Content area
Full text
To state that corruption abounds in Nigeria is to restate the obvious. The guardian coup of January 1966 was given the thumbs-up by many Nigerians who saw the military putsch as a welcome relief from the prevailing conditions of pervasive corruption and deepening socio-economic crisis. Nigerians hoped that soldiers who hailed from a more structured and regimented background, vis-à-vis their civilian counterparts, would be apt to free the nation from the stranglehold of corruption and emplace a much needed professionalism in the country's civil service. But time and again, military leaders emphatically lacked the requisite gravitas and savoir faire to stem the tide of corruption and install good governance. Unfettered by the rule of law and goaded on by the lure of personal gain, the military became a vanguard of unbridled self-aggrandisement and frenetic looting. The 'by-product' was the emergence of an increasingly predatory and self-interested ruling class. This paper assays ongoing initiatives that are likely to affect the trend of corruption in Nigeria. They might also sow the seed for an appropriate holistic approach toward success in the nation's anticorruption crusade.
Key Words: Guardian Coup; Post-constitutional Opportunism; Political and Bureaucratic Corruption; Underdevelopment.
Introduction
For many people in other parts of the world, the mention of Africa stirs up images of civil unrest, war, poverty, disease, criminality, pervasive corruption and mounting social ills. The political environment in many African states has been fraught with difficulties, not least within the sphere of corrupt practices. In a damning indictment of Africa's political history, the Commission for Africa (2005:106) noted that "Africa has suffered from governments that have looted the resources of the state; that could not or would not deliver services to their people; that in many cases were predatory, corruptly extracting their countries' resources, that maintained control through violence and bribery; and that squandered and stolen aid." Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize from Kenya, Wangari Maathai (2009), expressed the view widely shared by most Africans: "one of the major tragedies of postcolonial Africa is that the African people have trusted their leaders, but only a few of those leaders have honored that trust. What has held Africa back and continues to do so has its origins in the lack of principled, ethical leadership." Chinua...