The report of a World Bank study conducted in 26 states in Nigeria and released on Monday has indicated that about 80 per cent of businesses in the country paid bribes to government officials in 2011 to stay in business.
According to the report, World Bank's 2011 report on investment climate in Nigeria, which was released on Monday, one-third of micro-enterprises agreed that "informal payments/gifts to government officials" were common occurrences, suggesting that registered firms deal more with such requests for bribes.
Only 20 per cent of micro-enterprise firms reported to have had foreknowledge of the amount of money required to "get things done," a situation that means the informal payments are sudden and unplanned for.
These informal payments/gifts, the report went on, represented approximately 1.2 per cent of annual sales for all micro-enterprises. It added, too, that micro-enterprises dealing in government contracts were expected to pay approximately 4.3 per cent of the value of contracts that they were hoping to secure.
Manufactured goods attracted larger bribes (6.7 per cent) than those for small services (3.9 per cent). However, firms in the formal sector obviously spent more on corruption, as 47 per cent of formal firms claimed that informal gifts/payments were commonplace in comparison to 33 per cent for micro-enterprises.
Also, the report stated that micro-enterprises have a greater mistrust of institutions than formal firms; that 63 per cent of formal sector firms and 72 per cent of micro-enterprises reported that the application of laws was not consistent and predictable; and that 41 per cent of formal firms and 20 per cent of micro-enterprises reported that they had advance knowledge of informal payments/gifts.
Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi and Kwara States are some of the states where the study was conducted. The rest are Nassarawa, Niger, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara.
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It's really shocking with these revelations that the South still thinks this is a regional or religious issue. The system is just not working, it's not because Jonathan is a Christian or that he is from the South. It is that for Nigeria to make any headway in relation to equitable justice and any meaningful growth and development, PDP has to go.
Good governance means distributing the greatest good among the greatest number of people., upholding and promoting individual rights and institutionalizing distributive justice where individuals and institutions that are similar, receive similar benefits. Distributing the greatest good among the greatest number of people, :- what is the percentage of Nigerians that has steady and uninterrupted power supply ? What is the percentage of Nigerians that has access to healthcare, food security, quality education and employment ? Can we proudly say about 70% of the population has access to all these amenities ? Unfortunately not, may be 5 to 10% on a rough guess. Only the government officials, their friends, families, associates and top businessmen who survive through bribing their ways to existence enjoy that.They enjoy more than enough of these amenities while they leave you behind languishing in darkness, uneducated and unemployed using religion & region to earn your ignorant support.
There are lots of good and bad people in every tribe in Nigeria. What Nigeria needs right now is a true visionary and aggressive leader that can transcend us to higher heights, try all these criminals, retrieve the resources stolen or mismanaged and apply all to our national growth, unity and development. The unfortunate truth though is, when such leaders come forward to contest, the criminals in power will apply all means at their disposal to paint them black before the masses of the Nigerian population through the simple use of region or religion. This trick had always worked for them, and unless the Nigerian masses understand that and stand united to vote for real leaders from amongs themselves irrespective of religion and regions, Cotonou and other neighbouring countries could become more organized and better than Nigeria.
Just some few years ago India and Brazil were closely rated along with Nigeria in terms of military and economic might. Today India is rated as the 8th most powerful nation in the world while Brazil enjoys the 6th biggest ecomony in the world even bigger than that of Britain. India and Brazil are almost as diversed as we are, but they didn't allow their regional or tribal difference to be obstacles to their growth and development. Nor did the wives of their leaders scamp for positions from other states government while being the first ladies or openly fight in the courts of law to gain possessions of pieces of lands. This is ridiculously a total disrespect of the highest order to the Nigerian people.
Nigerians are considered smart, friendly and hard working people. Unfortunately our leaders have continued to make a fool of us while they enrich themselves and relate to the common man only when elections are around the corner. We must be wise, learn from our past mistakes, stand up and protect our God's given country before these hooligans make it inhabitable for all the tribes blessed enough to be Nigerians.
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