Dressing corruption in white linen

Never in the history of Nigeria has the fight against corruption been so fiercely fought like have been done in the last ten years. Despite this fact, only very little have been achieved by the two major anti-graft agencies- EFCC and ICPC. This is hugely due to the high amount of energy and craft deployed by the many apostles of corruption within and outside government. Unknown to many, corruption has almost become a national culture. Many Nigerians are also forced to see and take corruption as a source of livelihood. It is pertinent to point out that high level of unemployment has made the culture of corruption fashionable. There is therefore the important need for government to take the issue of unemployment very seriously.

To effectively tackle the problems of unemployment, government at all levels must do well to expand the economy by energizing the private sector to create many new jobs. This can be achieved through the deliberate reduction of the general cost of doing business, access to cheap business start-up capital with a friendly repayment plan, and the wooing of foreign investment among others.

There is no gainsaying that Nigeria has a robust market and variety of mineral resources that will easily attract foreign investors. Nevertheless, issues of stable power, security, effective transport infrastructure, and stable polity are critical factors in the global business community. It is recognized worldwide that only sound political leadership culture can promote a healthy business environment. This is what every investor- local or foreign look out for.

Unfortunately however, very sad realities in the nation’s polity have continued to pose a major threat to winning the confidence of foreign investors. Very few investors will be willing to risk their capital in a country where integrity and patriotism are relegated to the background of national culture. It is a very huge fact that the lack of integrity helps to blind public servants from seeing the evils of corruption. Also worthy of note is the fact that only unpatriotic leaders can afford to take undue advantage of their exalted offices to promote mainly their individual interests at the expense of the larger society choking in the cold hands of poverty.

No doubt, the business of law making is sacred. This is true to the extent that quality laws help put societies on the fast lane of socio-economic transformation. Ordinarily, legislators are treated with high level of regard in all democratic societies. This is however not so in Nigeria owing to very bitter incidents in the National Assembly in the last twelve years. Apart from the fact that many members snore through sittings, supposed honourable law makers have on several occasions engaged in physical assaults on each other right inside the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly. On one or more occasions, these contemptible incidents had resulted to injuries, hospitalization, and even death.

One of the greatest threats to Nigeria’s democracy is the several cases of corruption allegations against successive leaderships of the National Assembly since the nation returned to democratic political leadership in 1999. Allegations of corruption have always been the reason behind the frequent changes of leadership in both the lower and upper chambers of the National Assembly. This is most shameful and unacceptable in modern societies. It has no doubt rubbished our collective efforts as a nation aimed at winning the confidence and respect of members of the international community. Perhaps, this will help to explain why despite Nigeria’s huge market and variety of abundant natural resources, foreign investors have been reluctant to put their capital in the economy of the world’s most populous country of black people. This is a big indictment of past and present leaderships of the National Assembly. They have not been able to lay a solid foundation for an effective national transformation agenda.

Nigerians cannot continue to feign ignorance of the fact that our legislators have fallen short of global best practices. While in many countries, law makers are spurred by patriotic zeal to serve; Nigerian legislators seem to be ruled by their individual interests. That could be the only reason why they are not in any way bothered by the urgent need to legislate towards improving on power supply, transport infrastructure, health care, education, housing, security, employment, and national economic growth. Instead, they busy themselves with padding their individual pockets with outrageous allowances. This is nothing but dressing corruption with white linen. Their aim is to mislead Nigerians. A black cloth will remain a black cloth whether won to the farm, market, office, or funeral. In the same vein, corruption is corruption whether dressed with white linen called allowances.

Instead of the executive arm being a threat to our democracy, it is the legislature that Nigerians are worried about. The reason for this is not far fetched. Graft dressed in white linen has taken a whooping 25% of national budget. To make matters worse, the National Assembly have rubbished the necessity of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Committee (RMFAC) through its in-house mechanisms. The doctrine of checks and balance has been tilted in favour of the legislature. They have unlimited powers to decide what individual members take home as allowances. This could be the only reason why members of the National Assembly take home between N60m and N100m as allowances alone every quarter. They are also at liberty to borrow at will.

From the look of things, the task is too big for the executive arm of government alone. Nigerian masses will need to join forces with the executive to clip the overbearing wings of members of the National Assembly. The nation’s present economic realities do not support the outrageous salaries and allowances our legislators take home. It is therefore surprising that despite the revelation by the CBN governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido that a whole of 25% of the nation’s budget was spent on the welfare of national law makers; efforts have never been made to correct the anomaly by the law makers themselves. The long suffering Nigerian masses had expected the law makers to show remorse and rush to “repentance” following the Sanusi “missile.”

As a nation, we do not need Prophet T.B. Joshua to prophesy that Nigerian masses are angry. If the leadership of the National Assembly is not prepared to begin the process of “unpadding” their pockets, those individual members with conscience should do the unusual by returning a minimum of 50% of their allowances to the federal treasury and earn the forgiveness of history. The “unpadded” funds should be added to the allocations of state governments. It will go a long way in helping to breach the gap that the N18,000 minimum wage law will cause many state governments.