On Tuesday, June 30, in Abuja, ActionAid Nigeria unveiled report on issues of poverty and corruption in Nigeria. The event was attended by various segments of the society which dissected the report and made contributions on possible ways to tackle the twin problems ravaging the country. Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, reports.
“Nigeria is a country with strong growth potential, vast resources and human capacity, but the escalating rate of poverty and corruption have impeded governance and development. The rising incidence of poverty in the midst of strong economic growth has been widely associated with the endemic levels of corruption in Nigeria.”
ActionAid Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation working with over 40 countries to end poverty and injustice, asserted this at its 2015 national dialogue on poverty held in Abuja, on Tuesday, June 30, 2015 during the unveiling of its report ‘The Relationship between Corruption and Poverty in Nigeria’ to the public.
While unveiling the report at the event attended by various segments of the society and government agencies, former country director of ActionAid Nigeria, Hussaini Abdu, said the report basically is on the research by a team of experts commissioned by the organisation to study the relationship between the prevailing poverty, corruption and social crises in Nigeria, as well as the effect on the masses and economy, and recommend possible solutions.
The thrust of the project was to explore how corruption influences poverty and identify more effective ways of sustainably reducing poverty levels in the country.
Earlier in her welcome address, Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Mrs. Ojobo Atuluku, disclosed that national dialogue on poverty was conceived as a result of the escalating rate of poverty and inequality in the country. She observed that despite the robust economic growth, Nigerian economy has failed to generate decent jobs, thus resulting in widespread poverty.
She recalled that Reuters in August 2012 stated that “poverty in Nigeria is rising with almost 100 million people living on less than $1 a day, despite strong growth in Africa’s second largest economy. Nigeria has consistently ranked low on all international rankings relating to poverty. It has consistently been ranked low in the human development index category; ranking 142 in 2010, 156 in 2011 and 153 in 2012.”
Despite that Nigerian economy is growing, Atuluku said, the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing yearly.
According to her, “It was against this backdrop that we held the first edition of the dialogue on poverty in Nigeria.”
“Our decision to conduct a study to find out if any co-relation exists between poverty and corruption became more imperative given the contentions on the linkages between the two.
“While there was no longer any contestation of the fact that poverty is endemic in the country, government has only limited itself to arguing the level of incidence of poverty. The last administration in the country, however, had contested both national and global reports on state of corruption in the country.”
The report was unveiled in the presence of civil rights organisation executives and representatives, activists, representatives from Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Budget Office of the Federation, Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Oxfam, House Committee on Women Affairs, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) students, the media, among others.
Review
Reviewing the report, a member of the research team, Yunusa Yau, executive director, Centre for Information and Development, explained that the report is divided into five sections which include poverty, corruption and governance.
According to the report, in 2012, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that the poverty crises in Nigeria varied by region, sector and gender and impacted Nigerian youths, children and mothers more than the adult male population.
The researchers found that poverty in Nigeria presents very complex and difficult challenge to citizens and policy-makers. They also discovered that the manifestations of poverty across urban and rural communities have been identified as lack of food, money, shelter and indebtedness.
The research revealed that the poor people in Nigeria live in unhygienic and insecure environments with limited access to medical facilities, electricity, water and other basic services.
Dimension/correlation
According to the ActionAid five-man research team, the dimension of poverty in Nigeria is widespread in both rural and urban areas, with the rural areas recording a higher incidence of debt and severity of poverty than urban areas. NBS attributed the high incidence of poverty in the rural areas to their dependence on low productivity agriculture, lack of access to opportunities and poor social and economic infrastructure.
The issue of endemic corruption was also looked into by the researchers. They identified the actors and drivers of corruption in the country.
After systematic research on the issue, the team found that corruption is widespread in different tiers and arms of government and the private sector. Corruption manifests in various forms and in many types of transactions within and across all levels of government, between principal actors in private and public sectors and within civil society organisations. It was also established that corruption manifests in various ways like inflation of public expenditure, bribery and extortion, fraud, embezzlement and misappropriation of funds, non-remittance or under-remittance of revenue, tax negotiation, diversion of local government allocations, office of the first lady of the president and state governors, crude oil theft or illegal bunkering, subsidy scandal, power sector reform, pension funds scandal, among others.
It was further established that key drivers and actors not only enabled and profited from corruption, but are determined to ensure that efforts to fight corruption fail.
These key actors and drivers of corruption in the country were identified as officials of the executive arm, the legislature, judiciary, law enforcement agencies, civil servants/public officers, politicians and political parties, the private sector, oil and gas sector operators as well as those in the banking sector, among others.
Explaining corruption in the oil and gas sector, Yau pointed out that dependence on kerosene has created its own challenges, as many public officials and their collaborators in the private sector not only perfected the art of robbing the poor of the commodity on which they depend, but also robbing the nation of the huge sums of public money that could have been deployed to other services.
ActionAid also divulged that corruption has also permeated into the banking sector, stating that the impact of corruption on the lives of the Nigerian people is more directly experienced in connection with the mismanagement of the banking sector.
Nigeria scores high in corruption perception index (CPI) and scores low in human development index (HDI). This implies that because the incidence of corruption is high, investment in citizens’ welfare is low.
Similarly, poverty level in states where governors were indicted of misusing and converting public funds into private use is higher than in states where governors were judicious in the use of public funds. It then implies that corrupt behaviours eroded the institutional capacity of government in those states and their ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to deliver quality public services such as education, health and infrastructure.
Anti-corruption measures
The report identified established anti-corruption agencies adopted to fight corruption such as Criminal and Penal Code, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), ICPC, EFCC and Transparency Initiatives. It however noted that despite the setting up of these agencies, corruption continues to thrive unabated.
It posits that the anti-corruption agencies have been ineffective in the war against corruption due to lack of capacity for systematic data collection and unavailability of a comprehensive database of corrupt cases, thus eroding public confidence in support of the agencies and their efforts.
Recommendations
Corruption and poverty have been treated as two separate national challenges. Findings show that there is a strong causal relationship between the two and therefore to tackle the issues head-long, the three arms of government have serious tasks. Similarly, the civil society and development partners have roles to play.
Government was charged with the development of policies that appreciate the underlining causes of poverty and its spread to the twin issues. The stakeholders urged government to exert energy on certain public services, particularly education and health, develop and implement an effective social protection policy at both national and state levels.
The immunity clause in the 1999 Constitution was frowned at, as it shields public office holders who engage in corruption and other forms of impunity from the law.
Other recommendations include the following:
*Local level accountability should be strengthened, and citizens should be at the centre of demanding for transparency and accountability in the conduct of public and corporate affairs. *Development partners have an important role to play in the fight against corruption and poverty. Advocacy for the passage of anti-corruption related legislations should be continued at all levels.
*Civil society should also engage in systematic monitoring and reporting on advocacy efforts.
Responses
Participants at the event expressed satisfaction on the report and the recommendations. Abdulazeez Musa from Oxfam said it is important to include women in all human endeavours and on issues bordering on corruption and poverty, arguing that they mostly constitute the vulnerable group.
“It is important to include those that matter,” he said.
While pledging that Oxfam will support the course of ActionAid, he appealed to other participants to play visible roles in poverty eradication.
Akin Lawal from ICPC posits that outcome of the discussion on the report will provide necessary tools that will enhance eradication of poverty.
“The effect of poverty on the society and how to eradicate it is the key issue,” he stressed.
Abdu asserted that ActionAid produced a report that gives a clear view of level of poverty and corruption in Nigeria. “Any government that wants to fight poverty in this country must also fight corruption. Poverty and corruption are emergencies; the more you tackle corruption, the more you reduce poverty,” he stressed.
