"Corruption is not just about the embezzlement of public fund, it is a perversion of the human psyche; a negation of the human race".

This is one of the submissions of Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe who lived between 1921 and 1998.

If the dead could actually see, it would have been fulfilment for Chief Emmanuel Onyechere Osuigwe as prominent Nigerians and eminent scholars from other parts of the world found their way to Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos for the 11th session of the Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe lecture series.

This year's lecture started with a speech by the Coordinator, Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation, Mr. Micheal Anyiam Osigwe.

He said the annual lecture which started in 1999 has become a platform on which the values of his late father are evaluated as they hinge on human existence and development.

He added that the lecture series have made attempt to build in the family the realization of his father's assertion that "Personality survives death".

The coordinator said the focus of this years lecture with the theme "To live in the way that honours: Incorruptibility; a spiritual premise for material well being" is to subject to wider interrogation Anyiam-Osigwe's perspective on how the human society can resolve the problem of corruption beyond its criminal and regressive socio-political and economic impact.

Speaking on "Corruption and the perversion of the human essence: The moral will as the underpinning for a viable anti corruption initiative", Micheal said since the past eleven years, they have acquired a deepened understanding of what Chief Osigwe stood for, that one must seek identity with truth in order to modify his/her consciousness and gains a higher degree of enlightenment, which will enable such person to serve the society better.

He said it is Chief Osigwe's view that in resolving the anathema of corruption, one has to fundamentally understand what constitutes corruption.

For Anyiam Osigwe, when an individual is said to be corrupt, it means that the moral element does not find form in the consciousness of such person as "values are weightier than gold and cannot be held in a weak vessel".

Micheal Osigwe explained that given the relevance of Chief Osigwe's theories and values to the contemporary Africa, particularly Nigeria, a good number of Nigerian universities have adopted his research methodology, including University of Ibadan, University of Lagos, University of Jos, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, University of Maiduguri, University of Calabar, Obafemi Awolowo university, Ife and University of Ado-Ekiti among others.

Chairman of the event and former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku said the presence of former Malaysian Prime Minister in Nigeria would help draw out solution to the lasting corruption in the country.

He said his economic policies as Prime Minister helped Malaysia get to its present status and upon his exit, he left a legacy of a peaceful, prosperous and autonomous Malaysia.

As the long awaited Keynote Speaker, Former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamad who led in the transformation of Malaysia between 1981 and 2003 mounted the stage, cheers of hope was heard from Nigerians, including the past and present political leaders.

Speaking on "State craft, corruption and national development", Mohamad said there should be a state craft which entails good management of the state and all matters related to it.

Citing cases of importance, he said the Europeans had what they called in the 19th century their "great games". They had spheres of influence, balances of power, wars for international supremacy, building empires and missions to civilize the primitive natives. they juggled with these things for the interest of the European nations without regard for the natives and their rights to their land.

The Malaysian said, but today things are different as the former European colonies are now independent states. As independent states, they have to apply state craft to themselves which is to administer them, grow their economies, manage their politics and decide policies with regard to their neighbours not minding the distance

On administration, he noted that for this effort to be applicable in any nation, it requires considerable skill not just in terms of administration but also the formulation of policies, domestic and external.

He said the obvious requirement for good managements must begin with the correct structure of the management apparatus. It will need, an executive president who is capable of making the structure function

Mohamad who is unarguably one of the few former leaders who left indelible marks in the history of leadership in the world said a leader must therefore be a person of good character who has shown by his previous record to be one who loves his country and his people more than himself, who may have weaknesses but they must be within his control.

He said such a leader must be well educated, have sufficient understanding about all fields of human endeavours and he must be full of ideas more than those who serve under him.

A political leader must be the model for the people he leads. He must live the life he advocates for others and should be prepared to be the first to carry out what he preaches.

He has to be brave, disciplined, and capable of fighting his own base inclinations.

According to this icon of our time, it is obvious that such a man cannot be readily found, but if he has a modicum of all these virtues, that would be enough. There should be the willingness to listen to everyone. Mohamad said for a country to be progressive, her leader must not listen only to his official advisers because they would become sycophants very quickly,

He said to unseat corruption in any nation; the country's president must gather information on the assets and liabilities of the country as this would include human resources and other natural resources. The liabilities would include the climate, the location of the country, the difficulties of communication and generally the poverty of the people.

He added that assuming that the information on the assets and liabilities are known the next thing is to set the target and this must be realistic, taking into account the capacity of the country.

He insisted that at this stage it will be necessary to find models, saying throughout the world there are many countries at different stages of development. Their achievement should be studied and their methods of managing their assets and abilities should provide some ideas on what can be done in the country in order to keep it stable.

He posited that there are countries in the world which had achieved developed status a very long time ago and are not good models but probably came by their wealth in ways which cannot be duplicated e.g. through colonization of other countries and extracting their wealth.

He argued that the better models would be the recently developed countries whose methods and strategies should be studied and copied, adding "If adopted, the results would not be perfect but they would be better than striking out on your own with untested methods and strategies".

He said the ability of the leader must extend towards problems solving and innovations. The methods and the systems should always be examined so that should they stand in the way of achieving results they should be modified or even discarded. For this, decisiveness on the part of the leader would be needed.

Nothing is more debilitating than a lack of decisiveness on the part of a leader. He must accept that if he makes a mistake he should be willing to take the blame and even to quit.

There is no shame in quitting but there is a lot of shame in trying to stay on after having failed. This being so, a leader needs to know as much as possible about the problems he is dealing with before deciding. He said consultancy can help but in the end the leader must choose, from then on, he must bear the blame if anything goes wrong and of course he can claim credit if things go right.

He said today's leaders are usually elected and this put an extra burden on him because he must not only rule well but he must carry the people with him.

Highlighting issues on corruption, Mohamad said corruption is endemic and there is no country in the world that is free of corruption, adding that even in those countries where the corrupt would be executed, corruption still persists.

He said corruption is a function of the people value system. When people have no sense of shame and their greed overcomes their better judgement, corruption just cannot be stopped. No amount of explanation about the destructive effect of corruption would be of any use.

Truly corruption is the bane of governments and countries. it increase the cost of administration and development, it delays constructions and projects, it obstructs the progress of the country. Developments cannot be made and wealth for the nation and the people cannot be increased.

He noted that the reputation of the country would be badly affected and investors and entrepreneurs, whether local or foreign would avoid investing, causing unemployment with all the social side effects. Businesses just cannot thrive and government revenue would be reduced. Public works cannot be implemented, undermining the construction of infra-structure and pushing living standards down and the country would not be able to climb out of poverty and would remain a third world country.

He said corruption results in the nation becoming unable to develop and to become literally bankrupt.

According to him, if the saying that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is true, then power should therefore, not be accorded to anyone. But then someone must be given the power to decide if a government or an organisation is to function.

He said "One of the major determinants of corruption is delay. When an application is delayed the client might offer gratification to get things expedited. Once the civil servant realises that clients would pay to expedite, then the delay would be deliberate.

He argued that more often, corruption involves the higher ups. He said it is easy to say that the law should be applied equally to all. But usually the officer would hesitate and the senior men would get away with it.

He noted that corruption in political parties, particularly in third world countries is also very damaging to the whole country, adding that when a party gains power, the ministers will know there would be opportunities for making easy money and there would always be a violent struggle to get into high positions in the party.

He said should the party win elections, and then the government would be ruled by the corrupt. Such people would not be interested in providing a good and clean administration. They would be interested only in enriching themselves.

He said putting an end to corruption looks difficult but could be possible, saying "the only way is to develop a culture that rejects corruption, adding that the time to do this is in the formative years, at home and in school".

Using the Japanese as instance, he said some people have a culture which upholds honour and stresses the need to avoid shame.

He said the Japanese had a strong sense of shame, such that if they do anything shameful they would commit suicide. Fear of being humiliated in shame forced them to do their best in whatever they do. If they steal or take what does not belong to them as in corruption, then they would be exposed to shame.

He argued that even if today, they do not commit suicide as some still do, they must try to expiate their shame by resigning or by admitting responsibility and accepting punishment.

In his own view, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Shaukat Aziz said a country like Nigeria should not be afraid of challenges. He said corruption has given the country to opportunity to be determined to fight whatever that is not helping the country to grow.

Aziz said the greed in human existence is the driving force to corruption and not poverty as many assume.

He said Nigeria has the challenges of policy making and that if there are good policies and better implementation, the country would fall in place.

He said corruption is mostly experienced in countries where good leadership is in short supply and advised the government to consider the welfare of the citizenry in policy making.

He said one of the problems of the third world countries is violence which is mostly caused by lack of good relationship among diverse faiths, adding that to avoid violence, there should be interfaith harmony.

Aziz who served a four term as a Prime Minister said to ensure a corrupt-free society, the burden must not be left for the government as all hands must be on deck.

While welcoming the former Prime Ministers, the host governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola who was represented by the Lagos State Solicitor General, Mr. Lawal Pedro (SAN) said it is the desire of most Nigerians to eradicate corruption which for a long time stands as a national embarrassment.