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Corruption: The Trouble with Nigeria
Presented by Mallam Nuhu Ribadu
Executive Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) On the occasion of the 3rd Annual National Trust Dialogue ` Held at Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Abuja Date: 19th January, 2006 Forwarded by: Ujudud Shariff
INTRODUCTION
Let me begin by thanking the organizers of this Annual
Trust Dialogue for the opportunity of sharing some of
my thoughts on an issue which is and will remain of
utmost concern to all of us. It is no longer in
dispute that corruption has dealt debilitating blows
on the country. It is the source of our perilous
condition as a people. It is the cause of our poverty.
It is the reason for our underdevelopment. It is the
reason for our pariah status and the unfair judgement
passed on us as a rogue nation. How do we come out of
this situation is the big question. I am happy that
this issue is being addressed at this all important
forum. The time is not only perfect; the audience is
the right one. Soon, the suffrages of Nigerians will
be called upon to elect leaders to the highest offices
in Government.
The processes leading to the elections and the
elections itself is critical if we must move away from
the corruption circuit. The future of the country and
indeed democracy depends on it. As we gather therefore
for soul searching and to take stock, we must proffer
genuine, patriotic and practical solutions.
Corruption is not an exclusive Nigerian phenomenon. It
is a global problem with traces of it to be found in
every nation. But the point of departure is in the
degree or pervasiveness which varies from country to
country and the effort each nation is making to
address or manage it. This is where the Nigerian
situation becomes a matter of concern.
WHAT IS THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA?
The answer to this question can simply be answered in
one word, “Corruption”. However, there are a myriad of
factors that contribute to the crisis of corruption we
are facing in Nigeria today. I want to isolate a few
of them that I think are at the heart of the matter.
These are the historical and current disposition of
our people to corruption; our culture and value system
and the state of the Nigerian nation in which I would
like to discuss the problem of leadership and
followership; our disposition to national values of
patriotism and love of our fatherland as well as our
respect for the rule of law. Finally, I would proffer
some very simple solutions to the problem.
HISTORY OF CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA
How did we arrive where we are today? Have we always
been corrupt? If the answer is in the negative then
there must have been a disconnect at some point. What
are the reasons and who were the principal factors or
characters responsible for this disconnect? Why have
we accommodated these persons and continue to glorify
them. Are they still with us? Are they still involved
in the affairs of this country and continue to in the
pillaging of our commonwealth? What decisive step do
we need to take to flush out these persons?
The questions are indeed endless. I will attempt to
address only a few considered to be critical and
central for our liberation from the monster called
corruption and the clique of vampires who continue to
suck the nation dry and expect us to worship them as
“Big men”. But first, what is corruption?
The generally accepted definition of corruption is
that which states that “Corruption is an abuse of
public office for private gain”. However, some prefer
the more encompassing definition that covers private
sector: “The misuse of private or public
funds/office/power/position for private benefit”. In
the light of our own experience, I am inclined to the
latter definition.
CAUSES AND MANIFESTATIONS OF CORRUPTION
It is usually fashionable to attribute our present
travails to the negative effects of Colonial Rule or
indeed neo-colonialism. Even if these were factors, in
my opinion, they have become too remote. We must look
inwards and see how honest and patriotic we have
governed ourselves since assuming Statehood.
Corruption has been with us for some time, but the
period between 1979 and 1998 represent the darkest
period in the history of Nigeria as far as corruption
is concerned. In that period, encompassing both
civilian and military governments, corruption was
elevated to the level of art and indeed deified.
THE 1979-1983 CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATION AND CORRUPTION
The civilian administration of 1979-1983 had very
little to show for the huge investment of confidence
of the populace in the new democratic dispensation
which as they had been promised, would lead Nigeria
out of the woods. As it turned out, profligacy came
to be what that attempt at civilian governance came to
be known and remembered for. Wanton waste, political
thuggery and coercion was the order of the day.
Disrespect for the rule of law started to manifest
seriously during this period. Of course there was
bare-faced, free-for-all looting of public funds
through white elephant projects. This period
witnessed the massive erosion of the nation’s morals
and ethics. Corrupt public servants and others in the
private sector bestrode the nation, masquerading as
captains of businesses and power brokers with tainted
and stolen wealth and demanded the rest of us to
kowtow before them. Such was the situation that some
Nigerians, disappointed in the way things were going,
openly called for the return of the military.
MILITARY REGIMES AND CORRUPTION
The military regime that sacked the civilian
administration of President Shehu Shagari tried to do
something about the corruption problem which was the
main reason for its coming into power. Public officers
accused and convicted for corrupt practices were given
as much as five lifetime jail sentences each, and all
their ill-gotten wealth confiscated. But that measure
only scratched the surface of the problem. Subsequent
regimes soon made it evident that the military
institution itself was not willing and ready to tackle
corruption. The Buhari-Idiagbon regime’s dramatic
attempt to face up to the problem which achieved
modest results in the direction of national
reorientation was rubbished by the actions of
subsequent military regimes that governed the country
between 1985 - 1998.
Under them, corruption became the sole guiding
principle for running affairs of State. The period
witnessed a total reversal and destruction of every
good thing in the country –positive values were
jettisoned, agencies were decimated (a snap checklist:
- Nigerian Airways; Nigerian National Shipping Line;
National Electric Power Authority; Nigerian Maritime
Authority; Refineries; Steel Rolling Mills; Industries
and manufacturing concerns (like automobile production
plants –VON, PAN, Leyland, Styre, etc.); River Basin
Authorities; Law enforcement agencies and even the
military itself were either rendered comatose or
destroyed). The decline we notice in the education
sector today also started in that period. The
shameless rot in the aviation sector, the absence of
an efficient public transport system, the collapse of
our public schools, the thievery in the Ports and the
decay in our health care delivery system all of which
huge sums had been budgeted and spent are a direct
reflection of the poverty of leadership of that era.
The military regimes of that period legitimised
corruption and in effect, did not offer much to the
Nigerian nation.
Significantly, that was the period when providence
handed the nation, perhaps her best opportunity ever,
to get her acts right and make a decisive move to pull
herself out of the backwaters of economic, social and
political underdevelopment.
But, the leadership at the time did not have their
eyes on the future; their eyes were set on the gravy
train. It is on record that we earned more money in
comparative terms then than in any other period in the
history of Nigeria. But there was nothing to show for
it. Instead, hundreds of millions of dollars were
wasted on projects and programmes that have recently
been revealed to be only conduit pipes to siphon
The past leadership Nigeria has had unfortunately
encouraged tribalism and nepotism. Many of those who
disguise themselves as national leaders are just petty
tribal masquerades whose vision does not go beyond the
hazy horizon of self-aggrandizement and
self-perpetuation.
UTTER CONTEMPT FOR THE RULE OF LAW
Observance and adherence to the Rule of Law remain
fundamental and critical for the development of any
nation. It is of universal validity. It is the
superstructure for a secured, orderly and sustainable
development of any country. It ensures that man is
governed by law and not by the whims of men. It
respects no status or rank, under the Rule of Law, law
is supreme or predominant. It should indeed be a
priority for a developing nation such as ours to
observe the Rule of Law. The absence of it portends
danger, anarchy, disorder and tyranny. Unfortunately,
that seems to have been the legacy foisted on the
nation by past administrations. Understandably so,
because military Rule is the antithesis of the Rule of
Law. The will of the dictator prevails over the Rule
of Law. The dictator has no need for the machinery of
law enforcement or the machinery of justice unless
same is skewed to satisfy his personal interest.
Accordingly, law enforcement institutions were
deliberately undermined or destroyed. The dictators
established, instead, the machinery for the
enforcement of their personal will. For over thirty
years, there was systematic destruction of the
machineries of justice and law enforcement. Under
those circumstances corruption was promoted as a
national culture or ideology. We disrespect even
simple Rules meant for our own security and safety. We
prefer to give bribe to a traffic warder rather than
respect Regulations. That is how bad it has become.
CULTURE, MORALS AND OUR PEOPLE
Because of the action of leaders and inaction of
followers, corruption seems to have become the
Nigerian ‘original sin’, omnipresent, all-conquering.
Everyday, we breathe, talk, eat, plan and romance
corruption. It pervades all aspects of our daily
lives. Because we emphasize the wrong things, we have
lowered the morality threshold to a ridiculously low
level. But as far as I know, there is nothing
congenital about the Nigerian and corruption. So, what
then makes him seem more prone to corruption than
nationals of other countries? Could it be a function
of culture or upbringing?
I doubt if there is any culture that encourages graft
and other economic and financial crimes. We have not
always been this corrupt as a people. However, the
culture of giving and accepting gifts which aided the
rapid fermentation of the corruption sub-culture was
taken to unacceptable levels. It is normal to
exchange gifts at social or religious events. This
culture has bred a deep craving in many a Nigerian,
who have come to see every person whose circumstance
they consider superior to theirs, as obligated to
‘dash’ them something every time they meet. The
reverse of that feeling makes the ‘big man’ feel he is
duty bound to satisfy that craving. This social
circumstance sets the environment for corruption as
there is always demand and satisfaction of demand by
persons who want to subvert the system for personal
gains. In many instances, they take from the
commonwealth to satisfy the demand for gratification.
And the irony of it all is that in most cases, the
giver and the receiver do not feel that they are doing
anything wrong. That is why many traditional rulers
do not bat an eyelid to gifts from public officials
even when it is apparent that such gifts are
questionable and do not emanate from legitimate
sources. So long as our custodians of morals and
culture are privy to corrupt gifts, we are doomed as a
people.
Asking, giving and accepting bribes makes it
obligatory for the individuals and groups involved to
behave in ways that negate due process and
accountability. If therefore the seed of corruption is
sown in the licensing office for instance, someone who
does not qualify to get a drivers license will get it.
In the same vein we have seen in this country, those
who do not qualify to get oil blocs get them and all
you need to get banking or aviation licenses is the
right connection, not the right qualification. The
tragedy of it all is that those of us at the receiving
end usually do not find anything wrong with that until
we are called to make public statements about it or
when we suffer horrifying personal loss on account of
the corruption of the system.
It has been suggested by way of justification, that
poverty is the root cause of corruption. I agree and
disagree at the same time. I agree that the poverty
of morals is the root cause of corruption. But,
corruption is the cause of poverty as we know it. I do
not think that there is anything in the world that can
justify asking for or forcefully taking and giving
what does not belong to you. But, if poverty is the
root cause of corruption, what can we say is the
justification for an Inspector General of Police, a
Senator, Minister, Governor, Local Government Chairman
or Bank MD who are not by any definition poor men and
women, to steal from the public coffers? What
underlies corruption to my mind is greed and that is
why, the corrupt never stops stealing. Wherever and
whenever they see even half a chance to line their
pocket, they jump at it.
But again, our authentic African culture places a
premium on the values of hard work, selflessness and
integrity. However, the situation we have found
ourselves in today is one where such values have been
placed on their heads. People no longer believe that
they needed to work hard to earn a decent living. They
are prepared to cut corners. And the incentive for
such attitudes is the multitude of the seemingly
affluent people who have no visible means of living
and who get their ways all the time.
The average Nigerian is daily confronted by a most
difficult choice: to do what is right and remain in
dire economic, social, political and even professional
disadvantage or to join the bandwagon to subvert the
system and see his circumstances dubiously ‘improve’.
Those who subvert the system are the ones who get the
promotions more often than not and they are the ones
society is only too eager to acknowledge and
celebrate. It is precisely this attitude that has
killed the spirit of enforcement of the rules and
regulations. Indeed, corruption presents the ultimate
enforcement challenge to any nation. Whereas it is
easier to enforce rules in a society reasonably free
of corruption, with a small number of law enforcement
agents, you would need an army of them and a whole lot
of institutions to achieve the same goal in a corrupt
society.
The effect is that a platform on which relationship
with government is based is destroyed, as no one feels
the civic obligation to do what is right, because
doing what is right attract negative consequences.
Thus, it is easier and ‘more rewarding’ for instance,
to dodge the payment of taxes and settlement of bills
by giving a little bribe because if you do not, you
are taxed and billed more than others. And to add
insult to injury, you would be made to endure the
indignity of not getting the services you paid for
while seeing the other person who subverted the
system, getting a surfeit of those social services!
In
The dilemma which we face today is the culmination
of years of erosion of our cherished values. The
massive undermining of the nation’s cultural fibre has
left us exposed to the ruinous influence of
corruption. Our traditional institutions are not
vehicles of progress. Instead of being used to
advance our cultures and positive ways of life, they
have been thoroughly bastardised and are now tools of
corrupting the whole populace. Take for example, the
culture of giving traditional titles to people. If you
do a census of all the people who have received
chieftaincy titles in this country in the last ten
years, you would find that most of them are of
questionable character who bought their ways into
otherwise respectable, high traditional offices by
dispensing favours to custodians of our traditions and
cultures. I see traditional institutions as one of the
most utilised avenues for money laundering.
The extended family system is to my mind another way
of life that is negative and anti-progress. This
system breeds laziness in the populace, because it
encourages a culture of dependence. For every
Nigerian in employment of any kind, there are at least
five far-flung relations outside his immediate family,
who the society offloads on them. At the end of the
day, every public official for instance, has at least
ten people heavily dependent on his or her meagre
resources at any given time. The pressure does not
stop there as the entire community keeps urging or
blackmailing him or her to take on additional load on
behalf of the extended family. It is only to be
expected that many people out of desire not to be
considered a failure at home, bite more than they can
chew and cave in to the temptations of corruption to
meet expectations.
This would explain why the society is ever so quick to
rise up in stout defence of those who commit acts of
corruption. Several examples abound, where, in spite
of someone having been manifestly proven guilty and
convicted for corrupt enrichment, Nigerians, starting
from his townsmen and tribesmen publicly defend him
and vigorously attempt to justify his ignoble actions!
They do so because their perception of public office
is that of a large delicious cake and they see their
son or daughter as its Chief Sharer who is expected to
do what others do when they get into office –cut a
generous piece for himself, his extended family,
kinsmen, tribesmen and cronies.
The few people who may manage to summon the courage to
query the sudden swing in the fortunes of the new man
at the top are accused of doing so out of envy. That
is the real tragedy. Rather than encourage them, the
society rises in unison to shut up those who take a
stand against corruption. They are told to mind their
business and that they would be more corrupt if they
found themselves in the same shoes.
The mistake which people often make is to point
accusing fingers at a section or strata of the society
as being responsible for this crash of values and the
attendant problems. Such attitude is not only myopic
but misleading, as there is no section of the society
that is free from the scourge. With the society’s
immunity against such negative mores already weakened
as it were, the Nigerian environment –the sum total of
influences and attitudes that govern the choices by
the people, is perfectly made for corruption.
In
The ‘smart’ ones exploit their ‘connections’, contact
and closeness to the corridors of power to feed fat on
the commonwealth, and, Nigeria can sink for all they
care. Everyone is therefore operating a moral deficit.
And round goes the vicious circle.
The compulsive acquisitive disposition of the average
Nigerian is not limited to the public sector even
though public corruption is by far the most virulent.
The private sector perhaps because it is part of the
environment has succumbed to the cancer. From my own
experience the banking industry which was most revered
in the past has turned out to be very corrupt. With
the magnitude of insider abuse which manifested in
billions of naira lost to non performing loans, it
does appear that people set up banks purely as a means
of defrauding the masses by converting their hard
earned deposits to personal use.
Outside of the banking sector the story is not too
different. Many of the surviving manufacturing
concerns engage in unethical practices, including tax
evasion and products adulteration. Multinational
companies doing business in the country have
compounded the situation. Having identified the
weakness of the Nigerian system, some of them have
turned out to be consummate gladiators of the graft
game. They undermine our policies and processes by
offering bribes and other gratifications to officials.
No section of the society can claim to be ignorant of
the danger which corruption poses to the society. Nor
are people ignorant of its adverse consequence on the
political and economic health of the nation. Also the
problem is not a failure on the part of the people to
determine what is needed to be done to rescue the
country from the vice grip of corruption. Proposals
abound on how to deal with the problem. Some of the
proposals emerged from events such as this. Yet the
problems become intractable.
The attitude of the society to corruption and its
proceeds is about the greatest incentive to
perpetuating corruption. Ours is an accepting, not a
questioning society. We would sooner celebrate than
ask questions of those cutting corners for personal
gains.
People who suddenly come into wealth through acts of
criminality or corruption are the toast of the
society. They are rewarded with chieftaincy tiles
while musicians wax special records to mark their
coming of age. And if you think that the obscene
adulation of those who should be in jail is the
product of the poverty of the mind, you are wrong.
Even the academia is not immune from this profane
culture as honorary degrees are devalued to
accommodate them. Religious organizations openly
advertise thieves and common crooks as living
testimonies of divine supply. It does not matter that
one precept common to virtually all religions is that
which tells us that coveting what does not belong to
you, is a cardinal sin before God. The elite are as
guilty as the common man. They are both victims and
perpetrators of corruption. And the nation is the
worse for it.
Already, in international circles, Nigeria is marked
as a high-risk investment nation. The yearly
perception index of the Transparency International
recognizes that the cost of doing business is far more
in
These leaders (some of them are dead while some are
living and plotting to rule us again) laid the
foundation for the total breakdown of law and order we
are witnessing in the Niger Delta today.
Our nation was inflicted with a peculiar variant of
the Dutch Disease which manifested in the
over-monetisation of the economy, acute de-emphasis of
the productive sectors of the economy and a prodigious
hunger for importation of everything, from finished
consumer items to negative cultures.
In spite of the huge revenue from oil, the leadership
borrowed recklessly and refused to settle our debts
which grew to almost unmanageable proportions until a
solution was found recently.
MOVING FORWARD
As has been aptly demonstrated, corruption is not a
peculiar Nigerian phenomenon. The trouble with Nigeria
is that we have allowed its influence to rule every
aspect of our national life, to the extent that it has
in fact become the way of life for most of our
countrymen.
The truth is that we cannot continue like this. Our
society is overdue for radical overhauling even
against the background of overwhelming odds bordering
on intense opposition and chronic scepticism we
urgently need to take the following steps to pull our
nation back from the brink of self-destruction:
RESPECT FOR THE RULE OF LAW
At any given time in the life of a nation, there is
always one important consideration facing it, which
determines whether it moves forward or regresses to
anarchy and continued underdevelopment. The most
critical issue facing Nigeria today is that of respect
for the Rule of Law.
We must aggressively enforce the Rule of Law and
instil the principles of accountability, transparency
and probity in all our affairs. That is what our
Constitution enjoins us to uphold. The law must apply
to all and sundry irrespective of status or position.
Enforcement works better if 80-90 percent of the
populace voluntarily comply with rules and
regulations. Total disregard for the Rule of Law in
any society is an invitation to unmitigated chaos and
anarchy.
Leaders musty subject themselves willingly to scrutiny
if any doubt is raised about their conduct in public
office. The present obstacle created by the immunity
clause in Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution must be
urgently addressed.
Secondly, our leaders must be ready for open and
complete disclosure of a perceived unfair advantage
gained while in office.
Again the good example of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew
here suffices. He and his son, the present Prime
Minister of Singapore had in 1995 benefited from a 5%
-7% discount of the purchase of two properties from a
developer, a public listed company. The discount
amounting to S$1million was unsolicited. Complaints
later emerged that Mr. Yew and his son had gained
unfair advantage when purchasing the property on the
grounds that Mr. Yew’s brother was non Executive
Director of the company.
The matter was thoroughly investigated by a Committee
of the Stock Exchange of Singapore, the Monetary
Authority and the Parliament with all of them
absolving Mr. Yew and his son from any impropriety.
They paid over the sum of S$1million to the
government, but was returned on grounds that there was
no impropriety. Nevertheless, in order not to appear
to have benefited from a company which Mr. Yew’s
brother served as Director, the S$1million was donated
to charity.
It is indeed significant that even though no wrong was
attributed to Prime Minister Yew, he submitted to full
scrutiny and turned the money over to charity. That is
genuine leadership.
ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CORRUPTION AND STRICT ENFORCEMENT
OF SANCTIONS
We must ensure that our society does not condone and
justify corruption and where there are infractions
that punishment is meted out without consideration for
status. In the past, not a single one of the so called
‘big men’ were called to question for engaging in
corrupt practices, least of all punished for such
acts. That situation cannot be tolerated anymore.
Application of the law must be even handed. All
offenders, big or small must receive appropriate
sanctions. It is only by so doing that we shall build
the confidence of the people and the international
investment community in our country.
PATRIOTISM AND RESPECT FOR OUR NATION
One thing that worries me to no end, every time I
consider it, is the total lack of respect Nigerians
have for this country. People do not take pride in
their Nigerianness, preferring to advance other
conflicting identities. If Nigeria features at all in
their consideration, it usually does so at the bottom
of the ladder. For this kind of people, Nigeria has
become a distant possibility, while they emphasize
their ethnic and regional identities, vision and
aspirations over those of the nation.
My belief is that when people withdraw into the cocoon
of ethnicity and religion and use them as the sole
basis for actions and relationships, they are only but
a short step away from slipping into the enveloping
darkness of personal aggrandizement, which is the
breeding ground for corruption.
People who do not consider the sum of the whole and
only think in terms of the disparate constituents have
been shown to have an ‘I-first’ outlook to life. So,
they act first in benefit of themselves and their
families, and then they ‘settle’ members of their
villages, states and tribes.
This culture of disrespect for our nation must stop.
SELFLESS, HONEST AND COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP
The leadership that we must have in our country must
be the one that is guided by the knowledge and belief
that the interest of the nation supercedes all other
considerations.
We need leaders that are honest and courageous;
leaders that have the guts to take the best decisions
for the country no matter how unpopular doing so may
make them today. Some of the leaders we have had in
the past employed populist stunts to deceive the
populace into believing that they had a ‘listening
ear’, whereas, populism was just a ploy to divert
attention from the pillaging of the nation and total
destruction of the future of the people.
Our nation needs a visionary leader; one that sees the
promised land and is determined to take us there
through thick or thin, not one that sees Nigeria as
his promised land, already flowing with milk and
honey, to steal and fritter away to build a ‘populist’
base and maintain a cult of loyalists to sustain
himself in power.
BUILDING AND STRENGTHENING INSTITUTIONS FOR FIGHTING
CORRUPTION
At this point in our national life, no one can say
that there is a lack of political will to deal with
the problem. But the problem of fighting corruption in
Neither is it a battle to be prosecuted by only EFCC,
ICPC or the Nigeria Police.
At the level of enforcement, in our own small way, we
have started something at EFCC, which we hope will
grow and envelope the entire country. From the very
beginning, we were convinced that corruption was the
single biggest problem of Nigeria and we were
determined to attack it from the root. We started
with targeting the 419ers who had played a prominent
role in the corruption of our values and our law
enforcement and judicial systems. We went after the
kingpins and took all of them off the streets. Today
most of them are serving jail terms and the rest are
well on their way to the same place.
Then next we went after the big corrupt people in
government and those who aid and abet corruption in
the private sector. We have as much as possible tried
to be faithful to our motto: No One is Above the Law.
In so doing, we have stepped on very powerful toes and
we are going to step on even more powerful toes as we
go along.
Today, we have recorded 31 convictions bordering on
Advance Fee Fraud (419), Money Laundering, Corruption,
Bank Frauds, etc. We have helped in recovering
billions of Naira for the Nigerian Government. We have
also helped to recover and returned to victims of
other countries millions of dollars stolen by
Nigerians to prove the point that Nigeria is not a
safe haven for stolen funds. Our work has helped to
boost the bank recapitalization process. Insider
abuses are being addressed and huge recoveries have
been made from bad loans.
It is indeed not immodest to attribute the improved
foreign reserves and rating of Nigeria by the
Transparency International (TI) and the World Bank to
the work of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC).
However, we do not lay claims to a monopoly of
knowledge at EFCC as we are the first to acknowledge
that we may not be perfect and may make a few mistakes
in our genuine efforts to do what is right for our
country. We seek understanding, support and
partnership with the Nigerian people in our modest
effort to root out corruption in all spheres of our
national lives. The people must own, prosecute and
win this war against corruption.
Progress is slow when we work alone and the chances
are that given the overwhelming odds, such gains stand
a chance of being speedily reversed. But if the people
fight collectively for a corruption-free society,
there is hope. Let us work together and make the
difference in the life of our nation. I should say the
battle has just begun because we are up against an
organized crime network that would stop at nothing to
protect their turf, even as they make strenuous
attempts to widen the scope of their operations. We
cannot and will never underestimate them. They are
organized and have the capability to fight back. And
they are fighting back!
Moreover, to succeed in this war we must create a
paradigm shift in the way of thinking of the average
Nigerian. We must stop bad leaders from emerging in
any election, be it at the Federal, State or Local
levels. There are many of them already warming up for
the 2007 elections. We must stop them. We must say no
to money elections.
We have no illusions about the impact of the work we
are doing on the society. We intend to use it to help
shape the polity. Working with the Nigerian people, we
are going to make sure that we have free and fair
elections to elect the leaders that would lead our
country on the path of values restoration, respect for
the rule of law, growth, sustainable development,
stability and security so that we take our place of
respect in the comity of nations.
The Singaporean example has shown that a system of
clean, no-money elections helps preserve an honest
government. But a Government will remain clean and
honest only if honest, able men are willing to fight
elections and assume office. Money elections trigger a
circle of corruption. The system is self perpetrating
and it breeds what Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minster
of
I believe that with the commitment of all Nigerians
and the sustenance of current efforts we can build a
new Nigeria which we can all be proud of, a Nigeria we
can stand up for; one we can live in and if need be,
die for.
Thank you for your time.
Nuhu Ribadu
19 January, 2006
WHAT IS THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA? The answer to this question can simply be answered in one word, “Corruption”. However, there are a myriad of factors that contribute to the crisis of corruption we are facing in Nigeria today. I want to isolate a few of them that I think are at the heart of the matter. Details
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