CORRUPTION AND THE FATE OF THE NIGERIA ECONOMY FROM 1999 TO 2019 (OLUSEGUN OBASANJO AND MOHAMANDU BUHARI REGIMES IN FOCUS)

ABSTRACT

This study examined the causes and consequences of corruption in Nigeria, with a view to identifying the factors responsible for the persistence of the monster. The study posed a number of questions, among them; (1) What are the root causes of corruption? (2) What are the institutional mechanisms put in place to stem the ugly tide and (3) how effective are these mechanisms? One of the major findings of the study is that which attributed the failure of the anticorruption war in Nigeria to lack of political will on the part of the government and the weakness of the anti-corruption institutions to prosecute corrupt persons, especially Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) such as governors, ministers, members of the national assembly and other highly placed political office holders. From the study, it was discovered that there is little prospect of the menace of corruption being eliminated from Nigeria in the nearest future unless factors such as lack of autonomy for the EFCC and other similar anti-corruption institutions and deficit of accountability in governance, which precipitate the cankerworm are adequately addressed. Another finding from the study attributed the persistence of corruption in Nigeria to factors ranging from poverty, primitive accumulation of wealth, poor reward system to the breakdown in the country’s core moral values.