Nigeria: On the Trail of a Spectre — Destabilisation of Developing and Transitional Economies
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027160 |
| Date | 01 February 1998 |
| Pages | 342-351 |
| Published date | 01 February 1998 |
| Author | Olukonyinsola Ajayi,Simisola Ososami |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Nigeria
Nigeria: On the Trail of a Spectre — Destabilisation
of Developing and Transitional Economies
Olukonyinsola Ajayi and Simisola Ososami
A CASE STUDY OF ECONOMIC CRIME
IN NIGERIA
'A Spectre haunts Nigeria
He thrives in a
red
roof.
.
.
He
is
power drunk and
egoistic
He is
callous,
brutish, trickish . . .'
Nnamdi Azikwe1
The impact of corruption is multifaceted. It rends
the moral fabric of developing societies, slows
down administrative processes, makes implementa-
tion of government policies ineffective and is
detrimental to the economic interest of these
countries. Uniformly, developing countries set
goals with a view to attaining growth and moder-
nisation of their economics. Unfortunately,
corruption makes these goals illusory, resulting in
underdevelopment.2
The astronomical dimension which corruption
has recently achieved in most parts of the world is
alarming. No economy is left out and they all bear
the brunt of corruption — which is often
expressed as criminality, and nearly always cancer-
ous.
For a cancer which has progressively affected all
areas of national life, it is ironical that corruption
lacks a universal definition. It is a creature of cir-
cumstance and what may be corruption in one
instance, may not be so in the other. Suffice it to
say that it is any act or omission which spoils,
taints or degenerates a hitherto legally thriving
system. It has been defined among other things as
'the deviation from or pervasion of the
system . . .'.3
In Nigeria, as in many developing countries, the
high level of corruption is attributed to poverty.
The argument is that if people were better off,
they would yield less to the temptation of corrup-
tion. The fallacy of this logic is well brought out
by the reasoning of the Italian Prime Minister on
the chronic disease of the Mafia which he
described as: 'not the daughter of underdevelop-
ment but the mother'.4
In the same vein, poverty is not sired by corrup-
tion. Rather, corruption brings about and increases
the poverty of people, ideals, morals and the state.
When, for example, contract prices are inflated, the
result is a rapid depletion of the public treasury,
and unavoidable depression in the economy. These
lead to hyperinflation, unemployment and a drastic
reduction in the gross national product and per
capita income.5 In nearly all cases where develop-
ing economies take tough decisions to restructure
and improve society, the implementation of struc-
tural adjustment programmes and attempts at
democratisation are stymied, if not thwarted. This
is one singular reason which features as an excuse
for most third-world coups. In sum, what follows
one corrupt practice is a chain of far-reaching
events which culminate in poverty, and bad
government.
Investigations into corruption in its various
degrees have shown that it is not only a problem
of the poor, but that its main perpetrators have
social status, political clout, economic and/or
bureaucratic power. It is submitted that the great-
est motivation for corrupt practices is not the
desire to be free from penury, but rather a lust for
more from deep-seated greed. The fact remains
that corruption is perpetuated mainly for economic
gain.6
In most developing countries, after independ-
ence,
the local elite took over public administration
and introduced, in a creeping fashion, corruption
in government. The resulting underdevelopment
paradoxically has led to greater corruption.
Although it can be argued that corruption is not
the bane of transitional economics but rather it is
lack of growth, the point really is that corruption
inevitably destabilises any economy. It is more or
less empirical that corruption results in military
governments, totalitarianism and bad public
administration.7 It is common knowledge that all
these arc common to developing countries and
have invariably led to the breakdown of the rule of
law and the concept of sovereignty.
No doubt a well-ordered and functioning
democracy will appreciably curb the prevalence of
Page 342
To continue reading
Request your trial