CORRUPTION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA

                        Abstract

 

This paper studied corruption and the Nigerian economic growth. In doing this, the study looked at historical overview of corruption in Nigeria and conceptual issues were also discussed. It also reviewed the causes and effects of corruption, without leaving out the dynamics of corruption. Also, the study looked at the relationship between corruption and the Nigerian economic growth. However, the study introduces a new perspective on the role of corruption in economic growth and provides quantitative estimates of the impact of corruption on the economic growth in Nigeria as well as their causal relationship. It is on this basis, we draw our conclusion and suggest that Private Anti-Corruption Initiatives, Public anti-corruption initiatives and public education campaign/programmes should be strengthened and motivated in to address the cause of corruption rather than its effects.

                                    

                                       CHAPTER ONE

                                        INTRODUCTION

 

1.1  Background of the study

Corruption involves securing wealth or power through illegal means for private gain at public expense; or a misuse of public power for private benefit. Corruption has coexisted with human society for a long time and remains as one of the problems in many of the world’s developing economies with devastating consequences.

Corruption is a global phenomenon which exists in varying degrees in different countries and it consists of one of the impediments of economic growth (Agbu, 2001). Corruption is not only found in democratic and dictatorial politics, but also in feudal, capitalist and socialist economies. Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist cultures are equally bedeviled by corruption (Dike, 2005). Corruption is directly connected with rent-seeking behavior

of people that have administrative or market power (Ogunlana, 2011). The World Bank has estimated that over 1trillion is paid in bribe for business transactions in less developed countries. Corruption is the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development. It undermines development by distorting the role of law and weakening the institutional foundation on which economic growth depends (World Bank). It is one of the greatest challenges of the contemporary world. It undermines good government, fundamentally distorts public policy, leads to the misallocation of resources, harms the private sector and private sector development and particularly hurts the poor (Transparency International). Empirical studies have shown that African countries exhibit relatively high level of corruption which institute a major constraint to efforts aimed at effectively allocating resources to growth enhancing project. Funds that would have been invested in infrastructural and development projects are seriously depleted through kickbacks, over and under invoicing of contract amounts which accounts for why the grants and aids which are given by richer and developed countries are suspended or sometimes out rightly cancelled when it was discovered that these funds are embezzled and end up in corrupt hands (Ogunlana, 2011). In Nigeria, it is one of the many unresolved problems that have critically hobbled and skewed development (Ayobolu, 2006). It remains a long-term major political and economic challenge for

Nigeria (Sachs, 2007). It is a canker worm that has eaten deep in the socio-economic fabric of the nation. It ranges from petty corruption to political/bureaucratic corruption or Systemic corruption (International Center for Economic Growth, 1999). Corruption is endemic as well as an enemy within (Agbu, 2003). It had stunted growth in all sectors. It has been the primary reason behind the country difficulties in developing fast. This is evident in consistent Transparency International’s rating of Nigeria as one of the top three most corrupt countries in the world (Ribadu, 2003).The corruption trend in the country is alarming as the list of corrupt practices in Nigeria as well as the people involved is endless. Although, the present civilian Government has embarked on massive war against corruption via Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crime Corruption (EFCC), such effort is yet to have a significant positive impact. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to analyse the effects of corruption on economic growth and development of Nigeria since 1990 to date.

Corruption is an improbity or decay in the decision-making process in which a decision-maker consents to deviate or demands deviation from the criterion which should rule his or her decision-making, in exchange for a reward or for the promise or expectation of a reward, while these motives influencing his or her decision-making cannot be part of the justification of the decision.

Major corruption comes close whenever major events involving large sums of money, multiple ‘players’, or huge quantities of products (think of food and pharmaceuticals) often in disaster situations, are at stake. Preferably, corruption flourishes in situations involving high technology (no one understands the real quality and value of products), or in situtions that are chaotic. Think of civil war: who is responsible and who is the rebel? Natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, droughts. The global community reacts quickly but local government might be disorganised and disoriented. Who maintains law and order? or maybe the purchase of a technologically far advanced aircraft, while only a few can understand the technologies implied in development and production of such a plane. Mostly , the sums of money involved are huge, a relatively small amount of corrupt payment is difficult to attract attention. Or the number of actions is very large, for instance in betting stations for results of Olympic Games or international soccer-tournaments which can easily be manipulated. Geo-politics might play a role like e.g. the East-West conflict did in the second half of the 20th century, in which the major country-alliances sought support from non-aligned countries.

Fighting corruption takes place in many ‘theaters’:

political reforms, including the financing of political parties and elections;

economic reforms, regulating markets and the financial sector;

financial controls: budget, bookkeeping, reporting

Public supervision: media, parliament, local administrators and councils, registration; free access to information and data; maintaining law and order; improving and strengthening of the judicial system;

institutional reforms: Tax systems, customs, public administration in general; whistleblowers and civil society organisations (NGO’s).

We know that corruption will not disappear from society. Our efforts are meant to restrict corruption and to protect as much as possible the poor and weak in our societies. In the end all corruption costs are paid by the consumer and the tax-payer, they need protection.

The small corruption (peanuts, facilitation payments – allowed by the OECD!) do not cost much but are awesome to the public. It is less damaging in total amounts but it makes it difficult to understand why we fight the grand corruption if we fail to fight the small ‘bakshis’. Major corruption thrives on a broad base of small corruption-payments or bribes.

 

 

 

1.2  Characteristics of corruption

Discussion of corruption is extremely difficult as it is a hidden phenomenon in our societies. Both parties in exchange of power for privileges want to keep their transaction secret. That makes it so difficult to establish how wide and deep corruption penetrated our economy and social life. Moreover, what for some is no more than ‘a friendly turn’ is for others ‘misbehaviour’. What in one place can be friendliness is unacceptable elsewhere. Normal behaviour at a particular hour of the day may be unacceptable at another hour.

 

Let us have a look into some of the characteristics:

(a) Recipients and payers

(b) Extortion

(c) Lubricant of society

(d) An ethical problem

(e) Poverty reduction

 

(a) Recipients and payers

Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power and elected authority for private profit.

Worldwide complaints are heard about politicians and public officials who accept bribes and enrich themselves privately at the expense of the common citizen. This may be at the expense of the employee and the employer; consumer and producer; renter and tenant; the one applying for a permit to do something, or asking exemption from an obligation to pay or to deliver a product or a service. All those cases may be considered to be abuse of power and authority for one’s own benefit.

Complainers forget that necessarily there should also be payers who benefit from that abuse of power and authority. The other side of the coin shows payers assuming that their ‘gift’ to a politician or a public official, may in return deliver profitable preferential treatment or delivery.

Please note that repeatedly is stressed the behavior by public officials and politicians. Often the last ones are forgotten. Anyone who wants to fight corruption and safeguard integrity in governance should not only prevent politicians and public officials from unlawfully accepting gifts, but should also fight the ‘high and mighty’ that abuse their power and authority to give privileges such as land rights, permits, diplomas, allowances, money, against a reward.

All over the world we see, generally speaking, that accepting bribes is publicly denounced. The parliamentarian accepting bribes for using his influence and legislative power to endorse proposals profitable to some, is condemned in public by everyone. However, in private, those who gain from those profitable proposals praise his approach as realistic. For them he is the perfect representative who recognizes that ‘there is no escaping from corruption, if you don’t want to lose the competitive struggle’.

Do they support the opinion that it is wrong to bribe politicians and public officials, whereas, the other way round, they themselves bribing these officials for their own profit would not be wrong? Would they denounce someone bribing an official or politician?

 

(b) Extortion

Many among us go one step further. They do not only blame politicians and public officials for willingly accepting bribes. They also often allege that those having authority in our society ask to be bribed or give us the opportunity to bribe. This means that the question ‘who is to blame’, shifts from the person who pays to the person who extorts and receives. Again on the ground of the allegation: ‘There’s no escaping from it, for if you don’t pay, you are bound to fall behind’.

Such asking for a gift may be incidental or general. A generally accepted practice in pakistanin the nineties of the 20th century, for example, was that every invoice written out for the government was increased by 7 percent, as a gift to the public official and/or politician in recompense for the privilege of being allowed to supply a product or service. Naturally, on top of that there came incidental additional payments by way of thanks for benefits obtained.

In every society it is known, either publicly or furtively, which public official is open to transactions with gifts being made reciprocally. The gift on the part of the official may then imply considering an application with priority, or assigning a contract, scholarship or employment. The potential payer will look for his “prey”; he will look for the politician/public official of whom everybody knows that he can be ‘bought’, that he is prepared to break the rules in exchange for a ‘gift’. Therefore, the reputation that a public official or politician enjoys, is of great significance. Some will never be approached with a ‘proposition’, as the potential extortionists or bribers do know that they (those public officials or politicians) are not open to such practices. Equally, as regards some business enterprises, it is a known fact that they do not keep any cash for bribes. They run less risk of falling victims to extortion.

 

(c) Lubricant of society

Many think that paying bribes is required to ensure smoother operation of society. They think that without an occasional gift (for example, around Christmas and New Year), or incidentally (a gift on the occasion of a marriage or when a child is born) for instance upon entering into a contract for the supply of a product or a service, such contracts might be lost to them and might be assigned to others.

For their own enterprises that would then amount to a loss, implying loss of sales potential, which is not what any enterprise or entrepreneur works for. For entrepreneurs who want to secure sales, those gifts are a cost item which they account for in advance in their prices. As a consequence products and services cost unnecessarily more than is needed from a commercial point of view, for as a matter of fact these gifts have already been budgeted.

If corruption is judged purely on the basis of business economics, macro-economically it costs money to society which should be considered as a loss. From the micro-economic point of view, for the bribing entrepreneur, it is profitable. The payer of a bribe secures a desired transaction which – if evaluated on purely commercial grounds – strictly speaking, should have been assigned to someone else. That will harm individual entrepreneurs and transactions; it will harm the national economy and the world economy. The fact is that, being influenced by payment of bribes, buyers (the politicians, the public officials?), will often not make the best decision, but take an inferior decision.

It is not the best producer that wins, and it is not the best product that wins, but the delivering contract-party that is willing to ‘fork out’ the most money. Naturally, those additional payments will end up in the economy anyway and are, therefore, a burden from a macro-economic point of view, either for the taxpayer or for the consumer.

 

(d) An ethical problem

The mere fact that both the payer and the recipient of bribes want to keep their behaviour secret (and often succeed in doing so as well) shows that such behaviour is generally considered to be improper. Many consider corruption to be an ethical problem, a behavioural problem. And refer to it as being ‘sinful’, a ‘wrongdoing’. It is a problem to be solved by means of personal ‘reform’.

Those who took the initiative to establish Transparency International (TI), the global coalition against corruption, in the last decade of the past century, began calling corruption ‘bad business practices’, which is a moral judgment, not an economical. On the contrary, some in the business community consider corruption to be ‘good business practices’, as they make more money using corruption as a business tool.

During the initial attempts to establish TI, insight grew that we were dealing with an economic phenomenon and that ‘transparency’ should be the key-word.

Still there is also an ethical problem. Corruption is not only an economical phenomenon in any society or economy. It is not sufficient to call it an economical phenomenon; this ignores the more general importance of a corruption-free society for all aspects of life and for all population groups, poor and rich alike. It also ignores that bribery takes always place within a certain social context. It is a structural problem in companies where the course of actions is not transparent, where the law is not observed, and observance is not monitored.

A striking aspect in recent developments in trade and industry (and in society at large) is the fact that ethics has become important to corporate behaviour again. Standards and values are seen as essential conditions and characteristics for the good quality of citizenship, entrepreneurship and governance. The concepts ‘people, planet and profit’ are now cherished all over the world in enterprises and often referred to in their annual reports. They emphasize the fact that in a business-enterprise it is not only pursuit of ‘profit’ that counts, but that businesses should also take into account the interests of ‘people’ in our society (people, their personnel, executive staff, shareholders, clients, neighbours, etc.) and also the physical world surrounding us, our ‘planet’, introducing economical management of raw materials and energy, concern about possible climate, prevention of waste, processing of waste. Apart from the economics and the financial outcomes of entrepreneurial decisions, socially and ecologically justifiable behavior is now also identified as being important.

Emphasizing the ‘sinfulness’ of corruption, aims at improving especially individual and personal behaviour. Poor entrepreneurship (in a moral sense) should then be improved on a personal basis. Our focusing on the conditions and the implications of corrupt behaviour aims rather on the entire structure of society and economy, and on the conditions that exist within that structure to prevent and fight corrupt behaviour and safeguard integrity. Good entrepreneurship is judged with regard to its quality in all three aspects: People, Planet and Profit. The qualification ‘poor’ is not a sign of sinfulness, but a quality that signifies an adverse effect on all three aspects not only on the economics.

 

(e) Poverty reduction

Poverty in the world is often brought up to account for the phenomenon of corruption. Is that satisfactory? Is it correct and is it proven that the poor are more corrupt than the rich? How come then, that some political leaders, e.g. Suharto in Indonesia, Mobutu in  Congo, and Abacha in Nigeria, but also Kohl in Germany and Mitterrand and Chirac in France, are or were so deeply implicated in bribery affairs? They can hardly be said to suffer poverty, can they? Neither can this be said from business leaders, often millionaires, if not billionaires, who are implicated in corruption affairs with those political leaders.

The explanation that refers to individual poverty reduction is especially given by those who have a keen eye for corruption among lower operational staff in government service, notably lower office clerks, police officers, customs officers, the military, teachers, admission staff in hospitals, bus ticket collectors, car-park attendants, garbage collectors, etc., who on an operational level often have good opportunities to extract extra income or privileges from decisions they might take of importance to entrepreneurs and citizens.  Consequently, these have a certain value.

The explanation that is given for their sometimes corrupt behaviour is that they are poorly paid and that, therefore, they are forced to live on what they can get by way of bribes. Then it fits into the picture painted by this explanation to say that this problem can become even more serious if not only their salaries are low, but, on top of that, they are not paid in time.

Investigations into the effect of the level of income enjoyed by a person, however, provide sufficient proof that this explanation is not correct. Low pay does surely not automatically imply that, consequently, the person concerned is corrupt. What is of much greater importance for the prevention of, or fight against, corruption at a lower level in all kinds of hierarchies, is the clearness and transparency of the rules and of the decision-making process, and the control exercised on the application of the rules. Timely payment of salaries is an important pre-condition to prevent corrupt behaviour. For many people ‘petty’ corruption is more annoying than grand-scale corruption. Citizens have a horror of little extras having to be paid for all kinds of services of public authorities. ‘Petty’ corruption is rampant in the lower ranks of organizations, wherever at higher levels ‘grand’ corruption prevails among public officials and politicians. When lower ranking public officials and politicians see, that their higher ranking colleagues line their pockets with big gifts, it might occur to them that it is justifiable to get their share.

A boss who takes his share in ‘grand’ corruption, will have a harder time acting against ‘petty’ corruption by his underlings within his own service or political party.

 

 1.3  Evolution of corruption

The genesis of corruption in Nigeria might not really be associated with a particular period. Nonetheless, Benjamin (2007) asserted that corruption in Nigeria can be traced back to the colonial era when Nigerians were bribed with different foreign goods in exchange for local products in exchange for slaves. Aside this, various regimes have also been associated with certain corrupt practice. The system has been such that corruption is used to check corruption by corrupting the system all the more. The illegitimate taking over of government by the various military regimes via coup d’état were often justified by pervasive  corruption. This tends to use corruptly armed measures to check and making the economy worse off; abolition of the constitution by replacing it with decrees, abuse of fundamental human rights among others. Sowunmi (2010) opined that the history of corruption in Nigeria is strongly rooted in the over 29 years of the military rule, out of 46 years of her statehood since 1960. Ribadu (2006) claimed that successive military regimes subdued the rule of law, facilitated the wanton looting of the public treasury, decapitated public institutions and free speech and instituted a secret and opaque culture in the running of government business. Corruption became the dominant guiding principle for running affairs of state. The period witnessed a total reversal and destruction of every good thing in the country and indeed, the military took corruption to its highest levels.

 

 1.4  Conceptual framework

The menace of corruption in Nigeria is endemic and on the increase despite several attempts even by successive governments to ameliorate the blight. The issue is global and it is without a uniform definition. In Nigeria, corruption has become the order of the day happening among the young and the old, the politician and the non-politician as well as military and the non-military. The unstoppable social economic scourge has suggested different meanings to different scholars from different schools of thought. Salisu (2000) simply defined corruption as the misapplication of public resources to private ends. This among others include the public officials collecting bribes for issuing permits licenses for authorizing passage of goods at sea/airport, passports or visa, for awarding contracts or for enacting regulations designed to create artificial scarcity, awarding undeserved score or grades to students after exam, availing question papers to students before examination, and at times it may come in the form of sexual or other forms of gratifications. The World Bank (1996) defined corruption as “the abuse of public power for private benefit”. The Transparency International (2005) defined it as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. Corruption also includes bribery, smuggling, fraud, illegal payments, money laundering, drug trafficking, falsification of documents and records, window dressing, false declaration, evasion, underpayment, deceit, forgery, concealment, aiding and abetting of any kind to the detriment of another person, community, society or nation. Khan (1996) defined corruption as an act which deviates from the formal rules of conduct governing the actions of someone in a position of public authority because of private – regarding – motive such as wealth, power or status. Otite (2000) defined corruption as perversion of integrity or state of affairs through bribery, favour or moral depravity” … It takes place when at least two parties have interacted to change the structure or processes of society or the behaviour of functionaries in order to produce dishonest, unfaithful or defiled situations. In other words – corruption is a systematic vice in an individual, society or a nation which reflects favoritism, nepotism, tribalism, sectionalism, undue enrichment, amassing of wealth, abuse of office, power, position and derivation of undue gains and benefits. Windsor and Getz (2000) broadly defined corruption as socially impermissible deviance from some public duty or more generally some ideal standard of conduct. Corruption also could be youth based among which includes cybercrime (yahoo yahoo), thuggery, permutation, pilfering, drug peddling, paid assassins, kidnapping, prostitution, militancy, boko-haram and 419 syndromes, plagiarisms among others. The definitions of these authors commonly agreed that corruption manifests for personal gratification and therefore it is anti-economic or political and it erodes the values system of the economy. Contrary to the prevailing practice among most social scientists and other students of society (like lawyers, historians and philosophers) who claim or make a pretense at objective, values-free analysis and explanation of any social phenomenon. I openly acknowledge that all attempts to explain social reality, or any aspect of it are necessarily informed by philosophical and moral presuppositions, explicitly or implicitly made by scholars concerned.

Consequently, a historical perspective of corruption in Nigeria begins with seeing corruption as a form of anti-social behavior by an individual or social group which confers unjust or fraudulent benefits in its perpetrators, is inconsistent with the established legal norms and prevailing moral ethos of the land and is likely to subvert or diminish the capacity of the legitimate authorities to provide fully for the material and spiritual wellbeing of all members of society in a just and equitable manner. It is important to note the following;

(i) Corruption was not invented by, nor is it peculiar to Nigerians. On the contrary, it is a global phenomenon with deep historical roots, although it manifests itself with significant similarities and differences in different societies, depending on the particular system of power c distribution and the legal and moral norms operating therein.

(ii) Corruption like all social phenomenon, is intelligible only in its total social context: its peculiar form, dynamics and degree of social and cultural acceptability or tolerance being critically related to the dominant mode of poverty distribution power configuration; and the underpinning moral and ethical values of operation in a given society.

(iii) Corruption in Nigeria is a kind of social virus which is a hybrid of traits and those derived from and nurtured in the indigenous Nigerian context.

 

1.5   Statement of problem

The causes of corruption are myriad have political and cultural variables. According to Lipset and Lenz, there is a strong evidence points to a link between corruption and social diversity, ethno-linguistic fractionalization, and the proportions of country’s population adhering to different religious traditions. And studies note also that corruption is widespread in most non-democratic countries, and particularly, in countries that have been branded neo-patrimonial, kleptocratic and prebendal (NORAD 2000). Thus, the political system and the culture of a society could make the citizens more prone to corrupt activities. However, the statement of this research problem is focus on the fact that corruption has degraded our nation and yet it’s not adequately considered or looked into as a serious fact to poor economic growth of the nation Nigeria, therefore the researcher seeks to address this issue and highlight the effects of corruption in Nigeria and call for adequate attention to its clarion call.

 

1.6  Objectives of Study

This research work will evaluate corruption, its conceptual effects to the economic growth of Nigeria. Other forms of objectives are.

1. To review Nigerian corruption and its effect to the economy.
2. To alternate an option to how corruption can be adequately tackle and handle in our country Nigeria.

iii.        To call Nigerians to stand out and shown corruption.

 

 

1.7  Research Hypothesis

For the purpose of this research work, two relevant research hypotheses will be stated and tested for the cause of this study.

(i)            H_null There is no significance relationship between corruptions to economic growth of Nigeria.

H_alt There is a significance relationship between corruptions to economic growth of Nigeria.

(ii)          H_null Corruption cannot be resolved in Nigeria as a result of the level attain to.

H_alt Corruption can be resolved in Nigeria even though the level it has attain to.

 

1.8  Significance of the study

The significance of this work lies on the fact that with less corruption, the Nigerian economic growth stands to gain in its efforts towards development.  This study attempts to answer the question; what is the correlation between corruption and economic growth, the cause of corruption and how the present state of corruption will be lessened.

This will form the basis upon which suggestions will be made as to how corruption can be eradicated.

 

                          This work stands to benefit:

(i)   Nigeria as a whole.  The research intends to bring forth ways to lessen corruption for the purposes of increasing economic growth.

(ii) The research will be beneficial to schools (teachers and students) and will help them understand the consequence of corruption to our nation.

 

 

1.9  Scope and limitations of the study

This study focuses on Nigeria and on the impact of agricultural development on the economic growth of Nigeria.

The originality and reliability of any study or research work is based on the quantity and quality of available data.  Though it is the duty and intention of any researcher to bring out and show everything the study is to have, but there are constraints which include, time, finance, difficulty in getting data etc.

 

10.0  Research methodology

This research work will employs simple econometric models like Augmented Dicker-Fuller test, granger casualty test and co-integration test to investigate the impact of corruption on economic growth in Nigeria. Therefore, secondary method of datacollection is used.

 

10.1  Definition of key terms

(i) Corruption:- It may be conceptualized as the perversion or change from good to bad, right or wrong. It may be defined generally as the misuse or abuse of position, power or procedures for personal or group interest, need and wants. “It involves the violation or established rules, practices and procedures” personal and/or group interests.

The word “corruption” has varied meanings depending on the political culture and civilization of the people. It is effort to secure wealth and power through illegal means for private gain at public expense. Corruption has coexisted with human society for a long time and remains one of the problems in many or the ‘worlds developing economics with devastating consequences. It involves the violation or established rules for personal gains and profits. It includes such behavior as bribery, nepotism and misappropriation of funds.

 

(ii) Granger causality test:- It is a statistical hypothesis test for determining whether one time series is useful in forecasting another, first proposed in 1969.[1] Ordinarily, regressions reflect “mere” correlations, but Clive Granger argued that causality in economics could be tested for by measuring the ability to predict the future values of a time series using prior values of another time series.

Public debates recently in Nigeria have centered on the increasing rate of corruption resulting from inappropriate public finance planning and implementation mostly in some of the developing countries, Nigeria inclusive which in turn reduce the level of economic growth in the country. Corruption made itself visible when the institution of the government was founded due the behavior of people appoint or elect to manage the government institutions (Anyanwu, 2002; Idomeh, 2006). Corruption has recently become a major issue in foreign aid and Nigeria nation as a whole. Corruption is an ancient practice that has been traced back to pre-biblical time and made itself known in the ancient civilizations of developed and developing countries. Political and social corruption is not a recent phenomenon that pervades the Nigerian state. Corruption is a social problem that has interested many scholars. Ruzindana (1999) sees corruption in Africa as a problem of routine deviation from affordable standards and norms by public officials and parties with whom they interact. The major concern for inter-nation aid policy during the last five decades has been to improve the living condition for the poor in the poorest countries of the world. But governments in poor countries are also the most corrupt country due to high level of poverty. Treisman (2000) and Paldam (1999) cited in Jens and Odd-Helge (2001) states that the level of GDP per capital holds most of the explanatory power of the various corruption indicators.

Corruption is a disease, which eats into the cultural, political and economic growth of any country and as well destroys the functioning of various organs of the government. Transparently international (2005) opine that “corruption is one of the greatest challenges of the contemporary world which undermines good government, fundamentally distorts public policy, leads to the misallocation of resources harms the private sector development and as well hurts the poor”.

 

The need to study corruption and economic growth in Nigeria has continued to generate passionate commentaries and academic interest due to the level of corruption in the country and its effect on economic growth. In Nigeria corruption is one of the reasons for many unresolved problems that have critically hobbled and reduce development (Ayobolu, 2006). It also remains a long-term major political and economic growth challenge for Nigeria (Sachs, 2007). International centre for economic growth (1999) states that corruption is a canker worm that has eaten deep in the fabric of the nation which ranges from petty corruption to political or systematic corruption. Abiodem (2007) in World Bank studies put corruption at over $1 trillion per year accounting for up to 15% of the Gross Domestic Product of nation like Nigeria. Corruption is a canker worm that has reduced development in all sectors of the economy (EFCC, 2005). Corruption has been the primary reason behind the country difficulties in developing fast (ICPC, 2006). Ribadu, (2003) states that this is the reason why transparency international has consisted rating of Nigeria as one of the top three most corrupt countries in the world.

In Nigeria, the level of corruption, poor state of our electricity, transport sector, health sector, education sector and communications is the major problem of economic growth and it is a major handicap for doing business in the country. As part of fighting corruption and strengthening the economy, Nigeria government has over the years embark on series of economic growth reform through privatization, banking sector reform, anti-corruption campaigns and establishment of transparent fiscal standards such as ICPC, EFCC etc.

 

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