By Tom Okure, Ph.D.
Updated August 4, 2017
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Many Nigerian government agencies in compliance with the
directives of the current government administration’s policy to combat corruption in the public service, are issuing press releases and puting up posters
warning the public to stop giving monetary inducements to government officials
for services they are entitled to receive free of charge.
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| Poster in Nigerian Consulate in New York City |
Monetary inducement
is used in this narrative to mean the act of giving someone (a public employee)
money intended to persuade or influence the individual to do something or act
in a certain manner.
My cursory research and observation in Nigeria suggests that
members of the public, despite government warnings, continue sometimes
voluntarily, to give out monetary inducements to government officials daily for
the performance of their public duties. A visitor to Nigerian public institutions
these days may notice posters in Nigerian airports, Consulates, some major government agencies clearly display posters and press releases
forbidding monetary inducement to government officials. Even so, a careful
observation of activities between agency clients and employees may reveal the
exchange of cash gifts to obtain services or gratuity freely given by agency
clients for services. Anyone including myself who has resided in Western
Europe and the United States where government employees perform their
responsibilities diligently without asking for inducements from agency clients,
will find such actions disturbing when transacting business in many developing
countries. I was curious while visiting Nigeria recently, to determine the
underlying reasons behind this peculiar cultural habit in Nigeria and other
African countries.
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Nigerian Immigration press release informing
the public to shun inducement for recruitment
into the service
|
Why is monetary inducement to government employees happening
and continuing to persist? I decided to interview a cross spectrum of Nigerians
on this phenomenon. Some of the responses I heard to my questions was that
monetary inducements, gratuity, bribes etc. is part of the culture. Nigerians
like giving and receiving gifts, sometimes involuntarily depending on the
circumstances. Having been embedded in the Nigerian psyche for decades, it is alleged
that monetary inducement is nothing more than gift giving which over the
decades has become a cultural trait (habit) among Nigerians that is difficult
to break.
A government official in Abuja indicated that living in the federal capital
is very expensive and stated that monthly salaries (remunerations) are so small
in both public and private agencies and this fact forces employees to
supplement their income by demanding monetary inducements from agency clients.
Another
respondent noted that wages of employees in Nigeria have remained stagnant for
several years. High inflation in the economy has effectively reduced their purchasing power and the present value of wages significantly to a point that
it is very difficult for public employees to support a decent livelihood with
their salaries. Another respondent to my questions indicated that apart from
very low wages, many employers including government institutions regularly owe
their employees back wages for many months. Consequently, many employees have
to borrow monies from family members to support themselves until they are paid.
Under such circumstances, government employees engage in inappropriate behavior
such as seeking monetary inducements from agency clients to provide services
that the public is supposed to be given freely by agency staff. Every aspect of an agency’s operation becomes fair game and a
means of making money by the employee responsible for an activity that has
public value. For example, an employee required to hand out a necessary agency
form for certification may refuse to provide the form to the public unless some
monetary inducement is provided. Action on an application for a passport,
employment, or admission to a university etc., can be purposely delayed by an
agency/institutional staff or collusion of staff members until the staff are
placated with a stipulated monetary inducement (or bribe) by the applicant.
The Federal Government of Nigeria recently announced the
re-opening of the registration portal for its young entrepreneur’s empowerment
program called YouWin. It became necessary to warn prospective participants in
the program to disregard other websites offering alternative links for
registration and demand money to facilitate the process or invite applicants to
a meeting anywhere.
For the avoidance of doubt, Kemi Adeosun, Nigeria’s
Minister of Finance alerted the public to the appalling activity of fraudsters
in government agencies. In a televised video announcement to the public, she
noted that the Federal Ministry of Finance and other government agencies do not
collect money for application forms or anything to provide required program services
to the public. All programs of government, unless specifically stated in policy
are free.
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| Nigerian Police collecting bribes at checkpoints |
Monetary
inducements are observable at police checkpoints all over the country, where
taxi and bus drives are regularly compelled by police and soldiers manning the
checkpoints to pay some money to them before they are allowed to cross the
checkpoint. One can encounter many of such checkpoints within a stretch of
highway deliberately put up by various law enforcement agencies like
immigration, highway patrol, and customs for the sole purpose of extracting monetary
inducements from the public.
So what can be done to break this bad cultural habit? My
personal observation is that the campaign against corruption, indiscipline and
forceful or voluntary monetary inducement must take on a multifaceted approach in
order to be effective. Corruption has been embedded in the Nigerian psyche for
decades and a change in an embedded cultural habit will take a very long time
to achieve.
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| Satire of an arrested police officer for collecting bribe |
Government public awareness campaigns of the ill effects of this
bad habits as is currently being done can help to an extent. However long term structural
changes in the economic, educational and social fabric of the Nigerian society are
needed to achieve a long term result. Educationally, this will entail including
within the educational system, a curriculum that incorporates educating the
younger generation in schools against bribe taking. An economic agenda is also
needed geared at uplifting and increasing the wellbeing of public employees in
terms of higher wages and training sensitizing employees about the adverse consequences
of taking bribes. Adequate legislation is also needed to be put in place that supports
living wages for public sector workers.
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| BusinessDay/Mike Asukwo's catoon satire on monetary inducement to police officer |
Deliberate efforts by the government to
increase salary levels including the minimum wage level and the general
economic wellbeing of the masses is necessary. Punitive laws should also be
enacted making it a crime to give inducement or take inducement in delivering
or obtaining public services etc. Finally,
in order to succeed, government efforts at all levels must be focused and
sustained for a very long time into the future.
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