime. The treasury Department also announced a proposal, earlier this year, to give the government more power to battle money laundering of all types.”909

For me, the above discussion clearly demonstrates that there is no silver bullet to deal with corruption. The forms and causes vary from country to country and consequently, attempts to confront it also vary to fit each country’s realities. However, lessons emerging from countries with successful reforms efforts, clearly illustrate that strong political will at all levels of government is pivotal.

E. THE NEED FOR AN INCLUSIVE STRATEGY


“The Moral Law based on a rational understanding of human nature supplemented by revelation has to be part of every economic system and indeed of every economic transaction. The criteria given by that law were justice, demanding equity in exchange and bargaining; balance between various economic sectors; and organization of the constituent economic units. More generally, justice demanded that the common good of the community take precedence over individual gain in determining economic policy, without , however, necessarily infringing on legitimate rights of the individual person.”910

908 Masland, Tom and J. Bartholet, `The lost Billions’, Newsweek, March 13, pp.38-40.

909 ibid. 910 Catholic Social Thought: The Documentary Heritage. Ed. By David J. O’Brien, and Thomas A Shannon Feb. 2001, Maryknoll, New York 10545. N0. 3. P. 15.



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This balance between economic sectors and stake-holders to see that justice is maintained in distribution of the common good is very vital in ensuring peace and harmony in the society and consequently aiding the fight against corruption.

Again the idea that Corruption control strategies are most effective when they are participative and inclusive of all stakeholders have been directly and indirectly, touched by the previous discussions.

Such inclusiveness according to Holm,

“requires the building of coalitions among stakeholders – government, civil society, NGOs, etc., to ensure that reforms are suitable. Coalition building in Africa has not been a common practice. What we have witnessed in several African countries is separate reform efforts – government driving their anti-corruption reform agenda with no involvement from civil society accusing government of a general lack of commitment. This relationship has been adversarial and has driven a wedge between the various stakeholders, consequently resulting in a lack of cohesive strategy.”911

I agree with Holm that a participative approach to confront issues of accountability, especially at the community level has been a historical tenet in African societies. For Botswana, for example, John Holm argues that,

“the establishment of democratic accountability is endogenous to their origins. He (Holm) highlights the “Freedom Squares”, the “Kgotla squires”, (These squires are open spaces most often situated at the centre of some major cities, for instance in Egypt and Libya. People gather in these squires for political reasons) and the role of “Traditional Authorities” in institutionalizing accountability in the country.”912

I wish to point out here that Politicians first established freedom squares during the first national election in 1965. They needed a local venue to engage in dialogue with a population that was almost totally illiterate and had few radios. Community members of all political beliefs were allowed to question the Rally’s speakers. In most rural areas freedom squares are the primary means the citizenry uses to obtain information about party politics. The Kgotla meetings are the traditional gatherings which chiefs have used for centuries to correspond with local communities. This remains an important part of the democratic accountability process in rural areas as

911 Holm, John D, 1998 `Curbing Corruption Through Democratic Accountability: Lessons From Botswana` in

Hope, K.R. Sr. and B. Chikulo (eds.) p 42. 912 Holm, John D, 1998 `Curbing Corruption Through Democratic Accountability: Lessons From Botswana` in

Hope, K.R. Sr. and B. Chikulo (eds.) p 42.



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government ministers visit Kgotla meetings to seek community approval for local development projects.

According to Holm,

“these visits were not only integral, to standard bureaucratic needs assessment activities, but also were opportunities for senior officials to convince politicians and foreign donors that the government was accountable to the people when policies were implemented at the grassroots level”.913

It is important here to note that, the need to obtain Kgotla approval has become a mandatory part of the initiation of projects in the rural areas. More important, civil servants develop program, knowing they must be prepared to defend their proposals at the community level and not just order their implementation.

According to Holms,

“Traditional authorities have also played a role in ensuring that issues affecting their local communities are on the local agenda. For example, chiefs and headmen have defended their districts or communities against actions proposed by government ministries. Community involvement has ensured that the people participate in the governance of their local areas and, in some cases, local resources have been utilized to accomplish their goals.”914

A participatory approach to governance – where locals are involved in designing and implementing program means that the people participate in establishing priorities. In some African countries, the government has ignored the “voice” of the rural areas. However, the desire to improve governance has introduced new “actors” seeking to defend and further their interests in the policy process. Politicians who have practiced the policy of exclusion by monopolizing the benefits of state resources find it more difficult now to appropriate the benefits of governance for their own private interests.

According to Holms,

“Decentralizing powers can be tricky, particularly if there is no real delegation of authority including authority to generate and reserve a portion of local revenues. The African Development Foundation (ADF) and the World Bank are currently supporting participatory development

913 Holm, John D, 1998 `Curbing Corruption Through Democratic Accountability: Lessons From Botswana` in Hope, K.R. Sr. and B. Chikulo (eds.) p 66.

914 Holm, John D, 1998 `Curbing Corruption Through Democratic Accountability: Lessons From Botswana` in Hope, K.R. Sr. and B. Chikulo (eds.) p 66.



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projects that give group members not only control over the design and implementation of their project, but also the resources needed to implement it.” 915

This simply means that all the individuals in the group are able to participate in the decision-making process, including identification of the problem, project design, and implementation, distribution of benefits and evaluation of impact.

Below are two examples of projects supported separately by the World Bank 916 and the ADF917 that seeks to promote accountability through an inclusive and participatory process in governance.

According to Holms,

“In Tanzania, for example, with support from the ADF the Songambele Fishing Society – a forgotten population of about 12,000 people in the island of Tumbatu, near the larger island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, will implement their own strategy and establish their priorities. Twenty-nine individuals organized the Songambele Fishing Society in 1988. With contributions from members engaged in lime-making and petty trading, they managed to acquire one fishing boat. Eventually, they were able to buy another boat from their earnings although they still had to rent expensive nets from other more prosperous fishermen. Despite these efforts, many of Songambele’s members could not fully engage in fishing nor earn enough to meet basic survival needs. The society’s attempt to obtain a bank loan failed.”918

It is very important here to observe that with support from the ADF, which included funds for building three new boats and a work-shed, purchasing four outboard engines and fishing gear, and technical and management training were given. In six months, Songambele compiled an impressive of accomplishments. They constructed three new Boats, and started open sea fishing operations; increased member’s income from $10 per month to $45 per month; increased daily, marketable fish supply by 200 percent per boat; fully employed all twenty-nine members; employed eight community members pat-time as net makers, boat repairers and watchmen;

915 Holm, John D, 1998 `Curbing Corruption Through Democratic Accountability: Lessons From Botswana` in

Hope, K.R. Sr. and B. Chikulo (eds.) p 42. 916 The African Region of the World Bank has funded quite a few community base projects. A recent analysis

shows that 75 percent of African Projects with some level of community participation have been rated satisfactory by the operations Evaluation Department (OED) of the World Bank, against 60 percent for all African projects in 1994-1997.

917 For more details on the Songambele project and others and others supported by the African Development Foundation, refer to “Participatory Development: Report on ADF Founded Projects, Fiscal years 1994-1996; or visit their websites at http://www.adf.gov/bpl.html

918 Holm, John D, 1998 `Curbing Corruption through Democratic Accountability: Lessons From Botswana` in Hope, K.R. Sr. and B. Chikulo (eds.) p 65.



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completed 85 percent of the Work-shed construction; and realized a gross profit of $1,000 every two weeks from the two boats.919

Furthermore, according to Holms,

“Building on previous World Bank Institute (WBI) work in selected countries, a pilot core course on curbing corruption was launched in June 1999. A diverse group of stakeholders from seven countries Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, came together to present a program of action at the 9th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Durban, South Africa. The course is based upon a participatory process that produces an integrated action oriented framework.”920

One notices that the process empowers the participant country teams as they lead in the preparation of their own, rigorous, action programs, explicitly stating and requesting from WBI and Africa Region staff at each stage are their highest priorities for technical advice or assistance. Participants, selected from their countries to represent key governmental, private sector, and civil society organizations dedicated to anti-corruption, work together through the process of action program design, then discuss and review the challenges of integrating the participatory process with concrete institutional reforms. The ultimate objective of this process is to conduct anti-corruption institutional reforms formulated and òwned’ by the participant country teams.921

I wish to argue here that the program has demonstrated that an inclusive and participatory approach in developing strategies to fight corruption and together with empirical knowledge and rigorous analysis is crucial for success. As a result of this initiative, participants in the various teams have become catalysts in their home countries. They are working to build coalitions among various stakeholders (e.g. the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition was formed after the Durban workshop; TACIMO has been formed in Tanzania to monitor the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan), and are now taking concrete steps to address the problem of corruption. The major output of the course was a series of national anti-corruption strategies922, developed by the teams; the outcome was a wholly client-owned national action plan supported by a broad coalition of stakeholders as well as leaders from civil society, journalists and businessmen.

919 Op cit 920 Holm, John D, 1998 `Curbing Corruption through Democratic Accountability: Lessons From Botswana` in Hope,

K.R. Sr. and B. Chikulo (eds.) p 66. 921 Holm, John D, 1998 `Curbing Corruption through Democratic Accountability: Lessons From Botswana` in Hope,

K.R. Sr. and B. Chikulo (eds.) p 66. 922 For more details on the on the seven country programs, please visit the World Bank Institute’s website

www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance.



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Interestingly, these two examples demonstrate that a participative and inclusive approach helps to generate local ownership, put people in the driver’s seat, harness their capabilities and, consequently, improve development. The fight against corruption should be seen from this perspective. The strategies for countries should be home grown and not donor-driven as it creates dependency syndrome. Local communities are forced to rely on the centre for “hand-outs”. When the people own reform programs, it goes a long way in preventing social exclusion and capture of the programs by both the politicians in the centre and elites in the urban areas.

However, the international community still has a role to play in the fight against corruption. In the next section, several suggestions will be made on the role of the international community.

F. THE ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.

We have already briefly discussed some of the international efforts that confront corruption, cultural factors, money laundering, and organized crime etc. The intent of this section is to build on the argument that sustainable reform in Africa must be integral to domestic agenda and not driven by international donors only.


“Kenya and Sierra Leone, where the constituency for reform is weak, illustrate the obvious danger of dealing with the perennial problem of whether the reform efforts are genuine or simply attempts to appease donors.”923

I want to observe that corruption is an intricately woven set of circumstances that occur as a result of the actions of domestic as well as international actors within the political, economic and social sectors of a country. Consequently, collaboration and coordination among the members of the international development community are increasingly crucial to an effective campaign to reduce corruption.

As Kpundeh puts it,

“A solid commitment from the government, the private sector and civil society along with institutional changes are required to develop and enact concrete solutions – solutions that include

923 Johnston, Michael `Fighting Systematic Corruption: Social Foundation for Institutional Reform` in Robinson

(ed.), 1998. P 44.



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both preventive as well as punitive measures that address accountability, transparency and system inequities, politically and economically.”924

It should be noted that International donors have taken several steps to address corruption both within their various organizations and their policies for granting loans and grants to developing countries. Multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, and UNDP, and several bilateral donors have all instituted new policies to either prevent corruption in their projects and/or to support international efforts such as the OECD convention that seeks the criminalization of bribery in international business transactions. However, international efforts, especially from multi and bilateral donors have to support and compliment domestic strategies.

According to ‘The Executive,’

“If a particular country does not have on-going public sector reforms as part of their broader governance policy process, international remedies will be ineffective. Sanctions can be imposed as we saw in 1997 when the World Bank and IMF withheld multi-million dollars assistance to Kenya, and suspended a number of investment projects until they would prove there is a credible commitment to change (Washington Post, 1997). Similar action was taken against Tanzania in 1994, when the donor community suspended aid and conditioned future assistance on the government’s commitment to recover evaded and exempted taxes and to initiate legal action against corrupt officials.”925

I agree with Kpundeh that, donors can continue to support the domestic agenda in countries genuinely struggling with reform.

Firstly, they may want to consider putting additional pressure on countries with invasive persistent fraud and mismanagement. According to him,

“Countries requesting help may be required to demonstrate their commitment in their country budgets by increasing the support allocated to anti-corruption efforts. Perhaps the idea of matching funds from donors should be considered – donors promise to match whatever the country has in its budget for anti-corruption measures.”926

Second, bilateral donors should ensure that fighting corruption is a priority in their policy agenda, especially since the mandate of multilaterals such as the World Bank limits this activity. As Kpundeh puts it,

924 Kpundeh, 1998 `Political Will in Fighting Corruption’ in Corruption and Integrity Improvement Initiatives in

Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.). p 23. 925 The Executive, August, 1995 (Dar Es Salaam). 926 Kpundeh, 1998 `Political Will in Fighting Corruption’ in Corruption and Integrity Improvement Initiatives in

Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.). p 24.



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“Political corruption is a fundamental problem that needs to be addressed – campaign financing; checks and balances; civil liberties, structured competition in both political and economic realms, etc., are all factors that are important in the fight against corruption.”927

For example, political competition can place a check upon arbitrary political interference in the bureaucracy, encouraging genuine oversight in its place and can maintain healthy opposition to political attempts to compromise judiciary and regulatory agencies.

Third, donors may want to encourage collective action to deal with corruption and more important, target additional support to programs that promote such action among various stakeholders in developing and implementing anti-corruption reforms.


“Having an inclusive and participatory approach (involving all stakeholders – government, civil society, private sector, media, etc.) to designing and implementing anti-corruption reforms help to sustain the process. However, given the mutual suspicion that exists between governments, anti-corruption agencies and civil society, it is unclear whether government reformers genuinely attempt to involve civil society and private sectors in anti-corruption activities.”928

Coalition building between civil society and the government continues to be one of the foci in future reform strategies, and support for the process is crucial to its sustainability as well as strengthening political will.

A fourth suggestion is for donors to encourage countries to adopt long-term strategies. Granted that the issue of getting “quick wins” is important in the early stages of any anti-corruption program to ensure vision, but the issue of a long term vision and strategy is equally important. As Kpundeh puts it,

“The mission is to tie political security and/or insecurity of political leaders to the way power changes hands. For example, when leaders believe they are secured in office, they are more likely to view corruption as a long – term fight. Leaders whose positions are tentative may be more inclined to concentrate on immediate or short-term solutions as a way of staying in power.”929

It should be noted that adopting short-term approaches opens society to more abuse, which ultimately erodes the strength and the legitimacy of the reigning regime. Donors should encourage


Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.). p 26. 928 Kpundeh, 1998 `Political Will in Fighting Corruption’ in Corruption and Integrity Improvement Initiatives in

Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.). p 26. 929 ibid



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and help borrower countries to design long-term strategies that can be prioritized into short, medium and long term goals.930

I wish to add here that given the current global trend and advances in technology, it may be useful if donors consider encouraging governments to allow more transparency by posting important financial information available on the Internet. For example, governments can publicize their budgets and accounts and other relevant information on development and even the laws relating to finance, regulations, anti-corruption.


“This effort can start such a process by designing joint web pages, which list recipients of loans and grants and the types of programs they are supporting. One example of an on-going effort is the Transparency International in collaboration with OECD and the Asian Development Bank are proposing the construction of the Asian Anti-Corruption website, with the objective of tracking the anti-corruption programs of all donors in the region as well as of collecting and disseminating Asia- specific data on corruption.”931

Another suggestions is for donors to consider providing more support to NGO’s or CBO`s that provide practical initiatives, especially at the municipal level.

This support according to Kpundeh,

“would be in addition to any they provide to NGOs presently working through policy instruments. For example, the USAID-funded America’s Accountability and Anti-Corruption (AAA) projects coordinate the Donor Consultative Group (DCG) on Accountability and Anti-Corruption in Latin America and Caribbean. The DCG is composed of six bilateral and twelve international donors and uses the bilingual (Spanish/English) newsletter Accountability as its communication vehicle. In 1999, AAA implemented Anti-Corruption Without Boarders/Anti-Corruption Sin Fronteras for LAC/NGOs with ant-corruption components. ACWB/ACSF promotes the use of Internet resources and a Regional Network of Ant- Corruption NGOs to strengthen the capacity of NGOs and to enhance their contributions to anti-corruption to anti-corruption efforts.”932

930 Kpundeh, 1998 `Political Will in Fighting Corruption’ in Corruption and Integrity Improvement Initiatives in Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.). p 24-25 . 931 Johnston, Michael `Fighting Systematic Corruption: Social Foundation for Institutional Reform` in Robinson

(ed.), 1998. P 15. 932 Kpundeh, 1998 `Political Will in Fighting Corruption’ in Corruption and Integrity Improvement Initiatives in

Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.). p 24-25 .



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As the Tanzanian example demonstrated earlier, community- based programs have a higher rate of success and provide the “neglected” people in the rural areas the opportunity to participate in their governance.

Additionally, supporting such projects provides an opportunity for citizens to articulate their needs, establish their priorities, and monitor service delivery effectively.

As Johnston puts it,

“Reform initiatives have to be seen as coming from within and donors have to be cognizant of this reality in their program design. They can do appraisal to satisfy their project demands, but rather than provide government options of what to do, they should demand or help the government come up with strategies, and then fund programs within those strategies. The issue of fragmentation will be a non-issue if donors support programs within an overall strategy that they have worked with the government to develop.”933

I wish to point out here that supporting programs outside the strategy creates a problem of incoherence and lack of coordination on the part of donors. Uganda is currently moving towards this type (where the corruption control strategy stem from within the state or from the society in question and not from outside of it) of arrangement. The government has approved anti-corruption plan for the next few years, with an aim to improve coordination and implementation. The Ministry of Ethics and Integrity convenes an inter-agency forum on corruption and coordinates all activities. Several public institutions are involved including the judiciary, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and Inspectorate of Government, Parliament, and the Police. They meet regularly with donors that have been useful in encouraging joint planning as well as improving the coordination among donor programs.934

Finally, and more importantly, donors should provide support to nurture political will in countries where it is either weak or totally lacking. The presence of Political will is a critical starting point for sustainable and effective anti-corruption strategies and programs. However, its presence cannot always be assumed in reform efforts. Reformers face resistance from groups that benefit from corruption in any society, and coupled with their insecurity in office about how power changes hands, their political will to pursue reform is threatened. The risk involves in this pursuit is real and there are numerous examples of well-intended regimes that have engineered their own down-fall through inept and or ineffective strategies.

933 Johnston, Michael `Fighting Systematic Corruption: Social Foundation for Institutional Reform` in Robinson

(ed.), 1998.p 21. 934 Johnston, Michael `Fighting Systematic Corruption: Social Foundation for Institutional Reform` in Robinson

(ed.), 1998.p 23.



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As Michael Johnston reminds us,

“ the will to fight Corruption has as much in common with the will to pursue any other goal. It must be given space to grow from within a political system and eventually to ensure its effectiveness and sustainability, become an integral part of basic social and economic processes.”935

G. THE SIGNIFICANT OF POLITICAL WILL IN FIGHTING CORRUPTION

Reform efforts, according to Kpundeh,

“are oftentimes unsuccessful due to a combined influence of inadequate strategies, political resistance, poor participative approach, failure to develop sustainable efforts, and inability to construct appropriate tools to establish systemic change. Politics is another particularly critical component for sustainable and effective anti-corruption strategies and programs. Without it, governmental efforts designed to improve civil service, strengthen transparency and accountability, and reinvent the relationship between government and private industry will prove to be ineffective.”936

I want to add however that, neither its (political) presence nor absence can be presumed in any single initiative. Instead, political will is evident by the level of participation that is built into reform initiatives, incorporating a range of political actors and civil society. In other words, unwavering determination to fight corruption is not only a problem for leaders and bureaucratic reformers. Private sector, too, may lack the will to overcome corrupt systems. Citizens face the problems of mobilizing for collective action and turning their convictions into changes in public administration.

According to Gillespie,

“The growing pressures to address issues of corruption from both domestic and international stakeholders have also shown strong commitment from top leadership, both in the opposition and civil society organizations. Opposition figures have made corruption a major issue while those in government have formed new ant-corruption agencies as a response. The desire to change the culture of corruption can reside in many locations.” 937

935 Ibid.

936 Kpundeh, 1998 `Political Will in Fighting Corruption’ in Corruption and Integrity Improvement Initiatives in Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.).

937 Gillespie, K., and Gwenn Okruhlik, 1991, `the Political Dimensions of Corruption Cleanups: A Framework for Analysis`, Comparative Politics, Oct., 1991, pp. 77-95.



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It is important to note that numerous examples illustrate reform efforts that have arisen from each branch of government, the political opposition, civil society, international organizations, and private sector institutions. For Kpundeh,

“Each group has different motives and goals, and consequently defines success differently. But political will neither originates nor manifests in a vacuum. Rather, it is the reflection of complex circumstances that incorporate the aspirations of individual leaders, a calculation of the benefits that can be derived from changes in rules and behaviours, and a belief in the ability to muster adequate support to overcome resistance to reforms.” 938

It should be noted that while these reformist opportunities represent platforms for change, they often do not incorporate comprehensive strategies for sustainable change.

In many cases, according to Gillespie,

“Anti-corruption campaigns are political, rather than ideological, in motivation, scope, and objectives.”939

I agree with Gillespie that as such,

“they are political instruments employed to de-legitimate the previous regime, purge the opposition, or legitimate the current regime by temporarily decreasing corruption. Alternatively, they may be a tactical response to challenges from a counter-elite, popular discontent arising from socioeconomic conditions, or adverse publicity or investigations. Even when the anti-corruption campaigns are not political instruments, the strategies may be too broad-based to have any impact or may create disequilibria, by over-fortifying the powers of the Head of State, or instead, undermining his effectiveness.”940

Michael Johnson describes political will as

“where the analytical and practical aspects of the corruption issue meet, recognizing that active political processes and strong leadership are necessary parts of any effective response to malfeasance”.941

Unfortunately, I can say here that what has been lacking in several African countries is the demonstration of a credible intent by political leaders to attack the perceived causes or effects of


939 Gillespie, K., and Gwenn Okruhlik, 1991, `the Political Dimensions of Corruption Cleanups: A Framework for Analysis`, Comparative Politics, Oct., 1991, pp. 77-95.

940 Ibid. 941 Johnson, Michael, 1997d, ´Political Will and Corruption`, paper prepared for the World Bank, PREM Division.



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corruption at a systemic level – translating policy pronouncements and rhetoric to actions that are sustainable.

For example, according to Kpundeh,

“in Sierra Leone, new government regularly proposed commissions of inquiry anti-corruption squads and tough legislation. However, few of these approaches contained specific enforcement components. Plans to establish an on-going independent commission against corruption, to revise salaries, to provide incentives to public workers, and to recognize the civil service remain unaccomplished.”942

Similarly, in Nigeria, as Olowu puts it,

“the preoccupation with panic measures and the creation of ad hoc panels and tribunals to replace non-functioning legal institutions for ensuring public accountability have not been particularly helpful.”943

Political actors often talk of accountability and integrity but this by itself does not translate into a genuine commitment to detect and penalize unethical behaviour.

According to Olowu,

“Even when anti-corruption agencies are created, they are usually denied the resources needed to achieve their stated purpose…in many cases the codes of ethics they are asked to enforce have no broad-based popular understanding or support”.944

It should be observed that in several countries, the leadership has taken steps to demonstrate a commitment to reform by either disclosing their assets and/or seeking aid and technical assistance from international and bilateral donors. In Tanzania, for example,

according to Kpundeh,

“President Mkapa disclosed his assets and those of his wife after he assumed presidency. In Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and Malawi, the various Heads of State have requested assistance directly from the World Bank to help with Corruption. With the assistance of the World Bank Institute, diagnostic surveys are either underway or are in advanced planning stages as first steps to understanding the causes and consequences of corruption prior to developing a reform strategy.


943 Olowu, Dele, 1988, `Bureaucratic Morality in Africa` International Political Science Review, Vol. 9, N0.1, pp.215-229.

944 Ibid.1993.



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Subsequently the question is what are the political and institutional requirements needed for a serious assault against corruption in Africa.”945

I am of the opinion that rather than provide a laundry list of actions in response to the causes outlined earlier, it is important to stress that remedies should be country specific based on sound analytical work that delineates the vulnerable areas and the reason for lack of progress. “One size fits all” kinds of suggestions are ineffectual.

Initially, according to Kpundeh,

“Several political and institutional requirements need to be in place and can be divided into governmental actions and civil society programs. The former is a variety of legal, administrative and organizational responses executed by a system of incentives; the later engage the forces and interests of society in anti-corruption efforts, providing sustainable support. Neither strategy is likely to be sufficient alone. Both government and civil society programs work best in partnership, where public opinion and social interests support reform and anti-corruption efforts in civil society the protection and encouragement that only government can provide.946

I want mention here that Government actions fall into four broad areas: legal reforms, public administration and regulation, financial management and control, and intra-governmental accountability and oversight.

According to Doig,

“All countries have laws against fraud and corruption, and rather than create more laws, it is important to review and, if necessary, strengthen existing legislation. Modernizing the penal code to increase the costs of corruption include criminalizing bribery and strengthening law against illicit enrichment, protecting whistle-blowers, financial disclosure, freedom of legislation, watch-dog agencies, supreme audit institutions, financial management systems, etc. Aggressive enforcement of existing laws in African countries remains one of the missing links in supporting reform.”947

I wish to observe here that the unfortunate duplication of commissions and agencies of anti-corruption strategies on papers without translating it into action in Africa cannot lead us anywhere.

As Doig argues,


Developing Countries, Sahr Kpundeh, and Irene Hors (eds.). 946 Kpundeh, Sahr, Michael Johnston, and Robert Leiken, 1998, Combating Corruption in Developing and

Transitional Countries: A Guideline Paper for USAID (Development Alternatives, Inc.) 947 947 Doig, Alan, 1995, `Good Government and Sustainable Anti-Corruption Strategies: A Role for Independent

Anti-Corruption Strategies? ` Public Administration and Development Vol. 15, N0.2, pp151-165.



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“Some countries have chosen to create special agencies that have the primary responsibility for change. For example, the Inspector General of Government in Uganda, the Kenya anti-Corruption Authority, the Prevention of Corruption Bureau in Tanzania, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, and the Serious Frauds Office in Ghana, the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Malawi, the Directorate for Control of Economic Crimes in Botswana, the Anti-Corruption Bureau Zambia were all created to lead their countries’ reform efforts. Most have been modelled on the successful operations of the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) in Hong Kong. Despite their duplication, the agencies fail to produce similar results. Unfortunately, the Hong Kong model cannot easily be transferred to African countries.”948

Interestingly, Hong Kong’s ICAC is a well- financed operation- its 1999-2000 Budget is US$100 millions and operates with three functional departments. The Corruption Prevention Department receives 7 percent of ICAC budget: the Community Relations Department receives 18 percent of the budget and three quarters of that go to the Operations949

According to De Speville,

“Department, which is responsible for investigating complaints as and pursuing evidence of irregular spending by civil servants as well as the private sector,950 the ICAC staffs are carefully recruited, highly paid, subject to internal monitoring and a strict disciplinary code. Staff members cannot be transferred to other departments and cannot leave ICAC to work for senior government official who has been investigated.951

We can clearly see the difference when we contrast this with the budget of the Inspectorate of government in Uganda who has made considerable progress despite overwhelming constraints.

Tumwesigye observed that,

“the Inspector General of Government of Uganda, the government has increased its budget and staffing levels for the 1999/00 fiscal year but the office remains under facilitated. Five regional

948 Doig, Alan, 1995, `Good Government and Sustainable Anti-Corruption Strategies: A Role for Independent Anti-Corruption Strategies? ` Public Administration and Development Vol. 15, N0.2, pp151-165.

949 Ibid.

950 John and Michael Stevens,1999 Ànti- Corruption Agencies and World Bank Clients’ paper presented at the Anti-Corruption Core Course in Washington, June 14-18, The World Bank.

951 De Speville, B. E. D.1999, ‘The Experience of Hong Kong in Combating Corruption’ in Stapenhurst, Rick, and Kpundeh, Sahr (eds.)p 30.



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offices are not sufficient especially since Staff is inadequate and improperly trained to perform its tasks. Most officers are young graduates with no training in Investigation and prosecution.”952

Other African examples such as Zambia, Kenya, and Malawi are highly influenced by Hong Kong in their legislation and strategies, but are not equally equipped with their (Hong Kong) sizable budget.

Aside from its abundant resources and highly qualified staff, as Kpundeh puts it,

“neither of which is always available in African countries, it operates within a relatively well- regulated administrative culture, alongside a well- equipped police force, within a supportive and political framework.953

This is extremely critical as there is usually the suggestion that Anti- Corruption agencies can only be successful when they report to Parliament.

It should be noted that, as Tumwesigye puts it that,

“in Hong Kong, Singapore, and to some extent Botswana are evidence of such. The ICAC reports to Governor (now Chief executive); the Director of Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) is appointed directly by, and reports to the President. What all these examples demonstrate is that there tends to be more atmosphere of corruption where the anti-corruption agency report is less important, that is in an environment where the regal framework, enforcement and oversight mechanisms, whistle blower protection laws, lack of genuine political competition, and the institutional structures that introduce a checks and balances schematic are absent and/or weak.”954

I agree with De Speville, that, in Tanzania for example, the Director General of the Prevention of Corruption Bureau (PCIB) reports to the President, but where the Director General reports, is less important than the kinds of legislation and resources it needs to perform daily operations, especially in countries where the Head of State has the political will to effect change. If legislation is passed to make PCB report to Parliament, the current parliamentary oversight mechanisms

952 Tumwesigye, Jotham, 2000 ‘ The Activities of the Inspectorate of Government’ paper presented at a seminar on Government Integrity at the International Law Institute in Uganda, February 7 – 18, 2000.

953 Kpundeh, Sahr, Michael Johnston, and Robert Leiken, 1998, Combating Corruption in Developing and Transitional Countries: A Guideline Paper for USAID (Development Alternatives, Inc.)

954 Tumwesigye, Jotham, 2000 ‘ The Activities of the Inspectorate of Government’ paper presented at a seminar on Government Integrity at the International Law Institute in Uganda, February 7 – 18, 2000.



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(budget, finance and Public accounts committees) with their lack of resources and trained personnel are ineffective.955

According to Rose-Ackerman,

“The Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) political party dominates parliament. Consequently, reports and policies from the Executive have the rubber stamp of approval. Instead, the current operational laws of the Bureau should be examined to ensure it has the power to investigate and prosecute; and it is not subject to veto from the Director of Public Prosecutions, (as is the case currently in Malawi). It must also have adequate resources to attract and recruit a competent and dedicated staff.”956

It does not imply in the preceding argument that Anti- Corruption Bureau should not report to parliament or provided autonomy. Reporting to parliament is a way of insulating the agency from political interference.

But the more critical issue is that a system of checks and balances ought to be present and functioning. Measures to improve the competence of the executive, judiciary, and legislature need to be introduced. The judiciary cannot play a significant role if it is not autonomous. As Rose-Ackerman, puts it,

“A check and balance schematic that introduces multiple chances of veto can prevent government from acting without the consent of the institutions organized along different interests and representing various constituencies.”957

As was argued earlier, if the institutions are not in place and working well, it becomes difficult to compliment the efforts of other stakeholders outside of government.

Civil society programs raise awareness, increase citizen participation, civic monitoring and political competition.

For Rose-Ackerman,

“Political competition, how people win and lose power, has been an issue that has received less attention. The absence of a genuine political competition in elections- winner take all politics and the notion of a zero-sum game, is a common feature in a majority of African elections. Until recently, the violence and intimidation usually associated with electoral politics overshadowed

955 De Speville, B. E. D.1999, ‘The Experience of Hong Kong in Combating Corruption’ in Stapenhurst, Rick, and

Kpundeh, Sahr (eds.)p 32. 956 Rose-Ackerman, Susan, 1997. `The Political Economy of Corruption` in Elliott (ed.) 1997: ch.2).

957 Rose-Ackerman, Susan, 1997. `The Political Economy of Corruption` in Elliott (ed.) 1997: ch.2).p 8



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elections and consequently, few competent citizens participated. Campaign finance abuse is also becoming a critical element. Because the cost o f running for office is expensive, aspiring politicians obtain funds from the private sector and other backers with promise of huge contract awards and senior level political appointments.”958

I want to make it clear here that where there are no effective monitoring of political contributions and/or contribution limits, financing elections becomes a way of supporting dictators or incumbents, with the hope of reaping the illegal benefits of electoral office. Proposals to reform include limitations and regulations on donations, and full and immediate disclosure of contributors.

In conclusion, I believe that a serious assault against corruption is difficult in an environment where there is an absence of political will. Additionally, the fight against corruption has to be part of a general on-going reform process.

The late Claude Ake used to say,

“you can only build democracy around democrats. Similarly, an anti- corruption strategy has to be a major component of overall public sector reform that addresses civil service issues, financial management systems, supreme audit institutions, strengthening watchdog and oversight mechanisms, judicial and legal reform process build a constituency that recognizes the value of reform and dictates itself to monitoring and defending a reform strategy. Such a consistency with its interests not always aligned with the political leadership can serve as an effective check on political actors’ abuse of power, particularly as a challenge to the non- responsiveness of the status quo.”959

H. 6C’S ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR CORRUPION CONTROL STRATEGY

Interestingly, one can see how some thinkers and Philosopher have made a lot of efforts in order to find the solution to the problem of corruption. These efforts of theirs are very impressive since they are aimed at finding the simplest way to combat corruption in the world. For example, thinkers and philosophers like Robert Klitgaard, Sri-Sri Ravi Shaker’s and Lord Acton have claimed that the big C of corruption has meaning as to the cause of it. (The meaning that the big C

958 Rose-Ackerman, Susan, 1997. `The Political Economy of Corruption` in Elliott (ed.) 1997: ch.2).p 10.

959Cf, in Rose-Ackerman, `The Political Economy of Corruption` in Elliott (ed.) 1997: ch.2).p 8.



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has as the cause of it is that the big C represents Corruption and that it is there to explain the solution to it). Thus the big ‘C’ of corruption can be countered by six more ‘C’s, 960 as follows-

1. CONNECTEDNESS

According to Robert Klitgaard,

“The first is the sense of ‘Connectedness’. A lack of connectedness or sense of belongingness breeds corruption in society. That is why, often, you see people looking for connections, in order to avoid corruption! A sense of belongingness among people, among the community, can root out corruption. That is why corruption is lowest at the village level; but when it comes to urban areas, cities, it’s much more because there is no community sense there – no belongingness. In modern world of networking it is believed that what counts is not who you know but who knows you and that what counts is not what you know but who knows what you know.”961

2. COURAGE

The second ‘C’ is ‘Courage’. “A lack of self-esteem or confidence in one’s own ability is one of the causes of corruption. It is fear, or insecurity in a person that makes one become more corrupt. He then tries to find his security only through money, which does not really happen. The more money he acquires the more insecurity does not disappear. In fact, he becomes more afraid and more fearful because the money is not earned in a right manner. So the second ‘C’ that we will have to focus on is to create that courage in a person – courage and confidence in one’s ability and in the laws of nature.962

960 Robert Klitgaard, who has written extensively on corruption and economic development relates the scope of corruption (C) to the presence of monopoly power (M), discretion (D), and accountability (A), in the formula: C=M+D-A. See Robert Klitgaard, “International Cooperation Against Corruption” in World Bank/IMF, Finance and Development, March 1998, pp. 3-6. and also Sri- Sri Ravi Shankar’s and Lord Acton.

961 , Robert Klitgaard, who has written extensively on corruption and economic development relates the scope of corruption (C) to the presence of monopoly power (M), discretion (D), and accountability (A), in the formula: C=M+D-A. See Robert Klitgaard, “International Cooperation Against Corruption” in World Bank/IMF, Finance and Development, March 1998, pp. 3-6. and also Sri- Sri Ravi Shankar’s and Lord Acton.

962 Op.cit.



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3. COSMOLOGY

Third is an understanding of ‘Cosmology’

“Looking at one’s own life in the context of extended social space and time? Just take a look at our own life. How long is it? Only 80-100 years! See life in the huge dimension of time. Billions of years have passed since the creation. Our creation, as scientists say, is 50 billion years old. And everything in this creation is recycled. The air we breathe is old; every cell in our body, every atom is old, and the oxygen and the hydrogen is old! And this will continue. Seeing life from a different perspective of space and time is what will deepen one’s vision about life. Being corrupt, one amasses a lot of money and puts it in the bank. One can’t spend all the money and then one dies. One’s children inherit the property and then they fight over the inheritance! Seeing life in the context of this huge universe and unfathomable time can broaden one’s vision, can broaden one’s mind and can enrich one’s heart. This awareness can make man not to think more about corruption”963.

4. CARE AND COMPASSION

The forth ‘C’, is said to be ‘Care’ and ‘Compassion’. Care and compassion in society can bring dedication. It is the lack of dedication that causes corruption. Sri-Sri gives his experience in an Indian Community. He narrates:

“The Kumbha Mela in India was attended by a total of 30 million people – nearly 3 million people each day, and there was not a single incidence of violence, theft or robbery! One night we were distributing blankets to the poor as it was very cold and I came across a youth, who refused to take a blanket, saying that probably someone else there needed it more! That sense of care and compassion: ‘it doesn’t matter even if I don’t have, somebody needs this more. We have to care for them.”964 That care and compassion can root out corruption.

963 Ibid.

964Cf, Sri- Sri Ravi Shankar’s and Lord Acton.



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5. COMMITMENT

The fifth C “is a sense of ‘Commitment’ – commitment to contribution. When a person has a goal, a commitment to a higher cause in life, it brings a shift from gaining to giving. In a society, if everyone keeps thinking ‘What can I gain? Rather than ‘What can I contribute?’ or ‘How can I be useful to the people around me? Then corruption cannot be rooted out. In society, we need to have this shift in our attitude, from ‘What can I gain?’ to ‘What can I give?’ or as John F. Kennedy puts it, “what can I do for the State”.965

6. COMPETENCE AND COMPLACENT

The sixth is Competence and Complacent: Lord Acton’s clinched claim that,

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ are ranging from the Biblical story of King David’s seduction of Bathsheba to Bill Clinton’s recent autobiography mea culpa of the Moral, Lewinsky affair. Try to examine ancient proverbs the fish rots from the head. Is unethical behaviour the result not of failure, but rather success? Do competent leaders become complacent which, in turn, produces corruption?”966

I agree with Klitgaard, that these 6 additional C’s that are meant to fight corruption are very effective as corruption control strategy. For instance, when people are committed in their duty to carry out a particular project, they tend to be preoccupied by what they will contribute than what they will gain or take away just as John F Kennedy observed.

I strongly believe that if we in African society make judicious use of the opportunity provided by these 6 C’s, there will definitely be remarkable improvement in corruption reduction in African society.

965 Cf, quoted in Klitgaard, “International Cooperation against Corruption” in World Bank/IMF, Finance and Development, March 1998, pp. 3-6. And also Sri Ravi Shankar’s and Lord Acton

966 Cf, Lord Acton,



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B. MODULES OF CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGIES AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

As the name implies, according to Rose-Ackerman,

“an employee is involved in conflicts of interest when he or she has a private interest in the outcome of a task: That is possibly antagonistic to the best interest of the institution; that it does or reasonably might affect the independent judgment the institution expects to exercise on its behalf. Conflicts of interest need not be financial. Conflicts of interest may be actual or potential” 967

I want to point out here that the actual conflicts of interest are always unethical because they are contrary to the implied contract that a worker freely accepts when taking a job with an institution. For instance an institution may want to buy a product through an employee and the employee may discover that this product will benefit him or her as a person. He or she may find a way to discredit the institution that employed him or her so that he or she can keep these products for him or herself at the expense of the company that employed him or her.

Potential conflicts of interest, as Rose-Ackerman puts it,

“ may or may not be ethical depending on the probability that the employee’s judgment will be affected by the conflicts of interest or will appear to be affected by the conflicts of interest that have to be considered:

1) The employee’s personal psychology and intentions. 2) The employee’s position in the firm and the nature of the employee’s job. 3) How much he stands to gain from the transaction involved. 4) The impact the employee’s action will have on other inside and outside the Institution.

Solution: To avoid problems, many organizations/institutions: Specify the amount of stock that the institution will allow employees to hold in supplier firms.

967 Rose-Ackerman, Susan, 1997. `The Political Economy of Corruption` in Elliott (ed.) 1997: ch.2).p 25.



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Specify the relationships with competitors, buyers or suppliers that the institution prohibits employees from having.”968

For me, the conflict of interest can do a lot of damages to an institution if it is not quickly controlled. This can be done by requiring the key officers to disclose all theirs outside financial interests. Conflicts of interest can be created by a variety of different situations and activities.

Aspects of conflicts of interest include-Bribery, Kick-backs, and Gifts etc.

Special attention is often given the area between gifts and bribes:

1. BRIBERY

When used to secure the sale of a product, political bribery can also introduce diseconomies into the operation of markets. There is a decline in market competition because a bribe serves as a barrier to prevent other sellers from entering the briber’s government market.

In determining the ethical nature of payments used for purposes other than to shut out other competitors from a market, the following considerations are relevant:

According to Rose-Ackerman,

“Is the offer of a payment initiated by the payer (the one who pays the money) or does the payee (the one who receives the money) demand the payment by threatening injury to the payer’s interest? In the later case, the payment is not a bribe but a form or extortion, which a person may not be morally responsible or moral responsibility may at least be diminished.

Is the payment made to induce the payee to act in a manner that violates his official sworn duty of acting in the best interest of the public? Or is the payment made to induce the payee to perform what is already his official duty? This is an immoral act.

1) Are the nature and purpose of the payment considered ethically? 2) Unobjectionable in the local culture?”969

968 Ibid.

969 Rose-Ackerman, Susan, 1997. `The Political Economy of Corruption` in Elliott (ed.) 1997: ch.2).p 25



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For one to answer these questions, he will first of all think of the objective, the intention, that is, the purpose of the action. Then if the purpose is evil, then it is unethical, immoral and should be avoided.

2. COMMERCIAL BRIBERY

This is another aspect of bribery that does a lot of harm to commercial institutions.

According to Adam Rose,

“A commercial bribe is a consideration given or offered to an employee by a person outside the institution with the understanding that when the employee transacts business for his or her organization the employee will deal favourably with that person or with that person’s organization. Consideration may consist of money, tangible goods, the kickback of part of the official payment, preferential treatment of any other kind of benefit. Commercial extortion occurs if the employee demands a consideration from persons outside the firm as a condition for dealing favourably with those persons when the employee transacts usiness for his institution.”970

I agree with Adam Rose that extortion and the acceptance of bribes obviously create a conflict of interest that violates the moral duty that the employee’s work contract establishes, that is, the duty to use one’s unbiased judgment in the pursuit of the employer’s legitimately established goals.

C. NORMAL GIFTS GIVING AND CORRUPTION

1. SOCIO-CULTURAL LOGICS INFORMING EVERYDAY PRACTICES

I want to say here with Sissener that in many developing nations, holders of public office derive their administrative and professional legitimacy from training in modern European administration, but their social legitimacy may imply to act in conformity with different socio-cultural logics. Below, ethnographic examples of the different socio-cultural logics of gift-giving and solidarity networks will be presented to indicate just a fragment of acquired habits and

970 Adam Rose ‘row reform’- Creating a Risk-Intelligent Organization", in Internal Auditor, April 2003 p 27.



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commonplace practices informing everyday activities in selected places. The ethnographic cases illustrate how variations in social experiences and cultural values obstruct an idea of corruption as an uncontested phenomenon. An exploration of how the actors themselves evaluate their actions can provide an understanding of the legitimacy of various activities.971

2. THE LOGICS OF GIFT-GIVING


“Discussions and analysis of gifts and exchange provided by Malinowski), Mauss, and Sahlins have provided a theoretical frame of reference for contemporary ethnographer. In China there is a

set of practices called guanxi, which literally means social relationships or social connection. In Mayfair M. Yang’s rich and varied ethnographic material a variety of practices, generally falling under the rubric of guanxi, is described and analysed. In the practice of guanxi giving gifts activates obligations of mutual assistance on a wide scale between two parties who have established a basis of familiarity.”972

I can say that this idea of mutual assistance is almost common in every culture, but the intentions differ from individual to individual and place to place and culture to culture.

According to Yang,

“the motives behind gift-giving and repaying varies depending on the relationship between the parties. Firstly, living up to obligations by giving, receiving, and repaying gifts are at the same time what ‘feels’ right and a way of avoiding ‘loosing face’8 in the eyes of others. Secondly, “one may feel obliged to help others with a certain sense of self-interest and material benefit in mind”973

971 Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption Chr. Michelsen Institute P.O. Box 6033 Postterminalen, N-5892 Bergen, Norway ISBN 82-90584-85-7 .

972 Op.cit p.12. 973Cf. Yang 1994:140). See) where she writes, “the Chinese relational construction of personhood represented by

the importance of face provides the mechanism for the art of guanxi to constrain the actions of a gift recipient”. In Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption P 13.



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It should be noted that Guanxi is a way of helping each other out in everyday life by giving and reciprocating gifts, which the following case is an example of.

According to Yang,

“Han Sulan, a woman in her early fifties with a peasant and working-class background, lives with her husband, daughter, and mother-in-law in a modest three-room cement cottage belonging to her husband’s factory. Because of the proximity of the neighbours and the long time they have all lived there, these families have come to know each other well and feel comfortable calling on one another for help on a small scale. Sharing is the best policy, says Han, because invariably neighbours find out what you have acquired, and a loss of face for yourself. Her mother-in-law once made a cotton-padded winter jacket for a neighbour who could not sew very well. Six months later when the mother-in-law was going to visit her other son in the countryside, the neighbour bought her some cakes to give to her son’s family. Han says that through these rounds of giving and helping, one maintains good relations with the neighbours and finds peace and security at home.”974

It is interesting to see Yang refers to a variety of examples where gifts are given on a day-to-day basis and where the act of refusing to accept or reciprocate a gift invariably leads to a ‘loss of face’. However, the obligation to accept and reciprocate a gift may cause dilemmas, as in the case of a worker who wanted to get a few unauthorised days off from work. First he presented a gift to the factory manager in private, but the latter declined. He then decided to offer the gift in yet another way. In the presence of other workers he presented the gift in a manner that the manager could not refuse to accept. After accepting the gift the manager had to honour the worker’s request because so many people had seen him accept the gift. Otherwise, people would talk about him as the manager that had accepted a gift without feeling any obligation to give something in return.


“In China, gift-giving is not only seen as obligatory in certain contexts, but also as a legitimate solution when, for instance, trying to obtain and change job assignments, buy certain foods and consumer items, and obtain better education. Kin, friends, neighbours, and colleagues become a resource for obtaining goods and services.”975

974 op. cit.: 81.

975 Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption Chr. Michelsen Institute P.O. Box 6033 Postterminalen, N-5892 Bergen, Norway ISBN 82-90584-85-7 p 14.



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In an article Yang writes, “in the Chinese cultural discourse there is often a fine line between the art of guanxi and bribery.”976

I agree with Yang that this argument is followed up in a monograph where she argues that ‘the art of guanxi cannot be reduced to a modern western notion of corruption because the personalistic qualities of obligation, indebtedness, and reciprocity are just as important as transactions in material benefit.’

Yang argues that in cultural judgements of practices the importance of the length and quality of personal relationships is stressed. She finds that the Chinese distinguish between those who are ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ when commenting on exchanges:

Yang writes,

“A woman graduate student studying in the United States expressed the culturally felt distinction between bribery/corruption and the art of guanxi perhaps most clearly. For her, bribery and corruption are pejorative, negative terms, whereas guanxixue connotes “human sentiments, friendship, long-term personal relationships, and an image of people helping one another. ‘So,

there is a good side of guanxixue (Guanxixue is a contemporary variation on guanxi (Bell

2000) which bribery does not have. For example, if you and an official do not have a prior personal relationship already, such as shared native homes, kin relationship, and so on, and he is seen to help you, then other people will be surmise that there is bribery going on between you.”977

It is of utmost importance to consider the point made by Yang on this issue. Yang stresses the point that although Chinese cultural discourses contain diverse, ambivalent, and contradictory understandings of guanxi, most people consider the art of guanxi a necessary part of everyday life. However, to legitimately obtain goods and services through informal channels presupposes an established basis of familiarity between those involved.

3. THE LOGICS OF SOLIDARITY NETWORK


976 Cf. Yang 1989:48In Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption p14.

977 op. cit.: 63.



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“Ever since Barnes introduced the concept of network to anthropology in 1954 anthropologists have employed this term to qualify multiple forms of belonging in different settings. The concept of network was found particularly useful in a Bangladeshi context were much effort is put into maintaining and creating bonds to a wide range of people”978

Sissener on the importance of solidarity network and exchange gifts believed that Bangladeshi men spend a lot of time meeting after dark sharing cigarettes, drinking tea and chewing betel together, always trying to expand their personal ties of friendship. The conversations they have may seem like meaningless chatter, but by engaging in these conversations they gain information about each other. On this arena, which usually is the local market place or the nearest country town, business deals are discussed, loans are given, introductions are made, favours are granted, information exchanged, etc.

Sissener in other to buttress his point on this issue writes,

“A man I shall call Lucas, on his regular trip to the country town, one evening heard that he might not keep his current position. A few months back he had been promoted and was holding a position as a higher-level officer at the local office of an international NGO. A friend of him said that the head office in Dhaka had decided to transfer him to a position as a lower-level officer in Dhaka upon request from the local director. The next morning Lucas was called to a meeting with the local director who explained that, as he was not pleased with Lucas’ work, he had requested to have him transferred to Dhaka. Lucas decided to get more information on why his boss suddenly was not pleased with his work. After working nearly twenty years in the same office he had finally been appointed to the second highest position in the local office. He could see no reason why his boss wanted him transferred. Lucas had a friend who was on leave from his position as assisting director at the head office in Dhaka to do a Ph.D. at a university in England. This friend was back in Bangladesh to decide on fieldwork sites for his research. Lucas met with him one evening and offered to assist him the next morning visiting various villages in the area. This gave him the opportunity to talk with his friend about his job. After explaining the situation Lucas asked his friend to talk to the local director to find out why the director had decided to have him transferred. Next time they met the friend told Lucas what the director had said. Lucas then asked him to talk to the directors in Dhaka convincing them that there was no reason for his transfer, but the friend said that since he was on leave he would have no influence on the matter. As a friend he wanted to help Lucas, but by getting too involved he was afraid of jeopardising his own opportunity of returning to his position as the assistant director after finishing his Ph.D. Therefore, he advised Lucas to go to Dhaka himself and talk to people there. He gave him a name of one of the officers to

978 Sissener 1999 (see also for example Barth 1978, Bott 1955, 1957, 1964, Epstein 1961, Mayer 1962, Mitchell 1966, 1975, and later Hannerz 1992).



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talk to in particular. Before going to Dhaka, Lucas made a visit to another friend, the former director of the local office, asking for advice. This friend belonged to the same tribal community as Lucas and he was hoping for some help. The former director, as it turned out, had left the organisation due to a personal conflict between himself and the directors at the head office in Dhaka and could offer no assistance. Arriving in Dhaka Lucas stayed with a relative working for the same organisation, but as a lower-level officer he was unable to influence the decision of the officers in charge. After a few days in Dhaka spending hours every day meeting with different people Lucas realised that there was nothing he could do there about the transfer. Back home Lucas again tried to get his boss to change his mind and withdraw his request for transference. Lucas ended up leaving the organisation realising he could not turn things around because he did not have, or manage to establish, contact with the right people. None of those he tried came through for him and in the end he had no one else to turn to. When Lucas realised he might not keep his job at the local office he met with friends working for different organisations in the area. This way he came to know about a vacant position relevant of his qualifications. One of his friends knew one of those in charge of hiring and recommended Lucas for the position. A few years back when this friend had applied for the position he was currently holding Lucas had recommended him to the board, which he was a member of, and the board decided to hire him. Between family, friends, neighbours etc. in Bangladesh there exists an almost general obligation of mutual assistance. One cannot refuse a service, a favour, and a bit of string pulling or compliance without severe consequences (as observed in the case of Kalo approaching his brother-in-law). When Lucas heard about the transfer he said that moving to Dhaka was not possible because he did not know very many people there. Ethnographic evidence documents the importance of special purpose networks consisting of friends doing business together and lending money, without interest, from each other”979

It is interesting to observe how people of Bangladeshi spend years establishing and maintaining a sufficient network and depend on kin, friends, and neighbours for their everyday survival. In this context, making use of solidarity network is a vital and legitimate part of everyday practices. If objections to the use of solidarity network are voiced at all it is usually done in connection with one’s own misfortune, i.e. in cases where people see themselves as victims of particularistic considerations giving preference to someone else. Again in Russia, there is a set of practices similar to those described above called blat, which is according to Lendenva,

979 cf. Sissener 1999. In Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption Chr. Michelsen Institute P.O. Box 6033 Postterminalen, N-5892 Bergen, Norway ISBN 82-90584-85-7 p 15-16.



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“the use of personal networks and informal contacts to obtain goods and services in short supply and to find a way around formal procedures.”980

It is also interesting to notice that within blat, Alena V. Ledeneva distinguishes among forms in which favours were grounded in the actors’ mutual utility, in which personal ties of friendship or kinship created a moral obligation to help out, and in which a boss meted out favours for the sake of his own self-image. Ledeneva’s primary research consisted on fifty in-depth interviews.981

According to Sissener, the following statement is made from one of her interview objects explaining about blat.

“My mother worked as head of a Soviet farm buttery. She could sell really good meat and at much cheaper prices, or other foodstuffs in short supply. For example, when there was a shortage of butter she could obtain some. Naturally, she had good connections, and worked hand in glove with shop assistants from the clothes store. My father worked in construction all his life, and construction materials were always in demand.

When he retired and became a gas-supplier, he could offer a bigger gas cylinder in exchange for a small one. And city gasmen gave him more of the bigger cylinders because his wife would sell good meat to them. He also obtained fuel for his car by blat. He knew the tanker drivers and received an unlimited supply from them, normally for a bottle of vodka or ‘moonshine’. He also paid, of course, but they did not offer this to everyone, only those whom they trusted. For him it was cheaper and free of queuing. Another example: a meat storekeeper in the village was a good acquaintance from long ago. Every year when she went on holiday she left him in charge. She trusted he was not going to cheat, whereas he was happy to help and to have this opportunity to buy meat for all his family. My father also helped my brother with dacha construction. You know

how expensive it became. And he hardly spent any money. Contacts, old contacts. They allocated him cut wood for free or for a few kopecks. And he gave them fresh eggs or dung.”982

Ledeneva made a sharp distinction between blat and bribery. According to Ledeneva,

“obtaining goods and services through blat is seen as a legitimate activity. Based on her informants’ statements she draws a distinction between blat and bribery; In contrast to bribery,

980 Ledeneva, 1998:1 in Sissener Tone Kristin r, Anthropological perspectives on corruption WP 2001: 5 Anthropological perspectives on corruption Chr. Michelsen Institute P.O. Box 6033 Postterminalen, N-5892 Bergen, Norway ISBN 82-90584-85-7 p 17

981 Ibid.

982 Ibid.



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blat is a matter of belonging to a circle. Blat favours are normally provided to svoim people of the circle, one of us. In such long-term relations, all kinds of favours are possible. In blat, as in guanxi, the personal relationship existing between those involved is stressed. One of her informants expressed this concern in the following manner: In blat, one’s self-image is positive also because no money is involved. People often provide favours in anticipation of some return favours in order to create a certain image: ‘no need to pay, it is a sign of friendship, no calculations between friends, I could be in the same situation myself, one day you’ll prove useful. Giving bribes becomes only a last resort because everything can be decided by blat. Ledeneva writes that while bribery is illegal according to a statute in the Criminal Code blat is not mentioned at all. However, the distinguishing line between a bribe and the use of blat is thin and often overlapping.”983

From these explanations, it is clear that there exist at least a distinction between blat and bribery, thus, some links in the chain are blat ones, some must be paid off. The cases where blat approaches or mediates bribery create juridical problems as well as everyday confusion. This is but one reason why struggle against bribery and corruption cannot be fully effective only one link (bribe-giver-bribe-taker) in the chain is involved in the case while the greater part of it – to do with blat and personal networks – is not tar. These are just a few examples of acquired habits and commonplace practices informing everyday activities. In many cases, practices of gift-giving between familiars and the use of solidarity network to obtain goods and services is evaluated differently from outright bribery between strangers. Even if a payment in cash is involved this becomes secondary to the importance placed on the nature of the relationship existing between those involved. Consequently, the line between blat or guanxi and bureaucratic corruption becomes blurred.

I want to point out here that when we talk of Gift, we should also talk about the intention of the giver and also the given. This means then that accepting gifts may or may not be ethical. If there is no connection with doing business, it is acceptable. If it may create a conflict of interest, it is not acceptable. Some factors are necessary to be considered for us to be able to pass valid judgement on whether a particular gift is ethical or not.

According to Vincent Berry,

“The following factors should be considered when evaluating the morality of accepting a gift:

What is the value of the gift? Is it substantial enough to influence one’s decisions?

What is the purpose of the gift? Is the gift intended of accepted as a bribe?

983 Op cit, p 18.



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What is the circumstance under which the gift was given? Was the gift given openly? Was it given to celebrate a special event (Christmas, a birthday, the end of the fasting month, a store opening)?

1) What is the position of the recipient of the gift? Is the recipient in a position to influence his own firm’s dealings with the giver of the gift?

2) What is the accepted business practice in the area? Is the gift part of an open and well known industry practice?

3) What is the institution’s policy? Does the institution forbid acceptance of such gifts? 4) What is the law? Is the gift forbidden by law?984

Another cultural factor which I consider very important is ‘gift’.


“The fact that when people are compelled to give ‘gifts’ to political and other high-powered visitors was ranked second as a cultural practice that aids corruption is serious. Most community people are very poor and if they are going to be constantly taxed for making preparations for especially political visitors, this is unacceptable. It is a subtle scheme to rob the poor to satisfy mostly well placed people in society.”985

Fortunately and quite encouraging to, some communities are becoming more strongly averse

to this, as was reflected in the number of communities that brought it up. Even some local

leaders are alleged to be using this practice as a vehicle to improve their lot (using some of

the money or goods collected for themselves). Some of these ‘gifts’ are compulsorily

demanded from people, and it is from this point of view that communities stated that it is a

form of corruption.

I wish to remark here that, the answers to the seven questions raised by Vincent Berry, regarding the factors to be considered when giving gifts can help us a lot to discover the ethical situation of gifts in business transactions. This is because; if we are to treat Gift as a theme we shall cover so many pages. It is suffices here to say with Adam Rose that, accepting gifts may or may not be ethical. If there is no connection with doing business, it is acceptable. If it may create a conflict of interest, it is not acceptable. I leave it for those who may wish to do more research on it.

984 Ibid.

985 the NACS report p 28.



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4. SOLUTION OF MODULES

Managing Conflicts Of Interest

This is another area that is very essential in the corruption control strategy. To fight corruption effectively, some principles ought to be followed strictly.

According to Adam Rose, seven neglected principles of public life should be adhered to namely:

Selflessness – Holders of public office should serve the public interest, not seek gains for their friends, or for themselves.

Integrity – They should not place themselves under financial obligation to outsiders who might influence their duties.

Objectivity – They should award public appointments and contracts on merit.

Accountability – They should submit themselves to the appropriate scrutiny.

Openness – They should give reasons for their decisions.

Honesty – They should declare conflicts of interest.

Leadership – They should support these principles by personal example.

5. ETHICS AND INTERGRITY DEFINITIONS

The question which one is tempted to ask here is, what is ethics? The answer to this question will go long to helping our readers to follow our discussion more closely. For me Ethics can be defined generally as set of moral values guiding in situation of decisions. The character for this word evolved from a pictograph of a man walking the “proper” path in life. Today the Chinese have a saying that one should not undertake anything if there is no honest or legitimate way to do so.

For Adam Rose,

Ethics is the formal study of moral standards and conduct. For this reason, the study of ethics is also often called moral philosophy. What is good? What is evil? How should I behave – and why? How should I balance my needs against the needs of others? These are some of the questions asked



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in the field of ethics, a branch of philosophy, which has some of the most immediate and obvious consequences for how we live our lives.986

For Budd Kass Kassh,

Morals are the rules of the game. Ethics are how you choose to play them987.

From these definitions or depictions one can now infer that ethics has something to do with:

1: the collection of moral values and norms, standards and principles, which provides a framework for acting.

2: Ethics reflection on the moral aspects.

3: While Moral: Refers to what is judged as right, just or good. And Values are “judgments of worth, moral principles or standards, which should have a certain weight in the choice of action. In which case, Norms state what morally correct behaviour in a certain situation is.

(Public) corruption: the use of public office for private gain, coming from interested outside parties988.

I wish to point out here that there are almost as many definitions of ethics as there are thinkers and writers discussing and writing about them but they have similar points of reference. For me what is significant and interesting about all the definitions is that; It has something to do with nos. 1-3 above as their basic principles as follows;

For Don Menzel,

“Ethics are principles and values that guide right and wrong behaviour.989

And for Rod Erakovich,

“Ethical behaviour in public service involves intentionally responsible action, honouring implicit and explicit social contracts, and seeking to prevent, avoid or rectify harm. Specifically in the organizational context, this conduct also includes promoting long term goodwill within and across group boundaries and respecting the needs of others both within and outside the firm”.990

986Adam Rose ‘row reform’- Creating a Risk-Intelligent Organization", in Internal Auditor, April 2003 p 27. 987 Budd, 1988, `Bureaucratic Morality in Africa` International Political Science Review, Vol. 9, N0.1, pp.215-229. 987 Ibid.1993. 988 Leo, B. E. D.1999, ‘The Experience of Hong Kong in Combating Corruption’ in Stapenhurst, Rick, and

Kpundeh, Sahr (eds.)p 32. 989 Don Menzel 1997d, ´Political Will and Corruption`, paper prepared for the World Bank, PREM Division. 990 Rod Erakovich [email protected]



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For Jim Slack,

“Morality is based on the absolutes of Right and Wrong that are found in sacred doctrines that transcend time, place, and generation. Hence, it is not based on consensus, nor is it situational”991.

I wish to say that in some cultures, it is based on ideological documents (Marx, Mao, and Confucius), in others; it is based on Theo centric documents. Not everyone has to share in the belief of those documents, but all must understand the origin of moral thinking and moral action within the particular culture.

As Jim Slack puts it,

“That is, I do not have to believe in the writings of Mao or Confucius, but I do need to understand that what is right and wrong are derived from those writing.”992

Thomas Jefferson understood where the morality in this culture was derived, as per his writings on the morality of Jesus of Nazarus.

As Jefferson puts it,

“Note, we do not have to agree to accept the moral teachings in Theo centric documents. (Which \, by the way, are the same moral teachings in the sacred documents of Jews, Muslims, and Christians). In other words, you can be a non-believer and reject the mysticism and spirituality, but the moral teachings must be recognized as the foundation of the political community.”993

As Terry Cooper and many others have stated,

“Ethics is based on the values of fairness, equity, and due process. It is not based on absolutes but rather on consensus of the present generation and locality (what was ethical behaviour in the 19th century’s American west is not ethical behaviour today) and therefore it does not transcend time, place, and generation.”994

It should be noted that the main difference, borrowing from Terry Cooper again,

“ Is that ethical decision tend to let you sleep well at night, while moral decisions should make you lose sleep at night. (Moral decisions may not be fair or equitable).”995

991 Jim Slack [email protected]. 992 Jim Slack 1998 `Curbing Corruption through Democratic Accountability: Lessons from Botswana` in Hope, K.R.

Sr. and B. Chikulo (eds.) p 66. 993 Thomas Jefferson, 994 Terry Cooper.) 1999, Corruption and Development in Africa: Lessons from Case Studies (Macmillan Press, Ltd.)

p 19. 995 Ibid.



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If he could draw a pyramid, he would like to demonstrate what he believes to be another facet of moral and ethical decision making. At the apex of the pyramid are moral questions dealing with absolutes based on sacred documents (in the U.S., Theo centric documents.) he encourages students to,

“look there first before making a decision. If there are absolutes, then stop there and make a decision as difficult as it may be and as perhaps unfair as it may be. If no absolutes are involved in the decision, then move to the next level in the pyramid: ethical question, are these issues of fairness, equity, due process, etc. that should be addressed? If the answer is yes, then make your decision at that level. If no, go to the bottom of the pyramid: to routine decisions. There is not a wall that separates each level, however: for instance a governor making a decision on whether or not to execute a convicted murderer is making a moral decision and therefore should not sleep well that evening, regardless of her/his decision. The method of execution, however, is an ethical one: what is fair, what is technologically possible, who should view, how to treat the inmate, etc. We should sleep easier making those decisions: whereas hanging was once the “ethical” way, technology and consensus led to electrocution and then lead to injection. The number of appeals is also an ethical outcome. (In the 19th century, it was ethical to hang a convicted murderer rather quickly, in the 21st century, more appeals is more ethical than fewer appeals). Once the ethical issues have been decided, the routine decisions can be made: which prison serves as the place of execution, who gives the injections, the time of the execution, etc. But the order should always be: first Moral decisions, then Ethical decisions, then routine-decisions.”996

From this view, I can say that, the problem in our society is at best, we look only at issues from an ethical perspective: consensus, fairness, etc., and too infrequently from a moral perspective: there are “right” and “wrong” issues out there. Sadly, abortion is one of those public policies which we look at from the perspective of ethics: what is fair to the mother, killing the child earlier is better than in later trimesters, a vacuum is better than forceps, it is over in an hour, etc. But for me and also according to the Catholic belief, life starts at conception and therefore abortion is immoral. We may not agree with each other on a moral issue, but we should at least address public policy from a moral plain before proceeding to the ethical (situational/consensus) level. Who knows, we may conclude that Theo centric documents permit the killing of the unborn and prevent the killing of the inmate.

I wish to point out here straight away that the uncomfortable part of that great debate over morality is the risk of confusing moral behaviour with people.

As Terry Cooper puts it,

996 Terry Cooper.) 1999, Corruption and Development in Africa: Lessons from Case Studies (Macmillan Press, Ltd.)

p 19-20.



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“Theo centric documents are subject to persons interpretation and hence, the issue isn’t the morality of the individual but the morality of behaviour. No one has a corner on what is moral behaviour. But we do not know what moral behaviour is unless we debate public policy (Health) alternatives from a moral perspective before we take ethical sides and implement “routine” decisions.”997

For Ronald J. Scott, a standard dictionary definition defines ethics as

“A consensus of moral principles998.”

I agree with Jurgen Habermas that this sounds good but what does it mean? Morals and ethics are connected, but they are distinctly different concepts. Morality is rationally bounded by an individual context and is derived from a set of beliefs and assumptions about life, which shape values, attitudes and behaviours (observable and unobservable). Ethics, on the other hand, is rationally bounded by a group context and is derived from a consensus of moral principles. Jurgen Habermas’ communicative rationality is a powerful theory of the evolution (or devolution) of ethics. As such, the essence of ethics represents modal characteristics determined by the nature of the group or, in other words, its predisposition/tendency based on the salience of certain beliefs or assumptions999.

The danger of this approach is according to Jurgen Habermas that,

ethics becomes a reductionist effort over time, blurring the distinction between moral and immoral behaviour at the individual level. As an example, Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal (and therefore, ethical) in our society. Yet, for many people, abortion is still regarded as immoral act. The blurring of ethics with morality has implications for societies, organizations, etc., based on “characteristic” affinities (or a commonest of values). For Example, Al Qaeda demonstrates behaviour based on group “ethics.” To them, decapitating non-combatants is a “moral” behaviour. Yet, compared to the “ethics” of other groups, what Al Qaeda is doing is generally considered immoral as opposed to unethical.

As another example, the images and reports of Abu Graib abuses also were considered immoral as opposed to unethical. Which is considered more grievous: decapitating an innocent or humiliating someone? Seeing behaviour as immoral as opposed to unethical in these two instances

997Ibid.

998 Ronald J. Scott [email protected]. 999 Jurgen Habermas’ communicative rationality.” Quarterly Journal of Ethics. 117:1, pp. 1–37.



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may be more consistent and congruent than seeing the behaviour as unethical. If true, then this notion ought to beg the question as to why. 1000

Frankly speaking, my suspicion is that when it is time to judge behaviours, one resort to a more fundamental set of beliefs that tend to be individual, yet universal – a near absolute sense of morality. Ethics, on the other hand, is a dynamic adaptation to circumstances over time, and without a clear sense of the context (considering both physical and temporal factors) that shapes it, we find ourselves dealing with “situational ethics” that may not be truly grounded as a healthy “consensus of moral principles.

For James Nordin,

“ Ethics are the internal rules that drive one to follow or not to follow external rules. Of course, this definition works best when morals are the external rules. Simply being law-abiding begs the ethical question”1001.

As Larry Cobb puts it,

“ Ethical conduct is doing good things in rational ways”1002.

I wish to conclude that come what may, the end can never justify the means; rather it is the means that should justifies the end. And this is the right thinking and should guide our actions, and the actions that lead to corrupt practices inclusive.

Another very interesting ethical principle for the fight against corruption is that put forward by Jurgen Habermas which he called: A guide to Ethical Decisions. It is referred to a hospital.

1000 Ibid.

1001 James Nordin [email protected] 1002 Larry Cobb [email protected]



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D. HABERMAS GUIDE TO ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING KEY TO CORRUPTION CONTROL

In this case I want to use Habermas Ethical Decision-Making as Corruption Control Strategy. I wish to say that though the Ethical Decision according to Jurgen Habermas lacks details and depth, nevertheless it serves as reminder that we should always bear in mind our moral and ethical responsibilities whenever we are faced with decision–making. These principles are scanty but piercing. This is because one can easily remember them when faced with ethical questions. It can be helpful as corruption control strategy.

According to Jurgen Habermas,

“these ethical decisions include: 6 ‘Guiding Principles” and Posters as follows;

E Ethos

T The Law

H Honour

I Conflict of Interest

C Consequence

S Scrutiny

ETHOS: Is the decision or conduct in line with the Health Centre/Hospital’s Mission, Vision and Core Values?

1: Ethics is to society what keeping fit is to the body... we may not like doing it… but, the more we do it, the longer we live.

THE LAW: Is the action or decision in accordance with the law and approved guidelines?

Integrity is non-negotiable.

HONOUR: Does your decision or action bring dishonour to Health? Centre/Hospital?

Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Does the outcome of the decision highlight a Conflict of interest or lead to private gain?



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The best time to repent of a blunder is just before the blunder is made.

CONSEQUENCE: What will be the consequence of the action or decision to yourself, your colleagues, the Health Centre/Hospital and above all your family?

Once you begin taking care of your money, I can promise that your money in turn will take care of you.

SCRUTINY: Would you be able to justify your decision to Health Centre/Hospital management and would it withstand public scrutiny?

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

For Habermas,

“Ethical Reasoning and Decision-Making Is A Key to Corruption Control”1003

I wish to conclude by saying that the Ethical reasoning and decision –making as a key to corruption control is impressive, as it helps to remind us more quickly our responsibility to eschew corruption.

E. WHISTLE-BLOWING AS CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGY

This is an opportune moment for us to bounce ideas regarding the ethics of whistle blowing and how best to develop mechanisms that will accomplish the goals of whistle blowing and at the same time protected all parties referenced by such whistle blowing.

In terms of developing an ethical approach to whistle blowing, I would suggest that an important element to keep in view is that an ethical whistle blowing mechanism must correlate with an ethical organizational culture. The purpose of whistle blowing is to restore value-based efficiency and effective management systems. This cannot be possible where an organizational culture does not show the presence of exemplary leadership, where there are weak managerial personnel systems, where values of probity and accountability are not highly respected, where quality work does not flow from a collaborative culture between staff across board, where

1003 Jurgen Habermas’ communicative rationality.” Quarterly Journal of Ethics. 117:1, pp. 1–37.



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participatory governance is non-existent, where there is autocracy, where performance within the organization is personality-based and loyalty-generating rather than quality performance-driven, etc. Again some government institutions fear that these commissions like whistle blowing can expose them, thereby making difficult for them to perform their duties effectively.

As Harsch, puts it,

Although many are constitutionally established institutions, most governments view them as adversaries and attempts to stifle their progress through intimidation of their officials and control of their budgets. In Ghana for example, President Rawlings identified the Director of CHRAJ during his address to Parliament in his regime, as the person who has been reversing government decisions designed to address malfeasance.”1004

I wish to say here that, civil society organizations have been ineffective because few have the support of government in their efforts. Institutions such as Ombudsman in Malawi, the commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in Ghana, Public Complaints Commission in Nigeria, and other organizations that address complaints from citizens and/or protect them against the arbitrary nature of the state, have in most countries been in constant conflict with government officials.

The agency is guaranteed in the constitution, but it is difficult to be effective when the government considers the organization its adversary. Additionally, budgetary constraints have required CHRAJ to supplement its operations from bilateral donors. Some of these organizations have also taken on the role of civic monitor in conducting service delivery surveys designed by local experts to help public managers and policy makers determine the effectiveness of government services and its delivery system.


“These surveys have been useful in countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, and Zimbabwe, and allowing consumers an opportunity to conveying strong messages to service providers. The results have been used as a mandate to design specific strategies to improve service delivery.”1005

If an organization or management operates on principles that contradict the values that the organization wants to restore or promote through whistle blowing, then the whistle blowing process will be a mere circus. Therefore, in order to establish an effective whistle blowing



African Studies, Vol.31, N0.1, pp.31-48.



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mechanism, we may want to take a hard look at the politics of the organizational culture as well as the values, which an organization prioritizes and chooses for, in decision-making and in work implementation processes. You must effectively have the chance to contradict if you are accused.

Otherwise, whistle blowing can degenerate into mere witch hunting, payback, or manipulative instruments.

Another important element to consider, according to Rick Funston,

“is that an attempt to design or promote a whistle blower mechanism needs to go hand-in-hand with the development of a conflicts of interest mechanism. This must be closely integrated into the whistle blower program. This is necessary because the conflicts of interest mechanism will allow any information that is gathered to be closely scrutinized for the presence of real or potential conflicts of interests (of the informers, or of those receiving and processing the information, or of management, or of other staff within an organization). More often than not, personal conflicts and ambitions may actually be embedded within information that is sought for from whistle blowers by leadership or an organization, or embedded within information volunteered by whistle blowers meant to convey wrongdoing to leadership, to management or to an oversight body, etc.”1006

I wish to say here that this personal interest must be avoided if this organization must function effectively and for it to achieve its aim of corruption control strategy. Again there are so many questions to be asked and answers to these questions will help to disabuse our minds of targeting innocent people.

According to Larry Diamond,

“During the information gathering or processing phases, we must always ask these critical questions: "what is up men"?”What is in it for the informer, manager, organization, etc.?” "How may conflicts of interest be identified and addressed?” "How many people who are wrongly targeted or implicated be treated"?; "How many bad informers or wrong accusers be disciplined"?; "How may unethical information gathering be dealt with?"; "What further research needs to be done to cross-check information before acting on same information"?; "Before any action is taken, what process is in place, or what process can be established, to ensure that a thorough review and investigation is exhausted and from as comprehensive a search as all resources will allow?"; "Do we have in place an independent audit board (internal or external) which may be assigned or have the responsibility to audit information received or information generated in the whistle blowing process?"1007

1006 Rick Funston, "Creating a Risk-Intelligent Organization", in Internal Auditor, April 2003 p 63. 1007 Larry Diamond Prepared for the conference on “Economic Reform and Good Governance: Fighting Corruption

in Transition Economies” April 11-12, Qinghua University, Beijing, China.



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It should be noted a critical and meticulous appraisal of information, in order to target and address conflicts of interest, is indispensable for the success of implementing whistle-blowing instruments.

I want to mention further that, any instrument of whistle blowing must also integrate within it a risk management mechanism. Whistle blowing is closely related to the management of risks to the operations of an organization. By this I mean that an organization must do all it can to control for risks in such a way that risks that will impact the achievement of the organization’s objectives are minimized, controlled or removed.

According to Rick Funston,

“Risk management enables us to refine our practices in such a manner as to better achieve our objectives. Therefore, it is imperative for an organization to assess its environment of operations, its organizational culture, its internal control procedures, the values sought for, etc., in order to understand the types and levels of risks that might likely affect the organization in its day to day business. In fact, whistle blowing is meant to be employed as one such risk-removing or risk-controlling process in order to improve management practices or enhance the effectiveness of service delivery systems.1008”

One may also note that in the way that whistle blowing can be misused, this very instrument in itself must be seen as a potential risk element which can stand to impact negatively on an organization. If the whistle blowing will tend to endanger everything that an organization stands for (the overall good), we may want to consider how whistle blowing may be reshaped in order to accomplish its aims and at the same time preserve the greater goods sought for? According to Funston,

“The tool of whistle blowing should therefore also be assessed to see the level of risks that the tool poses for the organization’s attempt to create or promote value for the organization and its stakeholders (in this case-clients, constituents, consumers, etc.).”1009

I also suspect that there is a consensus emerging on the point that whistle blowing must include provisions for a freedom of information instrument. The idea is to allow people to freely give, pursue, and have access to information without recrimination or criminalization, especially where the advancement of the public good is concerned. For this purpose, it is critical to develop and institute public education and awareness programs to be implemented together with our whistle blower programs. Here we can instil in our publics, constituents, or stakeholders, the consciousness

1008 Rick Funston, "Creating a Risk-Intelligent Organization", in Internal Auditor, April 2003 [source:

www.deloitte.com]. 1009 Rick Funston, "Creating a Risk-Intelligent Organization", in Internal Auditor, April 2003.



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that freedom of information does not mean or entail free-for-all payback time or anarchy. Our constituents need to be informed and to be helped to learn about the values (public goods) sought for in freely offering or generating information, and to learn about the value of the transparency of freedom of information instruments as well as all other information-gathering systems.

According to Diamond,

“Ultimately, freedom of information, whistle blowing, etc., should not only aim at developing and instituting measures to correct "wrong behaviour" (politically worn-out, perhaps?), but they should also help us to develop ways of resolving ethical dilemmas in order to improve the way we do business and undertake our responsibilities, in line with what we have been entrusted as public officials. In these regards, there also needs to be an on-going and a systematic articulation and refinement of our perception of the public good, how we justify the meaning of the public good vis-à-vis sectional or personal interests, how we believe the public good might be achieved, and how we collaborate in the achievement of the same public good.”1010

I want to add here that a clearly articulated understanding of the public good, which is easily understood by all stakeholders, and which can be easily communicated to all, will help us to better focus our whistle blowing mechanisms, in terms of why we gather information, why the information is being given by others, how the information will be used, why the information is being used, who we are serving, who stands to be served, etc.


“ Working constantly with experts (specialists in our field of expertise, well-meaning peers and colleagues, sociologists, legal experts, theologians, philosophers, ethicists, social service practitioners, management consultants, development workers, grassroots wisdom from our parents and grand-parents, other old time elders who sit in front of our homesteads and impart common sense wisdom, daladala drivers, even ordinary street cart pushers, etc.) will enable us to continuously dialogue and reach consensus on the nature and meaning of the public good.”1011

I wish to conclude by letting us remember that an ethical whistle blowing process generates transformative feedback not devastating pay back!!!!

1010 Larry Diamond Prepared for the conference on “Economic Reform and Good Governance: Fighting Corruption in Transition Economies” April 11-12, Qinghua University, Beijing, China.

1011 Ibid.



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F. HORIZONTAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND CORRUPTION CONTROL

I want to end this chapter with Horizontal Accountability and Corruption Control by Larry Diamond.

According to him,

“the unfortunate fact—not only about transition economies but all societies—is that corruption flourishes in the absence of institutions to expose and punish it. Human beings are prone to self-seeking behaviour. What constrains behaviour and makes it conform to the larger collective purposes of society are norms, rules, and institutions. Norms are the values about right and wrong that become widely shared in the society. But norms of responsible, public- oriented conduct in office will not become embedded if they are not reinforced by laws, and by institutions to implement those laws.”1012

This observation by Larry Diamond is true because today, virtually every country has rules against bribery, embezzlement, nepotism, and other abuse of public office for private gain. But where the rules are not enforced, and there is no serious, predictable institutional capacity to enforce them, then norms may evolve to the point where corruption becomes expected and routinely demanded.

Actors throughout the social, economic, and political systems reorient their behaviour accordingly, and there emerges a “culture of corruption” that is completely divorced from the formal rules and institutions.

As Diamond puts it,

“Even if laws are far-reaching and effectively enforced, the occasional criminal, clever, or risk-taking individual will always tempt fate and use political or state office for private gain. So corruption can never be completely or permanently eliminated. The question is, how can it be controlled? And more to the point for many countries in the developing and post-communist worlds where corruption impedes economic growth, foreign investor confidence, and democratic (or any other kind of regime) stability, how can a country move from a situation where corruption

1012 Larry Diamond Prepared for the conference on “Economic Reform and Good Governance: Fighting Corruption

in Transition Economies” April 11-12, Qinghua University, Beijing, China.



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may be the norm to a situation where corruption is morally intolerable and behaviourally rare?”1013

To try to answer these questions, we should first of all make inquest on institutions both govern mental and non-governmental ones.

G. WHY FOCUS ON INSTITUTIONS FOR CORRUPTION CONTROL?

It should be observed that most corrupt practices that occur in various societies take place in institutions and organizations and consequently, the solution should be institution focused. According to Diamond,

“If there is one overarching lesson from research and country experience on corruption, it is that endemic corruption will not be reversed and controlled with moral crusades. People respond to incentive structures, not moral appeals. Officeholders will not abstain from corruption unless it no longer appears in their interest to behave corruptly. To control corruption the expected utility, or benefit/cost ratio, for the individual officeholder of obeying the law must be higher than the expected utility of behaving corruptly. In particular, the expected costs of engaging in corruption—which are very low or near zero in an endemically corrupt society—must be dramatically increased. The only way that the expected costs of corruption will increase is if officeholders perceive a credible threat that corrupt conduct will be discovered and punished.”1014

For me this discovering of corrupt officials and consequently punishing them is paramount and effective in corruption control effort. People tend to fear to be exposed, and to face public disgrace and punishment.

As Diamond puts it,

“If corruption is to be controlled, corrupt officials have to be exposed and punished frequently and meaningfully, according to laws and legal processes that are transparent, predictable, and neutrally administered. To be meaningful, punishment must be severe enough so that the costs it

1013 ibid




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imposes are sufficient to deter most individuals from reaping what are often huge illicit rewards. In effect, control of systemic corruption requires that public officials perceive a substantial risk that if they engage in corrupt conduct they will lose their offices, forfeit illegally acquired wealth, and even go to prison.”1015

I believe that the fear that people may lose their offices, forfeit their illegally acquired wealth which may lead them to so many years in prison can be enough deterrent measure from corruption. Especially when they know fully that their ill gotten wealth will eventually be taken away from them. But if the punishment meted out for such corrupt act is less commensurate it, the culprits will brave it, and will be encouraged to be more corrupt.


“Frequency of exposure and punishment is also crucial. If punishment is severe but rare, most potentially corrupt officials—those who are not restrained simply out of a personal commitment to the public good—will calculate that the small risk of exposure and punishment will be justified by the probability that they can become very rich while escaping any serious sanctions. Finally, it is vital that the system for monitoring and exposing corruption not itself be riddled with corruption, favouritism, or corrupt politics. If there is frequent and severe punishment, but not by means that are fair and transparent, corrupt officials may judge that they can evade punishment by cultivating the right political connections. And in any case, the campaign against corruption will lose credibility and support in society if the rules are not perceived to apply fairly to all, but rather the more powerful and better connected appear immune from justice.”1016

Therefore, the control of corruption thus requires a system of justice and accountability. And system itself should not be riddled with favouritism, or corrupt politics and be able to call a spade a spade.


“Endemic corruption is a systemic disease that can only be controlled with a systemic cure: a single institution such as a counter-corruption commission will not do. There are three great challenges for institutional design to corruption control. First, agencies are needed to monitor conduct and expose wrongdoing. Second, a system is needed to assess charges of wrongdoing and punish wrongdoers if they are convicted. Third, a framework is necessary for constituting and

1015 ibid

1016 Larry Diamond Prepared for the conference on “Economic Reform and Good Governance: Fighting Corruption in Transition Economies” April 11-12, Qinghua University, Beijing, China



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insulating watchdog agencies so that they cannot be subverted by the very actors they are supposed to control.”1017

From this argument, one will agree with me that corruption control is not an easy one. Therefore, effective and durable corruption control requires multiple, reinforcing, and overlapping institutions of accountability. It is for this reason that Larry went on to say,

“And for situations of endemic corruption, these need to be of three kinds: horizontal accountability (by which some agencies of government scrutinize and check other parts of the government), vertical accountability (by society, empowered with means to review and evaluate official conduct), and external accountability (in the form of vigorous international action to combat bribery and corrupt financial transactions across borders).”1018

I want to make it crystal clear that mainly here, focus is on horizontal accountability, but I will have a few words to say about the other two forms. It is important to emphasize as well that controlling corruption is not simply about monitoring and punishment. It also requires reducing the scope for rent-seeking and arbitrary exercise of state power, through market reforms that promote competition, streamline regulations, and reduce (or make more neutral and transparent) the interference of the state in economic life. And it entails reform and professionalization of the civil service, through enhanced training and pay and reductions in the size of the state bureaucracy, so that the state can afford to pay the kind of salaries that will attract better trained civil servants and thus reduce some of the pressure to abuse the powers of office in order to enhance personal income.

H. INSTITUTIONS OF HORIZONTAL ACCOUNTABILITY

The horizontal accountability by which some agencies of government scrutinize and check other parts of the government is one of the most important institutions of accountability in the corruption control strategy. The institutions of horizontal accountability include: The Law; Anti-


African Studies, Vol.31, N0.1, pp.31-48. 1018 Larry Diamond Prepared for the conference on “Economic Reform and Good Governance: Fighting Corruption in Transition Economies” April 11-12, Qinghua University, Beijing, China



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Corruption Bodies; Ombudsman’s Office; Public Audit; The Judicial System; and the Parliament. I wish to discuss them in brief respectively.

(A) THE LAW

It should be noted that the first institution of accountability is the law, which must prohibit all forms of bribery, nepotism, abuse of power and misuse of public funds. Although comprehensive anticorruption legislation is necessary, it is not sufficient. Improper enrichment of public officials can hardly be detected unless their own personal and family finances are transparent.


“Effective corruption control requires that higher-level elected officials, political appointees, civil servants, military officers, and police officers declare their assets upon taking office, and every year thereafter, and whenever their assets change in some significant, defined way (as through a major sale or stock transaction). These declarations should be publicly filed with a counter-corruption commission. To ensure public confidence in the process—and facilitate the necessary exercise of vertical accountability—the declarations of assets must be available, ideally through publication in the newspapers or on the Internet of top officeholders' assets declarations. Endemic corruption cannot be controlled without this vital step.”1019

I agree with Diamond that this type of action when taken will not only help to reduce corruption menace in the society but in turn help to restore public confidence in the law which in many countries people have lost due to in efficiency.

(B) ANTI-CORRUPTION BODIES

The second institution is a body charged with scrutinizing the conduct of public officials and monitoring their assets declarations to look for signs of malfeasance.

This body according to Diamond,




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“Must be charged not only with receiving but also monitoring and verifying the assets declarations of the president, prime minister, ministers and sub-ministers, agency heads, and other elected and appointed public officials above a certain level. In a large country, separate or subsidiary (branch) anti-corruption bodies will be needed to scrutinize the conduct of similar types of officials at the provincial and municipal levels. The commission must then have the staff to investigate annually on a random basis some significant percentage of these assets declarations, and systematically, the declarations of the country's highest officials.”1020

From this view, it is clearly observable that the work of this body is not an easy one. This is why for me this scrutiny must be comprehensive if it is to be effective, and if the threat of detection is to be credible. This requires a lot of resources: accountants, investigators, and lawyers trained in the ways that wealth is moved, accumulated, and hidden, along with computer specialists and other support staff to back them up. Not only does a counter-corruption commission need a lot of well-trained staff, it needs to pay them enough to deter temptation and establish a high esprit de corps. There is no way to control corruption without spending money to build institutions.

I believe that this right, because with this money, the institution will be well equipped to do their work effectively and creditably without fear or favour.

As Diamond puts it,

“If credible evidence of wrongdoing emerges, there must be the institutional means to try the suspected offender and impose punishment on the guilty. The single most common and crippling flaw in systems of corruption is an inability to enforce this function free from interference by the highest levels of government. The counter-corruption commission should have the ability to prosecute officials who have allegedly violated ethics laws independently. (One of the most important changes introduced by Thailand's democratic constitution of 1997 was to grant the National Counter Corruption Commission independent prosecutorial authority, even if it means overruling the attorney general).”1021

I am aware that Critics may argue that trying public officials outside the normal judicial process undermines the rule of law. And, of course, in a democracy the power to deny someone his freedom, through imprisonment, should only be exercised by the judiciary. But it makes sense to enable a counter-corruption institution to impose punishing civil penalties, including forfeiture of

1020 Larry Diamond Prepared for the conference on “Economic Reform and Good Governance: Fighting Corruption in Transition Economies” April 11-12, Qinghua University, Beijing, China

1021 Ibid.



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office and assets, through due process, even if the judicial system would be able to do this as well, and more.

(C) OMBUDSMAN'S OFFICE.

The Ombudsman's office (or a public complaints commission) as the name suggests, according to Diamond,

“receives and investigates public complaints of abuse of office. Members of the public or the press should have a right to—and indeed be encouraged to—bring evidence to the counter-corruption commission if they believe a public official has misrepresented his or her assets or abused his office. But there needs to be a supplementary channel of public access to government authority if power is being abused and the counter-corruption commission does not seem to be doing its job. If the system is working well, the ombudsman may occasionally come upon evidence that the counter corruption commission does not have, or that reinforces investigations the commission has already opened. Ideally, these offices would cooperate. Members of the counter-corruption commission should know that they themselves could be exposed to public outcry if they fail to move aggressively on evidence of corruption.”1022

I want to point out here straight away that the Ombudsman's office should know that it has to meet the same standards of honest public conduct as all other officials, or it will itself be held accountable.

(D) PUBLIC AUDITS.

Independent, systematic audits of public accounts constitute a highly specialized field of public administration. Clearly, it is not enough simply to monitor the personal accounts of public officials. A dense, overlapping system of accountability requires that all major government bureaus,




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agencies, and ministries have their accounts regularly audited. To conduct these checks, each major government agency or bureau should have its own auditing office and inspector general. Finally, the government should have an office of the auditor-general with the authority to conduct external audits on a periodic or random basis, and audit any agency at any time when there is evidence of wrongdoing.

(E) THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM.

I want to mention here that another very important institution of corruption control is the Judiciary. Like the other agencies of horizontal accountability, the judiciary must be independent if it is to be effective in controlling corruption. Here is a major target for investment in institution building. They need serious empowerment which include; Manpower, material, financial etc., to enable them discharge their duties satisfactorily.

As Diamond puts it,

“An effective judicial system requires well-trained, capable judges, clerks, prosecutors, and defence attorneys, and enough of them to keep caseloads to a level that is consistent with vigorous justice and due process. They need the support of law libraries, computerized information systems, professional bar associations, law schools, and judicial training institutes.”1023

The laws themselves must be clearly codified and publicly accessible. All of this takes money.

(F) PARLIAMENT

This is yet another very important institution corruption control strategy. This includes;

an elected national legislature and similar bodies at the provincial level, which constitutes an important link in the chain of horizontal accountability.





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“Horizontal accountability works best when there are densely overlapping realms of oversight and scrutiny. The national legislature or congress provides another vital realm of oversight, particularly when it is organized into committees with the statutory authority and expertise to oversee particular ministries, agencies, and areas of public policy. These committees should have the legal power

To obtain information and receive testimony from executive agencies under their jurisdiction, and the relevant public officials should be answerable to these committees for their conduct. An important tool of oversight is the capacity of a parliamentary committee to conduct an investigation, for which some considerable trained staff is necessary.”1024

I want to say in fact, that Parliament is most important arm of government this is because, the national legislature or congress provides another vital realm of oversight, particularly when it is organized into committees with the statutory authority and expertise to oversee particular ministries, agencies, and areas of public policy to fight corruption as mention also in the quotation above.

One may be tempted to ask, if these horizontal institutions are the nerves and muscles of corruption control, why would politicians let them function effectively? And what will ensure their operational autonomy?

To answer these questions, I would say that their position has put them in such a way to be able to control corruption due largely to their functions and duties.

As Diamond puts it,

“This (The Parliament Power) is crucial in designing institutions to control corruption, and it begins with the power to appoint. If a country cannot get high quality, professionals in these positions, all is lost from the start. It should be underscored that this seemingly modest problem who will appoint, if not guard, the guardians is absolutely fundamental. The more insulated from political control are the means for appointment of members of agencies of horizontal accountability—such as the Counter-corruption commission, the audit agency, the ombudsman’s office, and the entire judiciary—the better the prospect that these bodies will be given independent, vigorous, professional leadership. Means must be found of appointing, constituting, and funding these bodies so that the executive officials and agencies they are to scrutinize do not compromise them from the outset by imposing on them weak or politically pliant leadership.”1025

1024 Ibid.




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I wish to recommend that once appointed, oversight officials, judges, and prosecutors should have long tenure in office, and should only be removable for clear misconduct or breach of responsibility, and then only by procedures that are deliberate and transparent.

One way that some political systems insulate these bodies is by making some of them appointed by and accountable to the legislative or judicial, rather than executive, branch. The national audit agency, for example, can be responsible to the Congress, which may also have its own budget office to evaluate the budgeting projections and decisions of the executive branch.

Finally, the judiciary may be given control over its own appointments and promotions, through an insulated, merit-based process of recruitment, evaluation, and advancement, and might also be given the responsibility of supervising the counter-corruption Commission. Some countries may need to innovate, even by constituting a supreme oversight body that insulates, appoints, disciplines, funds, and oversees all the specialized agencies of horizontal accountability.

I. INSTITUTIONS OF VERTICAL ACCOUNTABILITY

This is another very important institution of corruption control strategy. As the name imply, Vertical Accountability needs to be stimulated and reinforced by pressure and scrutiny from below and from outside. And in a situation of systemic corruption, these additional sources of pressure and scrutiny must be massive and sustained or vertical accountability will be gutted and left to rot. Institutions of Vertical Accountability include;

Electoral Accountability; Independent Mass Media; Non-governmental Organizations; External Accountability and Support and cooperation. I wish to discuss these institutions one after the other respectively.



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A. ELECTORAL ACCOUNTABILITY

It is important to note that one vital, though imperfect; means for controlling corruption is a competitive and transparent electoral process. When citizens have the ability to remove public officials who do not function effectively or serve the public interest, they generate an important incentive for those officials to avoid corruption. But unfortunately, according to Diamond,

“corrupt officials will also try to corrupt the electoral process, buying votes and bribing officials so that they can obtain through fraud the election or re-election that they could not honestly win. Hence, in a system of competitive elections, horizontal accountability is also needed in the form of an independent, electoral commission that administers elections in a neutral, impartial, and transparent manner that is fair to all contestants.” 1026

I want to observe here that like other institutions, an electoral commission or agency needs adequate human, technical, and financial resources to be effective.

B. INDEPENDENT MASS MEDIA It is not over emphasis to say that transparency, virtually by definition, requires free and open

flows of information. Without a free and pluralistic press, transparency is not possible.

As Diamond puts it,

“Controlling corruption requires a press that is free from intimidation and restraint; a press that has the resources to investigate rumours and evidence of corruption; and a press that has the maturity, restraint, and professionalism to eschew loose and sensationalist charges based on any whisper of malfeasance. This latter point needs emphasis, because if the press is constantly accusing without credible evidence, it will discredit itself and the whole quest for accountability.”1027

1026Larry Diamond Prepared for the conference on “Economic Reform and Good Governance: Fighting Corruption in Transition Economies” April 11-12, Qinghua University, Beijing, China.

1027 Ibid.



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I agree with him (Larry) that much of the developing and post-communist worlds; it will take many years to develop the needed levels of press pluralism, capacity, and responsibility, even if a climate of freedom exists.

However, investigative reporting requires training and a lot of resources that few newspapers and magazines can afford. Because of its ability to reach citizens quickly and vividly, television news (partly through the news magazine format) has a promising role to play.

C. NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION.

Vertical accountability also requires non-governmental organizations in civil society building new practices of good governance. As Diamond reminded us that,

“Variety of civic associations (private business chambers, bar associations, other professional associations, women's organizations, student groups) may form coalitions to lobby for legal and constitutional changes to improve governance, while also working to monitor the conduct of public officials.”

Fortunately enough, Transparency International has demonstrated the vital and creative role that international civil society can play in forming coalitions with domestic constituencies for good governance and accountability.

D. EXTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY

I want to point out here that the problem of corruption is no longer anywhere simply a national one. This is because corrupt transactions frequently involve international business. Very corrupt officials—those who amass fortunes in the millions and even hundreds of millions of dollars—invariably transfer at least part of their assets to financial institutions and investments abroad.

Thus the challenge of combating corruption must involve international cooperation and international responsibility.

This is why according to Diamond,

“The wealthy industrialized countries must, for example, take seriously the OECD “Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Officials in International Business Transactions” to do what they



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have not done to date: set up serious mechanisms to monitor international business transactions and punish the payment of bribes by their own corporations. Trans-national businesses in key sectors must forge credible commitments to collectively forego the payment of bribes in their competition for contracts. And most of all, rich and poor countries alike must come together in a new effort to construct a global rule of law, beginning with a comprehensive assault on corrupt flows of money across borders.”1028

I must be honest to say that this will require intensified efforts to open up banking to independent oversight, and to require banks themselves to assume responsibility for reporting suspiciously large and unsubstantiated deposits and transfers. In short, the banks must stop looking the other way when they receive dirty money, whether it is from drug trafficking, corruption, money laundering, or other forms of international crime.

E. SUPPORT AND COOPERATION

There is a huge institution-building agenda ahead for any country that decides to get serious about controlling corruption. Such a country will, according to Diamond,

“need to staff, equip, train, and remunerate counter-corruption commissioners and investigators, auditors, judges, public prosecutors, electoral commissioners, legislative staff, and ombudsmen. Private newspapers and civil society organizations interested in holding these structures accountable and helping to make them work will also need to enhance their skills. There is a large and promising agenda here for international exchange and cooperation.”1029

In an increasingly globalise economy, fighting corruption is a global interest, and it will involve global cooperation and engagement. This cooperation will be more effective if it is based on an honest recognition of the shared responsibility we all have to improve governance, improve transparency, and build a rule of law that is truly global.





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I believe that with the implementation of the Corruption Control Strategies as seen above, and more, corruption can be drastically reduced in our global society.



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CHAPTER 4

A. EXAMPLES OF CORRUPTION CONTROL STRATEGY IN OTHER COUNTRIES

I wish to use Poland and South Africa as case studies to briefly examine the role of religion as an instrument for the mobilisation of civil society for democracy and means of corruption control strategy in the society.

1. POLAND: POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE SOCIO-POLITICAL TRANSFORMATION OF POLAND.

As Kukah M. H, puts it,

“The contribution of Pope John Paul II, the Catholic Pontiff, to World politics has been well documented. However, I am convinced that his contributions to the transformation of his country are a wakeup call for all of us about the force of religion and the link between political and religious liberation.”1030

It is important here, to see briefly how God used this meeting of one man and the moment to transform the world history.

According to Kukah,

“Poland’s history is one of the most fascinating of the merger between religion and patriotism. The nation's history finds a graphic land mark in 966AD, the year when Miesko I and his Court were said to have accepted the Catholic faith. The history of Poland is one of tragic experiences with its neighbours, but perhaps the most momentous experience occurred in 1795 when Poland was partitioned between Prussia, Russia and Austria. In point of fact, Poland ceased to exist as a state in the world map. It did not get back its life until after the Second World War in 1918. During these centuries, it was only the Catholic Church that kept the soul of Poland alive. It was the

1030Kukah, M.h, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria. 2003. P .178.



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reservoir of the Polish Art, Culture and Language. Since Poland’s conquerors, Prussia, and Russia, belonged to two different Christian sects (protestant and Orthodox); the Catholic Church remained the umbrella under which Poles maintained their distinct Polish identity throughout the period.” 1031

Given the nature of the country's involvement with war, life became an eternal struggle. As such, in between wars, a student of Catholicism Michael Kennedy has noted that:

“Polish Priests were very active in the liberation struggles and Catholicism came to have a special place in the newly independent Poland... the Catholic hierarchy was quite involved in the Polish resistance movement...wound up being almost religiously homogenous.”1032

It is important here, to notice the background in which the Holy Father came from. One characterised by struggle, one in which the role of the Catholic Church as an agent of social consciousness, moral purification and political transformation was far from being ambivalent in any way.

According to Kukah,

“When he took over the world theatre, he seemed to have seen the world through the eyes of Poland. He needed Poland as a guinea pig, a foot hold from where he could take on the rest of the world. This is what informed the urgency with which he addressed the process of change in his native Poland.”1033

It should be noted that, barely one year into his papacy, the Holy Father was on his way home to Poland in June 1997 (June 2-10). A most important part of the journey was the trip to Jasna Gora, (the Luminous Mountain) where the icon of the Polish Catholicism resides in the person of the Black Madonna, christened Our Lady Queen of Poland. Here, the Holy Father dedicated both his Country and Pontificate to Our Mother. The Virgin Mary would come to dominate the internal land scape of his personal and church life. His devotion to her would spread to other parts of the World, including Nigeria, as she became an idiom for evangelisation.1034

1031 Ibid.

1032Michael Kennedy and Maurice Simon. Church and Nation in Socialist Poland“, in Peter Merkel and Ninian Smart (Ed): Religion and Politics in the Modern World (University Press, New York, 1983) p.132.


1034On a visit to Nigeria in 1982, for example the Holy Father donated a huge statue of the Madoma and the child to the Catholics Bishops' Conference of Nigeria. It is in the chapel of the Catholic Secretariat, Lagos Nigeria.



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The organisation of this visit added impetus and confidence to the struggle within civil society in Poland.

As Kennedy and Simpson again noted:

“Beyond providing a moral impetus, that the entire visit was organised without the official help of state agencies, gave polish society a deepened confidence in its own organisational capabilities and a recognition of the potential for establishing extensive non-official networks of communication,”1035

Polish workers became confidence of the righteousness of their cause especially as it had become clear that they could count on the almost total support of the Catholic hierarchy. Thanks to the moral support of the Holy Father, a movement known as ‘Solidarity’ became the focal point for civil society in Poland.

According to Kukah,

“The movement, drawing heavily from Catholic Church social teachings on the dignity of labour, sought to provide a moral anchor for a working population which Communism had alienated from their labour by poor pay, poor working conditions, indiscriminate retrenchment, dwindling fortunes, etc.”1036

It should be noted that Pope John Paul II as he develops his theology of human labour, emphasizes the priority of the subjective over the objective dimension of work (5-7). Pope John Paul II goes on to point out that the proper subject of work is the human person who takes priority over the sort of work being done.1037

Interestingly, Laborem Exercens was written in response to the profound social changes in the world since the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States that exerted an impact on the dignity and rights of the workers.1038

According to Kenneth R. Himes, Pope John Paul II believes that,

“The right order of values is threatened when the person is viewed as an instrument of production or as a form of merchandise to be bought and sold.”1039

1035Lech Walesa: A Part of Hope (Collins Harvill, London, 1987), p. 93. 1036 Kukah, M.h, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria. 2003. p .178

1037 Kenneth R. Himes, O.FM. Modern Catholic Social Teaching-commentaries and Interpretations Georgetown University Press Washington, D.C. p 389

1038 Op.cit



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In this regard, the Pope spoke about the importance of the workers solidarity in order to achieve social justice in various parts of the world. For the Pope,

“there is a need for new movements of solidarity of the workers with the workers.”.1040

This union of workers in solidarity with the workers will be helpful in promoting the dignity of labour and human person.

The Pope noted among other things that,

“the development in technology and the wide spread introduction of automation, the increase in the cost of energy and raw materials, limitations of earth’s resources, and the growing awareness of environmental degradation...Labour problems such as unemployment in vulnerable sectors of the domestic economy are complicated by the growth of multinational corporations that can move productive capacities from high-wage unionized locations to developing countries where unions tend to be restricted or outlawed.”1041

Furthermore, the document discussed the social situation in Poland, particularly the tensions that were present between the trade union movement, Solidarity (Solidarnosc) and the Polish communist government.1042

The Polish civil society, under Solidarity, felt that the Papal visit had given their movement an imprimatur. In his Autobiography, A path of Hope, Lech Walesa noted:

“When he the (the pope) paid his first visit to his country, we couldn’t help feeling that we had been chosen by the rest of the world, as if the world had finally noticed us, finally elected us. During this visit, we stood shoulder to shoulder, several millions of us experiencing the same joy.”1043

Lech Walesa would fuse the struggle of solidarity with the sentiments of love of country. As the movement gained momentum and he sought confirmation of its affinity with the Church, he sought audience with the Holy Father to improve his moral credentials. In his letter to the Holy Father, Mr. Walesa wrote:

1039 Kenneth R. Himes, O.FM. Modern Catholic Social Teaching-commentaries and Interpretations Georgetown University Press Washington, D.C. p 389

1040 ibid

1041 Op.cit p 390

1042 ibi

1043Lech Walesa: A Part of Hope, Op.cit. 93.



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“We refuse to live in the past, to flounder in misery and regret our faces are turned towards our country's future. It is in the name of our country, Holy Father that I permit myself to ask you for another audience.”1044

When he finally met with the Holy Father, Walesa concluded that,

“his words were like an invitation to remove the daily mask one wears to cope with life.”1045

From this point, Holy Masses, funerals, and other issues involving workers assumed a new dimension. Everywhere, workers were looking for symbols and myths. As such, when meat prices were raised on July 1, 1980, the workers seized the initiative and on 14, workers in the Gdansk shipyard went on strike. They demanded:

1) a memorial to be erected for their workers who have died in a 1970 strike; 2) the rehiring of three workers who had recently been sacked; 3) a raise in wages; 4) The right to form an independent union.1046

On the movement’s birth, Walesa, the labour leader who would later be an outstanding instrument in God's hands, observed rather poetically:

“It is difficult to say precisely where a river begins. It seldom springs from a simple source. More often than not, it starts as a number of mountain streams which join together to flow downstream around natural obstacles occasionally disappearing underground before it finally finds the right direction and rushes off with one accord. Upstream, you can't be sure that this flow is really a river, whereas someone miles downstream who can see it fill its bank while cutting a well-defined course is in no doubt about its character. During the 70s, Gdansk shipyard was like that network of stream whose ideas would later merge to form a powerful current.”1047

Finally, the negotiations were slated for August 23-31, 1980. The workers saw this as a test case and with the international attention they were getting, they decided to press further for their rights. They held on for the days of negotiation until they secured the right to establish an independent trade union.1048

According to Kukah,

1044Ibid. 1045Lech Walesa: A Part of Hope, Op.cit. p. 278. 1046 ibid

1047 Kennedy and Simpson.: Church and Nation in Socialist Poland“, in Merkel and Smart, Op.cit. p. 139. 1048Kennedy and Simpson.: Church and Nation in Socialist Poland“, in Merkel and Smart, Op.cit. p. 139



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“By 1980, Solidarity had been formed as a movement for justice and freedom in Poland. Led by Lech Walesa, an electrician, whose bravery saw him scale the fence during a dock workers demonstration, Solidarity became the Trojan horse of Catholic resistance to Communism across Poland. It would later become the official opposition party against Communist rule. It had the support of the entire Catholic Church leadership and flock.”1049

During the struggle, the clerical class, led by Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, the aging prelate who had himself been imprisoned during the period of Nazi occupation, gave Solidarity the moral support it needed. As a leading light in the Polish Catholic Church, the Pope had worked closely with the Cardinal and both knew what they wanted for the Catholic Church and Poland.1050

According to Kennedy,

“When resistance got under way and Solidarity became the basis of identity, a national survey conducted in Poland established that for the people of Poland the Catholic Church was the first basis of their allegiance, followed by Solidarity, while the Communist Party at that time trailed last.”1051

An appeal to this Church and patriotic duty led the Polish Bishops to issue a Pastoral Letter in which they argued:

“People who are in power in our fatherland bear the responsibility for Poland’s freedom and dignity. Conditions of social life must be created in which the people can fully feel that they are the masters of their own land, which was given to us, centuries ago, by the father of our people.”1052

I wish to observe here that two very important events took place in 1981 which had profound impact on Solidarity. The first was the death of Cardinal Wyszynski (May 28, 1981) and the second was the publication of the Encyclical, Laborem Exercens, (Human Work) by Pope John Paul II. This document, extolling the dignity of human labour, was seized upon by the Catholic Church and Solidarity. Cardinal Glemp, successor to the late Wyszynski, would later state that:

“The Church is supporting Solidarity not as an ally, but as a defender of human rights in the spirit of the Gospel...We do not want to dominate Solidarity, but we are ready to defend it if human rights are violated.“1053

1049 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria. 2003. p .178

1050Stefan Cardinalwyszinsky: A Freedom Within: The Prison notes of Cardinal Wyszynski (London, Hodder and Stoughton, London ,1982).

1051 Kennedy and Simpson.: Church and Nation in Socialist Poland“, in Merkel and Smart, Op.cit. p. 138. 1052Quoted in Kennedy & Simpson, Op cit. P,.137. 1053Op.cit. P.142.



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Solidarity grew in confidence and by the third quarter of 1981, it was perceived by the Communist Party to be serious threat. Thus, on December 13 1981, Jaruzelski, the secretary of the Communist Party, declared martial law in Poland. Solidarity was not intimidated. It renewed its struggle and there were renewed moves for another Papal visit. This time, a reason was found in the Polish Catholicism. The year 1982 was the 600th anniversary of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, Poland's most revered spiritual icon. That visit consolidated the gains of Solidarity and emboldened the movement.

According to Kukah,

“In 1983, Mr. Lech Walesa became an international icon when he received the Nobel Peace Prize, yet he remained jobless in Poland. Of course the Nobel Prize catapulted Solidarity and Mr. Walesa into international prominence. Mr. Walesa and Solidarity used the Nobel Prize to full advantage. He used religious idioms (by placing the certificate at the shrine at Jasna Gora and handing over the sum of money from the prize to the Polish hierarchy), and social idioms (by proposing that the money be deployed to an agricultural development fund). He finally tied the prize to the future and the struggle for Solidarity. Asked by a journalist whether the prize would change his life, Mr. Walesa said, „ I am as ready to receive Prizes as I am to be thrown into Prison. “1054

The Polish state, on the other hand, got increasingly restive. On October 19, 1984, the state security agents kidnapped and murdered a pro-Solidarity activist, Rev Jerzy Popielusko, and who had been chaplain at a steal factory. Mr. Walesa remembered his encounter with this ferry, yet humble priest who would later mark the struggle with his life. In the sermon he delivered when both men first met at a holy mass, Mr. Walesa said he remembered Fr. Jerzy saying:

“If we lack freedom, it is because we submit to falsehood. It’s because we don't expose it, don't dispute it each and every day. We don't try to rectify it. We remain silent, pretending to accept it. That is how we come to live in falsehood.”1055

Interestingly, the death of this priest marked the watershed in the struggle for freedom in Poland. The details of the struggle are outside the scope of our discussion. It is important to reinstate that the struggle, trials, and successes of Solidarity in Poland had a domino effect on many other countries within the Communist bloc. According to Kukah,

“The climax of this struggle came with the tumbling of Communism in1989. The ascension of Lech Walesa to the Presidency was a remarkable testimony and the apogee of that moral victory. Again

1054 Quoted in Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria. 2003. p .178 also in Lech Walesa: A Part of Hope, Op.cit. p. 286.

1055Lech Walesa: A Part of Hope, Op.cit. p. 278.



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the rest is history, but the fact remains that, that religious leadership, fired by a patriotic and prophetic mission, read the signs of the time correctly. Woke up from their slumber and offered the leadership that was urgently needed at that particular moment in the nation’s history.”1056

One would ask, what was behind the success of Solidarity?

According to Kukah, many factors accounted for the success. The main ones however, are the following.

A. THE POWER OF THE SOLIDARITY ETHOS.

This drew from sources that were Peculiar to Poland's faith in the Catholic and also had a lasting effect. It cantered on a deep sense of a Polish nationalism. As Kukah puts it,

“This sense of nationalism had been hammered on the anvil of Polish history, a history characterised by pain and suffering. This nationalism was also anchored on human dignity drawing from the Catholic tradition of Poland. It was characterised by a strong sense of communitarianism and industrial justice.”1057

B. EQUALITY AND EGALITARIANISM

The movement believed in a strong sense of equality among the members.

According to Kukah,

“There were no leaders and led, all were considered to be equal. Workers believed and practised direct democracy arising from the fact that they practised it in their places of work. A spirit and feeling of each being seen as 'one of us' pervaded the movement.”1058


1057 ibid

1058 ibid



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C. MORAL SUPPORTS FROM THE CHURCH

Under the umbrella of Pope John Paul II, Solidarity was largely an untouchable Organisation. Tapping from the strong history of the Catholic Church, it asserted its Polishes.

As Kukah puts it,

“ It took advantage of the high moral ground on which the Pope stood as a Pole and head of the Catholic Church, the spiritual and cultural basis of identity for the Polish nation, sometimes known through its pains and sufferings as the Martyred Christ of all nations.”1059

D. APPEAL TO POLISH MYTH AND IDIOMS

Through its dramas and plays, the rich repertoire of Polish Heroes was brought to life.

For Kukah,

“The Pope himself had been an active member of an underground theatre group and he was very much familiar with the historical thrust and contributions of art and theatre to the survival of the dreams of an oppressed people. Appeals to the deep religious sentiments attached to such icons like the Blessed Virgin Mary and other aspects of deep Polish deep spirituality were also a great use.”1060

D. FAITH AND COUNTRY

There was emphasis on the primacy of society over the State. Thus, drawing from the Catholic Church's teaching on the sacredness of life, even under Communism, Poles had to gauge their conditions against this noble goal of human dignity. Appeal to the dignity of the human person cuts across ideological lines.1061



1061 ibid



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F. THE SUPREMACY OF LAW.

Solidarity emphasised the supremacy of law. According to Kukah,

“Given the openness of their debates, trust was built among the members. These were the threads that held the movements together and enabled it to be such a major instrument in the overthrow of Communism, thus serving as an inspiration to other movements across the former Soviet Union.”1062

G. DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN POST COMMUNIST POLAND.

It is important to note here that when the doors opened for democratisation after the failure of communism, Poland saw the emergence of 100 political associations. The most crucial question that needed to be addressed was the future of the Catholic Church in particular and the civil society in general. As it turned out, when the real business of politics go under way, the Catholic Church's involvement had to be curtailed for the simple reason that the scenarios had changed.

According to Kukah,

“Even in a multi-party arrangement, the key actor placing around the open political space, whatever their bent, were all children of the Catholic Church. It was an open secret that the Catholic Church's candidate to the Presidency of Poland was Lech Walesa. It is a matter of great interest that after the fall of Communism, the Church did not attempt to assert its authority by interfering in the politics of Poland directly. The Church still managed to leave itself enough elbow room to continue to play its critical role of defending and promoting the main ingredients of civil society and democracy such as justice and human rights.”1063

One of the most important things that happened in Post-Communist Poland is the fact that civil society did manage to remain suspicious of the State this meant that even when their leader became the President, workers had not the illusion that all was over and that life would be a bed of roses from then on.

According to Wlozimierz Welowski,

1062 ibid




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“When we recall that the fall of communism was portrayed as the rise of Capitalism by the West, then we can appreciate the fact that workers needed to remain vigilant even as one of theirs is at the helm of affairs. The demand of workers in Post-Communist Poland still included the following:

1) that they have a greater say in political decisions; 2) that they must have better conditions of service; 3) that government must not succumb to the crass individualism of the market; 4) That Privatisation was unacceptable since their lack of capital would make workers

vulnerable.”1064

Interestingly, Workers' willingness to press forward their rights led to two serious strikes in 1992 and 1993 even under the presidency of the head ‘Labour’ President Walesa. Workers continued to argue that freedom of choice was not enough if the workers did not have the economic security to enforce these freedoms. The pursuit of good life was desirable, they reasoned, but the individual must not be sacrificed on the altar of profit. Unfortunately, post-communist Poland did not deliver the utopia, despite the Presidency of a Labour. This must not be taken as failure, but it is only to say that those who aspire to leadership must remember the Irish Proverb ‘Far away hills always look greener’. Thus, when the Polish people decided not to give their labourer another term and they voted back a Communist in 1996, the message was evident: systems do not replace systems. This was the cornerstone of the Encyclical which Pope Pius XII wrote over one hundred years ago titled, Rerum Novarum. The thrust of that Encyclical was to insist that the State had a primary duty to protect the poor.1065

However, those who thought that the fall of Communism was synonymous with the rise of Capitalism missed the point.

“The slow pace of reforms, lack of aggressive Western investment, lack of access to capital by workers and the chaotic political system has now led the emergency of what Wesolowski has called sceptics and rebels, as opposed to patriots.”1066

In conclusion, our analysis has shown very clearly, hopefully, that the Catholic Church in Poland took the advantage of the personality of the Holy Father to redefine and reconceptualise the role and the place of the Church's teaching in the life of that nation. Solidarity benefited from the support of the Catholic Church because it used the Church’s teachings and succeeded in

1064Wlozimierz Welowski: „ The Nature of Social Ties and the Future of Post-Communist Society: Poland after

Solidarity. “, in John Hall (ed): Civil Society: Theory, History, Comparison (Polity Press, 1995) p.125. 1065Rerum Novarum was bublished by Pope Leo Xii in 1991. This Encyclical sought to address the conflicting

demand between Socialism and Capitalism. 1066Wlodzimierz, Welowski: „ The Nature of Social Ties and the Future of Post-Communist Society: Poland after

Solidarity.“, in John Hall (ed): Civil Society: Op.cit. p.126.



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establishing a connection between Labour, the Labourer and Justice. Its arguments for the dignity of the worker turned it into an umbrella for all workers across religious lines.

According to Kukah,

“The Catholic Church was very successful in staying the course between the civil society (represented by Solidarity) and the State. Even under the state of emergency, The Church served as an instrument of moderation between the tyranny of the state and the anger, frustration and agony of an emasculated civil society. Whatever may be the limitations of democracy in post-community Poland, there is hardly any doubt that for being a Midwife of democracy, the Catholic Church in Poland did what it was prophetically called to do.”1067

The project of democracy and subsequent strengthening of civil society are the stuff of statecraft, not that of the Church.

B. SOUTH AFRICA

1. GOD AND TRANSITION IN SOUTH AFRICA

I want to point out here that the story of the miracle that took place in South Africa may never be fully told for many reasons.

According to Kukah,

“First of all, given the immediate political and the economic benefits to be derived from the fall of apartheid, some of those who perpetrated white rule in South Africa at the expense of black people are still right at the driving seat of power today. Those who benefited from the sweat of black people from Europe to America are the ones telling the liberated people of South Africa who their friends should be. They say a new South Africa should have nothing to do with Iran, Libya, Cuba or China.”1068

This section is really about the miracle of South Africa, namely, the role that God played through the Churches.

According to Douglas Johnson,





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“Anyone slightly familiar with the situation in South Africa will concede that the events that took place there are nothing short of a miracle. Since their arrival in 1632, the white Dutch visitors took over the land and declare it theirs. For over three hundred years, black people were beasts of burden. The tragedy behind it all was that they found a theological rationale for their evil and despicable acts. That this evil survived the way it did shows us the power of evil in the world today. Held down by the captivity for the apartheid for centuries, the non-whites in South Africa wanted a land where all God's children would realise their full potentials by living as equals.”1069

It is important here to discuss in brief the so called Black Theology. The inspiration came from Senghor’s Negritude, Nkrumah’s African Personality, and Cones’ American Black Theology. It centred on Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement (see part IV, South Africa). The Student’s Conference at Roodespoort in 1971 is regarded as the founding event; its papers suppressed in South Africa, were published in England by Basil Moore as Black Theology: The South African voice. According to Baur J,

“The Black Theology of South Africa is the application of liberation theology to the situation of the African in that country. It is therefore essentially contextual without a claim to universal validity but particularly relevant to their specific situation. It grew in reaction to the irrelevance of the mission theology that failed to tackle the dehumanized condition of the black man in the apartheid system.”1070

The Black Theology lays emphasis on the fact that black man is loved by God not because he is black but because he is oppressed. Being black is synonymous with being exploited, being without rights, and belonging to the damned of the earth (Barney Pityana). Black Theology maintains that violence is against God’s love, and equality with the white overlooks the specific African values (Boesak).

According Buthelezi,

“The ancient question: what have I to do to be saved? Means for the black person: How can I be liberated to my authentic self?”

Today, many people believe that Archbishop Desmond Tutu remains the symbol of that entire struggle.

1069 Douglas Johnson „The Churches and Apartheid in South Africa., in Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson

(Ed): Religion, The Missing Dimension in Statecraft (Oxford University Press, 1994) pp. 177-207). 1070 Baur John, 2oooYears of Christianity in Africa. An African History 62-1992, Daughters of St. Paul, Nairobi Kenya 1994, p299 Quoted in Baur John, 2oooYears of Christianity in Africa. An African History 62-1992, Daughters of St. Paul, Nairobi Kenya 1994, p 299



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According to Kukah,

“True as this may be, this does injustice to the real history of the struggle for justice in South Africa. For, before the coming of the Archbishop Tutus, there were the late Trevor Huddlestone (dI998), Denis Hurley Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Durban), Archbishop Naidoo, (dI995) (Cape Town), the Alan Patons, the Naudiers, etc.”1071

I want to say here however that it is true to say perhaps because he is black, the arrival of Archbishop Tutu did not change the context of Church involvement in the struggle for the creation of the civil society and the Church's engagement with apartheid.

As Douglas Johnson puts it,

“He was better placed to respond to the contradictions which faced the black Christian community in South Africa. Here they were: South Africa was under the vicious boots of apartheid worn by white men who claimed that God had ordained them to enunciate this agenda. And yet, they as black people were members of that same Christian community. How could one be truly Christian without succumbing to the charge of being part of the oppressor whose ideology was based on this false theology?”1072

Amidst the pain and suffering the black people faced, for Kukah,

“the real question they have to ask were: Where is Go? Where can we find Him? Is he aware of our suffering? Were our sufferings evidence that the kingdom of God had no place for us? Or is it possible that the promises of God, the libratory message of the Gospel of Jesus who came the Lame walk, set the Prisoners free and declare the Lord's year of favour (Lk4:18), could serve as platform to enable black people claim their rightful and dignified place as God's loving children? What kind of theology is needed at this time and what tools can the leaders of the South Africa Christian Community now employ?”1073

In his own way, Archbishop Tut was able to do for the black people of South Africa what the Pope has done for his people in Poland, though in a smaller but no less complex way too. Unlike the Pope, Archbishop Tutu may not have had a Vatican platform to stand on, but he lived with his people.


1072 Douglas Johnson „The Churches and Apartheid in South Africa., in Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson (Ed): Religion, The Missing Dimension in Statecraft (Oxford University Press, 1994) pp. 177-207).




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As we know, my scope is not to give the detailed account of the Churches and struggles in South Africa. It will deliberately focus on the part chartered by Archbishop Tutu in the fight against Corruption, injustices and the subsequent creation of the civil society which was able to respond to the challenges of overthrowing the apartheid in South Africa.

I want point out here that the prominent actors; Archbishop Tutu and the Rev. Alan Boesak, had done their theological studies in England and Holland respectively.

According to Donald Woods,

“They had both tried to wrestle with the problems of the relevance of theology in the quest for the liberation of Africa. The 60s had witnessed the expression of black power in the United States of America. This Philosophy saw white culture as an expression of power and it argued that white people had manipulated the message of Christianity to suit their hegemonic conquests of the black world. The true Christian liberation lay in the black man rediscovering himself, hence the popularisation of the ``Black is Beautiful`` philosophy.”1074

In South Africa, this philosophy found expression through a young black man Steve Bantu Biko. Mr. Biko was one of the first black men to attempt to wrestle with the problems of Christianity and African Liberation. In a letter to Church leaders, Mr. Biko, raised this issue1075

Apparently, according to Donald Woods,

“a bit frustrated by the inability of the Churches to appreciate the urgency of his message, Steve Biko founded the Black Consciousness Movement. The movement was dedicated to helping the black man come to terms with his blackness and what it meant.”1076

This Movement shook the foundation of apartheid in South Africa. It should be observed that in a way,

according to Alan Boesak,

“the coming to being of the black man found expression in the violence that erupted in Sharpeville and later on, Soweto in 1976. In 1977, Steve Biko was killed by the South African Government. Christians were now forced to address the question of the real role and place of Churches in the Liberation of their people. These questions found full theological expression in the publication of Alan Boesak's seminal work with the apt title: Farewell to innocence.”1077

1074 Donald Woods: Biko, (Paddington, London. 1978). 1075Steve Biko: I write what I like. (Heinen, London, 1980). 1076Donald Woods: Biko, (Paddington, London. 1978). 1077Alan Boesak: Farewell to Innocence. (Orbis Books, New York, 1976).



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From then on, events which propelled and shaped the thinking of the black community, largely centred on the personality of Archbishop Tutu. It was clear that someone had to capture and colonise the moral high ground in order to secure some space for civil activities of sorts in confronting apartheid and corruption in the society.

Fortunately enough, According to Kukah,

“Rev. Tutu, then associate director for Africa theological Educational Fund and Dean of Johannesburg branch of Inktha Freedom Movement, was later to be made bishop of Lesotho that same year. The Inkatha Frrem Movement was far more aggressive Movement than the African National Congress. His experiences in these backgrounds offered him enough raw materials for taking on apartheid.”1078

With great courage and conviction, Bishop Tutu decided to start off his struggle by writing an open letter to Prime Minister B. Vorster in 1976. In the letter, Tutu tried to use history to justify the claims of black people to freedom and justice in their land. His belief was that an appeal to this sense of history would make Vorster see logic. So he told Vorster:

I am writing to you, Sir, as a member of a race that has known what it meant in frustration and hurts, in agony and humiliation, to be a subject people. The history of your own race speaks eloquent of how utterly impossible it is, when once the desire for freedom and self-determination is awakened in a people, for it to be quenched or to be satisfied with anything less than freedom and self-determination.1079

He ended the letter with a quotation of the prayer of St. Francis: Lord make me an instrument of your Peace:

According to Kukah,

“Then, came the event that shook South Africa after the Soweto riots that led to the killing of Hector Peterson, the 13 year old school child among many others. Reactions led to the killing of another 140 people on the whole. However, when Steve Biko was killed in1977, the entire black struggle took a new turn.” 1080

In his sermon at the funeral, of Mr. Biko, attended by some 15,000 people, Bishop Tutu said:

1078 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003 p 190

1079Desmond Tutu. The Rainbow People of God The making of a peaceful Revolution (Doubleday, New York), 1994 p 8.

1080 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003 p 190.



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“We thank and praise God for giving us such a magnificent gift in Steve Biko, and for his sake and the sake of ourselves, black and white together, let dedicate ourselves to the struggle for the liberation of our beloved land. If God is on our side, who can be against us? What can separate us from the love of Christ? Can Affliction or hardship? We are being treated like sheep for the slaughter, and yet in spite of it all, overwhelming victory is ours through Him who loves us.”1081

By 1978, Bishop Tutu had become the Secretary-General of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), an umbrella organisation holding together some 15 million Christians. In a speech to the Provincial Synod of the Anglican Church in South Africa,

According to Kukah,

“Bishop Tutu used the opportunity to capture to the socio-economic mood of the poverty that had gripped the non-white people of South Africa. The title of the paper came from an encounter he had with a little girl who told him she and her mother fed themselves by borrowing. On being asked if they ever return the food, she said, ``No. `` The Archbishop asked her what they did when there was no food, she said: “We drink Water to fill our stomachs.”1082

That provided a basis for the Archbishop to give a speech titled: ‘We drink Water to fill our Stomachs.’ In this Speech, Bishop Tutu appealed to the Churches to show more concrete evidence of their solidarity to the poor.1083

There are many other speeches which we cannot go into here for lack of space. We can only mention some of them for lack of space.

For example, ‘The Divine Imperative’,1084 came in 1982 to underscore the fact that social action was most urgent. More Christians were now in the struggles and Churches had actually now become the main shelter or umbrella for the struggle. As in the case of Poland, they were the safety zones compared to other public places where marches and protest demonstrations had been banned.

By 1984, Bishop Tutu had won the Nobel Prize for Peace. As with Lech Walesa's Solidarity, this prize gave new meaning to the struggle of Churches and civil society in Africa. Archbishop Tutu used the ceremony and the international stage to dramatize the ills of apartheid and highlight the squalor. His comparison of apartheid with Nazism drew world attention to its wickedness.

1081Desmond Tutu. The Rainbow People of God Op. Cit P 21. 1082 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003 p 190.

1083Desmond Tutu. The Rainbow People of God op Cit. P 26. 1084Desmond Tutu. The Raimbow People of God op. Cit. Pp. 54-58.



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Part of the Tutu’s address read:

“Blacks are expected to exercise their political ambitions in unviable, poverty, stricken and Bantustan homelands, ghettos of misery, inexhaustible reservoirs of cheap black labour, Bantustans into which South Africa is being balkanised. Blacks are being systematically stripped of their South African citizenship and being turned into aliens in their land of birth. This is apartheid's final solution just as Nazism had its final solution for the Jews in Hitler's Aryan madness.”1085

Bishop Tutu’s fearlessness and dedication to duty earned a lot of honour in the world’s religious and political stage.

After the Nobel Prize came his installation as the Archbishop of Cape Town in 1985, according to Kukah,

“a move that brought him to the jaws of the Lion, so to say, since Cape Town was the major seat and symbol of the power of apartheid. During his installation, Archbishop Tutu, who had just called for sanctions, could not hide the shock of his appointment. He used the concept of the Transfiguration as the theme for his sermon. He maintained that God called us to be his fellow workers. He wants to enlist our supporting to be his agent of transfiguration, of transformation. And that there is much evil afoot in the world, in this land (South Africa).”1086

Later that year, the Institute of Contextual Theology (ICT) church had just been set up to serve as a theological staging post, came out as an outstanding statement that made great international impact. The Statement known as The Kairos Document argued that the moment of salvation was indeed here and no one could lay claim to being a Christian if he could not find a role and place for himself in resolving the social contradictions of apartheid.1087

According to Kukah,

“in 1988, there was a spectacular event that happened in South Africa. The conflict between Church and State had come to a head with restrictions placed on many highly respected religious leaders. On February 29, 1988, a group of 150 church men and women left St. George's Catholic Cathedral, Cape Town in rows, and arm in arm. Their mission was to openly protest against the

1085Desmond Tutu. The Rainbow People of God op. Cit. Pp. 87-88 1086 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003 p 191

1087The Kairos Document was fantastic not only for its contents but for the fact that it offered a very radical theological interpretation liberation, using the mouth of various Churches in South Africa. It was evident therefore that the churches were ready to spesk with one voice.



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evils of apartheid. But more than that, drawing its membership from all the main churches, it was also a statement of their unity.”1088

When the marchers came face to face with the police, they simply knelt down and began to sing and pray.

As Tutu puts it,

“An elated BBC journalist announced that: „ The Church has unmistakably taken over the front line of the anti-apartheid struggle.”1089

Later in March, at a Church function in the same Cathedral, Archbishop Tutu addressed the people. His speech was titled, You will Bite the Dust.

Among other thing, he said:

„If they want to take on the Church of God, I want to warn them. Read a little bit of history and see what happened to those who tried to take on the Church of God. Do not read all the history. Just read your own history. Our Lord and Saviour said, Èven the Gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church of God. “1090

Later that same year, he (Tutu) wrote a letter to President Botha titled, Your Policies are Unbiblical, Immoral and Evil. The title of the letter was an expression of the mood and also the confidence level of the Archbishop. According to Kukah,

“Archbishop Tutu and Botha had come into open conflict over the trial of the Sharpeville 6 who were to be hanged for the murder of a local councillor. Botha who cared little about blacks, was anxious to see ``justice`` done and went on to accuse Tutu of working for the kingdom of the ANC and the South African Communist Party, not God.”1091

Responding to this, Tutu concluded his letter by daring President Botha:

“I work for God's kingdom. For whose kingdom, with your apartheid policy, do you work? I pray for you.”1092

I want to point out here that by 1989, Archbishop Tutu was able to refer to himself and to his fellow countrymen as the `Rainbow People of God. `1093

1088 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003 p 191.

1089Desmond Tutu. The Rainbow People of God P.139. 1090 op. Cit. P.147. 1091 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003 p 192

1092Desmond Tutu. The Rainbow People of God op. Cit. P.147.



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This was a clarion call for all those who were genuinely committed to the struggle to put to an end to apartheid across religious, ethnic and racial lines. By 1990, with the miracle already in motion, Archbishop Tutu addressed a gathering of white Dutch Reformed Church leadership. He titled his sermon, We Forgive You. In it, Tutu reminded the leaders that he had hated apartheid not Afrikaners. He said:

“I have never hated Afrikaners. I have always said I do not hate white people and I do not hate Afrikaners. What I oppose is apartheid. And I have always, always asked and pleaded that our people should work together, because we have such a wonderful country.”1094

His Conciliatory sermons were evidence that the wall were beginning to Crack, although the magnitude of the crack and the effect the edifice of apartheid were unknown.

I do not wish to create the impression that Archbishop Tutu was the sole actor on the scene. Clearly, his prominence had become necessary because all other voices had been neutralised.

According to Kukah,

“The African National Congress (ANC) had been banned. Its membership had been driven underground, exiled, imprisoned, killed or maimed. Its favourite son, Mr. Nelson Mandela and many of his fellow members were all languishing in Robben Island. With the harassment of the ANC, the Youths were left to take on the centre stage.”1095

Interestingly, in the mid-80s, civil society had already come into a life of its own as various organisations came together too to effectively deal with apartheid. With the repression and absence of an effective leadership, these organisations came under increasing attacks as the regime saw subversion in every form of organisation.

Consequently, according to Kukah,

“In 1988, the ANC was banned. The vacuum created by the ban had to be filled. The Churches and the Union became the most vocal and active avenues for local and active avenues for local and national organisations. The Unions came together under Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU). The Marriage of these organisations gave confidence to civil society in South Africa. The Fruit of this Marriage was the birth of the United Democratic Front (UDF). The UDF was united under an ideal: to make South Africa Ungovernable.”1096

1093 Ibid.

1094Desmond Tutu. The Rainbow People of God op. Cit P.155 1095 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003. p .192

1096 Ibid.



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As one would expect, it held forth, created self-governing structures and enabled struggle within civil society to proceed despite the iron-fisted and draconian measures taken by the government. The emergence of UDF was one of the most fascinating evidences of identity reinvention that defined the movements within the Churches and Civil society during the most trying period of repression.

It should be noted that in 1989, they challenged the legality of the tri-cameral elections. This was the beginning of what South African Churches called the defiance campaigns. The aims of these campaigns were to embarrass the apartheid regime by disobeying its evil laws openly. This, of course, made the state repressive, but the repression drew international attention. The rest is history.

According to Kukah,

“On February 11, 1990, Mr. Nelson Mandela walked out of pools moor prison. The event of that day remained etched in the minds and memories of millions of lovers of truth and Justice all over the world it was significant that one of the places that Mr. Mandela and his wife visited was the home of Archbishop Tutu where they stayed the first night. That visit served as an idiom of sorts. For on that day, the symbol of the owners of voice was now back. The Archbishop and Churches of South Arica had to give the voice back to its owners.”1097

I want to observe that at this point, the stalwarts within the ANC took over the mantle of their struggles. The events leading to the swearing in of Mr. Mandela as President of South Africa are outside the scope of our reflections. That belong to another area of research altogether. We can only ask, with hindsight, what the secret of the success of the Churches in South Africa was, in relation to the fight against Corruption, particularly in Nigeria and the world in general which are the areas of my research and focus. Although these are many, we shall limit ourselves to four main Points: 1. The Re-Invention of a Theology for Freedom and Liberation. 2. The Role of the International Community. 3. The Ecumenical Dimension of the Struggle. 4. The Adoption of New Symbols and Idioms.

1097 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003. p .194



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2. THE RE-INVENTION OF A THEOLOGY FOR FREEDOM AND LIBERATION

It is important note that for us to truly understand the role which religion played in the liberation of South Africa, we must address the fascinating and chameleonic efficiency with which the Churches continued to adapt to the new changes in their society. According to Douglas Johnson,

“ the 80s saw the manifestation of these changes. Whereas Alan Boesak's Farewell to innocence had opened up new theological vistas, it was left for the other churches to accept the theological logic of his arguments. In 1982, one of the greatest events in the new role of religion took place. At its meeting in Ontario, Canada, the world alliance of Dutch Reformed Churches sent out its first signals of protest against apartheid. It declared apartheid to be a heresy and then proceeded to elect Dr. Boesak as its new and youngest president ever”.1098

Barely two years later, had South African Theologians from a very wide spectrum of churches come out with what they called The Restenburgh Declaration? This declaration emphatically called apartheid a sin, an evil policy. They also announced that:

“Christians were called to be a sign of hope from God and to share the vision of a new country, that repentance and restitution were preconditions for God's forgiveness, those who refused to fight apartheid were called upon to confess their misuse of the Bible and those who had been bold in condemning apartheid but timid in resisting, were asked to confess”.1099

This evidently had far-reaching implications. The fact that the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) which had earlier found theological reasons to negate blackness had now come to be headed by a black man was indeed the final nail in the coffin of apartheid-at least theologically. The famous Kairos Document reflected in what it called three types of theology: state theology, church theology and prophetic theology. The document proceeded to argue that:

“If a particular regime is tyrannical, it forfeits the moral right to govern and the people acquire the right to resist and to find the means to protect their own interests against injustice and oppression”.1100

1098Douglas Johnson: „The Churches and Apartheid in South in South Africa, in Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson: Religion the Missing Dimension of Statecraft (op.cit. 1994) p.192.

1099 Peter Walshe: „Christianity and Democratisation in South Africa. The Prophetic voice within Phlegmatic Churches“, in Paul Gifford (ed): The Christian Churches and the Democratisation of Africa (E.J. brills. New York.1995).p. 79.

1100 The Kairos Document: Challenge to the Church, (Braamfontein. Stotaville Publishers. Braamfontein 1986. Pp.29-32.



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With time, Churches in South Africa across all lines found the middle ground. As they all came to see themselves as members of the body of Christ, repentance made forgiveness easy and unity possible. Thus, a strong church faced the future with dynamism and confidence. By 1988, the Christian churches adopted a campaign strategy similar to the dictates of what came to be known as the Campaign of what came to be known as the Restenburgh Declaration, known as the Campaign of Standing for truth. This was meant to expose and to ridicule the lies of apartheid. Christians were encouraged to disobey laws which they considered to be unjust.

Archbishop Tutu remarked that as a result of the campaign:

“Our action has an existing vigour attracting much overseas attention and sympathy. It was easy to galvanise people into action. For, nothing unites a desperate group as effectively as having to face a common enemy.”1101

The call to penance made by the Churches through the various declarations as a condition for unity against apartheid was best dramatized when, in addressing the white Afrikaner Christians, Archbishop Tutu had assured them that it was the evil of apartheid, not them that he hated. Not many, however, were prepared for the dramatic enactment of this penance by Professor Willie Jonker, a member of the Dutch Reformed Church.

At a Conference in Rustenburg, Transvaal in November, 1990, Jonker told his audience:

“I confess before you and before the Lord, not only of my own sin and guilt, and my personal responsibility for the political, social, and economical and structural wrongs that had been done to many of you and results of which you and our whole community are still suffering from, but vicariously, I do so in the name of the Dutch Reformed Church of which I am a member, and for Afrikaans people as a whole”.1102

What more questions could anyone ask? Surely, for this event to have taken place was nothing other than a miracle indeed.

1101Desmon Tutu: Identity Crisis, in Paul Gifford: The Christian Churches and the Democratisation of Africa, op.cit.p.95.

1102 Quoted in Douglas Johnson: „The Churches and the Apartheid in South Africa, „in Johnson & Simpson: Religion, The Missing Dimension, op.cit. p.198.



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3. THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.

The international press especially deserve special mention. With Archbishop Tutu now within the circumference of power, and international media literally took him up and presented him to the world. According to Kukah,

“His speeches, engagements, struggles within and without were amplified and thus, everywhere, Archbishop Tutu became a household name, almost synonymous with ant-apartheid movement. The decision to award him the Nobel Peace Prize was no doubt a political decision. For that made him an untouchable citizen of the world. It raised his moral credit. The show of international solidarity also found great expression in the financial contributions of the governments, Churches and many no-governmental organizations around the world.”

Consequently, across the world greatest capitals, statues were erected for Mr. Mandela, Monuments were built, institutions and universities offered honorary awards and doctorate degrees to Mr. Mandela. In this way, his stature became larger than life. Civil society grew in confidence.

4. THE ECUMMENICAL DIMENSION OF THE STRUGGLE.

Again, the fact that earlier on, South Africans were able to rise beyond religious differences gave an impetus to the struggle. For example, according to Kukah,

“one of the Catholic Churches in Soweto became the Mecca of all human rights activists, irrespective of creed, class or gender. Many elders in the Struggle have requested to have their marriages or funerals in this Church for all kinds of emotional memories that the Church had come to symbolise for them. Here, communists, atheists, priests and ordinary men and women were bound together in hope. It is not insignificant that here was where Mr. Bill Clinton, the President of the United States of America and a Methodist received Holy Communion when he visited when he visited South Africa in March !998.” 1103

The contribution of Islam to the liberation struggle has gone largely un-reported or under-reported. However, the publication of a fascinating study by Fard Esack, Qura, Liberation and Pluralism,1104 has provided some flash points showing how a radical Islam developed a response to


1104 Farid Esack: Quran, Liberation and Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective to Interreligious Solidarity against Oppression. (One World, Oxford 1996.



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the liberation struggle. However, as the study shows, Esack believes that Progressive Islam, as he calls it, is still “a prisoner held in the Mosques.”1105 In this his book, he criticized the Apartheid Regime.

5. THE ADOPTION OF NEW SYMBOLS AND IDIOMS.

The ability of the anti-apartheid movement to take advantage of misfortune can also be seen in the way the Churches took over the usage of funerals as occasions for redefining the nature of the struggle. According to Kukah,

Since the apartheid regime had driven off the protests from the streets, the struggle used the victims (those wounded or killed) to fuel the spirit of the movement. Under the period of emergency, funerals became so integrated into the struggle that in the main, that they were events to be looked forward to. Death became a means of resurrecting the consciousness of the people whose freedoms had been curtailed under the state of emergency regulations by the apartheid regime. The Mandela myth loomed larger than life. The ubiquity of Nelson Mandela T-shirts, posters and so on placed the struggle within the context of Mr. Mandela as an icon of reverence.”1106

The rest of the story of South Africa is now history. As for the future of the Churches in the politics of South Africa or any other country like Nigeria, where the evil of Corruption menace is still no less than the apartheid regime for that matter, and where the Churches have had a leading role to play; only time will tell. The Nigerian society, including the NGOs and the different religious groups should learn their lessons, vis- a- vis the Corruption menace in the Country.

C. ALGERIA.

Here also, we shall look at the role of Islam briefly in Algeria with a view to also finding out how relevant their experiences may be to our situation in Nigeria.

1105Farid Esack: Quran, Liberation and Pluralism: Op.cit p. 248. 1106 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003. p .199



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1. RELIGION AND DEMOCRACY IN ALGERIA

As I have said earlier, I want to discuss here the role which Religion played in Algerian Democracy. This is because I believe that it will in no small measure help the Nigerian populace and my readers to better understand the role of religion in the society and for them to be able to apply them in their own concrete situations. It should be understood that with the advent of technology, the world is now a small village. And again corruption is infectious dieses, which can spread fast if not checked quickly.

According to Tutu,

“What is now Algeria was conquered by the French around the 1830s and was finally annexed to France in 1942. The ideology of French colonialism in Algeria was to consolidate French power by populating the territory with settlers from France. Thus, with time, many French citizens became settlers and although Algeria was a colony, it was attached to metropolitan France. The indigenous population, however, did not have equal rights.”1107

By the 1950s, the Algerians woke up to the reality of their slave status and began to request to have their land back.

According to Kukah,

“Under the banner of the Front Liberation National (FNL), on November 1, 1954, the struggle for independence commenced in Algeria. It is estimated that by the time the French agreed to a cease fire and war ended in 1962, over millions of the indigenous Muslim population had perished. In the same year, on July, 3, Algeria became an independent nation.”1108

As with other post-colonial states, indeed much more so, the French never really disengaged from Algeria. As a result, the army and the bureaucracy remained firmly either under their control and supervision or direct manipulation of the colonists.

According to Kukah,

“This largely accounted for the bloodless coup against the then President, Ahmed Ben Bella, led by the Minister of Defence, Col. Houari Boumedienne in 1972. Co. Boumedienne went on to

1107 Desmod Tutu: The Rainbow People of God: Op.cit p. 268.

1108 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003 p .201



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consolidate his power base by announcing radical economic measures aimed at bringing the economy within the control of the people. He nationalised French petroleum interests, and went on to embark on agrarian reforms. In 1975, the President drafted a National Charter aimed at adopting a socialist oriented government based on Islamic principles.”1109

The Carter was adopted through referendum in which the government and its policies secured a 98% acceptance. In 1976, Boumedienne secured a 99% elected victory in those years Presidential elections.

In 1978, President Boumedienne died and was replaced by Col. Ben Djedid Chadli who took over after winning in a national election. Through the 1980s, with a revised Charter, the government moved away from its socialite pretentions. Just like other nations in the developing world, Algeria's economy suffered a jolt from the energy crisis of the late 70s and early 80s. As a result, by 1984, it had embarked on austerity measures which naturally began to fuel discontentment within the civil population. With sparks of resistance here and there, citizens were arrested and detained. In 1986, riots occurred in two main cities (Constantine and Setif) when students protested against inadequate facilities.

According to Kukah,

“More and more young men were now gravitating into Fundamentalist Islamic-based youth Movements. In 1987, amidst clashes with security agencies, many of their members were killed while over 200 were jailed. By the middle of 1988, severe food shortages, unemployment and inflation fuelled more crises within the civil society. Riots were becoming frequent. In October 1988, the riots which started off in Algiers spread to Oran and Annaba leading to a six-day state of emergency. Well over 100 people were killed and nearly 4,000 people were arrested.”1110

It was observed that in 1989, apparently in response to the wind of change that was blowing over the world of dictatorship, President Chadli announced some political reforms with wide-reaching effects. He allowed the formation and registration of associations. In response, nearly fifty of such associations were formed, among them The Front Islamique du Salute (FIS), an umbrella and political platform of young Islamic radicals.1111

Most of the members of FIS according to Kukah,

1109 ibid

1110 Kukah, M.H, Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria 2003 p 202

1111 Guardian (London) 25/9/97.



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“have been schooled in the cauldron of anti-western and anti-secular ferment of resentment and frustration which had been boiling for many years in Egypt and other places in the Arab world. In 1990, there was an outbreak of riots across the country. This was attributed to the FIS. At the Local government elections held that year, FIS surprisingly won 55% of the votes. This was a clear statement of their power and hold over the lower echelons of the society where poverty and unemployment due to corruption had helped to fuel populist radicalism, sensing the trend, FIS called for a national strike in 1991 demanding the resignation of the President and radical reforms in the electoral laws.” 1112

I want to say here that FIS believed that the system needed a push so it would crumble totally to usher in an Islamic state. The government was forced to declare a state of emergency again. But the pressure was on and the government made concession from which FIS would benefit tremendously. For example, it lowered the voting age from 35 to 28 and increased the number of seats in the assembly from 295 to 430.

According to Lara Barlowe,

“On December 26, 1991, the government kept faith and held the first round of national elections. The result was staggering as FIS won 231 seats in the 430-member National Assembly. Nationally, while it had 47.5% of the votes; the FNL ruling government secured only 15%. Ironically, it was government which now protested the intimidation of its voters by FIS. A second round of voting was called for, the 199 where the result had been inconclusive. This was fixed for January 16, 1991. However, on January 4, the National Assembly was dissolved by presidential decree, while President Chadli drank the bitter political hemlock by resigning so as to safeguard what he called National Interest of the Country.”1113

The reaction to the seeming of overthrow of the ancient Regime and dictatorship had been predictable. What is interesting however is that as the nation slid into chaos, Algeria seemed poised to return to its pre-independence days by the back door. Now, the veteran of its first independence struggle who made up the conservative strata of the ruling class, were poised to resist a new war of independence being wagged and represented by FIS for the second liberation of Algeria.

According to Barlowe,

“The war had continued and although it was sparked off as a result of the efforts at democratisation, the story is more complex. What has persisted in Algeria, leading to the banditry, grisly killings, looting, maiming and destruction of the property cannot be termed a struggle for


1113 Lara Barlowe: „Nightmare in Algiers“(Time Magazine, June 14, 1993) pp.44-45.



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democracy. FIS itself never set out to democratise Algeria. Indeed, its critiques say that since FIS claim that its electoral victory was going to seal any further elections in Algeria, it was indeed an enemy of democracy. But this is neither here or there since it reduces the issues to mere causality.”1114

The point I want to make here is that Algeria voted for FIS to escape an aimless, conservative, neo-colonial, inefficient and corrupt military dictatorship. This dictatorship, true to its colours and complexions as elsewhere, has reduced governance to executive banditry which has further pauperised the citizens. In the minds of Algerians it seems that the future lies with FIS, not due to its beliefs and action, but because of its ideal to fight corruption and to maintain justice. Two views expressed this frustration. The father of a member of the more radical Armed Islamic Movement (MIA) who has been killed in the struggle said:

“I gave money to the Mujahedin during the war of liberation against the French. We wanted an Islamic state, but the FNL gave us Socialis instead.” 1115

On the other side, in the middle, stands the secularist who is represented by the intellectuals, journalists and others. One of them said:

The fundamentalists are powerful. They are determined, and they are prepared to kill or be killed. We intellectuals may be doomed to extinction.1116

A frustrated veteran of the war of independence who is shocked by the new development has noted:

“In those days, we wanted only to be free, not to turn Algeria into an Islamic state. We fasted during Ramadan and gave money to charity. What is the new Islam they want to force on us?”1117

In the end, whatever may be the scale of savagery in Algeria, it is neither a war for democracy nor religion. For, the savagery has now led to a distortion of Islam, democracy and religion. The extremist groups such as the Rebels against God have adopted blood-chilling beliefs. Said a journalist:

“Its members cut off the index finger of their right hand, being the one with which devout Muslims make their profession of faith- their eye lashes and eye blows. They single out women for their holy terror, especially pregnant ones, so as to prevent them giving birth to new Muslims.

1114 ibid

1115 The Europa World Year Book, 1993 (Volum.1) 34th Edition. Europa Publications Limited, London, 1993) pp.296-316.

1116 Lara Barlowe: „Nightmare in Algiers“(Time Magazine, June 14, 1993)pp.44-45. 1117Ibid.



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They have turned against the Almighty Himself because; He has abandoned them in the quest for the establishment of the perfect Islamic state.”1118

I want to stress here that what is happening in Algeria is a war for raw power, and what will happen is that as time goes on, and as the corpses pile and pile, as the limbs disengage from their owners and human parts are buried, their owners are still alive, genuine democracy will move further and further from Algerians. The human victors and victims are keeping their records and waiting for their days in the courts of history, but democracy and even Islam itself will remain the ultimate victim. What the FIS engaged in is a war for success to power, not for the fight against Corruption, triumph of either democracy or Islam. These institutions survive on trust, love, justice, human dignity, integration and respect for human being as a child of God. Nigerians should learn from the successes and failures of these Countries in their quest to fight Corruption. This is because our problem in Nigeria is similar to that of Algeria, which include, religious, political, cultural, and social and of course, corruption problems.

It should be noted that from our study of Poland and South Africa on the one hand and Algeria on the other, it is evident that the mobilisation capacity of religion is usually largely transitory. This does not mean that religion ceases to be relevant after the old order has been overturned. On the contrary, indeed, people could even become more externally or internally religious as a sign of their appreciation and gratitude to God. This happens when an evil system, sustained and nurtured by Corruption, has been dislodged. When the processes of statecraft, national reconciliation and reconstruction begin to take place, the politicians come out, the recriminations commence and so also the manifestations of corruption in the electoral process, the judiciary, the economy and other aspects of social life.

As was written in Guardian,

“The loss of 1995 presidential elections to Communists by Lech Walesa said much about the new role of the Catholic Church which had provided a haven for all in the days of communism. This shows that after the victory, the role and the influence of the Catholic Church had now waned since it had played its role as a counter force in a time of social tension and anomie.”1119

Once power has been gained, religionists realise that the administration, access to, manipulation and dispensation of that power has its own logic.

As was indicated in the Europa World year Book,

“Religion, normally, having played its role, returns to the Sanctuary and Pulpit once again becomes a lamp post where the searchlight must shine to secure the freedom of the people. The

1118Ibid. 1119Guardian (London) 25/9/97.



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imprisonment of a senior cleric who held public office in Tehran on charges of corruption shows that religious leaders can also have their fingers soiled if they insist on dipping them into the jar of power, no matter how they seek to cleanse it.”1120

No one expresses this better than Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his role in the Peace Reconciliation Process of post-apartheid South Africa.

According to Tutu,

“This is the most delicate aspect of the role of the religious leader as an agent of reconciliation after a revolution. It is here that religious leaders can serve best especially given the temptation that arises when the new government sees those it has overthrown as the enemies and sees their presence in governance as a sign that it is now their turn to loot, torture maim, kill, etc. since they believe that, Our Time Has Come. In that case, the much awaited salvation and saviours turn into another set of devils using the tools of torture that were left behind by the past oppressor, and so, the battle for renewal starts all over again.”1121

The place of the religious leader is the watchtower where he is, in the words of Ezekiel, `à watchman. `` Spelling out this role, God said:

“I have appointed you as a watchman...when you hear a word from my mouth, warn them for me. If I say to someone ´Ýou will die´´ and you do not warn that person, if you do not speak to warn someone wicked to renounce evil and so save his life, it is the wicked person who will die for his guilt, but I shall hold you responsible for that death. If however, you do warn someone wicked, who then fails to renounce his wickedness and evil ways, the wicked person will die for the guilt, but you yourself will have saved your life.”1122

It is the process of standing on this Watchtower that enabled Archbishop Tutu to blow the whistle on the new black elite within the ANC-led Government of National Unity. They began to feed themselves from the jar of power and Corruption. Barely one year in power, Archbishop Tutu was already warning them to get off the ``gravy train`` of Corruption. That is the way to avoid a Rwanda and its tragic consequences in which religious leaders found themselves engulfed.1123

1120 Europa World year Book: pp. 1451-1468. 1121 Desmod Tutu: The Rainbow People of God: Op.cit p. 268.

1122 Ezekiel, 2:17-19. 1123 Rakiya Omar and Alex de Waal: „Rwanda: Death, Despair and Defence“(African Rights. Reversed Edition

1995).



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Although in the quest for justice, religious leaders have paid the Supreme sacrifice with their lives, they must, in the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King, remain firm on their role of bearing the cross.



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CHAPTER 5

A. THE ROLE OFTHECHURCH.

1. OUR PROPHETIC CALLING

I wish to demonstrate her that biblical religion is neither abstract nor esoteric. Biblical religion is a thoroughly incarnate affair. The Patriarchs, Prophets, and the New Testament Evangelists and Writers engaged in theology as a lived experience, not the preoccupation of an arm-chair theorist. Following this argument, The United States Catholic Bishops writes, “Because Jesus' command to love our neighbour is universal, we hold that the life of each person on this globe is sacred. This commits us to bringing about a just economic order where all, without exception, will be treated with dignity and to working in collaboration with those who share this vision. The world is complex and this may often tempt us to seek simple and self-centered solutions; but as a community of disciples we are called to a new hope and to a new vision that we must live without fear and without oversimplification. Not only must we learn more about our moral responsibility for the larger economic issues that touch the daily life of each and every person on this planet, but we also want to help shape the Church as a model of social and economic justice.” 1124

This calls to new hope and to a new vision that we must live without fear and over simplification is

exemplified the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ the Word of God as proclaimed by the Christian

Scriptures. According to Ehusani,

“The central message of the Gospel of John, and indeed of the entire Christian Scriptures, that, ‘The Word Became (Flesh) Man and Dwelt among Us’ (John1:1-18) is not to be understood as a metaphor. It is a real historical experience. The implication of the incarnation therefore is that the timeless God relates in history with a particular people, and assumes or takes into serious

1124 United States Catholic Bishops; Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. 1986, no.326 p 81



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consideration their culture, their language, and their general socio-political and economic context.”1125

For this reason, words are not enough; just to preach is not enough we must translate our words and good will’s into action.

As the Bishops of the United States of America writes,

“But words alone are not enough. The Christian perspective on the meaning of economic life must transform the lives of individuals, families, in fact, our whole culture. The Gospel confers on each Christian the vocation to love God and neighbour in ways that bear fruit in the life of society. That vocation consists above all in a change of heart: a conversion expressed in praise of God and in concrete deeds of justice and service.”1126

I wish to make it clear here that Jesus was concerned with the economic and the politics of the people of Israel at the time. He was concerned that the Romans oppressed and dominated his people at that particular time. Though his salvation transcends the merely physical and material, he nevertheless brought some relief on the material level, and offered the hope of ultimate victory to those who believe. Indeed, God's visitation of mankind can only find adequate expression in human form and within human culture. God indeed meets people where they are. And he goes in the form that they can relate with.

According to Ehusani,

“When He goes to meet slum-dwellers, God does not dress up in the garb of the rich and powerful Monarch. He goes to the slums and shanty- towns as a wretched, oppressed person. The social contexts in which the people live constitute the locus of God's self-communication, the place of divine encounter.”1127

Consequently, Christianity is not a matter of a pie in the sky. It is a religion that has the incarnation at its very centre. For the simple believer, the incarnation means that the Son of God became man so that the children of men can live more fulfilled lives. Prophets go some steps higher. The Prophets are the visionaries of their time. That means, when all others are blind, prophets are the ones granted to see the handwriting on the wall, to interpret the signs of the times, and to see the light beyond the tunnel. Thus, at a time of a great depression and distress, Prophet Isaiah tells his listeners: Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those

1125 Ehusani ‘A Prophetic Church’1996, P. 59

1126 United States Catholic Bishops; Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. 1986, no.327 p 81 1127 Pope Gregory, quoted in Ehusani ‘A Prophetic Church’1996, P. 60



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who are of fearful heart, be strong, and fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, the recompense of God. He will come to save you.1128

Equipped as they are with superior knowledge and perception, prophets analyse the situation on the ground in the light of the Common-Good and in the light of God's wisdom and commandments. Prophets refuse to be defiled by the Corruption of the Moment; they refuse to be engulfed by the darkness of the surrounding environment. They possess the vision of life as is ought to be, and it is this vision that propels them in their difficult assignments.

As Pope Gregory in one of his famous Pastoral rules, puts it:

“A religious leader should be careful in deciding when to remain silent and be sure to say something useful when deciding to speak. In this way, he will avoid saying things that would better not be said, or leaving unsaid...ill advised silence can leave people in error when they could have been shown where they were wrong. Negligent religious leaders are often afraid to speak freely and say what needs to be said for fear of losing favour with the people... they are acting like hiring’s, because hiding behind the wall of silence is like taking flight at the approach of the Wolf... If a religious leader is afraid to say what is right, what else can his silence mean but that he has taken flight? Whereas he stands firm in defence of his flock, he is building up a wall for the house against its enemies. Anyone entering the Priesthood accepts the office of herald and must by his words; prepare the way for the terrible judgement of the one who follows. If then the Priest neglects his preaching, what sort of warning cry can he, a dumb herald give? That is why the Holy Spirit settled on the first religious leaders in form of tongues: because those whom he fills, he fills with his own eloquence.”1129

It is on this note that the Catholic Bishops of the United states of America write,

“The transformation of social structures begins with and is always accompanied by a conversion of the heart. (1) As disciples of Christ each of us is called to a deep personal conversion and to "action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world."(2) By faith and baptism we are fashioned into a "new creature"; we are filled with the Holy Spirit and a new love that compels us to seek out a new profound relationship with God, with the human family, and with all created things.(3) Renouncing self-centred desires, bearing one's daily cross, and imitating Christ's compassion, all involve a personal struggle to control greed and selfishness, a personal commitment to reverence one's own human dignity and the dignity of others by avoiding self-indulgence and those attachments that make us insensitive to the conditions of others and that erode social solidarity. Christ warned us against attachments to material things, against total self-

1128 Isaiah 35:3-4

1129 Pope Gregory.



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reliance, against the idolatry of accumulating material goods and seeking safety in them. We must take these teachings seriously and in their light examine how each of us lives and acts toward others.”1130

Prophets speak for God under different circumstances. They are endowed with rare courage not only to denounce evil in general, but also to name the specific human agents in the society. They remind the society that our God is a God of truth, and that peace is the fruit of justice. They warn evil doers of the inevitability of nemesis, while giving the much needed hope for a suffering people. They tell the poor and the oppressed or the victims of injustice not to despair, because God is capable of intervening and turning things around. Prophets give reason for the poor to hope. They assure ‘the remnant of Yahweh that all is not lost.’

According to Ehusianu,

“Prophets arose at critical times in the history of Israel. They came up when they were most needed. During the period of Kings, they came up to check the excesses of the Monarchs. While the false Prophets played the sycophant, the true Prophets of God were endowed with rare courage to speak the truth before Kings and Rulers. They warned the people of God, of the socio-economic and political consequences of their sins, and assured them of God's mercy and forgiveness if they repented.”1131

During periods of tribulation, such as the Babylonian captivity, when there was the great temptation towards despair, prophets arose to encourage and to offer hope of redemption.

As Prophet Isaiah puts it:

“Get up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings, lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, „Behold your God!“ Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a Shepherded, he will gather the lambs in his arms, and he carries them in his bosom, and gently leads those that are with young.”1132

The poor see prophets as those who formulate their desperate cry into a divine discourse, which will soon win for them freedom and liberation. The prophets are for them harbingers of hope and


1131 Ehusani ‘A Prophetic Church’1996, P. 62.

1132 Isaiah 40:9-11



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the heralds of freedom. Whereas the rich, the powerful, and the oppressive rulers are often threatened by the presence and the message of the prophets, the poor find consolation and encouragement in their ministry.

According Ehusianu,

“This is because the Prophet speaks the language of the poor. They appreciate fully well the misery and agony of the distressed, since they themselves operate from lowly disposition. They operate from a position of weakness. They possess no material or political power. Their only source of strength is the oracle of God they bear.”1133

Jesus Christ is the Prophet per excellence. He has come so that human beings may have life and have it to the full (Matthew 10:10). He says he has been anointed to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed (Luke 4.18). He says he is the light of the World, and anyone who follows him will never walk in darkness (John 8:12). He says he is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6). He tells all those who labour and are over-burdened to come and he will give them rest (Matthew 11:28). He assures the followers that when the Son sets them free, they shall be free indeed (John 8:36).

Writing on this issue, The Catholic Bishops of the United States of America said,

“But as Disciples of Christ we must constantly ask ourselves how deeply the biblical and ethical vision of justice and love permeates our thinking. How thoroughly does it influence our way of life? We may hide behind the complexity of the issues or dismiss the significance of our personal contribution; in fact, each one has a role to play, because every day each one makes economic decisions. Some, by reason of their work or their position in society, have a vocation to be involved in a more decisive way in those decisions that affect the economic well-being of others. They must be encouraged and sustained by all in their search for greater justice.

At times we will be called upon to say no to the cultural manifestations that emphasize values and aims that are selfish, wasteful, and opposed to the Scriptures. Together we must reflect on our personal and family decisions and curb unnecessary wants in order to meet the needs of others. There are many questions we must keep asking ourselves: Are we becoming ever more wasteful in a "throw-away" society? Are we able to distinguish between our true needs and those thrust on us by advertising and a society that values consumption more than saving? All of us could well ask

1133 Jim Wallis, The Oracle of Politics: A practical and Prophetic vision for Social Change, Orbis Books 1994.



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ourselves whether as a Christian prophetic witness we are not called to adopt a simpler lifestyle, in the face of the excessive accumulation of material goods that characterizes an affluent society.”1134

Following this line of thought, we should be able as good Christians think and care for the Poor and the marginalized in the society, including the sick.

According to Ehusianu,

“Jesus teaches the way of the Kingdom of God. He cures the Sick, He opens the eyes of the blind, he gives freedom to the Captives, liberates the demonised, he feeds the hungry, he forgives Sinners, he teaches the ignorant, he challenges the sinful structures in society that push people into sub-human existence, and he promises eternal life for those who follow him faithfully. So Jesus is the way to integral human development. The salvation which he offers is all-embracing.”1135

Martin Luther King Jr., the African American Civil Rights Leader and Nobel Prize winner was a prophet, a visionary, and a dreamer of the American society. He was sustained by the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love, and he applied the Christian principles of justice, fairness and equality for the American society of his day. He denounced the injustice of racism, and spear-headed the massive peaceful demonstration that led to the collapse of the evil policy of the racial segregation. He died in the struggle; yet, his life was consistent with his faith. The greatest legacy of Dr. King is perhaps the famous speech he delivered at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C., on August, 26 1963, titled: ‘I have a Dream.’

He says in Part:

“I say to you today even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream...I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed... I have a dream that on that day every valley shall be exulted and every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made straight... We will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope...We shall be able to transform the jangling discord of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood...We will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together...to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”1136

1134 United States Catholic Bishops; Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. 1986, no.333 and334 p 82


1136Quoted in „A Prophetic Church“G.O Ehusani 1996, P 61



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The Christian Church must assume this prophetic role for and on behalf of the suffering people of God in Nigeria.

According to the Catholic Bishops of the United State of America,

“Husbands and wives, in particular, should weigh their needs carefully and establish a proper priority of values as they discuss the questions of both parents working outside the home and the responsibilities of raising children with proper care and attention. At times we will be called as individuals, as families, as parishes, as Church, to identify more closely with the poor in their struggle for participation and to close the gap of understanding between them and the affluent. By sharing the perspectives of those who are suffering, we can come to understand economic and social problems in a deeper way, thus leading us to seek more durable solutions.”1137

As Ehusianu puts it,

“Our people are traditionally a very religious People. They often to turn to God at times of crisis, disaster, or epidemic, and seeks his intervention. They often look up to the ministers of God- the priests the mediums, and the chief custodians of their religious beliefs for explanation or interpretation of what is happening to them, and through the agents of God, they seek liberation from the spiritual and material forces that oppress them. .the distressed and traumatised people of Nigeria today are looking up to the Christian religion for answers to the many pressing questions of their hearts.”1138

As we talk about our religious duties and responsibilities, we should not on the other hand overlook the importance of leisure, as the Catholic Bishops of the United States of America puts it,

“Some of the difficulty in bringing Christian faith to economic life in the United States today results from the obstacles to establishing a balance of labor and leisure in daily life. Tedious and boring work leads some to look for fulfillment only during time off the job. Others have become "workaholics," people who work compulsively and without reflection on the deeper meaning of life and their actions. The quality and pace of work should be more human in scale enabling people to experience the dignity and value of their work and giving them time for other duties and obligations. This balance is vitally important for sustaining the social, political, educational, and cultural structures of society. The family, in particular, requires such balance. Without leisure there is too little time for nurturing marriages, for developing parent-child relationships, and for fulfilling commitments to other important groups: the extended family, the community of friends, the parish, the neighborhood, schools, and political organizations. Why it that one hears so little today about





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shortening the work week, especially if both parents are working? Such a change would give them more time for each other, for their children, and for their other social and political responsibilities.

Leisure is connected to the whole of one's value system and influenced by the general culture one lives in. It can be trivialized into boredom and laziness, or end in nothing but a desire for greater consumption and waste. For Disciples of Christ, the use of leisure may demand being countercultural. The Christian tradition sees in leisure time to build family and societal relationships and an opportunity for communal prayer and worship, for relaxed contemplation and enjoyment of God's creation, and for the cultivation of the arts which help fill the human longing for wholeness. Most of all, we must be convinced that economic decisions affect our use of leisure and that such decisions are also to be based on moral and ethical considerations. In this area of leisure we must be on our guard against being swept along by a lack of cultural values and by the changing fads of an affluent society. In the creation narrative God worked six days to create the world and rested on the seventh (Gn 2:1-4). We must take that image seriously and learn how to harmonize action and rest, work and leisure, so that both contribute to building up the person as well as the family and community.”1139

It is important to note that the dire circumstances of today, challenges leadership of the Nigerian Church, to let their faith take flesh in the lives of our people.

As Michael Westmoreland-White puts it,

“the situation on the ground calls for what some writers describe as ‘incarnation discipleship’ on the part of Christians a discipleship whose passion for justice, equity, well-being, liberation and salvation will provoke not only powerful statements, but also concrete action towards realising the liberation of the oppressed people, the conversion of the oppressor, the empowerment of the poor, the practice of the authentic religion, and ultimately, the salvation of all.”1140

Again as Ehusani puts it:

“In extreme circumstances of Corruption, social, economic and political inequalities, such as what we have in present day Nigeria, pledges and pious admonitions are not enough. They may even work in the reverse direction and provoke either rejection or cynicism and despair”.1141

1139 United States Catholic Bishops; Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. 1986, nos.337-338 p 83 -84

1140 Michael Westmoreland-White, et al., “Disciples of the Incarnation “in Sourjoners, May 1994, p. 26. 1141 Ehusani ‘A Prophetic Church’1996, P. 62.



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Nigeria is in urgent need of a prophetic Church. Our land perishes for lack of knowledge. So we need a Church of prophet’s visionaries, and seers. As a people, Nigerians are groaning under the weight of what could be described: Corporate amnesia and collective myopia.

For Ehusani,

“There is an acute shortage of vision, intellectual rigour, critical thinking and designing conscience, even among the elite. What appears to be in place instead is a cult of mediocrity, whereby professors of political science for whom democracy is an article of faith, legal luminaries, who hold the title of „Senior Advocate of Nigeria „and who have sworn to defend the rule of law, and even some respected religious prelates who are expected to hold truth as sacred now bow before ruthless feudal Lords and callous military despots. Many of those, whom Nigerians look up to for a sense of direction, have become sycophants, praise singers and propagandists for the oppressors of the Nigerian people”1142.

In the face of this national malaise, Nigeria is in dire need of a prophetic Church and of visionary Christian leaders who will liberate our people from bondage of Corruption, and open for us the way for justice, peace and the abundant life which the Lord promises his people.

2. THE CHURCH’S SOCIAL TEACHING ON CORRUPTION CONTROL, ENHANCEMENT OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, ERADICATION OF

POVERTY AND INEQUALITY IN THE WORLD.

The time has come for some form of action. The Church cannot be faulted in her social teaching. The principles for a more humanised world and for the evolution of a civilisation of love are all contained in the social documents issued by the Magisterium in the last one hundred years. Attention must now be drawn to where the Church has been lacking. The Nigerian Church must now respond to her prophetic calling in more practical way than have been the case in the past. According to Ehusani,

“ Our leaders must now get to work, as a matter of utmost urgency, formulate a methodology for „incarnational discipleship,“ by which the truths and mysteries of the Christian faith, along with




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the powerful statements of Magisterium on social justice will take flesh on the Liberation and salvation of the oppressed masses of the Contemporary Nigeria.”1143

When David took Uriah's wife, and had him killed at war, (an act of grave injustice), the prophet Nathan did not shy away from the challenging task of confronting the powerful King1144 He confronted the King and told him to his face ‘you are the Man!’ When King Ahab killed Naboth and confiscated his Vine Yard, Elijah did not think it is time for pious exhortations and passionate appeals. The prophet confronted Ahab with the truth and said ‘I have found you, because you have sold yourself to what is evil in the sight of the Lord’.1145 John the Baptist did the same when Herod took Philip's wife unjustly.1146

These were acts of non-violence confrontation performed by men of God who were acting by the inspiration of God. Beyond the powerful statements, we issue now and again in denunciation of injustice, corruption, and the abuse of human rights, there must be other ways for the Christians to confront the agents of evil in our society. If it is true that evil persists in the world and in our country Nigeria, because people are silent, or refuse to act, then what is permissible for a Christian in his bid to resist evil in the Nigerian society?


“In the face of these difficulties, the church has issued many prophetic statements, and documents on issues of social justice, corruption, human development and peace, especially in the last 100 years since Pope Leo the X111. Many of these statements have not been well publicised. They are so little known that some commentators have referred to them as the churches best kept secrets. They include Leo X111’s Rerum Novarum (the worker’s charter), issued in 1891. In these epoch-making documents which came to be known as the Magna Carta for a humane economic and social order, the Pope defended the rights of the workers against the exploitative tendencies of the employers at the dawn of the modern industrialization. The Pope highlighted among others the right of workers to receive just wage, and to form labour unions as a plat form for negotiating with the employers.”1147

1143 ibid

1144 Samuel 12:1-15.

1145 1 Kings 21:20.

1146 Luke 3:18-20.

1147 cf Ehusani ‘A Prophetic Church’1996, P. 63.



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In 1931 Pope Pius the X1 celebrated the 40th anniversary of the publication of Rerum Novarum with an encyclical titled Quadragesimo Anno (the 40th year). In this document, Pope Pius the X1 reaffirmed the teaching of Leo the X111 on the relative right and mutual duties of the rich and the poor, and of capital and labour. He declared that neither capital nor labour can claim exclusive right to the fruits of production. On the contrary, he said, “wealth must be distributed in such a way as to satisfy the needs of all.1148

Mater et Magistra whose English title is “Christianity and social progress” was issued by Pope John the XX111 in 1961 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Rerum Novarum. In this encyclical, Pope John the XX111 noted the phenomenal achievements of science and technology in our times which have improved the quality of life of many people. He observed however that there was a pronounced imbalance between different areas of a single economy, where the enormous wealth and unbridled luxury of the privileged few “stand in violent and offensive contrast to the utter poverty of the vast majority.” He condemned the situation whereby too much of the world’s resources is squandered on prestige projects and armaments, while whole populations are condemned to conditions of mere destitution. He declared that “it is not less than an outrage to justice and humanity to destroy or to squander goods that other people need for their very lives.”1149

Interestingly, John the XX111 prescribed a kind of relationship between labour and capital whereby only a just share of the fruits of production may be permitted to accumulate in the hands of the wealthy. He said that the common good requires that the less privileged be catered for, and the inequalities be eliminated.1150

Following this line of thought, the Catholic Bishops of the United States of America writes,

“The basis for all that the Church believes about the moral dimensions of economic life is its vision of the transcendent worth—the sacredness—of human beings. The dignity of the human person, realized in community with others, is the criterion against which all aspects of economic life must be measured.(1) All human beings, therefore, are ends to be served by the institutions that make up the economy, not means to be exploited for more narrowly defined goals. Human personhood must be respected with a reverence that is religious. When we deal with each other, we should do so with the sense of awe that arises in the presence of something holy and sacred. For that is what human beings are: we are created in the image of God (Gn 1:27). Similarly, all economic institutions must support the bonds of community and solidarity that are

1148 QA, 53 - 57

1149 See M. M., 44 – 46, 69 161 1150 John the XX111 M. M., 75 – 79



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essential to the dignity of persons. Wherever our economic arrangements fail to conform to the demands of human dignity lived in community, they must be questioned and transformed.”1151

Again, in 1963 Pope John the XX111 issued another encyclical titled Pacem in Terris (peace on earth). In this document, the Pope declared that peace can only result when men and women subject themselves to the order established by God. Peace, He said,

“should be based on an order founded on truth, built according to justice, vivified and integrated by charity, and put into practice in freedom.”1152

Furthermore, the Pope highlighted the economic rights of the citizens, not just their political and legal rights. These economic rights include the right to gainful employment by everyone, with the corresponding obligation on the part of the public authorities to provide the structure that would make possible suitable employment for all. The Pope condemned the stock piling of arms which deprives the poor countries the social and economic progress, and creates a climate of fear. He said that,

“Justice, right reason, and the recognition of human dignity cry out insistently for a cassation to the armed race.”1153

Consequently, the fathers of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) declared that,

“the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the men of our time, especially those who are poor or afflicted in anyway are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as Well.”1154

The celebrated council noted that,

“since it is the human being that must be saved, the human being is the centre of church’s mission, the human being, whole and entire, body and soul, heart and conscience, mind and will.”1155

The Council observed that the invent of the incarnation has raised the human being to a dignity beyond compare for the very fact that human nature was not absorbed, but assumed by the son of

1151 United States Catholic Bishops; Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. 1986, no.28 p 8, see Mater et Magistra, 219-220. See Pastoral Constitution, 63.

1152 Pope John the XX111 P. T ., 149

1153 P. T ., 109 – 112

1154 Vatican 11, Gaudium Et Spes, 1. 1155 Vatican 11, Gaudium ET Spes, 1



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God. The council maintained that there is a basic quality between all persons without exception, since all are created in the image of God, having the same divine origin and supernatural end.

As the Catholic Bishops of the United States of America puts it,

“Jesus enters human history as God's anointed son who announces the nearness of the reign of God (Mk 1:9-14). This proclamation summons us to acknowledge God as creator and covenant partner, and challenges us to seek ways in which God's revelation of the dignity and destiny of all creation might become incarnate in history. It is not simply the promise of the future victory of God over sin and evil, but that this victory has already begun—in the life and teaching of Jesus.”1156


“The council commended the United Nations Human Rights Declaration of 1948, and urged that everyone should look upon his neighbour with dignity, and come to the aid of all who are in need, either he is an aged person abandoned by all, a foreign worker despised without reason, a refugee, an illegitimate child…The council said that as a matter of justice, the fundamental rights of everyone should be respected and upheld everywhere. These rights include the right to all means necessary for education, the right to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information, and to activity in accordance with the upright norm of one’s conscience.”1157

The council then condemned the prevalent crimes against humanity as leading a truly human life, such as food, clothing and shelter, the right to follows:

“All offences against life itself such as murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, and wilful suicide, all violations of the integrity of human person, such as mutilation, physical and mental torture, undue psychological pressure, all offences against human dignity, such as sub-human living conditions, arbitrary imprisonments? Deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, degrading working conditions where men are treated as mere tools for profits rather than free and responsible persons, all these and the like said the council fathers, are criminal and they debase the perpetrators more than the victims.”1158

It should be noted that Pope Paul V1’s Populorum Progressio (on the development of peoples) was issued in 1967.The document distinguishes itself for its emphasis on integral development. That is, the development of human being, the whole person and all the people.


1157 cf Gaudium ET Spes, 26, quoted in Ehusani ‘A Prophetic Church’1996, P. 63.

1158 Gaudium ET Spes, 27.



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“Pope Paul V1 highlighted the economic source of war, and stressed that economic justice is the basis of peace. He warned that if a present inequality continues that there is the danger that the poor may resort to violence a situation that should be forestalled by urgent structural refunds. Paul V1 reaffirmed the church’s teaching on the universal destination of the world’s good. He criticised the unbridled liberalism, and the international imperialism of money, and declared that for both individuals and nations, avarice is the most obvious form of moral under development. He said that the task of putting right the structures of power and economics is an urgent one, as many people are suffering the most degrading conditions and the gap is ever widening’. This situation he said, cries out bitterly for God’s punishment.”1159

I want to point out here that Paul V1’s Evangeli Nuntiandi is the document that emanated from the 1974 synod of Bishops on the theme of open ‘Evangelisation’. In the document which was published in December 1975, Paul the V1 declared that the purpose of evangelisation is to bring the good news into all the strata of humanity. He noted that there can be no authentic preaching of the good news without involvement in the problems that beset humanity.

Pope Paul the V1 said that,

“modern man listens more willingly to witness than to teachers, and if he does not listen to teachers, it is because they are not witnesses.”1160

He added that evangelisation loses much of its force and effectiveness if it does not take into consideration the actual people, to whom it is addressed,

“if it does not answer the question they ask, and if it does not have an impact on their concrete life.” 1161

I wish to say here that John Paul 11 has issued many powerful statements on corruption, global justice, on the fundamental rights of the human person, and on human solidarity. He has continued to emphasize that the human being, each human person is unique, precious and unrepeatable. According to Ehusani,


1160 Evangelii Nuntiandi, 41

1161 Evangelii Nuntiandi, 63.



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“His first encyclical letter, titled Redemptor Hominis (the redeemer of man) said a lot about human dignity and human rights, and the church’s task in proclaiming the gospel, not to abstract entities, but to real, concrete individuals with all the threats which they face. In this document, the Pope called upon the church to be conscious of the signs of the time.”1162

The Pope says that with the socio-economic injustices that are becoming increasingly structuralised, with few individuals and nations squandering the recourse of the earth in conspicuous consumption while the majority are dying of starvation, with large scale corruption and moral permissions, with all the wars being fought across the globe-with all this, the church as prophetic voice needs to ask:

“Is the human person making progress or is he or she in a process of regression? Is the human person becoming more human? Is he or she ´becoming truly better?”1163

He said that,

“human society must be taught that true progress does not consist so much in having more as in ‘being more’.”1164

In his encyclical letter on the family, Familiaris Consortio, issued in 1981, the Pope proposed for adoption by the international community a charter of family rights, following the pattern of the United Nation’s declaration on human rights. He said that pastoral attention is to be given to Christian families, especially those experiencing special difficulties-the poor, the sick, the abandoned, the widowed, and the separated.

Also those who through no fault of theirs cannot raise their own families are to receive special attention from the church. The church, he said, is a home and a family for everyone especially:

“Those who labour and heavily laden.”1165


“On December 30 1987, Pope John Paul marked the 20th anniversary of Paul the V1’s Populorum Progressio with a new social encyclical titled Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (on social concerns). The document is a theological reflection on issues of global poverty and the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, which has given rise to the division of the human


1163 Redemptor Hominis, 15. 1164 ibid

1165 Familiaris Consortio, 85.



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community into first world, second world, third world and at times even fourth world, a situation which the pope said seriously compromised the unity of mankind.”1166

In the document the pope observed that an innumerable multitude of people-children and adults, and the elderly that is, real and unique human persons, are suffering under the intolerable body of poverty. He said it is not only individuals, but whole nations that are rendered destitute, while at the same time some nations are squandering the much needed recourses on irrelevances, and even more painfully, on weapons of mass destruction. He said that in the tragedy of total indigence and need, in which so many of our brothers and sisters are living Jesus comes to question us.1167


“The pope said that the phenomenal of “super development” involving consumerism and waste, existing side by side with misery and indigence, is inadmissible. He emphasised that the poor distribution of the good and services originally intended for all is one of the greatest injustices of today, noting that it carries negative consequences both for the rich and for the poor”1168.

He urged the Christians to serve the poor, not only out of their abundance, but also out of their necessities. The Pope wondered whether in the face of extreme poverty it is expedient for us to continue to maintain superfluous church, ornaments and costly furnishes for divine worship. His judgment was that in such circumstances, the need of the poor should take priority. He went further to prescribe that in such circumstances of extreme needs, church ornaments could be sold, and the proceeds used to help the poor.

The pope puts it this way:

“Faced by cases of need, one cannot ignore them in favour of superfluous church ornaments and costly furnishes for divine worship: on the contrary it could be obligatory to sell these goods in order to provide food, drinks, clothing and shelter for those who lack these things”1169

John Paul the II identified two major sins that constituted through human developments: they are the thirst for power and the all consuming desire for profit. He called for profound attitudinal change, and for the adoption of the spirit of solidarity. The rich and the powerful should become


1167 Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 12 and 13.

1168 Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 31

1169 Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 31.



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more responsible, and more ready to share. They should recognise that private property has a social ‘mortgage’.


“The poor and weak on the other hand should always reject passive and destructive attitudes. Finally he said the church has an evangelical duty to stand by the poor, since the whole tradition of the church bears witness to love of preference for the poor.”1170

As the result of the structures of sin, where corruption has become habitual and difficult if not almost impossible to eradicate in the society, the poor and the weak continued to suffer. The Church must continue to stand firmly with poor and the marginalized.

Again, on March 25th 1995, another social encyclical was issued by Pope John Paul the 11 titled Evangelium Vitae (the gospel of life), the document is a prophetic statement on human life, whose dignity and inviolability must be upheld always and everywhere from conception to natural death.


The pope said that the gospel of life is at the heart of the message of Jesus Christ, as we see in John 10:10,

“I have come that they may have life and have it to the full’. While reiterating the fundamental teaching of the Judeo-Christian religion that “thou shall not kill”, he identifies some of the major ‘enemies’ of life in our age, such as abortion, infanticide, artificial contraception, euthanasia, capital punishment, murder, suicide, the Aids pandemic, violent crimes, drugs abuse and the impoverishment of a multitude of people in various societies and their reduction to degrading sub-human conditions that is tantamount to death.”1171

In the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Pope John Paul the 11 titled Ecclesia in Africa (the church in Africa) which was released in Cameroon on September 17th 1995, the Pope notes with regrets the great economic depression, the political turmoil, the social upheaval, the fratricidal wars, the wide spread dictatorship and abuse of human rights that go on in present day Africa. He challenges the African Church to take seriously her prophetic role and be for the peoples of Africa the “voice of the voiceless.”1172


1171 ibid

1172 Ecclesia in Africa, 70.



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He says that,

“Jesus Christ, the God made man, is the one who came to save the African from oppression and slavery.”1173


“The Pope notes with great sadness ‘that many African nations still labour under authoritarian and oppressive regimes…’ such political injustices, and internal wars bringing with them serious consequences such as famine, epidemics and destruction, not to mention massacres and the scandal and tragedy of refugees.”1174

Again the Pope says that Africans economic problems are compounded by the dishonesty of corrupt government leaders who, in connivance with domestic or foreign private interests, divert national recourses for their own profit and transfer public funds to private accounts in foreign banks.

As the Pope puts it:

“This is plain theft; whatever the legal camouflage may be I earnestly hope that international bodies and people of integrity in Africa and elsewhere will be able to investigate suitable legal ways of having these embezzled funds returned. In the granting of loans, it is important to make sure of the responsibility and forthrightness of the beneficiaries.”1175

I want to say that on the whole, the Catholic Church has tried to demonstrate through the corpus of her social doctrine, that, in the word of Paul V1, she is an ‘expert in humanity’. The Catholic Church has been very forthright in her social teaching, concerning the sanctity and inviolability of human life, and the dignity of human person. The Magisterium has consistently defended the primacy of the rule of law, respect for fundamental human rights, including the rights to life and to the means of sustaining life from the moments of conception to natural death.


“The church has spoken out loud against arbitrary rule, against dictatorship and in the case of Nigeria, against corruption and continued stay of the military in power that perpetrate corruption in Nigeria society and consequently hinders human development. The church has consistently

1173 ibid


1175 Ecclesia in Africa , 112 & 113



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denounced torture, brutality and dehumanising conditions in prisons. The church in her pronouncement has always tried to defend the common good against private or selfish individual interest. The church has sought to defend the welfare of all in such a way that priority is given to the person rather than to the state.”1176

It is this new realization in the church of her role as the ‘voice of the voiceless’. That has inspired many church personages in our days to put their lives on the line in the promotion of human dignity, freedom, justice, and equity, and in the defence of the poor, the weak, the marginalised, and the oppressed.


“They include Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador who died as a martyr in the course of the poor and oppressed of his country. Archbishop Healder Camera of Brazil who has lived a life of devotion to the marginalised and under-privileged, Mother Theresa of Calcutta who has spent herself and laid down a heroic example of love for and commitment to the poor, and Cardinal Sin of the Philippines who successfully led a non-violent revolution of his country men and women against the dictatorial regime of President Marcos.” 1177

I agree with Ehusani, that the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and in particular “the people’s revolution” in Poland that brought solidarity into power, can be traced in large measure to the church support, and especially the support of Pope John Paul the 11 for the labour movement in that country. And nearer home, the catholic Bishop of Malawi has over the past twenty years demonstrated that Bishop’s opinion concerning any issue on the national agenda cannot be taken for granted. They have struggled alongside the poor and the lowly of Malawi to read the country of corruption and dictatorship. They have suffered. They have suffered severe persecution in the process, but they have won a distinguished reputation for the church.

3. WHAT THE HURCH MUST DO

Today's Nigerians need a Christian faith that challenges the corrupt status-quo and those who are satisfied with it. For too long the Catholic faith has been preached from an all too intellectual perspective. Now we need to re-appraise our approach.


1176 Ehusani ‘A Prophetic Church’1996, P. 70-80

1177 ibid



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“Our exaggerated emphasis on the intellectual content of our faith robs us of much of the practical involvement in the life of the people that the Christian faith demands. There is a great difference between a religion that prides itself on its intellectual profundity and one that is concerned with the issues of life and death.”1178

For the Jews, their relationship with God was a matter of life and prosperity, and death and disaster.1179

The big question now is;

What kind of theology will be useful for the abused and impoverished Nigeria? How is Christianity to be presented to present-day Nigerians so that it is not seen as the ‘opium of the people’? What approach must the parish priest of the Ajegunle slum in Lagos adopt in other to communicate the message of Jesus Christ as ‘good news’ under a circumstance of gross deprivation and humiliation? In what ways can the Chaplains of Kirikiri and Kuje prisons present the message of Jesus Christ as ‘good news’ to those unjustly detained in these places for two, three, five or ten years without trial? What is the best way to preach the message of God's love to the many sick Nigerians who cannot afford to pay hospital bills, and who are dying by instalments due to neglect by government and abandonment by their privileged relations? How will the message of salvation penetrate the minds of our ever increasing army of street children and real boys and girls?

Let us according to Ehusani examine,

“the scenario of a Christian passing by on the road and as the young Moses in Egypt, he happens to see a powerful man mercilessly beating a weaker person and almost suffocating him to death. What is he supposed to do? If approaches the two and says to the weak and oppressed person who is gasping for breath, „smile, God loves you,“ or „Rejoice, Jesus has set you free,“ without doing anything about the on-going oppression by the powerful man, what is likely to be the reaction of the suffering person? He or she is likely to tell them to go away with his message of God's love and Christ's redemption. At the very moment what the oppressed person needs is the translation of God's love into concrete action that is aimed at freeing him or her from the clenched fist and the mighty boots of the powerful oppressor. Thereafter, he or she would be eager to know more about the Lord in whose name the saving action has been performed.”1180

1178 Ehusani ‘A Prophetic Church’1996, P. 70 -80

1179 Deuteronomy 30:15

1180 Ehusani ‘A Prophetic Church’1996, P. 70 -80



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In the same vein, the Catholic Bishops of the United States of America writes,

“When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus quoted the age-old Jewish affirmation of faith that God alone is One and to be loved with the whole heart, mind, and soul (Dt 6:4-5) and immediately adds: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Lv 19:18; Mk 12:28-34). This dual command of love that is at the basis of all Christian morality is illustrated in the Gospel of Luke by the parable of a Samaritan who interrupts his journey to come to the aid of a dying man (Lk 10:29-37). Unlike the other wayfarers who look on the man and pass by, the Samaritan "was moved with compassion at the sight"; he stops, tends the wounded man and takes him to a place of safety. In this parable compassion is the bridge between mere seeing and action; love is made real through effective action.”1181

It should be noted that that Jesus proclaims by word, he enacts in his ministry. He resists temptations of power and prestige, follows his Father's will, and teaches us to pray that it be accomplished on earth. He warns against attempts to "lay up treasures on earth" (Mt 6:19) and exhorts his followers not to be anxious about material goods but rather to seek first God's reign and God's justice (Mt 6:25-33). His mighty works symbolize that the reign of God is more powerful than evil, sickness, and the hardness of the human heart. He offers God's loving mercy to sinners (Mk 2:17), takes up the cause of those who suffered religious and social discrimination (Lk 7:36-50; 15:1-2), and attacks the use of religion to avoid the demands of charity and justice (Mk 7:9-13; Mt 23:23).

Again, let us imagine according to Ehusani,

“ that it is Trinity Sunday in a parish church in one of the poor areas of Nigeria. The preacher on this occasion could tell his congregation that the mystery of the Trinity is a profound one. He could explain to them in the best way possible, the part of the Nicean Creed referring to the Son as follows God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, one in substance with the father...And he could try to explain the part that refers to the Spirit as the Lord the giver of life, who proceeds from the father and the Son... He could end up by saying that love is the key to understanding the profound mystery of the Trinity; that the three persons of the Trinity, God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, are united by love. But the preacher must not stop his reflection there. His theological discourse must take flesh and dwelt among the people


see also Pope John Paul II has drawn on this parable to exhort us to have a "compassionate heart" to those in need in his Apostolic Letter "On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering" (Salvifici Doloris) (Washington, D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1984), 34-39.



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as it were. The preacher must go on to ask, what are the implications of this Trinitarian Love for the suffering people of Nigeria? What challenges does the unity of the Trinity upon Nigerians who are today badly fragmented by selfish interest? What hope of reprieve does the celebration of the Trinity Sunday offer the despairing street child and the gang of unemployed youths?”1182

On the occasion of the feast of the Trinity, what practical actions can the parish church undertake to settle quarrels among relations, to repair marriages that are on the verge of collapse, and to bring about wholeness and unity in a divided and segregated community? The profound mystery of the Trinity must have something to offer the believer, or else it remains an abstract preoccupation that is a luxury to the distressed poor. While presenting the dogmatic and speculative aspects of the doctrine of the Trinity, the good news must be made to take flesh in the lives and communities of believers or else the preacher has not succeeded in doing much.

It should be recalled that near the end of his life, Jesus offers a vivid picture of the last judgment (Mt 25:31-46). All the nations of the world will be assembled and will be divided into those blessed who are welcomed into God's kingdom or those cursed who are sent to eternal punishment. The blessed are those who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, and visited the sick and imprisoned; the cursed are those who neglected these works of mercy and love. Neither the blessed nor the cursed are astounded that they are judged by the Son of Man, nor that judgment is rendered according to works of charity. The shock comes when they find that in neglecting the poor, the outcast, and the oppressed, they were rejecting Jesus himself. Jesus who came as “Emmanuel” (God with us, Mt 1:23) and who promises to be with his people until the end of the age (Mt 28:20) is hidden in those most in need; to reject them is to reject God made manifest in history.1183

We shall take another example. According to Ehusani,

Let us say it is one of the solemnities of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The preacher may talk about her immaculate conception, her virginity, her faith and trust in God, her total surrender to the will of God, her power to intercede for believers, etc. Now, after all these, what practical lessons can the preacher bring out of the life of Mary that will help the area boys of Lagos in their particular circumstance? What consolation or encouragement can the preacher bring about from the life of Mary for battered wives and victims sexual abuse? What hopes does the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, and offer for Aids patients, and for and for prisoners on death row? One piece of good news? One piece of good news in the Magnificat is that in Mary, God had pulled down the mighty

1182 Ehusani ‘A Prophetic Church’1996, P 70 -80

1183 United States Catholic Bishops; Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. 1986, no.44 p 11 -12



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and uplifted the lowly. Could this important message not be highlighted during lessons and sermons on the Virgin Mary, in other to give some hope to those who are presently humiliated? Could the preacher not declare with confidence that with God's visitation of Mary the lowly woman of Judea, all impoverished and humiliated people can now hope for redemption in God, and especially through the intercession of the Virgin Mary? Are there no gestures in terms of charity and corporal works of mercy that could be taken towards widows, orphans, the destitute and battered wives, on the occasion of the feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary? In the presentation of any aspect of the Christian faith, the practical dimensions should never be divorced from the spiritual and the intellectual.”1184

I agree with Ehusani that true, there is the urgent need to re-examine the present curriculum of our seminaries and religious institutes by which theological subjects are often compartmentalised, and treated in largely uncoordinated ways. Systematic theology for example, is often treated as if it is not intimately related to practical theology, where issues of justice, development, and peace are addressed. The time has come to adopt more integral approach to the teaching of theology, whereby certain issues that today fall under Speculative, Spiritual, Pastoral, and Practical theology can be taken together and treated under the same scheme. The time has come for promotion of a more dynamic spirituality by which holiness is not conceived in a narrow sense of personal piety, but is understood to include our social responsibility not only towards our neighbours, but also towards future generations of humanity and even the natural environments.1185

I want to say that unless we are involved actively in the work of compassion and mercy, fight against corruption, the promotion of justice and human solidarity, we cannot preach effectively the message of God's love. The Truth of God's compassion can be more effectively preached when Christians are themselves committed to a life of compassion. There is no better way to communicate the message that God is truth than for Christians to be seriously committed to a life of truth, and persistently denounce the lie in our environment. Christians must be ready to put their lives on the line in defence of the truth if they must proclaim the truth of God against the false hood that often reigns in society to proclaim effectively the message of holiness, no matter the cost. We are called to be Disciples of Christ. This discipleship involves commitment.

As the Catholic bishops United States of America writes,

“Discipleship involves imitating the pattern of Jesus' life by openness to God's will in the service of others (Mk 10:42-45). Disciples are also called to follow him on the way of the cross, and to heed his call that those who lose their lives for the sake of the Gospel will save them (Mk 8:34-35). Jesus' death


1185 ibid



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is an example of that greater love which lays down one's life for others (cf. Jn 15:12-18). It is a model for those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice (Mt 5:10). The death of Jesus was not the end of his power and presence, for he was raised up by the power of God. Nor did it mark the end of the disciples' union with him. After Jesus had appeared to them and when they received the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:1-12), they became apostles of the good news to the ends of the earth. In the face of poverty and persecution they transformed human lives and formed communities which became signs of the power and presence of God. Sharing in this same resurrection faith, contemporary followers of Christ can face the struggles and challenges that await those who bring the gospel vision to bear on our complex economic and social world.”1186


“We should be aware that in our Evangelisation and Catechisms classes, in our Legion of Mary, and Charismatic prayer meetings, in the meeting of the Nights, the Catholic organisations and the Catholic women organisations and also in the course content of our Seminaries and religious institutes, the same truths of God can be presented in different ways. They can either be presented in a sterile as dead truths, like subjects of archaeological study, or they can be presented in a dynamic way as living truths that provoke believing Christians to positive change in their daily lives and the life of their society. Nigerian Christians need to see Christianity as a lived experience not just as body of abstract truths to be studied or memorised Nigerian Christians need to see the Gospel of Christ as a catalyst for change towards a more just, and a more humane society.”1187

I agree with Ehusani that when Christianity is presented in this way, the theological enterprise will become the project of the entire Church and not the preoccupation of small professional group.

What the forgoing reflections mean for the leadership of the church at various levels, and also for the simple believer is a more ardent appreciation of the prophetic ministry of the church amidst an oppressed and distressed people. The situation on the ground presents a great moral challenge to the church; that of keeping hope alive among our people.

The Church must have concern and compassion for the poor and the marginalized. For this reason, the Catholic Bishops of the United States of America Writes,

“The pattern of Christian life as presented in the Gospel of Luke has special relevance today. In her Magnificat, Mary rejoices in a God who scatters the proud, brings down the mighty, and raises up the poor and lowly (Lk 1:51-53). The first public utterance of Jesus is, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon


1187 ibid



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me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor" (Lk 4:18; cf. Is 61:1-2). Jesus adds to the blessing on the poor a warning, "Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation" (Lk 6:24). He warns his followers against greed and reliance on abundant possessions and underscores this by the parable of the man whose life is snatched away at the very moment he tries to secure his wealth (Lk 12:13-21). In Luke alone, Jesus tells the parable of the rich man who does not see the poor and suffering Lazarus at his gate (Lk 16:19-31). When the rich man finally "sees" Lazarus, it is from the place of torment and the opportunity for conversion has passed. Pope John Paul II has often recalled this parable to warn the prosperous not to be blind to the great poverty that exists beside great wealth.”1188

It is important for us Christians to know that we are not helpless in the fight against evil. Under the prevailing circumstance, Nigerian Christians are still not helpless. There is a lot that we can do. In the face of social injustice, of oppression, of military dictatorship and arbitrary rule, the followers of Christ are not helpless. The church hierarchy can do much more than make passionate appeals to the unjust rulers. They can do better than begging the oppressor to be fair.

As Aniaqwu J. puts it,

“Church ministers can do more than consoling the aggrieved. They can do much more than telling the oppressed to carry their crosses or offer their sufferings for their eternal salvation. The church can engage in some prophetic gestures that is efficacious .We know that violence is out of the question for a Christian. Any resort to violence in the bid to overcome evil is in itself already tinted with evil. Violent confrontation compromises the gospel of peace which Jesus Christ preached. However any form of peaceful or non-violent confrontation with oppressive powers which can lead to the freedom of the oppressed, or at least the alleviation of their suffering, is not only acceptable but desirable. Any form of mass action that is peaceful and is capable of bringing pressure to bear on the unjust ruler is desirable.”1189

I want us to note that the world has seen many forms of peaceful resistance that are efficacious. For instance, we know of peaceful demonstrations and protests marches in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya Syria, etc, by which a group of people that have been denied their rights along with their sympathizers make a public outcry against the authorities on the streets, flashing protest placards and singing protests songs. This method was used very much by the oppressed Negroes of the United States of America under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was a

1188 United States Catholic Bishops; Economic Justice for All: Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy. 1986, no.4 p 12 See also Address to Workers at Sao Paulo, 8, Origins 10:9 (July 31, 1980), 139; and Address at Yankee Stadium, Origins 9:19 (October 25, 1979), 311-312.

1189 Father John Aniaqwu, “The Church in the Service of Justice,” 1995, p.15.



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Baptist minister. It proved to be a very effective method, too in apartheid South Africa under the leadership of man like Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Again, according to Aniaqwu,

“Cardinal Sin of Manila led a successful revolution of the people that brought an end to the oppressive rule of President Ferdinand Marcus, using the instrument of mass demonstrations that are non-violent. Also in the heat of the crises over the annulment of the June 12 election, some of the human rights activists in Nigeria attempted to use this method to bring an end to Military rule, but they never recorded the desired success, largely because the call for such protest marches did not receive nation-wide response. What can the Christian church do to give religious legitimacy or moral to, and indeed popularize this method of civil resistance?”1190

Father John Aniaqwu thinks that it has become necessary for the church to organize this type of mass action, He says:

“The time may well have come for the church in Nigeria to borrow a leaf from the examples of the Philippines and Poland, and take to the streets to drive home all her sermons about justice and human rights that has so far gone unheeded. It is to be understood that bishops, Priest, Seminarians, will be at the head of the mass action. There should be no death of layman and woman to march behind their spiritual leaders”.1191

Like the Universal Church, the hierarchy in the Nigeria church has done creditably well over the last few years with regard to her discerning and teaching roles.

In their public statements, the Bishops Conference, and of church leaders have been thorough in their analysis of the religious life (Christian life) socio-economic and political situations, and they have often remained consistently on the side of truth, freedom, justice, human rights, and solidarity. It is on this note that Bishops Conference of Nigeria came out with the current public prayers known as,

4. PRAYERS FOR NIGERIA

These prayers have helped the Nigerian Society a lot in various ways to eradicate the problem of corruption in the country. Since these prayers began, in different places like churches, political

1190 ibid

1191 Father John Aniaqwu, “The Church in the Service of Justice,”1995, p.15.



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governments, social places, market places, meetings, and so on, they have really helped many groups to change their minds about corruption.

a. PRAYER FOR NIGERIA IN DISTRESS! AND

b. PRAYER AGAINST BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA .

5. PRAYER FOR NIGERIA IN DISTRESS.

All-powerful and merciful Father.

You are the God of Justice, Love and peace.

You rule over all the nations of the earth.

Power and might are in your hands and no one can withstand you.

We present our country Nigeria before you.

We praise and thank you for you are the source of all we have and are.

We are sorry for the sins we have committed and for the good deed we

have failed to do.

In your loving forgiveness keep us safe from the punishment we deserve.

Lord, we are weighed down not only by uncertainties, but also by moral,

Economic and political problems.

Listen to the cry of your people who confidently turn to you.

God of infinite goodness, our strength in adversity, our health in weakness,

Our comfort in sorrow. Be merciful to us your people.

Spare this nation Nigeria from chaos, anarchy and doom.

Bless us with your kingdom of Justice, Love and peace.

We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.1192

1192Bishop’s Conference of Nigeria .2oo1. Lagos heal us and our Nigeria.



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6. PRAYERS AGAINST BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA

Father in heaven,

You always provide for all your creatures so that all may live as you have willed.

You have blessed our country Nigeria with rich human and natural resources to be used to your honour and glory and for the well-being of every Nigerian.

We are deeply sorry for the wrong use, of these your gifts and blessings through acts of injustice, bribery and corruption, as a result of which so many of our people are hungry, sick, ignorant and defenceless. Father, you alone can nation of this sickness.

We beg you, touch our lives and lives of our leaders and people so that we may all realize the evil of bribery and corruption and work hard to eliminate it.

Raise up for us God-fearing people and leaders who will lead us in the path of peace, prosperity and progress. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus...Have mercy on us (3 times).1193

These prayers are said publicly in places like churches, liturgical activities and in similar social gatherings throughout Nigeria. These prayers are so effective and powerful, if it had not achieved anything; at least it has raised the consciousness of the corrupt practices that is existent in Nigeria and evils that is associated with it. In other words, it is a stimulus to fight against corruption.

The Nigeria church can hardly be faulted in her social teachings, which derive from an enlightened reading of the signs of the times.

What is clear to many however is that the church participation in social transformation has remained in large measure on the level of social analysis that is unaccompanied by social action, except of course that type of action that is equivalent to providing succour to the oppressed while letting the oppressor go free to continue his exploits.

1193 ibid



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CHAPTER SIX

A. EVALUATION

1. THE SOCIAL TEACHING OF THE CHURCH: IMPLICATIONS FOR TODAY’S WORLD IN RELATION TO PEACE, JUSTICE AND CORRUPTION

CONTROL

The question is, what can we say today, almost forty years after Populorum Progressio (PP) has appeared, when we note it is a document that is futuristic, contemporary, dated, radical and optimistic? What can we say are the implications for our church as an advocate for global social justice in the face of corruption in the world? In this regard, Henriot, S.J. asked,

“how could PP challenge and guide ‘Today’s World’, in the effort of our church that takes PP as its foundation document in the fight for Justice Peace and Corruption control?1194 To answer this question, Henriot, writes, “Let me suggest three implications that I believe we should hear and respond to today when we return to this foundation document. First, the call for justice must never be muted in the activities of our church and in particular our church-sponsored development agencies. By that I mean the obvious point that structural change for fuller life must remain central to the church’s mission if we are to be faithful to the vision of PP. As relates to ‘Today’s World’, I find it very significant that in the sections of PP that could be said to provide the basis for the establishment of CIDSE (a group of development agencies sponsored by the Catholic Church that claims strong historical links to PP) -- #s 45 to #55, under the subtitle, “Aid for the Weak” -- the invitation to charity is never far from the mandate for justice”1195

1194 Peter J. Henriot, S.J. POPULORUM PROGRESSIO: CHALLENGE AND GUIDANCE FOR THE CHURCH

TODAY , Paper Presented at CIDSE Forum, “THE CHURCH SPEAKING OUT ON SOCIAL JUSTICE TODAY” 11-12 January 2006 Soesterberg, The Netherlands

1195 Ibid, See also the clear statement in Justice in the World: “Christian love of neighbour and justice cannot be separated. For love implies an absolute demand for justice, namely a recognition of the dignity and rights of one’s neighbour. Justice attains its inner fullness only in love” (#34).



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This important document Populorum Progressio has through its Nos, 45-55, promoted the establishment of human centred planning, where freedom is not an empty word and dignity of persons are respected. According to Henriot , “For public and private funds, gifts and loans, no matter how generous, are not sufficient to eliminate hunger or reduce poverty, if not linked to the effort for “building a world where all people, no matter what their race, religion or nationality, can live fully human lives, freed from servitude imposed on them by others or by natural forces over which they have not sufficient control; a world where freedom is not an empty word…” 1196(#47). This also what the Liberation Theology is all about.” It should be noted the structural dimensions are immediately evident in this section’s call for higher taxes in rich countries to support development efforts, higher prices for goods imported from poor countries, more concerted, human-centred planning, diversion of funds from arms spending, caution against neo-colonialism, and effective debt restructuring without harmful conditionalities. And the section on aid is immediately followed by the section on “Equity in Trade Relations” surely a paramount global justice issue in 1967 and in 2006! Henriot emphasizes this implication for our church since it is a strong challenge and a clear guide for our advocacy for global justice. Certainly for CIDSE it is a key focus. Henriot personally is mindful of and thankful for the agencies’ cooperation around the world in the promotion of global justice through research and advocacy efforts and support of local efforts to mobilize for social justice in poor countries like in Africa. According to Henriot; “I also emphasize it because in my opinion CIDSE’s work has been such a helpful complement to the work of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the strong commitments for justice not only of Paul VI but also of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Yes, we do need to speak of charity. But in reflecting on the need to move beyond charity to justice, I am challenged by the remark attributed to Padre Alberto Hu rtado, the recently canonized Jesuit social activist in Chile who died only 15 years before the publication of PP.”1197 According to Hurt ado, said Henriot,

1196 Ibid.

1197 Ibid.



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‘Marx said that religion was the opium of the people. But I also know that charity can be the opium of the rich’. For Henriot, Justice and its value should be promoted without hindrance of any kind. In fact, for him every other thing can wait but the pursuit of justice. To justify this claim, Henriot as his Second point writes, “An obvious implication arises from the analysis I have offered of several key aspects of the teaching of PP. This is the need, the absolute necessity, for grounding all the church’s work as an advocate for global justice in the church’s social teaching. Several years ago, I collaborated with some colleagues in producing a book with the catchy title, Catholic Social Teaching: Our Best Kept

Secret.11

Would I be totally off the mark to say that for many in our church, indeed, even for many of those associated with church-related development agencies, the social teaching of the church remains our best kept secret? How many know more than the titles of documents that present a wealth of values that can contribute so much to integral development efforts?”1198 For Henriot, the third, and the final implication of the message of PP is perhaps a bit complicated and in need of further nuancing is the need for closer links between the pastoral and the developmental works of the church. By this he meant that a kind of sharp division between what some might consider more “sacred” missionary ministries (sacramental preparation, building of churches, for example) and more “secular” development ministries (health care, agricultural training, for example) may today have more text-book validity than practical, day-to-day application. He believes that the strong emphasis PP puts on a Gospel-based foundation for development work makes the distinction a bit strained and should be our challenge and our guide. One example: there is a call for lay people to strive resolutely to permeate the “mentality, customs, laws and structures of the community in which they live” with the spirit of the Gospel. The goal is “to establish as fact and reality an international morality based on justice and equity”. Henriot believes that this relates directly to the much-needed “spirituality of justice” that we talk about these days. But as he has said, this issue requires more reflection and response – perhaps a suitable task for the Fortieth Anniversary of PP. Finally, I wish to agree with Henriot that,

1198 Peter J. Henriot, S.J. POPULORUM PROGRESSIO: CHALLENGE AND GUIDANCE FOR THE CHURCH

TODAY , Paper Presented at CIDSE Forum, “THE CHURCH SPEAKING OUT ON SOCIAL JUSTICE TODAY” 11-12 January 2006 Soesterberg, The Netherlands.



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“In his encyclical letter, Sollicitudo Rei Socilalis (The Social Concern of the Church), published in

1987 on the occasion of the 20th

anniversary of PP, John Paul II pays great tribute to his predecessor’s document. He notes that PP is an authentic application of Vatican II while being a message of genuine originality (#s 5-10). And he says that the fundamental motive inspiring the document is its response to the Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes (The Church in the Modern World) and its opening lines, lines we have heard so often: “The joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties, of the women and men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties, of the followers of Jesus Christ.”1199

It is very important here to say without mincing words that we could find no better foundation for exploring and implementing the goal for the fight against Corruption as the Populorum Progressio document of Pope Paul VI for, “The Church speaking Out on Social Justice including corruption today.” The church’s advocacy for global justice is greatly assisted by the challenge and guidance of Populorum Progressio. In the aspects that have been analysed, its message can come alive again for us. And in the three implications that have been outlined, its call can move us to action. The progress of peoples has never been more urgent than today especially on the aspects of human development and on corruption control strategy. As Henriot writes; “As futuristic and contemporary as may be the message of PP, it still must be characterized as dated. By speaking of this aspect, I mean that its message is devoid of many of the most pressing challenges of today. Were Paul write his encyclical today, especially if he were to rely on the development experts of today such as those I mentioned at the outset of my presentation, he surely would have to address the issues of gender, HIV/AIDS, environment, global migration, and information technology, and the “new movements” – e.g., those rallying around the World Social Forum. And his very carefully nuanced discussion of violence (#s 30-31)—something that sparked great controversy! -- would have to take into consideration the new global realities following the tragedy of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers of New York. Our world of today faces not only the terrorism of organized resistance to Western influences but also the terrorism of organized response to that resistance – one need only reflect on the illegal and disastrous war on Iraq! Paul’s creative expression, “Peace is the new name for development” (#87), would

1199 Ibid. And also,

for a concrete application of this message, see Peter Henriot, S.J., “A Church in the Modern

World of Africa: The Zambian Experience,” forthcoming in the Hekima Review, Nairobi.



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have to be qualified, re-focused, for today’s world of the challenge to peace presented by non-state actors frustrated by poverty that is both material and spiritual.”1200

I wish to finally conclude with Henriot that,

“From our perspective of today, it is inconceivable that a document on development could be written without any discussion of gender differences in contributions and in benefits. But PP was very much a product of its time – women and development were topics very little connected in the 1960’s -- and also a product of its location – women’s role has systematically (and sadly!) been marginalized in both thought and structure within our church. To be honest, we still have a long ways to go before a phrase like “promote the good of every man and of the whole man” will be rendered both with more inclusive language – every person and the whole person -- and implemented with more gender-sensitive programmes. That is surely on the agenda for advocacy for global ecclesial justice today!”

2. CHRISTIAN and African values as means of FIGHTING CORRUPRION

B . I n t r o d u c t i o n o f C h r i s t i a n v a l u e s

I wish to say here that the term Christian values historically refers to the values derived from the teachings of Jesus and taught by Christians throughout the history of the religion. The term has various applications and meanings, and specific definitions can vary widely between denominations, geographical locations, and different schools of thought. But for the purpose of this work, I wish to limit myself with, 1.Love (Caritas) 2) Truthfulness 3) Justice 4) Peace 5) Service.

1. LOVE

The meaning of love is to be found in God’s unconditional love known in Jesus Christ. Without love nothing else really makes sense. Its most fundamental characteristic is that it seeks the good of the other. It is contrary to all selfish, self-centred. Love is completely opposed to corruption. This

1200 Peter J. Henriot, S.J. POPULORUM PROGRESSIO: CHALLENGE AND GUIDANCE FOR THE CHURCH TODAY , Paper Presented at CIDSE Forum, “THE CHURCH SPEAKING OUT ON SOCIAL JUSTICE TODAY” 11-12 January 2006 Soesterberg, The Netherlands.



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is because, while corruption is selfish and self-centred, love is selfless. Love is more than an emotion, and it does not merely like. It involves choosing to love the unlovable, including ones enemy. Love seeks the good of others. Love in truth is a veritable instrument against corruption. Because genuine love seeks the good of other, Corruption which deals with selfish and personal gain cannot properly stay side by side with love. This is why the opposite of the love, security and confidence involved in belonging to God is fear. Perfect love in truth drives out fear. To buttress this point, Pope Benedict XVI on the authentic development of every person and of all humanity said that.

“Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity”1201.

Since corruption hinders the authentic development of every person and all humanity, love therefore which is one of the most important Christian values is an important corruption control strategy.

As Pope Benedict XVI puts it,

“Love (Caritas) is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. It is a force that has its origin in God, Eternal Love and Absolute Truth. Each person finds his good by adherence to God's plan for him, in order to realize it fully: in this plan, he finds his truth, and through adherence to this truth he becomes free (cf. Jn 8:32).”1202

This type of freedom includes the freedom from enslavement of corruption which renders authentic development of human person almost impossible. Therefore, we must face the fact of corruption in a thorough and courageous way to set the first step for change.


“Love faces a vast field of work and the Church is eager to make her contribution with her social doctrine, which concerns the whole person and is addressed to all people. In the light of this, there are so many needy brothers and sisters who are waiting for help, so many who are oppressed waiting for justice, so many unemployed who are waiting for a job, so many people are waiting for respect. One wonders how it can be even today there are still people who are dying of hunger.


1202 ibid.



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Condemned to illiteracy? Lacking the most basic medical care? Without having a loof over their head? And love has to be based on truth1203


For the Pope, to avoid corruption, “man must relate with each other in love and truth”.

To make this fact clearer, the Pope continues,

“to defend the truth, to articulate it with humility and conviction, and to bear witness to it in life are therefore exacting and indispensable forms of charity. Charity in fact rejoices in the truth (1 Cor.13:6). All people feel the interior impulse to love authentically: love and truth never abandon man completely, because these are the vocation planted by God in the heart and mind of every human person. The search for love and truth is purified and liberated by Jesus Christ from the impoverishment that our humanity brings to it, and he reveals to us in all its fullness the initiative of love and the plan for true life that God has prepared for us. In Christ, charity in truth becomes the Face of his Person, a vocation for us to love our brothers and sisters in the truth of his plan. Indeed, he himself is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6)1204.”

For this reason, the Pope believes that Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine. And therefore, every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law (cf. Mt 22:36- 40) and which corruption negates.1205”


“Men and women who are made new by the Love of God are able to change the rules and the quality of relationships, transforming even social structures. They are people capable of bringing peace where there is conflict, of building and nurturing fraternal relationships where there is hatred, of seeking justice where there prevails the exploitation of man by man. Only love is capable of radically transforming the relationships that men maintain among themselves. This is the perspective that allows every person of good will to perceive the broad horizons of justice and human development in truth and goodness.”1206

1203 Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church” 2004 No5 P 2

1204. Caritas in Veritate, Pontiff Benedict xvi 2009, no. 1

1205 Ibid.

1206 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004.no. p2



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2. TRUTHFULNESS

In John’s Gospel Jesus Himself is described the Way, the Truth and the Life. He revealed through His teaching an insight into the nature of God, and the way in which he means us to live.

In the world, truthfulness is a key value. The value of truthfulness encourages all members of the community to be truthful in dear dealing with one another, being true to oneself and to help people to make informed moral choices, for instance, the choice of the fight against corruption, since corruption is against truthfulness. Love in truth (Caritas in Veritate) is therefore a very important and necessary Christian value not only against corruption but also paves way to human development.

3. JUSTICE

The Christian value of Justice is also another very important anti-corruption control strategy. The biblical justice is not defined by the abstract notions of fairness or equality (often interpreted in terms of oneself-we demand justice). The biblical justice is practical and direct, this is because it refers to very practical, down-to-earth actions which ensure that the weak, the poor and the socially disadvantage are cared for, whether they deserve it or not. God always acts justly and he calls on people to do the same. This call for justice by God is a universal one. Bearing this in mind, Christians all over the world see corruption as standing against justice, for this reason, is a driving principle against corruption. For the Church, justice occupied a central place in her fight against corruption and injustice in the world.

According to Kenneth R. Himes,

“Justitia in mundo was a statement produced by the bishops assembled at the 1971 Roman synod held during the fall of the year. Authorized for publication on November 30, the actual text was first published in Italian on December 9. Among the important aspects of the document was the role that the bishops from the poorer regions of the world played in its formulation...The document takes as its starting point the reality of systemic injustice in the world and the need for Christians to join with one another and all persons of good will to overcome injustice”.1207

1207 Kenneth R. Himes, Modern Catholic Social Teaching-Commentaries and Interpretations Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C. 2005, p 333



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This call by the church for Christians to join with one another and all persons of good will to overcome injustices and consequently corruption is laudable. This shows the fact that the church through her value of justice continued the fight against corruption.

According to Edward P. DeBerri,

“It is not uncommon, in ordinary conversation, to hear love and justice or charity and justice contrasted. In this view, love and charity are personal, generous, free, and life-giving, Christian. They distinguished sharply from justice which is seen as impersonal, harsh, punitive, socially desirable, but secular. This is not the position of the authentic Catholic Christian teaching.”1208

It should be noted that in Catholic social thought, love of neighbour is an absolute demand for justice, because charity must manifest itself in action and structures which respect human dignity protect human rights and facilitate human development to which corruption is a hindrance. The best way to promote peace is to transform structures which block love (justice in the world).1209

Consequently, to love each and every person, as Jesus commands us to do require that we establish structures of justice which support and liberate all peoples.

4. PEACE

Peace is another Christian value that is of vital importance as a corruption control strategy.

The biblical concept of pace is different in many ways from the modern description of it. Peace understood as the absence of war is only one part of a much broader concept that includes peace with God, positive harmony and healthy functioning between people and spiritual as well as material security. Peace is wholeness, a state of well-being. The Church through her social teaching has continued to stress the importance of peace in the world. It should be observed that where there is menace of corruption in a society, there is also no peace. This is because corruption brings disorder and lack of peace in the society.

According to Edward P. DeBerri,

“Pope John XXIII wrote two major social encyclical letters on the central issues of his day. In Christianity and Social Progress (Mater et Magistra, 1961) and Peace on Earth (Pacem in Terris, 1963), Pope

1208 Edward P. DeBerri, James E. Hug with Peter J. Henriot and Michael J. Shultheis CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING-Our Best Kept Secret, 1992 Centre of Concern Washington D.C. 20017 p 21

1209 Ibid.



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John set forth a number of principles to guide both Christians and policy makers in addressing the gap between rich and the poor nations and the threats to world peace. He called on committed Christians and all people of good will to work together to create local, national, and global institutions which would both respect human dignity and promote justice and peace.”1210

This call by Pope to respect human dignity and promote justice and peace is very important in the world disorganized selfishness, poverty and injustice as the result of the menace of corruption in the society. In this way, the Pope, through his emphasis in peace on earth has paved the way for all to continue the fight against corruption in the world.

As Edward P. DeBerri puts it,

“Peace is the fruit of justice and is dependent upon solidarity and right order among humans and among nations. Catholic social thought demands an end to the armed race and widespread trafficking in arms. Progressive disarmament is essential to future security in order to promote peace and the condition of peace an effective international authority is necessary.” 1211(Peace on Earth/Pacem in Terris)

All the people of the world are called by this social teaching, to embrace the Christian value of peace to fight corruption in all its ramifications since corruption is the root of disorder in the world.

5. SERVICE

This is another very important Christian value that can be used as an anti corruption control strategy.

Properly understood, service is a revolutionary concept. The call to serve one another in love stands in stark contrast to the normal human desire for position and preference and all notions of freedom, where that is understood as ability to do what suits me, or my family or my group best. The notion of service calls individuals to lay these things aside for the needs of others. It is also an important value for all relationships. It shows that meaning is found in service rather than in self-





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centredness. Corruption on the other hand has to do with self-centredness and personal gain. For this reason, corruption is opposed to service.

The idea of Christian service has no better starting point than the Jesus’ willingness to serve humanity by giving up his life in order that others might be saved. As he said of himself, he did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as ransom for many. In this and in many other ways, including washing the feet of his disciples he set Christians an example for them to follow. Greatness according to his own scale of measurement, involves being the servant of others.

Service therefore is totally against the spirit of corruption. All humanity is called to Christian service after the mind of Christ as an important to fight corruption in the World.

B. AFRICAN VALUES

I wish to say here that the term African values historically refer to the values derived from the African thoughts and cultures throughout the history of the people of Africa. The term has various applications and meanings, and specific definitions can vary widely between African countries, geographical locations, and different Languages. But there are some African values that are common to all Africans. Africans use these values also to fight corruption.

It is important to note that there are indispensable basic social values in African tradition which are for genuine development. The question of value is akin to human society and activities. Every society has set of values, covering every aspect of human endeavour in that society.

Like the West, Africa (and Nigeria in Particular) has its own cultural values or value system. These values play apparently regulatory role in human relationships and also stabilizing factor in the giving society; in our own case, it plays important role in the corruption control strategy in Africa, and Nigeria in particular.

African Cultural values include: (1) Sense of community (2) Sense of Respect for Authority and Elders (3) Sense of good human relations (4) Sense of hospitality (5) Sense of the sacred and religion (6) Sense of time (7) Sense of sacredness of life.



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1. SENSE OF COMMUNITY

When we speak of sense of community with regards African culture and values, we observe immediately the love that Africans have for the human person and his identity within a given community. As Davidson puts it,

“Go the way that many people go; if you go alone, you will have reason to lament.”1212

This means that the African idea of security and its value depends on personal identification with and within the community. Communalism in Africa is a system that is both suprasensible and material in its terms of reference. Both are found in a society that is believed by the Africans to be originally god-made because it transcends the people who live in it now, and it is man-made because it cannot culturally understood independent of those who live in it now.

The community is the custodian of the individual hence he must go where the community goes. In the material term of reference, the individual must go to the community centre or village square which is a social, political judicial and religious centre. It is the communal meeting place for political discussions, communal tribunals, sports and games. It is therefore traditional place of congregation for the entire community. In this sense, the community is man-made. Again, the important events in and around the community are well known to its members. And because at the community centre, their tutelary deity often has a shrine, the centres therefore become also the centre of communal religious worship, sacrifices and festivities. In this sense, the communities there gathered becomes god-made.

This community also, within this transcendental term of reference-god-made, becomes the custodian of the individual’s ideas. This why, beyond the community-the clan-for the African, according to Davidson,

“there stood the void in strong and ever present contrast. Outside this ancestrally chartered system there lay no possible life, since a man without lineage is a man without citizenship: without identity, and therefore without allies...; or as the Kongo put it, a man outside his clan is like grasshopper which has lost its wings.”1213 The clan here is ‘clan vital’ that is –a living clan.1214

1212 Davidson B, The African Genius, Boston, 1969, p 31.

1213 Davidson B, Op. Cit. P 55.

1214 ‘Clan vital’- ‘a living clan’ is a community where real life is assured, were one can suffer neither social nor cultural alienation. It is a clan that is alive because life in it is human and humane.



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In another sense, the community offers the Africans the psychological and ultimate security as it gives its members both physical and ideological identity. It must be noted that in the African mentality, the community as an entity remains, while individuals, as persons, come and go. Therefore, the Africans emphasize community life and communalism as a living principle of which the basic ideology is community – identity. Its aim is to produce and present an individual as a community culture bearer. Culture is a community property and must therefore be community-protected.

Also, the individual in an African community is the ‘clan vital’ protected. His individual identity is not emphasized at the expense of his community. This why individualism, as an ideology and principle of life, is not encouraged in Africa, even though it is not destroyed. According to Biko,

“ We regard our living together not as an unfortunate mishap warranting endless competition among us but as a deliberate act of God to make us a community of brothers and sisters jointly involved in the quest for a composite answer to the varied problems of life. Hence in all we do, we always place man first and hence all our action is usually joint community oriented action rather than the individualism.”1215

Furthermore, living together and the sense of community of brothers and sisters are the basis of, and the expression of, the extended family system in Africa. The rationale behind it according to Davidson is that,

“that balance of kinship relations, seen as essential to the ideal balance with nature that was itself the material guarantee of survival, called for specific patterns of conduct. Individuals might have rights, but they had them only by virtue of the obligations, they fulfil to the community. This explains (the African) logic of regarding legality in terms of individual obligations, not of individual rights. At least in (our) jural and moral assumptions, (our) communities lived at an opposite extreme from the free enterprise individualism which supposes that the community has rights only by virtue of the obligations it fulfils to the individual.”1216

The philosophy behind African communalism, therefore guaranteed individual responsibility within the communal ownership and relationship. The prosperity of a single person, says an African adage, does not make a town rich, but the prosperity of a town makes persons rich. Put in another way, a person can only be truly safe in a safe community. Seen on the economic level, Biko observed that in an African community:

1215 Biko Steve, I write what I like, New York, 1978, p 42.

1216 Davidson B, The African Genius, Boston, 1969, p 57.



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“Poverty was a foreign concept. This could only be really brought about to the entire community by an adverse climate during a particular season. It never was considered repugnant to ask one’s neighbours for help if one was struggling. In all instances there was help between individuals, tribe, chief and chief, etc, even in spite of war.”1217 This explains why a community may have poor people but it may not have beggars.1218

Also, the traditional African community attitude to work was another factor which made it impossible for us to have beggars within the clan vital. It is true that,

“When a job had to be done, the whole community turned out with supplies and music and proceeded to sing and dance its way through to the successful conclusion of each particular chore. In this way work was converted into a pleasurable productive pastime.”1219

Generally speaking, the goodwill and brotherly atmosphere normally inspired and sustained during the work period, by music, justifies its usage. But what is more important is the solidarity it fosters. For this Obiechina wrote,

“Whether the musical situation is meant to provide entertainment or is created for ritual and religious purposes, the ultimate effect seem the same: to bring the community together.”1220

It should be noted that the community is three dimensional; the ancestors- those who lived, the living- the present generation, and Future society- those to be born (the future generation).

These three dimensional understanding of the society is very vital in an individual’s communal and social behaviours. This interwovenness controls the conscience both the individual and the group. This makes corruption difficult if not impossible in the real traditional African community. This is because before any person or group decide to indulge in any corrupt act, he or she must take these three dimensional community aspects into consideration.

1217 Biko Steve, I write what I like, New York, 1978, p 43.

1218 A beggar in this context is someone who is not accommodated in the elastic means of the community’s life and resources. That means, he or she is outside the ‘clan vital’ and therefore has no hope of survival.

1219 Okafor F. C, Africa at Crossroads New York, 1974. P 22.

1220 Obiechina, E, p 58.



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2. SENSE OF RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY AND ELDERS

This is another important African value that is very vital as an anti-corruption control strategy. Generally, Africans have deep respect for elders. This respect starts from within ones immediate family. For this, the Yerubas in Nigeria has an adage that says ‘Obileye’ which means that respect tarts from our immediate family elders.

According to William Conton,

“Africans generally have deep and ingrained respect for old age, and even when we can find nothing to admire in an old man, we will not easily forget that his grey hairs have earned him right to courtesy and politeness.”1221

Though it is natural for the African to respect, an elder, this respect in some cases, can be relative to what ‘we can find’ and admire in an elder.

The elders in Africa are respected for many reasons. For instance, they are believed to be the teachers and directors of the young. Among the Efik, it is said: ‘The words of one’s elders are greater than amulets.’ It means that they give more protection than the amulet does. In the same way, the Igbo say: One who listens to an elder is like one who consults an oracle. This is because the oracles are believed to give the infallible truths, thus the elders are also believed to say the truth and their words and instructions are heeded to for the promotion of good behaviour among the young. Atypical example of the practical moral effect of the elders’ words are contained in this poem of Matei Markwei,

“In our little village when elders are around, boys must not look at girls and girls must not look boys because the elders say that is not good.”1222

Again, the elders are respected because they are taken to be the repository of communal wisdom and therefore they are conceded leadership in the affairs of the people. This is because the elders are believed to be nearer to the ancestors. And in the African concept,

According to Davidson,

“Legitimate power lay in the office sanctioned by ancestral norms, not in the person; and the person lost his right to exact obedience once he abused that office.”1223

1221 Conton William, The African, London, 1966, p 21.

1222 Matei Markwei, Life in Our Village, in African Writing (ed), P. Zebala and C. Rossell, London 1979, p 15.

1223 Chieka Ifemesia, Traditional Humane Living among the Igbos, Enugu 1979, p 2



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Consequently, the respect given to the elders have its practical effect in the maintenance of custom and tradition. The young are always looking forward to being elders and they are often told that if a child respects an elder, he will be respected by the young when he becomes an elder.

Furthermore, the elders are always in charge of maintaining law and order. The elders are the judges. They decide who would be punished for one case or the other. This is because they are invested with wisdom and are the custodians’ of cultures and traditions. With these powers invested in them, they control effectively the community. And this is a very important aspect regarding corruption control system. If anybody or any group dare to indulge in corrupt behaviours, he or she will be ruthlessly dealt with according to the law and the customs of the land irrespective of who you are.

The care of the aged, as an African institution, is situated within the family. It is so cherished and so organised that there is no need, in the African setting, for nursing homes for the aged, as exist today in Europe and America. The idea of old people’s home and its introduction to Africa would lead to the abuse of African sense of, and the respect for old age.

According to Onwumbiko,

“...respect for elders also has a corresponding responsibility, on the part of the elders attached to it, and the reception of this respect is dependent on the execution of that responsibility; it is based on the reciprocal exercise of duties/rights, based on the old/young relationship.”1224

This cordial relationship is represented and expressed in certain African culture with music, for instance, if the elder beat ‘okolo eto,’ that means, may the young never mature-the young naturally must begin to dance ‘anyi asoghi anya okemmadu’ that means, we do no longer respect the elders. But if the elders beat the normal music and, instead, the young dance: ‘we do no longer respect the elders,’ the elders automatically begin to beat; ‘may the young never mature.

Consequently, the adult who does his duty demands this right. In Igbo symbolism, the socio- political life, within the cultural context, is represented by a drum from which the elders must beat out the music and at the pace which the young must dance.

1224 Onwumbiko Oliver, African Thought, Religion and Culture. Enugu: Bigard Memorial Seminary, 1991 p 24.



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3. SENSE OF GOOD HUMAN RELATIONS

This is one of the most important African values which are used as an anti-corruption strategy. For the Africans, life is based on the philosophy of live-and let-live. This presupposes inter-personal and inter-community relationship realized in the interaction between individuals of the same community and different communities. The difference between individuals recognizes their worth as human beings and not only what they possess or what can they do for each other, even though these can come as later or secondary considerations in terms of reciprocity and in terms of inter-personal relationship.

According to Chieka,

“The African way of life emphatically centred on human interests and values; a mode of living evidently characterized by empathy, and by consideration and compassion for human beings.”1225

Consequently, a good human relationship based on inter-personal communication has always been emphasized in the African community.

According to Biko,

“Ours has always been a man-centred society. Westerners have in many occasions been surprised at the capacity we have for talking to each other not for the sake of arriving at a particular conclusion, but merely to enjoy the communication for its own sake. Intimacy is a term not exclusive for particular friends but applying to a whole group of people who find themselves together whether through work or residential requirements.”1226

But the discussions must respect individuals’ sentiments; hence conversations that may cause misgivings are avoided. That is why the Yoruba people say,

“The fingers of a man who has only nine are not counted in his presence.”1227

This respect for the dignity of human person is deeply rooted in African culture that people avoid as far as possible anything that would hurt the other person in so far he or she is a human being including corrupt practices. Because corruption destabilizes the social order and the individuals as well, the respect for human relation which is deeply rooted in African culture is a

1225 Chieka Ifemesia, Traditional Humane Living among the Igbos, Enugu 1979, p 2.

1226 Biko Steve op. Cit p 41.

1227 Yoruba is one of the tribes that make up Nigeria. They speak Yoruba language and live in the Western part on Nigeria.



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very powerful instrument for anti-corruption strategy. The modern African society is advised to continue in this openness of attitude towards the other. This is because some African politicians nowadays seem to be slacking back to an unwelcomed behaviour of secrecy, and bias system, in the discharge of their political duties. According to report,

“for effective control of corruption in Nigeria, the society must develop a culture of relative openness, in contrast to the current bureaucratic climate of secrecy. And a merit system (instead of the tribal bias, state of origin and nepotism or favouritism, which have coloured the landscape) should be adopted in employment and distribution of national resources, etc. More importantly, the leadership must muster the political will to tackle the problem head-on”1228.


“Unique and unrepeatable in his individuality, every person is a being who is open to relationships with others in society”.1229

4. SENSE OF HOSPITALITY

Another very important African value is the African sense of hospitality. The African sense of hospitality is one of the African values that is still very much alive. Sense of hospitality is inherently indispensible in the currently survival of African values. There is always spontaneous welcome and accommodation to strangers and visitors. Africans easily incorporate and give them lands to settle hoping that, they would go one day that the land will be reverted to the original owner of the land. This is usually done with the belief that one will never opt out of his own community. For this reason, they do not imagine that others could do so.

Unlike the West, no appointment and special invitation are needed for one to visit a distant relation or neighbour. On arrival, once there is food, the visitor is invited to eat. He is treated kindly, just as one would wish to be treated when visiting another home.

Africans has symbolic ways of expressing welcome. These are in the forms of presentation of kola nuts, traditional gin, cohise chalks, cool or cold water, coconuts, etc, in various communities. These are given to show that he or she is welcome and safe. Among the Igbos, the basis of hospitality is the generally accepted principle that a guest should not harm his or her host so that when he or she departs, he or she should not develop a hunch back on the way home.

1228 See report on Second Global Forum on Fighting and Safeguarding Integrity, May 28-31, 1999. 1229Compendium of the “Social Doctrine of the Church.” 2004. No.61. p34.



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According to Okafor Festus,

“In traditional African culture, whenever there is food to be taking, everyone Present is invited to participate even if the food was prepared for far less number of people without anticipating the arrival of visitors. It would be a height of incredible bad manners for one to eat anything however small, without sharing it with anyone else present, or at least expressing the intention to do so.”1230

From this quotation, one now sees the reason why the Africans are generous and harmless to strangers and visitors, avoiding anything that would harm them including corrupt practices.

5. SENSE OF THE SACRED AND OF RELIGION

In traditional African societies there were no atheists. This is because religion in the indigenous culture was not an independent institution. It is an integral and inseparable part of the entire culture. Africans are deeply religious, for Africans life is religion and vice versa. The attachment to and worship of God, form a dominating part of their world view. All they do or say and permit is impregnated with a vision of the divine, and all natural reality is explainable in function of the supernatural. One’s entire action is reflective of one’s religious concepts and practices as is seen in the ordering of society. This because social morality is dependent on religion, according to Idowu Bolaji1231,

“With Yerubas, Morality is certainly the fruit of religion. They do not make any attempt to separate the two; and it is impossible, for them to do so without disastrous consequences.”

Consequently, to many Africans it is perverse and perhaps sacrilegious to separate the moral and religious values; if separable at all; religious values are more fundamental and undergird the moral values. It is the presence of religion that lends meaning and authority to values. The sense of religion which is our spiritual selves is that of instinctive feelings of ones with the divine, or our longings for and intimations with of immorality. Religious or spiritual element in African man characterizes our relation with the divine, with God and or gods. And it is an indubitable


1231 Idowu Bolaji, God in Yoruba belief, London, 1962, P 146.



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fact that this sense of religion is the promotion of moral excellence. For this reason corruption is abhorred in the real African tradition. Corruption is seen as ungodly and immoral.

It is the sense of religion that naturally endowed man with respect for human life and human dignity. As Akinpelu puts it,

“such a respect definitely lacks depth and authority if based simply on moral considerations

Or moral arrangements between men, except of course, if the morality is conceived as one and the same with religion in the first instance,”1232

The Importance of religion to social to social relationship is emphasized when you compare Western European values with African Values.

To the Western European, there is nothing to consign their old and helpless relations to the old people’s Homes. That might even seem more human than to abandon them. But to the African mind, even that so-called humane treatment is a betrayal of fundamental assumption behind the Western man’s idea of man’s worth; namely, that a man is deserving of respect or is worth only, and in so far as, he is virile and productive, when he is no longer so, the next human thing is entrust his welfare to institution officers and caretakers. That is an abomination to the African mind. The care of the aged, as an African institution is situated in the family.

It is so cherished and so organized that there is no need, in the African setting, for the cheerless nursing homes for the aged as exist today in Europe and America. The idea of old people’s Home and its introduction into Africa would lead to the abuse of the African sense of and respect for old age. It is a common belief among Africans that the older they are, the greater the respect and care. This is because the nearer they are to the point of becoming the spiritual entities, which is the continuity of existence, only at the different level of conception. Hence, the spiritual element runs deep in the personal and interpersonal value system of the African.

6. SENSE OF TIME

The question of the African sense of time has arisen because of some dangerous conclusions some writers on Africa have drawn. Strange enough some of them are Africans; here we would like to pay attention to the views of Mbiti on this question. He began to discuss the “African sense of time as a key to our understanding of the basic religious and philosophical concepts.” But his findings and conclusions are very strange.

1232 Akinpelu, J. A, “Values in Nigerian Society” in New Perspective in Moral Education. Otoni A. Ndubuka and E.O. Iheoma (Eds) Ibadan: Evans Brothers, Nigerian Publishers Ltd 1983 p 37.



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According to him,

“The question of time is of little or no academic concern to African people in their traditional life. For them, time is simply a composition of events which have occurred, which are immediately to occur... The most significant consequence of this is that, according to the traditional concepts, time is a two –dimensional phenomenon, with a long past, a present and virtually no future. The linear concept of time in Western thought, with an infinite future, is practically foreign to African thinking.”1233

Of course, the linear concept of time is not ´Western` but Judeo-Christian. Cyclic notion of time was part of the pre- Christian Western culture. And when Mbiti talks of time as of being of no academic importance among the African people, he is thinking of time in terms of ‘education’ which he, in this context, must be considering as a purely western cultural academics. He forgot that time, within our African culture is socialised.

As Obiechina E, puts it,

“Thus time apart from being reckoned by such events as the first and the second cock-crow, sunrise, sunset, overhead sun, or length of shadow is also reckoned by meal times, wine- tapping times, and time of return from the farm and so on. These factors are not arbitrary. For instance the use of meal periods does not mean that all eat their meals at exactly the same time, but that everyone has a reasonably accurate idea of what is meant.”1234

Obiechina, here, has made a striking distinction between the “Clock time” and “Socialised time.”1235

He brought out clearly the concept of time and the different elements with which it is reckoned in traditional African culture.

In the African culture, time is polychromous in the sense that a person can do three or more things within a given period but simultaneously. Clock time thinks of them being done successively. For instance, a woman in a typical Igbo village of Nigeria Africa could be doing her cooking, at the same time her palm kernel, she may still within this period attend to her baby and would be prepared to attend to anything that may come up. In a natural image, some authors have depicted this polychromous concept and use of time in Africa with the image of an African woman


1234 Obiechina, E, P 123.

1235 “Socialised time”; is the use of time which does not sacrifice social duties and human relations on the altar of the clock-time punctuality.



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who could be pregnant, while at the same time carrying a baby on her back and at the same time carrying a load on her head. Combining responsibilities is an aspect of our culture that is directly influenced by our communalism and our sense of time. Therefore time was for man to control and not time to control man. This does not mean, nor imply that Africans had no sense of punctuality in their concept of time.

Despite the events Obiechina mentioned in the quotation above to denote time, the Africans also make use of market days to indicate definite time and use of weeks to denote cyclic time. According to Onwumbiko, historic time

“is determined by reference to land marks in the life of the community, to contemporaneous events or by recourse to a geological ‘chat.”1236

Consequently, the African refer to any period in their history, no matter how distant how distant. When event that took place in the “infinite past” are referred to, the Africans use symbolic expressions such as “when lizards were few and far apart.” The saying is based on another one. The Africans (Igbos) say, he who has no house has no lizards. Therefore, the saying- ‘when lizards were few and far apart’ refers to when there were few people on earth. Achebe tells us in the words of Ezeulu, as he-Ezeulu recounts the antiquity of his priesthood that:

“At that time...when lizards were sill in ones and twos, the whole people assembled and chose me to carry their new deity.”1237

It is interesting to note that, this is part of the priestly recitation of the history of the origin of that deity.

Also, Mbiti’s belief that the Africans do not conceive of the infinite future time is not correct because the Africans do believe in the future and can also conceive of the future. For this reason, Kato wrote,

“We absolutely believe in the future. We even believe in the future resurrection. This is demonstrated by burial ceremonies and the contact we maintain with the spirits of the dead.”1238

It is not uncommon to hear people talking of “African time” to mean that Africans have no sense of punctuality. This statement always refers to half –Europeanised and half de-Africanised Africans who are finding it difficult to adjust to the “Clock- time” category. The traditional African


1237 Achebe C, Arrow of God, London, 1975, p 70.

1238Kato B.H., Theological Pitfall in Africa, Kenya, Kisumu, 1976, P 61.



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is a master of time and not otherwise. This why time is socialised, that is, time is programmed into socio-cultural norms of human behaviour and inter-personal relationship. If, according to Nkem Nwankwo, “Punctuality is not one the virtues of the Aniocha man,” it is because, “ He takes time over his snuff and his palm wine and if you attempted to hurry him from either he would excuse himself by reminding you of the proverb; where the runner reaches there the walker will reach eventually.”1239 The most important was to arrive.

Finally, it must be noted that on the other hand, Africans do have and conceive of time in the punctual sense. That is, at a particular time things must happen, have effect or must be done. This can easily be discovered in African religious concepts. There are specific times sacrifices must be offered and no more. On the other hand, the African use of time does not sacrifice social duties and human relations on the altar of clock-time punctuality. That is that their time has also human face consideration.

7. SENSE OF LANGUAGE AND PROVERBS.

Language expressed in speech is an important vehicle of thought and culture. People express their thought in speech and both are determined, to a great extent, by their culture. The culture element in language has been noted by Swartz and Alland when they noted that different language organise the world differently, and no individual is free to describe with absolute impartiality what he observes in other cultures because he must be constrained by certain modes of interpretation. The principle of relativity in this regard holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar.1240

There is an African proverb which says that, the stranger who returns from a journey may tell all he has seen, but he cannot explain all. This is because for him to explain all, he must share the people’s language categories. This is why translations are often defective. The famous Italian proverb says: ‘Traddutore traditore,’ which means, a translator is a traitor. Put in another way, the French say: ‘Les Tradutions sont comme les femmes: lorsqu’elles sont helles, ells ne sont pas fideles, et losqu’elles sont fideles, ells ne sont pas belles.’ This, in English, runs thus: translations

1239 Nwankwo Nkem, Danda, London, 1975 p 42.

1240 Swartz M.J., Culture, New York, 1980, p 366; Alland A., To be Human- An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, New York, 1981, P 33.



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are like women: when they are beautiful, they are not faithful, and when they are faithful, they are not beautiful.

That a translation is not beautiful when it is faithful to the original language only expresses the inability of the stranger to appreciate the beauty native to the language. For the African, if an individual is not able to communicate with the native language, the individual, ideologically, puts himself outside the community. Speaking a language, does not, in the African sense, depend on the peripheral knowledge of the language. It depends on the ability to express oneself adequately in the proverbs and idioms of the language community. These proverbs, idioms, riddles are based and determined by the culture of the community. According to an African saying:

“The child who carries an elder’s bag has a very good chance of being a wise man in his life. He follows his father to meetings and places, and listens to the wise words the elders speak. The result is that he knows at an early age those idioms and proverbs with which we fool the foolish and baffle the stranger, and also the customs of the land.”1241

Also, familiarity with proverbs, riddles and idioms of a community, means a thorough knowledge of that community. This is because these are drawn from, and refer to, the environment, social order and behaviour common in that community. They determine the norms of action in that community and above all, they are didactic in nature. According to Okafor,

“...what James Johnson admitted of Yoruba Moral system can be said of many other African communities. According to Johnson, the Yoruba moral system taught that religiousness, reverence foe ancestors and authority, filial piety, chastity, truthfulness, honesty and kindness. These were taught through different avenues of acculturation, including parables and proverbs.”1242

From this quotation, one can see that through language and proverbs, so many virtues that are against corruption like truthfulness, honesty and kindness can be inculcated firmly in the minds of the people culturally at a very early stage of the life of the people of the community especially the children who are the future of tomorrow. Through this method, corruption is minimized and controlled in Africa.

Furthermore, proverbs can be looked at from another point of view as a symbolic language in which the discovery of the meaning of the words and the phrases demands a penetration of the mind of the speaker. This could be why the Yoruba say that proverbs are horses we ride to search for truth. In another way, the Igbo say that proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten. In

1241 Munoye John, the Only Son, London, 1977, p 31.




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short, the use and understanding of the proverbs mark the adult usage and maturity in an African language.

In the “Arrow of God,” Ogazulobodo summarises the crisis in Umuaro with a cluster of proverbs thus:

“... when a hand shake passes the elbow it becomes another thing. The sleep that lasts from one market to another has become death.. The man, who likes the meat of the funeral ram, why does he recover when sickness visits him? The mighty tree falls and the birds scatter in the bush... The little bird which hops off the ground and lands on an anthill may not know it, but it is still on the ground... A common snake which a man sees all alone may become a python in his eyes... The very thing which kills the Mother Rat is always there to make sure that its young ones never open their eyes... The boy who persists in asking what happened to his father before he has enough strength to avenge him is asking for his father’s fate... The man who belittles the sickness which Monkeys has suffered should ask to see the eyes which the nurse got from blowing the sick fire... When death wants to take a little dog, it prevents it from smelling even excrement.”1243

These proverbs were spoken within the traditional usage of familiar and local images to bring home to the addressee the content of the speech. One is truly a member of the community if he can live within this climate and level of communication within it.

Finally, I wish to observe, that the social values enumerated above are manifestations of African humanism. These values have survived the western cultural adulterations by colonialism. African social values centre on human worth and form a comprehensive system which has behind it some identifiable metaphysical beliefs about man and his world. For instance, man in African traditional culture is not just an individual who ‘contracts’ to live with others in the society, and presumably opts out if the balance of advantage is no longer favourable. Rather the African man is first and foremost a member of his family, extended family, the community and his society in that order before being an individual. According to Lambo,

“the Africans find it difficult to conceive a man as a purely contemplative man: for them human qualities presupposes a world of human relations. Thus the influence of group consciousness is recognised as the motivating idea and thought.”1244

Limbos’ statement presupposes the social and communal nature of African man as against the individualism of the West. There is a metaphysical belief in the superiority of the claims of the

1243 Achebe C, Arrow of God, London, 1975, p 65.

1244 Lambo, 127.



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family and the community over the individual which re-echoes throughout the various values that we have considered here.

African social values are both man-centred and community-centred. This being the case, it is not a surprise that human dignity and the respect for human life are of supreme importance. The social values are tailored to ensure a man’s tenure of life, right from birth until old age. These social values considered are ingrained in African personality that they are taking as mirrors for our authenticity as Africans. The enduring nature of these values, in spite of cultural upheaval engendered by colonialism is as a result of inherent humanism associated with them. Anyone who casts reflection on the ways of speaking about these social values is bound to be struck by the pre-occupation with human welfare. For an African, what is morally good is what it what befits a human being, it is what is decent for man, that is what brings dignity, respect, contentment, prosperity and joy to man and his community. These social values enhance human development and safe guard against corruption in so far as corruption hinders human development and consequently affects adversely the individual and communal development.

I want to point out here that, it is anthropologically fallacious to say that Western European culture and colonialism have destroyed the whole of African culture as some people think and say, however, the infiltration and the influence of the Western culture affected and diluted some of our African culture and values but not all. For instance, the extended family system and the care for the elderly have been weakened in some African countries but not destroyed entirely. This weakening of the African culture and values due to the infiltrations and the adoptions of certain Western values have in no small measure brought abnormality in our African society.

This is why the present social dispensation that is foreign to the African culture and values

have brought a lot of social ills like ‘Corruption’ in many African societies. This is manifest in the promotion of individualism and self interest as against communalism and brotherly love. The of such Western Values that are foreign to our culture into the political and economic arenas has set the society backwards due to corruption that come with it.

For this reason, lives are seen as competitions. The ‘love your neighbour as yourself-brotherly love’ for which we are known and which is the back-ground of our valued-system has been relegated to the background and nothingness. Instead of progressing, some African countries like Nigeria keep on going backwards. Due to the neglect of these positive African Cultural Values, corruption and other social ills abound; man is seen a treat to one another, human development hindered adversely.

I wish to observe that for us to win the war against corruption, underdevelopment and to restore the respect to human dignity and love, the positive African values must be encouraged and promoted by all, especially the African leadership. I therefore advice, that, we should conscientiously and jealously guard these values because they give us a character that is distinctively and uniquely African.



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Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the Christian values and African values as instruments against corruption do not oppose each other rather; they complement each other in the continued effort to fight corruption in the world.

C. CONCLUSION

I wish to conclude this work by saying that without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is. In the face of the enormous problems surrounding the development of peoples, which almost make us yield to discouragement, we find solace in the ‘sayings’ of our Lord Jesus Christ, who teaches us: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5) and then encourages us: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). As we contemplate the vast amount of work to be done, we are sustained by our faith that God is present alongside those who come together in his name to work for justice. Paul VI recalled in Populorum Progressio that man cannot bring about his own progress unaided, because by himself he cannot establish an authentic humanism.

Only if we are aware of our calling, as individuals and as a community, to be part of God's family as his sons and daughters, will are we able to generate a new vision and muster new energy in the service of a truly integral humanism. The greatest service to development, then, is a Christian humanism1245 that enkindles charity and takes its lead from truth, accepting both as a lasting gift from God. Openness to God makes us open towards our brothers and sisters and towards an understanding of life as a joyful task to be accomplished in a spirit of solidarity.

On the other hand, ideological rejection of God and atheism of indifference, oblivious to the Creator and at risk of becoming equally oblivious to human values, constitute some of the chief obstacles to development today. A humanism which excludes God is an inhuman humanism. Only a humanism open to the Absolute can guide us in the promotion and building of forms of social and civic life structures, institutions, culture and ethos without exposing us to the risk of becoming ensnared by the fashions of the moment.

Awareness of God's undying love sustains us in our laborious and stimulating work for justice and the development of peoples, amid successes and failures, in the ceaseless pursuit of a just ordering of human affairs. God's love calls us to move beyond the limited and the ephemeral, it gives us the courage to continue seeking and working for the benefit of all, even if this cannot be

1245 Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio 42: loc. cit., 278.



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achieved immediately and if what we are able to achieve, alongside political authorities and those working in the field of economics, is always less than we might wish1246. God gives us the strength to fight and to suffer for love of the common good, because he is our All, our greatest hope.

Development needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in prayer, Christians moved by the knowledge that truth-filled love, caritas in Veritate, from which authentic development proceeds, is not produced by us, but given to us. For this reason, even in the most difficult and complex times, besides recognizing what is happening, we must above all else turn to God's love. Development requires attention to the spiritual life, a serious consideration of the experiences of trust in God, spiritual fellowship in Christ, reliance upon God's providence and mercy, love and forgiveness, self-denial, acceptance of others, justice and peace. All this is essential if “hearts of stone” are to be transformed into “hearts of flesh” (Ezek 36:26), rendering life on earth “divine” and thus more worthy of humanity. All this is of man, because man is the subject of his own existence; and at the same time it is of God, because God is at the beginning and end of all that is good, all that leads to salvation: “the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's” (1 Cor 3:22-23). Christians long for the entire human family to call upon God as “Our Father!” In union with the only-begotten Son, may all people learn to pray to the Father and to ask him, in the words that Jesus himself taught us, for the grace to glorify him by living according to his will, to receive the daily bread that we need, to be understanding and generous towards our debtors, not to be tempted beyond our limits, and to be delivered from evil (cf. Mt 6:9-13).

At the conclusion of the Pauline Year, Pope Paul VI, gladly expressed this hope in the Apostle's own words, taken from the Letter to the Romans: “Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honour” (Rom 12:9-10). May the Virgin Mary proclaimed Mater Ecclesiae by Paul VI and honoured by Christians as Speculum Iustitiae and Regina Pacis protect us and obtain for us, through her heavenly intercession, the strength, hope and joy necessary to continue to dedicate ourselves with generosity to the task of bringing about the “development of the whole man and of all men.1247

Finally, I am of the view that for “Us” including the church, to help solve the problem of corruption in the World and Africa in particular and its attendant evils, we could come out openly and fearlessly to be ready to call a spade a spade and even to die for justice. In addition, we could establish a special contingency fund for the welfare of human victims of those acts of civil disobedience and non-violent protests that are sponsored by the group.

1246 Cf. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Sper Salvi, 35: loc. cit., 1013-1014. 1247 Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 42: loc. cit., 278.



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Once the people are made aware of their responsibility as Christians in the task of social transformation, and they are adequately enlightened on what they and future generations stand to gain from the positive outcome of these protest activities, they should then be ready to make some financial sacrifices towards the success of the various programmes. Each Station, Parish, and Diocese could set aside a percentage of its income per annum for this special contingency fund. These days, second collections are taken in catholic churches for one project or the other. One Sunday in the month could be set aside for the success of the church’s social apostolate, also to make an appeal by taking a collection for the special fund. There are individual Christians who would be ready to make pledges of annual or monthly contributions to such a fund.

Our people are naturally generous, and would be ready to make sacrifices for the success of the church’s programmes for social transformation. Also there are many foreign donor agencies these days that show special interest in church –based projects aimed at people’s empowerment, social awareness and mass mobilization. Some of them could be approached for financial contribution to this fund. Even in peace time such a fund will still be very useful for implementing the church’s social welfare programmes, such as the provision of legal aid to poor detainees, and the many victims of the social justice and corruption in the society. All hands should be on deck for us to fight this endemic social evil called corruption in all its ramifications. This becomes easier by the urgent and effective application of ‘Corruption Control Strategy’ that is inclusive of all stake holders as we have seen discussed and more, as; ‘the Way- Out.’

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Gallagher, Tom (2012-08-09). "The EU Can't Ignore Its Romania Problem". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443792604577572910124653818.html?mod=googlenews_wsj. Retrieved 2012-08-10.



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"Roosevelt, Theodore. ''An Autobiography:'' XV. The Peace of Righteousness, Appendix B, New York: Macmillan, 1913". Bartleby.com. http://www.bartleby.com/55/15b.html. Retrieved 2009-12-05.

"Asia Media: Right to Information Act India's magic wand against corruption". Asiamedia.ucla.edu. 2006-08-31. http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=52046. Retrieved 2009-11-05.

Mathiason, Nick (2007-01-21). "Western bankers and lawyers 'rob Africa of $150bn every year". London: Observer.guardian.co.uk. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1994976,00.html. Retrieved 2009-12-05.

"Why benchmarking works – PSD Blog – World Bank Group". Psdblog.worldbank.org. 2006-08-17. http://psdblog.worldbank.org/psdblog/2006/08/why_benchmarkin.html#more.Retrieved 2009-11-05.

Damania, Richard; Bulte, Erwin (July 2003). "Resources for Sale: Corruption, Democracy and the Natural Resource Curse" (PDF). Centre for International Economic Studies, University of Adelaide. http://www.adelaide.edu.au/cies/papers/0320.pdf. Retrieved 2010-12-11.

Soutik Biswas (1-18-2011). "Is India sliding into a hereditary monarchy?"... BBC. BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2011/01/is_india_sliding_into_a.html.Retrieved 3 September 2011.

Deo, Manjeet; Kripalani (8-5-2011). "The Gandhi dynasty: Politics as usual".Rediff. Rediff News. http://www.rediff.com/news/column/the-gandhi-dynasty-politics-as-usual/20110805.htm.Retrieved 3 September 2011.

"Lessons From the No 1". Project Syndicate. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sachs110. Retrieved 2009-11-05.

Privatization in Competitive Sectors: The Record to Date. Sunita Kikeri and John Nellis. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2860, June 2002. Econ.Chula.ac.t iPrivatization and Corruption. David Martimort and Stéphane Straub. IDEI.fr.

Who wants to be a millionaire? – An online collection of Nigerian scam mails

"Nigeria's corruption totals $400 billion". Malaysia Today. June 27, 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20071211033642/http://www.malaysia-today.net/Bl e/2005/06/nigerias-corruption-totals-400-billion.htm.



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Barenboim, Peter (October 2009). Defining the rules. Issue 90. The European Lawyer.

"Mobile Phones and Radios Combat Corruption in Burundi – Voices from Emerging Markets".Voicesfromemergingmarkets.com. 2009-03-12. http://voicesfromemergingmarkets.com/?p=19. Retrieved 2009-11-05.

"Committee of Ministers - Home". Coe.int. http://www.coe.int/t/cm/Home_en.asp. Retrieved 2012-06-07.

http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=173&CL=ENG

http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=174&CM=1&DF=7/18/2008&CL=ENG.

http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=191&CM=1&DF=7/18/2008&CL=ENG

http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/greco/documents/Resolution(97)24_EN.pdf

http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/greco/documents/Rec(2000)10_EN.pdf ttp://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/greco/general/Rec(2003)4_EN.pdf

Global Integrity. September 5, 2008. http://commons.globalintegrity.org/2008/09/users-guide-to-measuring-corruption.html. Retrieved 2010-12-11.

Galtung, Fredrik (2006). "Measuring the Immeasurable: Boundaries and Functions of (Macro) Corruption Indices," in Measuring Corruption, Charles Sampford, Arthur Shacklock, Carmel Connors, and Fredrik Galtung, Eds. (Ashgate): 101–130.

Sik, Endre (2002). "The Bad, the Worse and the Worst: Guesstimating the Level of Corruption," in Political Corruption in Transition: A Skeptic's Handbook, Stephen Kotkin and Andras Sajo, Eds. (Budapest: Central European University Press): 91–113.

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"Media citing Transparency International". Google.com. http://www.google.com/trends?q=Transparency+International&ctab=-1&geo=all&date=all. Retrieved 2009-12-05.

"A Decade of Measuring the Quality of Governance". The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The World Bank. 2007. p. 3. Archived from the original on 2008-05-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20080527211855/http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi2007/pdf/booklet_decade_of_measuring_governance.pdf.

"The Global Integrity Report | Global Integrity". Report.globalintegrity.org. http://report.globalintegrity.org/. Retrieved 2012-06-07.

"International Budget Partnership".Internationalbudget.org. 2012-05-28. http://www.internationalbudget.org/. Retrieved 2012-06-07. "The Global Integrity Report: 2009 Methodology White Paper". Global Integrity. 2009. http://report.globalintegrity.org/methodology/whitepaper.cfm Retrieved 2010-12-11."FBI — Public Corruption". Fbi.gov. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/corruption. Retrieved 2012-06-07.

http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org/

Michael W. Collier. (2009) Political Corruption in the Caribbean Basin: Constructing a Theory to Combat Corruption excerpt and text search

Charles Copeman and Amy McGrath (eds.)(1997), Corrupt Elections. Ballot Rigging in Australia, Tower house Publications, Kensington, NSW

Donatella della Porta, and Alberto Vannucci, (1999). Corrupt Exchanges: Actors, Resources, and Mechanisms of Political Corruption. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Axel Dreher, Christos Kotsogiannis, Steve McCorriston (2004), Corruption Around the World: Evidence from a Structural Model.

Kimberly Ann Elliott, (ed.) (1997) Corruption and the Global Economy

Robert M. Entman (2012) Scandal and Silence: Media Responses to Presidential Misconduct (Polity Press) 269 pages; case studies from USA 1998 to 2008 indicate the news media neglects many more incidents of corruption than it covers.

Edward L. Glaeser and Claudia Goldin, (eds.) (2006), Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America's Economic History U. of Chicago Press, 386 pp. ISBN 0-226-29957-0.



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Mark Grossman. Political Corruption in America: An Encyclopaedia of Scandals, Power, and Greed (2 vol. 2008)

Arnold J. Heidenheimer, Michael Johnston and Victor T. LeVine (eds.) (1989), Political Corruption: A Handbook 1017 pages.

Richard Jensen. (2001) "Democracy, Republicanism and Efficiency: The Values of American Politics, 1885–1930," in Byron Shafer and Anthony Badger, eds, Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000 pp 149–180; online edition

Michael Johnston, Victor T. LeVine, and Arnold Heidenheimer, eds. (1970) Political Corruption: Readings in Comparative Analysis

Michael Johnston (2005), Syndromes of Corruption: Wealth, Power, and Democracy

Junichi Kawata. (2006) Comparing Political Corruption And Clientelism excerpt and text search

George C. Kohn (2001). The New Encyclopaedia of American Scandal

Johann Graf Lambsdorff (2007), The Institutional Economics of Corruption and Reform: Theory, Evidence and Policy Cambridge University Press

Amy McGrath, (1994), The Forging of Votes, Tower House Publications, Kensington, NSW

Amy McGrath, (2003), Frauding of Elections, Tower House Publications and H.S. Chapman Society, Brighton-le Sands, NSW

Amy McGrath, (1994), The Frauding of Votes, Tower House Publications, Kensington, NSW

Amy McGrath, (2005), The Stolen Election, Australia 1987 According to Frank Hardy, Author of Power Without Glory, Powerhouse Publications and H.S. Chapman Society, Brighton-le Sands, NSW

John Mukum Mbaku. (1999) Bureaucratic and Political Corruption in Africa: The Public Choice Perspective

Stephen D. Morris. (2009) Political Corruption in Mexico: The Impact of Democratization

Aaron G. Murphy. (2010) Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: A Practical Resource for Managers and Executives

Peter John Perry. (2002) Political Corruption in Australia: A Very Wicked Place?



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John F. Reynolds. (1988). Testing Democracy: Electoral Behaviour and Progressive Reform in New Jersey, 1880–1920 on corrupt voting methods

Robert North Roberts. (2001) Ethics in U.S. Government: An Encyclopaedia of Investigations, Scandals, Reforms, and Legislation

James C. Scott. (1972) Comparative Political Corruption

Pietro Semeraro,(2008) Trading in influence and Lobbying in the Spanish Criminal Code

Dennis Thompson. (1995) Ethics in Congress: From Individual to Institutional Corruption, Brookings Institution Press, Washington DC. ISBN 0-8157-8423-6

Mark Wahlgren Summers. (1993) The Era of Good Stealing, corruption in American politics 1868–1877

Darrell M. West (2000), Check book Democracy. How Money Corrupts Political Campaigns, North eastern University Press, Boston (Mass.) ISBN 1-55553-440-6

Alexandra Wrage (2007) Bribery and Extortion: Undermining Business, Governments and Security

Woodward, C. Vann, ed. Responses of the Presidents to Charges of Misconduct (1975), American presidents from Washington to Lyndon Johnson

African corruption 'on the wane', 10 July 2007, BBC News.

Thompson, Dennis. Ethics in Congress: From Individual to Institutional Corruption (Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1995). ISBN 0-8157-8423-6

Luis Flores Ballesteros, "Corruption and development. Does the “rule of law” factor weigh more than we think?"54 Pesos (November 15, 2008). Retrieved April 12, 201

"Corruption and growth in African countries: Exploring the investment channel, lead author Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, Department of Economics" (PDF). University of North Florida. p. 1,2. http://www.uneca.org/aec/documents/Mina%20Baliamoune-Lutz_%20Leonce%20Ndikumana.pdf Retrieved 2012-06-07.

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Sarah Bailey (2008) Need and greed: corruption risks, perceptions and prevention in humanitarian assistance Overseas Development Institute

Fidelman, Charlie (November 27, 2010). "Cash bribes put patients atop surgery waiting lists"The Vancouver Sun. http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Cash+bribes+patients+atop+surgery+waiting+lists/3893239/story.html. Retrieved 2011-01-21.

"How common is bribe-paying?" http://www.transparency.org/news_room/latest_news/press_releases/2005/09_12_2005_barometer_2005. "...a relatively high proportion of families in a group of Central Eastern European, African, and Latin American countries paid a bribe n the previous twelve months."

Gallagher, Tom (2012-08-09). "The EU Can't Ignore Its Romania Problem". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443792604577572910124653818.html?mod=googlenews_wsj. Retrieved 2012-08-10.

By Patricia OToole Sunday, Jun. 25, 2006 (2006-06-25). "O'Toole, Patricia, "The War of 1912," TIME in Partnership with CNN, Jun. 25, 2006"Time.com. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1207791-2,00.html Retrieved 2009-12-05.

"Roosevelt, Theodore. ''An Autobiography:'' XV. The Peace of Righteousness, Appendix B, New York: Macmillan, 1913". Bartleby.com. http://www.bartleby.com/55/15b.html. Retrieved 2009-12-05.

"Asia Media :: Right to Information Act India's magic wand against corruption". Asiamedia.ucla.edu. 2006-08-31. http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=52046. Retrieved 2009-11-05.

Mathiason, Nick (2007-01-21). "Western bankers and lawyers 'rob Africa of $150bn every year". London: Observer.guardian.co.uk. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1994976,00.html. Retrieved 2009-12-05.

"Why benchmarking works – PSD Blog – World Bank Group". Psdblog.worldbank.org. 2006-08-17. http://psdblog.worldbank.org/psdblog/2006/08/why_benchmarkin.html#more.Retrieved 2009-11-05.

Damania, Richard; Bulte, Erwin (July 2003). "Resources for Sale: Corruption, Democracy and the Natural Resource Curse" (PDF). Centre for International Economic Studies, University of Adelaide. http://www.adelaide.edu.au/cies/papers/0320.pdf. Retrieved 2010-12-11.



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Soutik Biswas (1-18-2011). "Is India sliding into a hereditary monarchy?"... BBC. BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2011/01/is_india_sliding_into_a.html.Retrieved 3 September 2011.

Deo, Manjeet; Kripalani (8-5-2011). "The Gandhi dynasty: Politics as usual".Rediff. Rediff News. http://www.rediff.com/news/column/the-gandhi-dynasty-politics-as-usual/20110805.htm.Retrieved 3 September 2011.

"Lessons from the No 1". Project Syndicate. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sachs110. Retrieved 2009-11-05.

Privatization in Competitive Sectors: The Record to Date. Sunita Kikeri and John Nellis. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2860, June 2002. Econ.Chula.ac.t iPrivatization and Corruption. David Martimort and Stéphane Straub. IDEI.fr.

Who wants to be a millionaire? – An online collection of Nigerian scam mails

"Nigeria's corruption totals $400 billion". Malaysia Today. June 27, 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20071211033642/http://www.malaysia-today.net/Bl e/2005/06/nigerias-corruption-totals-400-billion.htm.

"Fidel Castro net worth rises, according to 'Forbes'". Usatoday.Com. 2006-05-04. http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-05-04-castro_x.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-05.

Shapiro, Ben (2006-08-05). "Ben Shapiro:: Townhall.com :: The death of Fidel Castro". Townhall.com. http://www.townhall.com/columnists/BenShapiro/2006/08/02/the_death_of_fidel_castro. Retrieved 2009-11-05.

Barenboim, Peter (October 2009). Defining the rules. Issue 90. The European Lawyer.

"Mobile Phones and Radios Combat Corruption in Burundi – Voices from Emerging Markets".Voicesfromemergingmarkets.com. 2009-03-12. http://voicesfromemergingmarkets.com/?p=19. Retrieved 2009-11-05.

"Committee of Ministers - Home". Coe.int. http://www.coe.int/t/cm/Home_en.asp. Retrieved 2012-06-07.

http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=173&CL=ENG

http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=174&CM=1&DF=7/18/2008&CL=ENG.



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http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/QueVoulezVous.asp?NT=191&CM=1&DF=7/18/2008&CL=ENG

http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/greco/documents/Resolution(97)24_EN.pdf

http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/greco/documents/Rec(2000)10_EN.pdf

ttp://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/greco/general/Rec(2003)4_EN.pdf

Global Integrity. September 5, 2008. http://commons.globalintegrity.org/2008/09/users-guide-to-measuring-corruption.html. Retrieved 2010-12-11.

Galtung, Fredrik (2006). "Measuring the Immeasurable: Boundaries and Functions of (Macro) Corruption Indices," in Measuring Corruption, Charles Sampford, Arthur Shacklock, Carmel Connors, and Fredrik Galtung, Eds. (Ashgate): 101–130.

Sik, Endre (2002). "The Bad, the Worse and the Worst: Guesstimating the Level of Corruption," in Political Corruption in Transition: A Skeptic's Handbook, Stephen Kotkin and Andras Sajo, Eds. (Budapest: Central European University Press): 91–113.

Arndt, Christiane and Charles Oman (2006). Uses and Abuses of Governance Indicators (Paris: OECD Development Centre).

"Media citing Transparency International". Google.com. http://www.google.com/trends?q=Transparency+International&ctab=-1&geo=all&date=all. Retrieved 2009-12-05.

"A Decade of Measuring the Quality of Governance". The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The World Bank. 2007. p. 3. Archived from the original on 2008-05-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20080527211855/http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi2007/pdf/booklet_decade_of_measuring_governance.pdf.

"The Global Integrity Report | Global Integrity". Report.globalintegrity.org. http://report.globalintegrity.org/. Retrieved 2012-06-07.

"International Budget Partnership". Internationalbudget.org. 2012-05-28. http://www.internationalbudget.org/. Retrieved 2012-06-07. "The Global Integrity Report: 2009 Methodology White Paper". Global Integrity. 2009. http://report.globalintegrity.org/methodology/whitepaper.cfm Retrieved 2010-12-11."FBI — Public Corruption". Fbi.gov. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/corruption. Retrieved 2012-06-07.

http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.org/



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Michael W. Collier. (2009) Political Corruption in the Caribbean Basin: Constructing a Theory to Combat Corruption excerpt and text search

Charles Copeman and Amy McGrath (eds.)(1997), Corrupt Elections. Ballot Rigging in Australia, Tower house Publications, Kensington, NSW

Donatella Della Porta, and Alberto Vannucci, (1999). Corrupt Exchanges: Actors, Resources, and Mechanisms of Political Corruption. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Axel Dreher, Christos Kotsogiannis, Steve McCorriston (2004), Corruption Around the World: Evidence from a Structural Model.

Kimberly Ann Elliott, (ed.) (1997) Corruption and the Global Economy

Robert M. Entman (2012) Scandal and Silence: Media Responses to Presidential Misconduct (Polity Press) 269 pages; case studies from USA 1998 to 2008 indicate the news media neglects many more incidents of corruption than it covers.

Edward L. Glaeser and Claudia Goldin, (eds.) (2006), Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America's Economic History U. of Chicago Press, 386 pp. ISBN 0-226-29957-0.

Mark Grossman. Political Corruption in America: An Encyclopaedia of Scandals, Power, and Greed (2 vol. 2008)

Arnold J. Heidenheimer, Michael Johnston and Victor T. LeVine (eds.) (1989), Political Corruption: A Handbook 1017 pages.

Richard Jensen. (2001) "Democracy, Republicanism and Efficiency: The Values of American Politics, 1885–1930," in Byron Shafer and Anthony Badger, eds, Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000 pp 149–180; online edition

Michael Johnston, Victor T. LeVine, and Arnold Heidenheimer, eds. (1970) Political Corruption: Readings in Comparative Analysis

Michael Johnston (2005), Syndromes of Corruption: Wealth, Power, and Democracy

Junichi Kawata. (2006) Comparing Political Corruption and Clientelism excerpt and text search

George C. Kohn (2001). The New Encyclopaedia of American Scandal

Johann Graf Lambsdorff (2007), The Institutional Economics of Corruption and Reform: Theory, Evidence and Policy Cambridge University Press



- 501 -

Amy McGrath, (1994), The Forging of Votes, Tower House Publications, Kensington, NSW

Amy McGrath, (2003), Frauding of Elections, Tower House Publications and H.S. Chapman Society, Brighton-le Sands, NSW

Amy McGrath, (1994), The Frauding of Votes, Tower House Publications, Kensington, NSW

Amy McGrath, (2005), The Stolen Election, Australia 1987 According to Frank Hardy, Author of Power without Glory, Tower house Publications and H.S. Chapman Society, Brighton-le Sands, NSW

John Mukum Mbaku. (1999) Bureaucratic and Political Corruption in Africa: The Public Choice Perspective

Stephen D. Morris. (2009) Political Corruption in Mexico: The Impact of Democratization

Aaron G. Murphy. (2010) Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: A Practical Resource for Managers and Executives

Peter John Perry. (2002) Political Corruption in Australia: A Very Wicked Place?

John F. Reynolds. (1988). Testing Democracy: Electoral Behaviour and Progressive Reform in New Jersey, 1880–1920 on corrupt voting methods

Robert North Roberts. (2001) Ethics in U.S. Government: An Encyclopaedia of Investigations, Scandals, Reforms, and Legislation

James C. Scott. (1972) Comparative Political Corruption

Pietro Semeraro,(2008) Trading in influence and Lobbying in the Spanish Criminal Code

Dennis Thompson. (1995) Ethics in Congress: From Individual to Institutional Corruption, Brookings Institution Press, Washington DC. ISBN 0-8157-8423-6

Mark Wahlgren Summers. (1993) The Era of Good Stealing, corruption in American politics 1868–1877

Darrell M. West (2000), Check book Democracy. How Money Corrupts Political Campaigns, North eastern University Press, Boston (Mass.) ISBN 1-55553-440-6

Alexandra Wrage (2007) Bribery and Extortion: Undermining Business, Governments and Security

Woodward, C. Vann, ed. Responses of the Presidents to Charges of Misconduct (1975), American presidents from Washington to Lyndon Johnson

Documents

Very new-PHD-Thesis-Matthew-Igboamalu - unipub