Strategies for Advancing Anticorruption Reform in Nigeria Rotimi T. Suberu Abstract: A vast literature documenting the structural embeddedness, grotesque scale, and devastating consequences of political corruption in Nigeria threatens to overshadow the tenacity of the country’s anti- corruption “wars,” the recent gains in controlling electoral corruption, the development of a robust na- tional discourse about improving the effectiveness of anticorruption reform, and the crystallization of po- tentially viable legislative and constitutional reform agendas for promoting good governance. Especial- ly remarkable was the 2015 election of opposition presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari, who ran on an anticorruption platform. Drawing lessons from those national anticorruption struggles, this essay distills several interrelated steps by which reformist political leaders and activist civil society organizations might advance anticorruption reform in Nigeria and, potentially, elsewhere. These strategies involve de- politicizing key oversight institutions, curbing presidential and gubernatorial discretionary powers, restruc- turing patronage-based fiscal federalism, expanding and entrenching current transparency laws, and pro- moting participatory constitutionalism. A vast literature documents how Nigeria’s huge and ethnically fragmented population, overdepen- dence on unearned oil income, relatively short and unstable history of autonomous postcolonial politi- cal development, and fraught institutional structures have spawned a “fantastically corrupt” state, to use former British Prime Minster David Cameron’s apt 1 rotimi t. suberu is Professor characterization. But prodigious discussions about of Politics and International Rela- corruption’s entrenched roots, grotesque scale, and tions at Bennington College. Previ- devastating consequences in Africa’s demographic ously, he taught political science at and economic powerhouse often obscure the tenac- the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. ity of Nigeria’s anticorruption “wars” and their par- He is the author of Federalism and tial gains. These campaigns have resulted in a robust Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria (2001) and national discourse about improving the effective- has published in such journals as Journal of Modern African Studies, Jour- ness of anticorruption reform, in the crystallization nal of Democracy, Publius: The Journal of concrete legislative and constitutional agendas of Federalism, and Journal of Interna- for promoting good governance, and in occasionally tional Development. bold, if checkered, governance reforms.2 © 2018 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences doi:10.1162/DAED_ a_00510 184 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/daed_a_00510 by guest on 29 September 2021 Emblematic of such constructive gov- campaign through appropriate legislative Rotimi T. ernance reform is Nigeria’s recent suc- and constitutional change and broader and Suberu cess in improving elections administration more systematic governance reform. My and mitigating a perverse legacy of chron- critique of Buhari’s anticorruption policy ic electoral corruption. This institutional is followed by analysis of the lessons and evolution toward improved electoral gov- implications for broader anticorruption re- ernance was spurred by strident domes- form of Nigeria’s recent experience in con- tic and external criticisms of the farcical taining electoral corruption and improv- 2007 general elections. Constitutional and ing electoral competitiveness and integri- statutory reforms produced more credible ty. I then suggest a scheme for advancing electoral contests in 2011 and, in particu- anticorruption reform and highlight its key lar, 2015. The 2015 general elections were components. The scheme reflects not only unprecedented, producing a presidential lessons of recent electoral reforms, but also election victory for opposition candidate insights from the 2014 National Constitu- and former military head of state Muham- tional Conference Report and the 2015 Con- madu Buhari, who campaigned largely on stitutional Alteration Bill, which are broad- an anticorruption platform. ly supported (but as yet unimplemented) Institutional reforms are, however, not national constitutional reform blueprints the panacea for Nigeria’s monumental bequeathed by the departing Goodluck sociopolitical challenges. In addition to Jonathan presidency to the Buhari admin- flawed governance institutions, these chal- istration.5 Contemporary models of anti- lenges reflect the complex effects of preda- corruption control are based largely on the tory and unpatriotic political leadership, a experiences of relatively small or compara- patrimonial and ethnically fragmented po- tively homogeneous countries like Botswa- litical culture, and an extractive, oil-based na, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. But political economy. Containing corruption the successful advancement of Buhari’s an- in Nigeria, therefore, requires not only ticorruption program could hold significant political institutional reforms, but also lessons for controlling malfeasance in oth- strong transformative leadership across er large, complex, multiethnic, and poor or political and civil society, broad-based resource-dependent countries. economic diversification and liberaliza- tion, and reorientation of deeply embed- Muhammadu Buhari’s long-standing ded social norms, expectations, and prac- reputation for asceticism and personal in- tices.3 Nonetheless, as political sociologist tegrity, his stern crackdown on corruption Larry Diamond has claimed, judicious in- as military head of state in the 1980s, and his stitutional innovations can “compensate promotion of anticorruption reform as an for some of the weaknesses” in political overriding political campaign issue raised economy and culture, “reduce the scope” high hopes among Nigerians that his elec- for political leadership abuse, and “tilt the tion victory would cauterize the country’s odds in favor of those who are committed” corruption epidemic and usher in a new era to transparent democratic governance.4 of transparent governance. Indeed, Buhari’s This essay begins with a dissection of electoral manifesto incorporated thirteen the background, key features, achieve- anticorruption pledges, including establish- ments, and shortcomings of Buhari’s anti- ing whistleblower-protection legislation; corruption policy. I highlight the adminis- promoting exemplary ethical conduct (es- tration’s failure to embed and extend the pecially the public declarations of assets) major elements of Buhari’s anticorruption among the president and his appointees; 147 (3) Summer 2018 185 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/daed_a_00510 by guest on 29 September 2021 Strategies for enforcing transparency, accountability, and in 2015).12 At the mass level, a survey by Advancing efficient resource management and reduc- the United Nations Office on Drugs and Anticorruption Reform in tions in the cost of governance in all Minis- Crime and the Nigerian National Bureau Nigeria tries, Departments and Agencies (mdas); of Statistics found that ordinary Nigerians strengthening the institutional autonomy paid an estimated $4.6 billion in bribes to of anticorruption bodies; and articulating a public officials between June 2015 and May coherent national anticorruption strategy.6 2016, concluding that “bribery is an estab- Following his inauguration in May 2015, lished part of the administrative procedure Buhari confirmed that $150 billion in pub- in Nigeria.”13 lic funds had been stolen and internation- Such epic and endemic corruption has ally laundered by the country’s public of- propelled and compounded a multifacet- ficials during the preceding ten-year pe- ed and existential crisis of political order, riod.7 Nigeria’s recent history has indeed national security and intergroup coexis- included multiple instances of monumen- tence in Nigeria. By 2015, Nigeria became tal mismanagement and scandalous plun- home to two of the world’s five deadliest der. These include the embezzlement of terroristic organizations: Boko Haram and $15 billion from state coffers through the so-called Fulani militants (rampaging fraudulent arms contracts connected to armed nomadic herdsmen), both origi- the flawed military campaign against Is- nating from Nigeria’s Muslim-dominated lamist Boko Haram insurgents;8 the state- North.14 Along with Southern-based vio- owned Nigerian National Petroleum Com- lent or secessionist ethnic organizations pany’s failure to remit $18.5 billion in oil like the Niger Delta Avengers and the In- revenues to the national treasury from digenous Peoples of Biafra, the terrorist or- 2012 to 2013 (of which $3.4 billion was ganizations highlighted corruption’s role in diverted to a fictitious kerosene subsidy destroying opportunities for broad-based scheme);9 theft and misappropriation socioeconomic participation and employ- over a ten-year period (from 2005 to 2015) ment. These organizations capitalized on of $40 billion paid to the states of the Niger the environment of political elite predation Delta and the federally controlled Niger and extreme inequality, poverty, and dis- Delta Development Commission as funds content, fueling the rise of radical local in- for the amelioration of ecological chal- surgencies and hobbling the country’s se- lenges and infrastructural deficits in this curity institutions and counterinsurgency oil-bearing region;10 the 2009 jailing in the campaigns. United