An Appraisal of Factors Promoting Corruption in Nigeria

Abstract

Corruption is universal but in Nigeria it is endemic, particularly in Government circles. The need to fight this cankerworm that has permeated every fabric of the society has featured in public debates and discussions since the collapse of the first republic. Consequently, successive Nigerian governments have come up with different policies and programmes such as the establishment of the Code of Conduct Bureau, the national pledge, EFCC as well as commissions of inquiry but these policies have either failed or are failing. Not even the ‘checks and balances’ inherent in the current democratic dispensation has been able to stem the tide. This is because government officials – Executive, Assembly members and the judiciary – are all products of the same corrupt system. In fact, commissions of inquiry so far, are mere exercises of locking the stable door after assisting the horse to bolt away. For corruption to be curtailed, we must change course, even slightly, and play down the capitalist part of our socio-economic course of a system of mixed economy. So long as people are allowed to make as much money as they wish and get away without even being taxed, the war against corruption will not make any meaning.