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Corruption as an issue in Nigeria
The causes and consequences of corruption on the economic development of africa states
Corruption as an issue in Nigeria
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Guinea is a poor West African country that possesses major mineral, hydropower, and agricultural resources. It’s terribly ironic how Guinea struggles to bring back it’s economy back from the brink even though it has almost half of the world's bauxite reserves and significant iron ore, gold, and diamond reserves. However, Guinea has been unable to profit from this potential, as rampant corruption, dilapidated infrastructure, and political uncertainty have drained investor confidence. A small number of offshore companies, aided and abetted by corrupt domestic regimes, bled Guinea’s resources for decades. The country has suffered a slow death, facilitated by the network of lawyers, accountants and financial advisers sitting in offices in MEDC countries. The biggest threats to Guinea’s economy are political instability and low international commodity prices. Some of the most serious human right problems in Guinea include security force killings and use of excessive force against demonstrators, arbitrary arrest and detention, including long periods of pretrial detention and denial of fair trials, life-threatening prison and detention center conditions, resulting in deaths and corruption at all levels of government and impunity. The government took minimal steps to prosecute or punish officials who committed abuses during the year or in years past.
Guinea is among the 5 most corrupt nations in Africa and then top ten in the world according to 2006 ranking by Transparency International and Guinea’s deteriorating reputation for corruption can seriously affect the economic development of Guinea-- threatening city services, choking economic growth and increasing drug trafficking. Guinea’s low rank is because of the infamous disruptive na...
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...siness contracts predominantly lack transparency. A poll conducted by Stat View International and Afrobarometer has found that 57 percent of the respondents reported paying a bribe with the past twelve months. Another survey by the ANLC, OSIWA and TI have found that among Guinea’s private households and overwhelming majority of the population have been forced to pay bribes to receive help with basic necessities; 61 percent of the respondents have said that they were asked to pay a bribe for national services, 24 percent for local services, 24 percent also claimed to pay traffic-related bribes to the police, 24 percent for better medical treatment, 19 percent for better electricity and water services and 8 percent for judicial treatment of higher quality. Anecdotal evidence also suggest that business men are often asked to pay for meetings with government officials
Many people know about or have witnessed this corruption taking place and numerous attempts to rid of it have been made. It is not an easy task attempting to bring justice to where justice should be made. There ...
Chetwynd, Eric, Frances Chetwynd, and Bertram Spector. "Corruption and Poverty: A Review of Recent Literature." Management Systems International (2003): n. pag. Print.
Professor Nichols. “The list of countries that have been politically or economically crippled by corruption remains to develop, and businesses with continuing benefits abroad will ultimately be harmed by any plans that include bribery.”
Chinua Achebe is one of the established author in Nigeria and all over the world at large. In this book, Achebe shows us how corruption has shaped the lives and behaviour of the Nigerian society from colonial era to present independence.
There are countries that are not as lucky as America, where people have their rights taken away from them, like in Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea has a very corrupt government. It has been said that the voting has been rigged so that the president will win the election as many times as he wants. Most of the power is in the executive branch, so the president has most of the power of the country and no one can say anything about what he wants to happen. He president will harass the opposing parties so that he will win (Williams). In the article Equatorial Guinea HRW (Human Rights Watch) says, “Corruption, poverty, and repression continue to plague Equatorial Guinea under President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been in power since 1979”. The “...per capita gross domestic product...” for Equatorial Guinea is $30,000, but yet most of the people live in poverty. The “...Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE)...” rule the political system, you could say that it is a monopoly. The president of Equatorial Guinea will have a say in court cases. The court cases that are sensitive get brought to him and he gets asked what he wants to do (Equatorial...). We should care about Equatorial Guinea because arrest without reason, torture captives and give little rights to women.
This paper will go over public corruption and how it is viewed and the obstacles that develop from it. It will show that in western parts of the world corruption is not accepted but in other parts of the country it is. This paper well go over what I agree with and do not agree with about corruption. It will also show how some gift giving traditions by some officials to be used to take advantage of their countries people.
Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre. 1999. A moral economy of corruption in Africa? Journal of Modern African Studies 37 (1): 25-52.
Mining majors will go to great lengths to make profit in a developing nation and sometimes this means corruption. Corruption is when a person uses the power given to them through their job or position to make a personal gain (Rodrigez 2005). Mining companies will offer bribes or payouts to government officials in order for them to stay quite on an issue. This makes the mining company appear to be in compliance with regulations even though this is not in accordance with the citizenship principle due to the corruption involved. Mining companies use corruption as it is cheaper then fixing compliance issues that arise. The problem has become more common in Africa recently because standards have been driven down as a side effect of reforms to encourage foreign investment (Campbell 2012). Once a government official is corrupt they then ignore any issues that come about. Corruption is usually used in order to increase total profit. The issue created by corruption can be solved by regularly checking up on the mining major and using different officials. One...
Some studies show that there are other external factors that promotes rent-seeking. One of these determinants is natural resources. A study covering the period 1980 to 2004 and 124 countries, found that natural resources lead to increase in corruption, especially when the democratic institution is weak (Bhattacharyya and Hodler, 2009, p. 608). This is known as the “resource course.” Instead of the state to use its natural resources to further develop and to create sustainable economy, officials in resource-rich countries tend to seek for bribery when awarding contracts. One of the most famous cases of such malpractices is the Brazil Petrobras scandal. In the $2 billion corruption scandal, 54 people were accused of taking bribes
Nigeria, with its prodigous oil and natural gas reserves, has the potential to be one of the most affluent places on the planet, were it not for the rampant corruption that defines it. Instead, it is the 20th poorest country in the world1. Much like the guanxi of China, Nigeria practices prebendalism—the use of high-level positions to gain personal wealth. In other words, people exchange money for political favors, which of course creates a greedy and corrupt society. The extent of this fraudulency is such that most of Nigeria's oil wealth is sucked up by one per cent of the population, while more than 60% falls below the poverty line. In fact, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has determined that 92% of Nigeria lives on less than one dollar a day2. Meanwhile, it is estimated that in the past 50 years, three to four hundred billion dollars have been stolen by government officials.
Political corruption is a serious problem limiting development in emerging economies. Many scholars have identified corruption as the new enemy of democratization, blaming it for limiting political and socio-economic development of most developing nations (Bardhan P.,1997; Seligson M., 2002, Canache D. and Allison M., 2005). Although no one can really measure “corruption” due to its discrete nature and the different discourses defining it, citizen’s perception of corruption can give us an idea of its direction. Manny current approaches to the study of corruption take into consideration the importance of corruption perception indexes (Johnston 2005, Acemoglu D. and Robinson J. 2001, Canache D. and Allison M., 2005), and the availability of democratic channels such as regular popular elections, freedom of the press, civic society organizations, private property rights and individual rights (O’Donell G, 1994). Corruption index reports such as Transparency International, LatinoBarometro, Freedom House) show extensive public awareness of mass corruption in developing countries (TI, 2011; LB 2009; FH 2010). Awareness of corruption does not seem to trigger any major demands to fight corruption seriously. The question leading this literature review is why citizens, after accurately perceiving corruption and perceiving it as wrong, fail to adjust their opinions of, or simply ignore, the leaders or democratic institutions that govern them?
In 2012,Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index ranked India 94th out 176 countries. "It is not about petty bribes (bakshish) any more, but scams to the tune of billions of rupees that highlight a political/industry nexus which, if not checked, could have a far reaching impact”(KMPG,2012).Corruption poses a risk to India’s GDP growth and continual level of Corruption will lead to a volatile political and economic environment.Almost half of India’s economy runs in the informal or black market sector, ‘shadow economies’ permeate the lives of every citizen.What seems on the surface as broken,dysfunctional system,operates smoothly with ease for those with money and power.Whereas,for an Average citizen, access is limited and a reminder of a failed democracy.In this essay I will be looking more deeply into the issues of Corruption and how it has impacted the Indian economy.
Nigeria’s economy is one of the largest in all of Africa, “ironically, the country also [has] some of the poorest people in the world with as many as sixty-nine percent of the population living below the poverty line” (_________). This quote gives insight into how corruption has aided in the destroying of the country. In Nigeria, there is no accountability for the government when the people behind it do wrong. The main role of the government is to protect all people of a region; unfortunately Nigeria’s government leaders have not been doing so in the recent years. The leaders of the Nigerian government including the president, have repeatedly made public statements against accusations of a need for solutions to the problems surrounding
Crime and corruption are not relevant to the degree of poverty present in a country as some of you might think. Corruption is a social phenomenon that every society deals with, regardless of the level of development in the country. What makes corruption a dangerous social phenomenon is its ability to adapt to the conditions present in any country. If the country is highly developed, then organized crime and illegal practices are spread inside the government in the form of taking bribes, discrimination according to status, and tampering with legal evidence. Lower levels of societal corruption are present in the forms of mafias that gain power by making the poor poorer. In this project, I would like to focus on the corruption taking place in South Africa.
Corruption and fraud is a relevant topic in South Africa and will continue to be so until it is able to be limited. Corruption is committed mainly by people in power as they neglect and take advantage of this power in order to better themselves at the expense of others. Fraud and corruption is the wrongful or criminal deception that results in financial or personal gain. Government officials, police officers and some unexpected individuals such as law officials have been known to commit corruption and fraud. There have been cases of corruption in the 2014 elections and the political parties have seen that it is something the community is concerned over. Each party has addressed this concern and suggested ways in which to limit this corruption. Not only is corruption morally wrong, but it causes trust problems between the community and people in power, the people who are meant to help society. (1)