This paper argued that that leadership and corruption are the bane of development in Nigeria wherein the ethnically-differentiated polity became the cover-up for corruption and profligacy, creating a cyclical underdevelopment syndrome. The inadequacy of government to utilize petroleum resources wisely and the gross corruption that has been and is still being perpetrated by virtually all public officials and other stakeholders keeps rubbing salt into the wounds of poverty. Corruption has persisted in spite of efforts at amelioration. There is lack of virtuous leaders, who are honest persons of integrity and trust. To stamp out corruption, Nigerians should elect or appoint people of probity to manage public affairs. The existing reforms and policies on corruption should be reviewed and strengthened in order to address the causes of corruption rather than symptoms. Whereas agencies and commissions saddled with monitoring corrupt practices play important roles, leadership commitment is essential to Nigeria’s progress.
Oil is the major source of funds in Nigeria; and, custody of the funds is held by the executive.
Custody of these funds entails appropriate management mechanisms and effective leadership.
To build a viable and productive economy and stable society, the leaders must put the nation’s vast human and material resources into productive use and improve the business climate to lure innovative-minded entrepreneurs into the economy. But for this to be possible Nigeria needs people-centered leaders and servant-leadership with “new thinking and new choices”, committed to creating “gross national happiness”.
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ARE AFRICAN GOVERNMENTS REALLY CORRUPT? A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE SOUTHERN AFRICA DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
M.R. Chizuma University of Limpopo, South Africa Abstract
The paper challenges the notion that governments in the SADC region have high levels of corruption practices. This assertion is weakened by the fact that there is no generally agreed etymological basis for corruption in the African context. Academics and policy makers are consistently jumping on bandwagon to point out at the existence of corruption in African governments without factual cultural authenticity. This paper uses the existing literature on the phenomenon of corruption to question the popular, although not entirely correct, argument that African governments are generally and inherently corrupt. Transparency International (TI) has ranked many African countries as having an endemic corruption problem while media have highlighted instances of corruption at municipal, provincial, national and international levels.
Preliminary evidence suggests that most African countries have high levels of corruption and efforts by respective governments to fight this scourge have proven to be ineffective. The paper concludes by challenging scholars of Public Administration in Africa to deconstruct the meaning of the concept of corruption based on African experiences and cultural value systems into this area which will help add to existing knowledge and invoke further inquest amongst academics, governments and other stakeholders.
Keywords: Corruption; Government; SADC; Watchdog
1. Introduction
The difficulties which Africans and their governments have had to face ever since they got their independence have largely, been the product of their past. This is not to suggest that the misdirection, corruption or incompetence of some African leaders or even environmental factors have not been partially to blame for Africa’s continuing underdevelopment. The roots of many of Africa’s recurrent difficulties in the last decades are to be found in the period of colonial rule of the previous governments before gaining independence. Agatiello (2010) states that corruption is an action, omission, vice or abuse that deters the ethical or legal obligations of a public function towards private purposes of economic, social or political benefit. De Maria (2007) stipulates that corruption through western eyes generally pertains to matters such as personal conflicts of interest and extracting private profit from a public office. Corruption is a concept drawn from the depths of western viewpoint. Therefore, it is tempered with sociological naivety and other-culture indifference. The western understanding of corruption is determined to a great magnitude by the established power of individualism to fashion our view of this phenomenon.
Individual responsibility is placed in the forefront of our consciousness and family, village, history and ethnicity are pushed away in the pursuit for stand-alone culprits.
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© 2014, South African Association of Public Administration and Management, P.O. Box 14257, Hatfield, Pretoria, 0028, South Africa
Human contact itself is a composite of reality, agreements, modes of rationalisation, world visions and loyalties that are more frequently than not ambiguous, contradictory, partial, unbalanced and problematic to interpret. In the case of African politicians, we take it for granted that they are not filled by the selfless ideals they proclaim while campaigning for office but rather by material interests and political mandates, including their very own, those of their families and friends, those of allies and other politicians who projected them to power (Bentham, 1996).
Generally as a result of the subjectivity and complexity of political decision-making, it is hard to measure out the possibility of impartial and suprasectoral governance, with those in charge acting as independent guardians of the common good. That is, the political and social systems themselves delimit, and at times determine, the available choices and compromises. However, this does not mean that politicians need to be mere accommodating subjects to the system of interests of the status quo or that the rational and honest politician is a fantasy. This is because of the narrow path between given circumstances, circumstantial constraints and repeated incertitude that lays the variable vein of genuine power and glory (Agatiello, 2010).
Far from “greasing the wheels”, corruption has been found to have deep and wide- ranging damaging effects. Previous research has established a causal connection between corruption and lower levels of private investment and growth capital flows and currency crises.
By its nature, corruption is opaque and depends on avoiding capture and measurement.
Although there have been little objective supportive historical data about corruption in Africa, there now exist indices aimed at measuring the perception of corruption across countries and of the most prominent ones are Transparency International and Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) (Wei & Wu, 2001).