NIGERIA’S ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORRUPTION

The use of technology will help in curbing corruption, contends Joshua J. Omojuwa

Have you ever met anyone who made a commitment to reduce their weight, whilst keeping a freezer full of candies in their room, successfully meet their intended weight? Have you ever met a man, who decided to stop drinking alcohol, successfully carry out that desire whilst maintaining a fridge full of alcohol? When it comes to changing behaviour, intentions are never enough. If intentions were enough, most of us would attain our desires. Because we all often intend to do the right thing. The challenge, often, is opportunity.

When you look through the papers every day, there are multiple reports of corruption across every tier, arm, and layer of government. That is the norm. Nigerians have been so inundated by corruption, no one cares about corruption reports anymore. In a way, they have become a cultural element of governance in our country. Most Nigerians assume that almost every government official is corrupt. When you look at the numerous reports through the years, you could start to believe that Nigerians are probably amongst the most corrupt people in the world.

On that front, Nigerians are like humans elsewhere. We are not more or less corrupt than citizens of other countries. Nigerian government officials are not greedier than government officials elsewhere. They are certainly not greedier than other Nigerians. What Nigerians in government have more than other Nigerians and indeed government officials in most other countries is, opportunity.

Armed robbers, kidnappers and corrupt government officials all have something in common. Without opportunity, they are incapable of executing their crimes. The greatest factor for corruption in Nigeria is opportunity. The system is designed to give you ample opportunities to be corrupt. This is because despite attempts to create a procurement process that eliminates corruption, many of those who were trusted to deploy that system simply saw in that an opportunity to align with the corrupt to facilitate the act. Corruption requires the connivance of several actors to be successful. In a sense, it takes a system. When they say, “corruption is endemic,” that is what it means.

Dr Joe Abah, respected Nigerian technocrat, tweeted recently, “corruption is driven more by opportunity than by need or greed. Remove the opportunity and greed will be constrained. On need, there are many people that have need but are not corrupt. Remove the opportunity and people will live within their means. Do you agree?” Looks like a rhetoric question to me. Without opportunity, there is no chance to carry out the act.

I was recently stopped by a police officer in Lagos. I was wearing a regular pair of glasses when he asked me to park. However, as he approached the car, I switched into a smart pair of glasses with its apparent mini lens. This was a situation I had anticipated. I casually made the switch as the officer watched while he walked on. By the time he got to the car, as I pressed the right side of glasses as though I had activated something, he must have suspected that we were in effect in a production.

By pressing the glasses, I wanted to see if by just pretending to record the situation, the officer would behave differently compared to if it was just the two of us without a camera. You could see his shoulders fall. His demeanour completely changed as humility appeared to descend upon him. I saw the man wilt. Even when he asked for my name, I knew he’d rather I could just go, instead of answer. Because he didn’t want anything to do with me and my “rolling” camera. He managed to ask, “where are you from?” But we both knew he wasn’t interested in any answer as it was clear we were done. He didn’t know what to do or say, so I helped him. I said, “have a nice day my brother”, as I saved my time and his.

That experience further enhanced my belief in creating situations that reduce or eliminate bad behaviour. I denied that officer the opportunity to do whatever he liked. Knowing that there was a possibility he was being recorded completely changed his behaviour.

I have read research papers on how increased street lighting helped to reduce crime in New York City. Darkness does not just provide cover for crime, it induces it. Humans behave differently when they know they are being watched. Light, camera influence action in real life too. By merely lighting up our streets and roads and placing CCTVs around our homes – where they can be seen – we make would be criminals re-consider their decisions. These things don’t always stop crime. However, they can be useful. In our situation, the CCTVs don’t help much after the crime because we haven’t effectively intersected data collection on identity with crime solving. They could help with preventing crimes though. Especially by criminals who may be known to us.

Corruption in government, criminals in our society and other such evil that have engulfed us are primarily because we have refused to eliminate the opportunity for such crimes. If an immigration officer knows that the CCTV at the airport is being watched every second of the day, they’d know to behave better. If you have those CCTVs there just for the sake of having them there, they’d know and it would mean nothing. When you give them several reports on their behaviours according to video evidence and also go on to punish the culprits, others will behave.

In government, we give individuals the power to allocate billions of naira whilst pretending to put checks and balances in place when we know that those checks are about as effective as a basket intended to collect water. When we want to drastically reduce corruption and criminality, we will advance the use of technology, relentlessly pursue a cashless society and go out of our way to empower the prosecuting agencies. Without noise, we’d have taken several steps forward in building a transparent and accountable system. That said, do we really want to end corruption?

 Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/ author, Digital Wealth Book