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POLITICAL SCIENCE

COMBATING CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA

COMBATING CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA

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COMBATING CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA

CHAPITRE ONE

INTRODUCTION

Nigeria became an independent country on October 1, 1960.

A country blessed with vast geographical and diversified natural resources ranging from crude oil to natural gas, coal, and so on.

Nigeria has the market potential for rapid economic development.

Despite these clear resources and advantages, Nigeria continues to be a poor and underdeveloped country.

Scholars have acquired and advanced numerous explanations for this deplorable and depleting situation.

Corruption is a big and prominent factor that has been pushed.

Corruption has been a serious issue in Nigeria since its inception.

It’s possible that we inherited ‘the problem’ from our colonial masters.

Because of widespread corruption, numerous state institutions have become dysfunctional.

Projects are routinely abandoned, no one is held accountable, and public assets and resources are shifted to private purposes.

Corruption jeopardises good governance and democracy as we know it.

The coupists of the January 15, 1966 military putsch identified corruption as one of the more major grounds for Nigeria’s first military coup.

Massive corruption and resource brigandage were also cited as grounds for the military takeover by Buharil Tunde Idiagbon’s administration on December 31, 1983.

This is despite the fact that, on the one hand, even the military elite cannot be considered saints.

Because of the pervasiveness of corruption in Nigeria, former President Olusegun Obasanjo stated in his inaugural statement on May 29, 1999, that corruption, the single biggest scourge of our society today, would be confronted head-on, at all levels.

No society can reach its full potential if it enables corruption to grow into a full-fledged disease, as it has in our country.

According to the World Bank (1997, p. 5), “corruption thrives when economic policies are poorly designed, education levels or standards are low, civil society participation is weak, public sector management is poor, and accountability of public institutions are weak” .

Corruption has become the norm in our public institutions, and because government business is nobody’s business, the country suffers (Nzemeke and Erhagbe: 2002:131).

Corruption has been mentioned as a major reason why international financial organisations’ developmental prescriptions, grants, and policies pushed on Nigeria have strangely failed.

Thus, corruption is to society and politics what HW/AIDS is to the human body.

While corruption is a manifestation of the “acquired immune deficiency syndrome” generated by a bio-virus, it is also an expression of the “deficiency of integrity syndrome” induced by a socio-virus.

‘Just as HW/AIDS weakens our immune system, making us vulnerable to diseases and sicknesses, corruption weakens law and order and the economic framework, making it easy for the nation to be infested with all manner of defects and crimes.

Sam Adesua, in 1987, wrote that “in Nigeria, …corruption is a well – organised and well entrenched social malady bestriding the nation, but which tends to have the tacit approval of almost every Nigerian in the social ladders” .

This is an inverse explanation of Nigeria’s corruption situation.

Corruption is undeniably widespread in the country.

It pervades all aspects of public and private life.

It is not unique to any government or regime in the country.

Honesty appears to have taken flight, while corruption has rapidly gained footing and grown endemic.

According to Familoni (2005:51), becoming corrupt in Nigeria is nearly unavoidable because morals is slack because individuals need to make money to survive.

Transparency International (TI) and Goettingen University conducted a corruption research in 1996 and found Nigeria to be the most corrupt of the fifty-four (54) countries studied, with Pakistan ranking second.

Also, in the 1998 transparency international corruption perception index (CPI), Nigeria’s image deteriorated further, as she was ranked ninety (90) out of ninety one (91) countries pooled – Bangladesh was ranked first.

In 2003, the country maintained or rather maintained its position.

In 2006, the transparency worldwide perception index placed Nigeria one hundred forty-two (142) out of a total of one hundred sixty-three (163) countries, with Haiti being the most corrupt.

STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

One of the most pressing challenges in Nigeria today is the spotlight on one of the most significant impediments to effective government and economic development: corruption.

Corruption has recently risen to the top of the development agenda around the world.

Since 1996, the World Bank has sponsored over 600 anti-corruption and governance initiatives established by its member countries.

In particular, the World Bank institute planned $7.5 million to combat corruption in 1999 (Polzer, 200:2; Tesh, 1991:1).

Ironically, the global financial group was entangled in scandalous activities, which resulted in the resignation of its chairman.

This demonstrates the clear importance of corruption to long-term growth and development.

In their sacred writings, the world’s main faiths address the immorality of corruption among the rich and powerful, and they set laws for punishing criminals and eradicating corrupt activities.

The Qu’ran chapter 83 warned believers about the false and dishonest activities of Arabian culture before to Islam (Olurode, 2003:3).

The Holy Bible warned the people about corruption and its consequences in proverbs (22:8, 11:20, and 13:11) (Olurode 2005:3), telling perpetrators that they would be losers on judgement day.

Accountability is often lacking in Nigeria since the country is fertile for and riddled with corruption.

The desire to generate additional revenue is quite strong, exacerbated by poverty and low and diminishing civil sector salaries.

As a result, corruption has become a cankerworm in the political system, suffocating its capacity for long-term growth.

OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH

The study’s goal is to evaluate Nigeria’s anti-corruption crusade, with a particular emphasis on the EFCC.

– Determine the underlying character of corruption in Nigeria since independence.

– Evaluate the impact of corruption on Nigeria’s development.

– Evaluate the actions of the EFCC.

– Determine if the EFCC has achieved or failed in its mission to eradicate corruption in Nigeria.

HYPOTHESIS

i. The extent of corruption in the Nigerian political system is a result of poor governance and corrupt individuals.

ii. From 1999 until the present, the administration has demonstrated political resolve to combat corruption.

iii. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has the ability to combat corruption.

STUDY OBJECTIVES THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study thus focuses on President Olusegun Obasanjo’s two-term tenure, as well as former President Yar’Adua’s brief tenure, from 1999 to the present, in order to assess the EFCC’s efforts to combat corruption in Nigeria throughout the aforementioned time range.

Obasanjo’s administration was the first to demonstrate a commitment to fighting corruption with suitable processes and where obvious (if sometimes selective) outcomes were visible towards the fight against corruption.Corruption Reduction

METHODOLOGY

The researcher used both primary and secondary data collection approaches for this investigation.

They are as follows:

We will collect primary data through observation and interviews.

Secondary data sources included newspapers, textbooks, electronic media, and the internet.

STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY

The research will be organised into five chapters.

The first chapter outlines the study’s background, problem statement, objectives, scope of the investigation, hypothesis, research methods, and chapter organisation. Corruption Reduction

The second section will include a thorough discussion of corruption in Nigeria, its historical antecedents, and its impact on society.

The third chapter would be about methodology.

Chapter four concentrates on the EFCC, while Chapter five focuses on the crusade’s accomplishments, summary, and conclusion.

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