Let me repeat this here: Corruption is definitely not the biggest problem facing Nigeria. Indeed, corruption is a product of a bigger problem: the centralized structure of public finance, based on what I have called the Ethic of the Loot. That is the ethic by which successive generation of Nigerian political leaders (legal, and illegal), fully supported by Nigerians have viewed the national wealth as a pile of loot to be plundered. It is that ethic, which explains the fact that Nigeria spends more than 70 percent of its national revenues on consumption. When you take 70 cents out of a dollar, whatever remains and is lost to corruption is nothing but a fraction of 30 cents. Yes, corruption is terrible. Yes it makes some crooked people in and out of government very rich (yes, private sector contractors are participants in the corrupt dealings). However, it could not possibly be the major reason for any of the things that ail Nigeria. Of course, the medieval mind of General Buhari likes the magic that a concept such as corruption can become, in the minds of a superstitious people. No real evidence linking corruption to any macroeconomic outcome is needed by such a people. A few high-profile cases of corruption, here and there are sufficient to get the masses excited. -================== Fubara David West
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 14:38:35 +0000
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