Effects of Corruption

Managing the Challenges of Corruption in Nigeria

By

Victor E. Dike

CEO, Center for Social Justice and Human Development (CSJHD),

Sacramento, California

FORMS OF CORRUPTION

Nevertheless, the forms of corrupt activities prevalent in Nigeria include political corruption, bureaucratic corruption, electoral corruption, embezzlement and bribery. Political corruption, which takes place at the highest levels of political authority, is a ‘corruption of greed.’ It affects the manner in which decisions are made, manipulates and distorts political institutions and rules of procedure. Bureaucratic corruption, which occurs ‘in the public administration" or ‘the implementation end of politics,’ is the ‘low level’ and ‘street level’ corruption. This is the type of corruption the citizens encounter daily at places like the hospitals, schools, local licensing offices, encounters with the police, taxing offices, etc. It is ’ petty’ -‘corruption of need’ - that occurs when one obtains a business from the public sector through inappropriate procedure. However, electoral corruption includes purchase of votes, promises of office or special favors, coercion, intimidation and interference with freedom of election. And corruption in the offices involves sales of legislative votes, administrative, or judicial decision, or governmental appointment. Other forms of corruption include embezzlement (theft of public resources by public officials) and bribery (persuade to act improperly by a gift of money, etc).

If one may ask, who is to blame for the prevalence of corrupt activities in the society? Is it the common person or those in power? No matter who the culprits are, convention dictates that to effectively tackle a problem one should first and foremost determine and understand the cause (s) –why it happens, before one could effectively manage the effect (s) -what happens as a result. Similarly, to effectively control corruption in Nigeria it is pertinent to understand the cause...