Moghalu decries brazen corruption in Nigeria, highlights urgent measures to curb menace

The former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor, Kingsley Moghalu, has lamented the endemic corruption in Nigeria and its resultant consequences.

Moghalu, who took to his Twitter handle on Saturday, said corruption was responsible for grinding poverty in the country.

The political economist blamed lack of accountability and stiff measures for the proliferation of corrupt practices in the country.

He also lambasted all three arms of government for their complicity in the abhorrent tradition, charging the Supreme Court to rise to actions and stamp out the evil in the country.

Moghalu wrote: “Corruption has not only drained Nigeria financially, it has become so ingrained as to become the real reason and “the system” of (mis) governance in Nigeria. It is a major reason for the poverty of 133 million Nigerians. Its takeoff point is the padded official budgets.

“Then the inflated and multiply re-awarded contracts. That’s why I believe all federal and state budgets should undergo a forensic audit before submission to the legislature because corrupt “evil” servants have turned budgets into legalized corruption.

Read also:Moghalu blames illiteracy, collapse of values for vote-buying, others

“Then we have to tackle the legislators themselves who do another round of “legalization” of corruption by inserting all sorts bogus projects. Meanwhile, the legal meaning of “appropriation” connotes adoption of budgets prepared by the executive branch of government. It’s wrong for legislators to insert items into the budget. Only @SupremeCourtNg judgment can clarify and end this practice.

“Then infrastructure contacts should mostly be by public-private-partnership arrangements. The government should finance only rural infrastructure. As for contracts, an electronic database of current prices of everything should be kept and constantly updated. Contract awards must be vetted by reference to this database. If any contract goes beyond a 30% profit margin, yeye de smell. Corruption should be fought with SYSTEMS, not just noise without real results.

“I see official reports that about $600 billion have been stolen from Nigeria through corruption since our independence. This is laughable. In my own reckoning a figure of at $1 trillion would be conservative but closer to the reality.

“The problem with Nigeria’s corruption is its brazenness, scope and depth. There is corruption everywhere in the world. But in Asia, the anecdotal practice is that corrupt officials take 10% and 90% goes into public goods. In Nigeria, it’s often the other way round.

“Finally, impartial accountability across the board is essential to fight corruption effectively. In Singapore, under the Prevention of Corruption Act anyone found guilty will pay a fine of $100,000 or be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than 5 years for EACH count of corruption. In China it’s a death penalty for embezzlement or taking bribes of 3 million Yuan (about $450,000 – chicken change in Nigerian corruption!).

“Stiff fines and strong terms of imprisonment and confiscations of property attach to lesser cases. Cuba, Indonesia, Iran, Morocco, Thailand and Vietnam also have death penalties for acts of corruption, especially those that impact the national economy (precisely the Nigerian type!).”

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