Gender Differentials Observed in Corrupt Behaviour in Nigeria, Says NISER

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) has declared that while men and women have similar life experiences of  corrupt behaviour in accessing service from government agencies, the experiences for males are mostly related to bribery while that of females fall within what is described as “abuse of function.”

This was disclosed at the Institute’s Actualising Behaviour Change (ABC) series programme sponsored by MacArthur Foundation with the apt theme: ‘A Gender-lensed view into Citizens’ Lived Experiences of Corrupt Behaviour in Nigeria’, held yesterday at the institute’s hall. The presentation at the seminar was drawn from a story collection exercise from over 2,500 citizens across the nation’s six geopolitical zones.

The nationwide survey was an initial step towards understand the underlying issues, dimensions and motivations for corrupt behaviour, in order to help provide the framework for developing behavioural solutions.

In her remarks, the Director-General of NISER, Professor Antonia Taiye Simbine, set the tone for the discussion by making it clear that “today’s series of the ABC is on gender, and we are particularly focused on women, young and older demographics.”

She also provided the context for the workshop by asserting that: “This ABC series interrogates some of the gender and age-related research findings by the programme from a national study on which a unique methodology was employed-the sense maker approach.

The methodology generated a compendium of 2,560 stories on the experiences of citizens across Nigeria regarding public corruption, creating a model of their perceptions and providing their thoughts on behavioural solutions to address the corrupt behaviour phenomenon.”

During the presentation by  Dr. Temitayo Adeyemo, a lecturer at the University of Ibadan and a research associate on the NISER–MacArthur Project, it was revealed that while men and women had experiences of corrupt behaviour at different levels of interaction with public officers, their experiences also vary from one agency of government to the other.

Overall, the main agency in which respondents had encounters from which their stories emanated was the Nigerian Police. Other agencies such as the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, Federal Ministries, Education, among also contributed to the experiences of corrupt behaviour agencies in the health and education sectors also featured.

The findings further revealed that males and females perceive the most striking corrupt behaviour types as “Abuse of Function, Bribery, and Illegal Accumulation of Wealth.” While the experiences generated emotions of anger (males and younger respondents), sadness (females and older respondents), disgust (younger males and females), a few experiences in which agents exhibited non-corrupt behaviours generated feelings of hope, especially among females (3 percent) and young adults.

“With regards to developing solutions to curb corruption, there was almost unanimous agreement that the responsibility stood with the government, before the people, with suggested solution to develop better systems/structure with clear rules and effective penalties for wrongdoings.”

The panel session was moderated by Dr. Adebukola Daramola and featured Safiya Ahmad Nuhu, Prof Janice Olawoye, Hauwa Shaffii Nuhu, and Kikanya Onyema.