Yet Watchdog Laments 87M Cases Worth $439M in 2023
By Ebere Inyama
Despite the steps taken by the Nigerian government and the European Union over the years to curb incidence of bribery and corruption in Nigeria, an estimated 87 million cases of bribery amounting to N700 billion ($439,488,686) was recorded in 2023, according to the Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu.
Aliyu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), made this disclosure in a keynote address at the ongoing International Law Conference organised by the Faculty of Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State on Thursday August 8, 2024.
“Despite these challenges, we are making progress,” Aliyu said. “The rate of citizens reporting bribe payments to official authorities increased from 3.6 percent in 2019 to 8.6 percent in 2023. This is a testament to the growing awareness and willingness of Nigerians to fight corruption”, he added.
EU Spent $112 M To Assist Nigeria In The Fight Against Bribery And Corruption
Since 2005, the European Union has reportedly spent €88 million ($112 million) to support Nigeria in the fight against corruption, but there is no sufficient evidence to show that this effort by the EU has yielded positive results. Rather, the rate of corruption, especially among government officials in Nigeria has continued to increase. For instance, a recent survey titled, “Corruption in Nigeria: Patterns and Trends,” conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and published in July, 2024 documents that Nigerians were forced to pay an estimated N721 billion ($452 million) in cash bribes in 2023.
According to the survey, the judiciary received the highest amount of cash bribes while the immigration office and the police ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively.
This ugly trend, no doubt, inspired President Bola Tinubu to tell a gathering of investors, during a meeting in Qatar in March, 2024 to report any Nigerian official asking for a bribe.
Commercial Motorists Bribe Policemen On Daily Basis
An investigation by a TruthNigeria reporter reveals that most commercial vehicle drivers in Imo state, Nigeria are in the habit of offering bribes to policemen at check points. A commercial bus driver based in Owerri, Imo state who identified himself as “Cletus” told TruthNigeria that he gives N100 ($0.06) to the policemen at the various check points when conveying passengers along his route.
“Giving bribes to the police along the highway is not a new thing. I carry passengers from Obinze (a community in Owerri west County) to Owerri municipal (the commercial hub of the state capital) on a daily basis.
“I give the policemen at each checkpoint a token of N100 ($0.06) and they let me pass without any delay. They do not have to ask for the money, because it has become routine. Once I arrive at the check point, I stop briefly and drop the money for them without any protocol, and they let me pass.
“I don’t feel bad about it, and I don’t see it as bribe. I regard the money I give them as a gesture of encouragement for them to be at their duty post, because I am aware that their salary is small compared to the nature of the work they do.
“Besides, if they are not there at the numerous checkpoints, robbers will seize the opportunity to come out and operate along the highway,” he added.
Perhaps the most outstanding case of bribery recorded in Nigeria took place in April, 2018 when a journalist, Mr. Fisayo Soyombo reportedly bribed his way through more than 80 police check points from Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, to Lagos, the country’s commercial hub, in a journey of 1,600 km that lasted a cumulative 28 hours, 17 minutes.
Millions of Naira Spent On Corruption Probes Without Results
The Nigerian government allocates huge sums of money for the procurement of public infrastructure, health and educational supplies, and agricultural materials, but oftentimes, the contractors to whom the funds are paid connive with some top officials to embezzle the money.
In many instances, the government had set up investigative panels, allocated huge sums of money running into millions of naira to them as sitting allowances and charged them to probe reports of embezzled funds. But the panels usually do not indict anyone after months of investigation.
A report recently released by the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity (CFTPI) through its Probes Monitor Portal showed that only 3 out of a total of 614 grand corruption probes initiated by various administrations between 1999 and 2023 have been brought to a logical conclusion.
For instance, in the Petroleum Subsidy Scandal of 2012, $6 billion allegedly was embezzled through fraudulent fuel-subsidy claims. Investigations and arrests were initiated but did not lead to convictions.
In the Dasuki Gate scandal of 2020, former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over a $2 billion arms fraud. That probe has yielded no result till today.
In the same vein, the probe of more than $1 billion in federal government interventions in the power sector since its privatization from 2012 to date by the Senate, and the probe of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) over the spending of $10 million in 2013, has yet to be concluded nearly 10 years after the probe was initiated.
Other probes awaiting conclusion by the EFCC include the alleged diversion of $329 million by a former Abia State Governor, and the N255 million ($160,099.) armored-car scandal linked to former minister Stella Oduah among many others.
Ebere Inyama is an Imo–state based conflict reporter for TruthNigeria
