Anatomy of crime of corruption in Nigeria: How to understand, tackle it

All is set for the public presentation of Onu John Onwe’s book titled, Anatomy Of Crime Of Corruption In Nigeria (Constitutional Framework As The Tap-Root) Volumes 1 And 2.

Onwe, the curator, Hopebay Library, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, said the book presentation would hold on Saturday, March 9, 2024, in Abakaliki.Speaking with The Guardian recently, the legal practitioner and a one-time Special Adviser to the Governor, Ebonyi State, 2001-03; Special Adviser to the Governor, (Political), 2003-07; Special Adviser to the Governor, Ebonyi State (Political Matters and State Assembly Liaison, to fight corruption, there is need for you to understand it. He noted that Nigerian rulers and their governments consider corruption the chief problem of the country.

But it appears that they have never bothered to understand what corruption is, and how to tackle it.He said, “every ruler and every government have burdened themselves with the problem of corruption that it is now a sing song. But that is where it stops and ends because once the ruler climbs unto the throne, the problem of corruption surrounds him and overwhelms him.”

It is this problem, Onwe said, he has have observed and decided to study to discover what it is with a view to solving the problem. “To understand the problem of corruption, I undertook a doctoral programme, and the main objective was to know the source of corruption in Nigeria. I discovered that the source of corruption in Nigeria is Nigeria’s feudal state structure and constitutional framework founded on it. These are the wellsprings of corruption in Nigeria,” he revealed.

“Feudalism is a system of socio-economic and political organisation where a few or class of persons through the matrix of physical power and law take control of the state, and having taken control of the state, they impose their will on the society through a form of government that is limited to them or their class.

“Being in control of the state and government, they rule without constitutional restrictions, whereas the society is subjugated under a very restrictive rules that constrain freedoms. But even at that, enforcement can be discretionary, thereby compromising the fundamental principles of rule of law due process.

“Under this system, the means of production are corralled and strictly controlled, thereby making daily life a battle of wits between legal endeavours and criminality, which are direct contradictions from the restrictive socio-economic and political system.”

The history of Nigeria is a history of conquests, subjugation under restrictive laws and abridgement of freedoms. Nigeria has never been free since its formation between 1862 and 1914. The British conquerors/colonisers deployed humungous violence to conquer and subjugate the over 300 ethnic nationalities to form Nigeria. With a mixed matrix of corruption and strong arm, Britain ruled Nigeria, thereby, leaving a culture of autocracy and corruption.

Leading Nigeria to independence, Britain deployed electoral corruption to install indigenous government. The indigenous rulers who inherited this system did not abrogate it rather they magnified and amplified it to its present grotesque form. No wonder, some of the founding fathers were found wanting corruption-wise.”

From 1966 to 1999, the military proved to be the worst culprit of the crime they accused the civil rulers of being guilty of. Infact, one of the chieftains of military regimes, General Mohammed Chris Ali accused his colleagues of having conquered and turned Nigeria into a fiefdom and exploited to the point of dysfunctionality,” he said.

It is this problem that this book, Anatomy of Crime of Corruption in Nigeria (Constitutional Framework as the Tap-root) Volumes 1 and 2 has studied. It discovered that the crime of corruption is intractable in Nigeria because it issues from the wellspring of the state structure and constitutional framework.

“In the formation of Nigeria, corruption was deployed; in operating it, corruption because handy and in the working of the complex machinery of the state and society, corruption serves as lubricant oiling the ligaments and joints of the complex whole. Deployment of corruption in the formation and operation of Nigeria has rendered the state and society dysfunctional with the result that both reinforce each other in a delicate mutuality.”

As a result, law does not operate to bind all and sundry as law binds only the weak while the strong and powerful bend or even break the law without consequences. This is the pivotal reason for corruption in Nigeria. To rid Nigeria of corruption this feudal autocracy and the extant constitutional framework that was imposed right from 1914 to date must be abolished and restructured state and constitutional framework agreed to by the people must be instituted. No reforms, no panel-beating of the present system will solve the problem. Rather than solving the problem of corruption, reforms will deepen the problem and plunge the country to irredeemable condition.

The book is made up of two volumes of 10 chapters divided into five chapters in volume one while volume two has six chapters but in actual fact, it is five chapters as chapter one in volume two is a repetition of the introduction. The book has well-resourced references, bibliography and appendixes.

This book presents a departure from the old way of understanding corruption, and “I dare say it is the first time a researcher is taking Nigerians’ minds away from the usual culprit of ‘leadership question’ as the reason for corruption. Rather, this book traces the foundation of Nigeria and its state structuring and constitutional framework – all imposed on a conquered and subjugated society as the real reason for the corruption in Nigeria.”

So, this book concludes that it is the fraudulent formation and imposition of a feudal and autocratic constitutional framework on Nigeria that is the tap-root of the crime of corruption in Nigeria, not poor leadership. Poor leadership and every other problems flow from this source. To solve the problem of corruption in Nigeria, this present discredited system must be changed for a new free and just legal order and political system.”