Book Title: Strategy for a Final Assault on Corruption

Author: Gabriel Zowam

Published: December, 2007

Price: Not stated

Reviewer: Nasiru L. Abubakar

Nigeria and Nigerians were the subjects of very hostile reviews when, in September 2000, the self acclaimed giant of Africa was ranked as the most corrupt country in the world by an annual survey carried out by the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI). So when President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua took his oath of office in May 2007, he identified the fight against corruption as one of the priorities of his administration.

And as if to provide the President with a working document towards achieving this goal, a book titled Strategy for a Final Assault on Corruption by Gabriel Zowam was published in December, 2007.

Perhaps the major attention-grabbing mechanism of this 384-page book is the arrangement of the contents (this is in contrast to its cover, which seems to have been designed in a hurry). The book is methodically divided into four distinct parts for easy reference and comprehension. Part I consists of 10 chapters, featuring background (and of course relevant) information on corruption ranging from the definition of corruption, classifications of corruption, causes of corruption, public-sector and private sector corruption, to gender and corruption, and so on. Even with this, the book could have been complete as far as corruption is concerned, but the author is interested in going to the bottom of this social menace that has for several years stood between nations and development. So in this section, there are chapters that help the reader undertake that journey.

Chapter six, which is a historical review of how previous regimes attacked corruption, from the time of independence until now, is very useful, especially to academics and decision makers. In chapter seven, the author reviewed former President Obasanjo's crusade against corruption, in great elaborative detail. This is, perhaps, due to his belief that the nation and even the global crusade against corruption have some important lessons to learn from that crusade. The depth of research and information provided by the author, including the various ratings of Nigeria by the global corruption watchdog, Transparency International, and a highly revealing comparative analysis of government revenues during various administrations, are a worthy addition to this book. But perhaps the most powerful (forgive the pun!) chapter in this section of the book is the ninth, which centred on why the nation must declare a total assault on corruption. This chapter, if well digested, has the potential to make even the strongest soul weep! On reading it, the first thing that could come to one's mind was "declare a state-of-emergency on corruption".

Part I ends with a beautiful discussion of the role of leadership in the fight against corruption. Here, too, the extent of the author's research work is evident, with references to various notable statesmen who redefined the destinies of their countries - such as Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the legendary leader and architect of Singapore's highly successful anti-corruption drive; President Vicente Fox of Mexico who not only did a public declaration of assets, but dramatically posted it on the Internet as an example to 150,000 federal employees in Mexico; the story of Tanzania's former leader, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, whose possible beatification and eventual canonisation (to be a Saint) the Catholic Church in Africa is presently studying; and former President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, the inaugural winner of the new Mo Ibrahim award for African leadership. The author did not forget our own President Yar'Adua who, as he submitted, had the potential to redefine the destiny of this country.

Part II of the book is very important for Yar'Adua's government (which has identified corruption fighting as one of its priorities), but most especially for our anti-corruption agencies. It brings out, in black and white terms, the weaknesses of our traditional crusade against corruption. For example, it opens our eyes to the fact that the beneficiaries of corruption (and the potential victims of the crusade) have actually been controlling the pace of the crusade! It also shows how most of Nigeria's anti-corruption programmes tend to be too static for the highly mobile nature of corruption; how the country has been building the crusade on personalities rather than institutions, how we may have come to the limits of our brute enforcement approach, and so on. Each of the eight chapters in this section focuses on a specific weakness. The author's analysis here truly reveals, without doubt, his deep insight in this subject. Every stakeholder in the crusade against corruption owes us a national duty to study the extensive analysis that the author has carried out here.

Part III of the book, which follows naturally from Part II, consists of 10 Chapters. It unveils the various initiatives the author has crafted to address the limitations identified in Part II, which will no doubt put the fight against corruption into a new gear. If by now the reader had not become captivated by the strategic thought process of the author, this section will complete that job, and decisively too. The range of initiatives crafted by the author is simply breathtaking - from chapter 19 to 27! All of us should as a national duty, study these initiatives very carefully. For example, at a time when there are calls in some quarters for the merger of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), this book unveils several novel initiatives, which completely differentiate the role of the ICPC from that of the EFCC. The Attorney-General of the Federation, Mike Aondoakaa, should read it extensively! The author's strategy for vaporising corruption in the government's procurement activities is equally breathtaking. He (the author) finishes the work with a detailed, self-help anti-corruption guide (tool-kit) for government agencies, so that each of them can now begin to fight corruption in its operations.

Part IV of the book is an appendix of various tables and schedules, including some graphic examples of "opulence in oceans of poverty", comparative UNDP Human development indices for Nigeria and Indonesia, and the Federal Government oil revenue, 1970 to 2006. In particular, the author included in this section, for the convenient of the reader, the various laws relevant to the issue of corruption, such as the powers of the Code of Conduct Bureau; the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act (i.e. the ICPC Act) 2000; the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Act 2004; and even the relatively new Public Procurement Act 2007. There is also a Bibliography, and a highly detailed and well-laid out Index table, something that is not very common in books by Nigerian authors.

Several things make this book compelling. It also can be appreciated from the numerous case studies and citations, as well as the various initiatives presented in Part III. The analysis of the weaknesses of our present crusade against corruption, and the initiatives recommended for transforming the crusade, are not only novel, but very fascinating.

Nigerian anti-corruption agencies, particularly the ICPC, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), National Orientation Agency (NOA), and even the new Bureau of Public Procurements (BPP) should benefit from the content of this book. They must carefully study the extensive range of new, powerful initiatives that the author has unveiled. Suddenly, our eyes are opened to the reality that a successful war against corruption is as much a strategic business as that of brute force! Other government agencies will also have a lot to thank the author for. Chapter 27 of the book presents an extensive guide on how every government agency can fight corruption at its own level.

The academic community also has a lot to gain from this book from an authority on the subject of corruption - the kind of work that can firmly take the study of corruption into our tertiary institutions. In fact, corruption has become such a deadly challenge to public administration in this part of the world that any academic study of public administration today without a major treatment of corruption is not relevant to our needs! This book paves the way for such a study of corruption.

But the greatest beneficiary of this book will be the Yar'Adua administration. The book could not have come at a better time for an administration that seems determined but confused about how to integrate the traditional crusade against corruption into its new focus on 'due process' and the 'rule of law'. If this administration truly wants to fight corruption, it has now got the necessary tool!