Students Without Borders / Etudiants Sans Frontieres
BUILDING NEW LEADERS
CORRUPTION IS A CANCER NOT A HEADACHE:
In the second week of May this year, in Washington DC, the United States Congressional House Committee on International Development invited me to speak on the issue of Capital Loss and Corruption in Nigeria. As it turned out, it was a similar lesson that I focused on and I shall share some themes from that presentation with you today, if only to further illustrate the universality of our reality and the need for solidarity and united vision to combat this scourge called corruption. Proceeding from the fact that the history of my country, Nigeria, reveals that after one civil war, seven military regimes, and three botched attempts at building real democracy, the one connecting factor in the failure of all attempts to govern Nigeria is corruption. I concluded by drawing attention to the grievous harm that corruption has done to Nigeria and Africa over the years.
Corruption, I argued, was the reason why there had been a perpetual collapse of infrastructure and institutions; it is the cause of the endemic poverty in Africa; it is the reason for the underdevelopment and the cyclical failure of democracy to take root in Africa. I also observed that corruption is worse than terrorism, insisting that public officials who are corrupt should receive worse treatment than that reserved for terrorists. I also called on the region as a whole to refocus and give issues of corruption the attention they rightly deserve. The challenge before us, to my mind, is to set our sights on making corruption, rather than poverty or any other socio-economic malaise, history. For, as soon as we do so, everything else, like a worrisome jigsaw puzzle, will fall in place. Making corruption history is the surest way of making all the problems of Africa history.
This is not complicated to understand. Indeed the history of countries like Nigeria, Congo, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, offer an adequate illustration of the wrong road to development that Southern Sudan may do well to avoid. As the examples from these countries show, it is the prevalence of widespread corruption in both public and private institutions that has effectively constituted a major impediment to their socio-economic and political development. These countries are still tethering to achieve the basic infrastructure needed to boost the desired economic growth such as electricity, good road networks and efficient transportation system.
In comparative terms, the provision of these infrastructural facilities by countries which were on equal threshold of development with Nigeria in the early 60’s such as South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and Singapore, were no more a challenge now because these countries have attained a higher level of development, leaving Nigeria far behind. It is an irony to say that Nigeria with abundant human and natural resources still ranks among the poorest nations in the world. The GDP per capital was US$675 (2005), while poverty is widespread with about 52% of the population living on less than $1 per day (World Bank Report). The moral of the Nigerian development paradox which Southern Sudan must not miss is that corruption and mismanagement of the wealth of a nation are the bane of the developmental efforts of that country.
CORRUPTION NEGATES GOVERNANCE:
Your Excellency, Africa is not all together a basket case. There have been a few examples of countries that have taken bold steps, countries like Botswana and Rwanda, to tackle corruption and advance the principle of good governance. Mr. President, Southern Sudan is at a crossroads. You can decide to follow the examples of Nigeria and Congo DR or those of Botswana and Rwanda.
Since Monday, I have had the opportunity and chance to interact and dialogue with various groups of people of Southern Sudan. I had a very good interaction with your civil servants, with the SPLA, with the civil society, religious organisations, and the anti-corruption commission and we shared a number of things and I may just bring a little to you. I told them about Botswana. Botswana is a small African country that showed that it could be done if we wanted to do the right thing. Botswana gave us the example of a country coming from nowhere that managed itself very well. And today, Botswana is an example that a country can make it if you do it very well.
Botswana Mr. President is the only African country that has double digit development in the last two decades. You can only compare them with South Korea, probably Singapore, and the more successful states that are coming out of developmental challenges. How did they do it, Mr. President? They did it by simply adopting some specific best governance policies on national issues. At the time when they realized just like you that they did have some God-given natural resources, they took some steps to ensure that they were going to make the maximum use of it.
Mr. President, when I came, I also brought my own little experience in addressing the problem of corruption. Nigeria is an example of a country that was brought down completely to its knees by corruption. I got that chance and I did it to some extent because within a short period of time we were able to show that it could be done. How did we do it, Mr. President?
PRIMACY OF POLITICAL WILL
Mr. President, distinguished members of parliament, the number one problem in proposing anti-corruption reforms is to ensure the primamcy of a political will that is transparent and unequivocal. Without it, as experience has demonstrated in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria, the anti-corruption war will loose steam and wither off.
In the case of Nigeria a few years, first and foremost, there was a very strong political will. Government at the highest level took the lead. The person who is going to execute this war is the president himself. We had the strong political backing for us to achieve our objectives. Mr. President you are doing it and I want to encourage you to continue. It is the fair step. Mr. President, we also on our own took it upon ourselves to be honest and just; to do it honestly, transparently and in the most accountable manner.
Mr. President, we also went after the powerful people; the rich; those who were hitherto above the law. There is no way you can succeed in the fight against corruption if it is selective in the sense that you go after the small fries, the small people and you leave the big people. Some of us here, the privileged ones among us, are the ones who are in charge of the resources. So if you are going to fight corruption, we should be the targets. And I did that. Mr. President, I brought my own boss to justice. I was a Police officer. I got the Inspector-General of Police, the chief law officer of Nigeria, convicted. I recovered close to $150 million from him. Mr. President, I brought governors to justice. I got them convicted. Mr. President, one of the governors in the Niger Delta gave me $15 million cash in bags. I took that money and I used it as evidence to prosecute him. Mr. President, that is the way to fight corruption. That is the way you must fight corruption. You have to be strong, honest and courageous.
I have met Dr. Pauline Riak. We both belong to an organisation called “Corruption Hunters”. Dr. Riak does have massive support at the international level. People support her and all of us are very eager about her work. I stopped so many things to come here Mr. President to spend five days in Southern Sudan because we are all passionate about Southern Sudan. We want you to succeed. We are desperate for you to succeed. We cannot afford to allow you to fail. When I came, I shared with Dr Riak some of the basic things that need to be done for them to succeed as an anti-corruption commission.
But it is very very important and critical for them to have the tools for them to be able to achieve that. As a country, as parliamentarians, it is in your interest ladies and gentlemen that this country moves forward; it is in your own interests to put selfish interests aside. You will all be proud of it one day. Twenty years, thirty years, people will start talking and you, if not you, your children will be proud of your names that you were responsible for the foundation that made it possible for you to be a country that succeeded in Africa.
How do you do that? Some laws are needed. You can’t succeed without those basic laws. I did that in Nigeria. And most of the laws that we got, I lobbied for, I talked to the parliamentarians, I got the support of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Your anti-corruption commission is a constitutional body. You have an establishment law, but you need massive support beyond that. They need some teeth for them to bite. Our experience in Africa is a bit complicated. Most of the laws that have to do with corruption and anti-corruption today are from the international community. The United Nations came up with a strong document, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) which they enjoined the rest of the world to adopt. We brought it to Nigeria and adopted it. We have domesticated that law.
That law is very comprehensive. It covers A-Z; how you as a country will fight corruption; how you can collaborate with other countries that will help you in fighting corruption. It is there. It is a ready document. Parliamentarians, please look at that law. It is not going to cost you anything as individuals. In that law, you may see for instance, the need for a commission to have powers to investigate and prosecute. Mr. President, I have been a prosecutor all my life. But I was a police officer. I fought to get powers to prosecute taken away from the Attorney-General of Nigeria. Yes! Why did I do that? Because for 40 years, as a country, we never had a single conviction when the office of the Attorney-General was in charge.
Corruption, I argued, was the reason why there had been a perpetual collapse of infrastructure and institutions; it is the cause of the endemic poverty in Africa; it is the reason for the underdevelopment and the cyclical failure of democracy to take root in Africa. I also observed that corruption is worse than terrorism, insisting that public officials who are corrupt should receive worse treatment than that reserved for terrorists. I also called on the region as a whole to refocus and give issues of corruption the attention they rightly deserve. The challenge before us, to my mind, is to set our sights on making corruption, rather than poverty or any other socio-economic malaise, history. For, as soon as we do so, everything else, like a worrisome jigsaw puzzle, will fall in place. Making corruption history is the surest way of making all the problems of Africa history.
This is not complicated to understand. Indeed the history of countries like Nigeria, Congo, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, offer an adequate illustration of the wrong road to development that Southern Sudan may do well to avoid. As the examples from these countries show, it is the prevalence of widespread corruption in both public and private institutions that has effectively constituted a major impediment to their socio-economic and political development. These countries are still tethering to achieve the basic infrastructure needed to boost the desired economic growth such as electricity, good road networks and efficient transportation system.
In comparative terms, the provision of these infrastructural facilities by countries which were on equal threshold of development with Nigeria in the early 60’s such as South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil and Singapore, were no more a challenge now because these countries have attained a higher level of development, leaving Nigeria far behind. It is an irony to say that Nigeria with abundant human and natural resources still ranks among the poorest nations in the world. The GDP per capital was US$675 (2005), while poverty is widespread with about 52% of the population living on less than $1 per day (World Bank Report). The moral of the Nigerian development paradox which Southern Sudan must not miss is that corruption and mismanagement of the wealth of a nation are the bane of the developmental efforts of that country.
CORRUPTION NEGATES GOVERNANCE:
Your Excellency, Africa is not all together a basket case. There have been a few examples of countries that have taken bold steps, countries like Botswana and Rwanda, to tackle corruption and advance the principle of good governance. Mr. President, Southern Sudan is at a crossroads. You can decide to follow the examples of Nigeria and Congo DR or those of Botswana and Rwanda.
Since Monday, I have had the opportunity and chance to interact and dialogue with various groups of people of Southern Sudan. I had a very good interaction with your civil servants, with the SPLA, with the civil society, religious organisations, and the anti-corruption commission and we shared a number of things and I may just bring a little to you. I told them about Botswana. Botswana is a small African country that showed that it could be done if we wanted to do the right thing. Botswana gave us the example of a country coming from nowhere that managed itself very well. And today, Botswana is an example that a country can make it if you do it very well.
Botswana Mr. President is the only African country that has double digit development in the last two decades. You can only compare them with South Korea, probably Singapore, and the more successful states that are coming out of developmental challenges. How did they do it, Mr. President? They did it by simply adopting some specific best governance policies on national issues. At the time when they realized just like you that they did have some God-given natural resources, they took some steps to ensure that they were going to make the maximum use of it.
Mr. President, when I came, I also brought my own little experience in addressing the problem of corruption. Nigeria is an example of a country that was brought down completely to its knees by corruption. I got that chance and I did it to some extent because within a short period of time we were able to show that it could be done. How did we do it, Mr. President?
PRIMACY OF POLITICAL WILL
Mr. President, distinguished members of parliament, the number one problem in proposing anti-corruption reforms is to ensure the primamcy of a political will that is transparent and unequivocal. Without it, as experience has demonstrated in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria, the anti-corruption war will loose steam and wither off.
In the case of Nigeria a few years, first and foremost, there was a very strong political will. Government at the highest level took the lead. The person who is going to execute this war is the president himself. We had the strong political backing for us to achieve our objectives. Mr. President you are doing it and I want to encourage you to continue. It is the fair step. Mr. President, we also on our own took it upon ourselves to be honest and just; to do it honestly, transparently and in the most accountable manner.
Mr. President, we also went after the powerful people; the rich; those who were hitherto above the law. There is no way you can succeed in the fight against corruption if it is selective in the sense that you go after the small fries, the small people and you leave the big people. Some of us here, the privileged ones among us, are the ones who are in charge of the resources. So if you are going to fight corruption, we should be the targets. And I did that. Mr. President, I brought my own boss to justice. I was a Police officer. I got the Inspector-General of Police, the chief law officer of Nigeria, convicted. I recovered close to $150 million from him. Mr. President, I brought governors to justice. I got them convicted. Mr. President, one of the governors in the Niger Delta gave me $15 million cash in bags. I took that money and I used it as evidence to prosecute him. Mr. President, that is the way to fight corruption. That is the way you must fight corruption. You have to be strong, honest and courageous.
I have met Dr. Pauline Riak. We both belong to an organisation called “Corruption Hunters”. Dr. Riak does have massive support at the international level. People support her and all of us are very eager about her work. I stopped so many things to come here Mr. President to spend five days in Southern Sudan because we are all passionate about Southern Sudan. We want you to succeed. We are desperate for you to succeed. We cannot afford to allow you to fail. When I came, I shared with Dr Riak some of the basic things that need to be done for them to succeed as an anti-corruption commission.
But it is very very important and critical for them to have the tools for them to be able to achieve that. As a country, as parliamentarians, it is in your interest ladies and gentlemen that this country moves forward; it is in your own interests to put selfish interests aside. You will all be proud of it one day. Twenty years, thirty years, people will start talking and you, if not you, your children will be proud of your names that you were responsible for the foundation that made it possible for you to be a country that succeeded in Africa.
How do you do that? Some laws are needed. You can’t succeed without those basic laws. I did that in Nigeria. And most of the laws that we got, I lobbied for, I talked to the parliamentarians, I got the support of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Your anti-corruption commission is a constitutional body. You have an establishment law, but you need massive support beyond that. They need some teeth for them to bite. Our experience in Africa is a bit complicated. Most of the laws that have to do with corruption and anti-corruption today are from the international community. The United Nations came up with a strong document, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) which they enjoined the rest of the world to adopt. We brought it to Nigeria and adopted it. We have domesticated that law.
That law is very comprehensive. It covers A-Z; how you as a country will fight corruption; how you can collaborate with other countries that will help you in fighting corruption. It is there. It is a ready document. Parliamentarians, please look at that law. It is not going to cost you anything as individuals. In that law, you may see for instance, the need for a commission to have powers to investigate and prosecute. Mr. President, I have been a prosecutor all my life. But I was a police officer. I fought to get powers to prosecute taken away from the Attorney-General of Nigeria. Yes! Why did I do that? Because for 40 years, as a country, we never had a single conviction when the office of the Attorney-General was in charge.
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