International lawyer, Ndidi Edeoghon, in this monitored interview, discussed President Bola Tinubu?s statement that Nigeria has become free from corruption. Edeoghon said while Nigeria has made progress in ensuring stability in Forex, there are other features showing that the country is still battling with macro corruption. Excerpts:

In Brazil, President Bola Tinubu said there is no more corruption in Nigeria. As a legal practitioner, can you share with us how you interpret this statement, especially what is being said outside Nigeria?

Initially, when I heard this, I thought there must be some other angle that I was not seeing or hearing. I thought maybe we have different definitions of the word corruption. So, I started to dig into the word corruption. I realized that maybe he was talking about macro corruption, not micro corruption. So, micro corruption is the everyday corruption people encounter, while macro is the grand systemic corruption that distorts the economy and government.

The scope of macro is basically high level, while that of micro is individuals and low-level officials. The distinction between both is that micro generates basically distrust, while macro talks about the effect on systemic poverty, weak institutions and on less foreign direct investments, FDIs. So, our president was in Brazil trying to bring us more foreign direct investments. So, it is probably in this context that he was speaking about this. However, the only way I could assess this is by using data, which is very key, so that you do not get into the whole emotional response. The president says that his reform has been impactful since he came in 2023.

I had to analyse his statement. Let me use data to talk about these results. The results are from 2023 to date. There is an index called the Corruption Perceptions Index run by Transparency International, TI, and Tinubu was right. President Tinubu was right because we are not ranked 145th in the world. Now, we are ranked 140th. So, our score is 26 out of 100, and no longer 25 out of 100. Yes, he was correct.

Let us talk about the other measurements, like maybe the conviction carried out by the Economic Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Again, he is correct. In the 2024 calendar year, the EFCC actually had the highest ever annual convictions, which was 4111. So, this is good. I went deeper to find out those who were getting convicted, and I found out there were internet fraudsters, some foreigners, basically cybercrimes. How about high level convictions? Because there must be high level convictions if we are fighting corruption.

I found maybe three high levels, and it had to do with the protection of the Naira. We know those cases. How about governors, ministers? I guess there was one. EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, said when it came to convictions, they had four governors and three former ministers. So, what is happening to that now? What is the status of that? We do not know.

I am not quite sure how to assess this now. Let me go into systemic poverty because that is one of the impacts of macro corruption. Now, according to the World Bank, systemic poverty unfortunately has increased from 46 per cent to 54 per cent. I am really trying to grasp and understand what is being said by the president because I understand that yes, it is true that right now, we do not have to get the CBN governor?s approval to repatriate funds.

That is good news for investors. But you need to understand that there are micro and macroeconomics; on both levels, you need to assess them and find out whether truly Nigeria is corruption free. Let me talk about the policies. The policies that Nigeria has are fantastic. We have great policies. Basically, we have Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, SMEs, because we are doing an inside-out kind of growth because we know that SMEs have labour intensive value. So, it would help with unemployment and building the economy. We have the N50,000 Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme, PCGS, grants for nano firms. We have the N75 billion MSME Intervention Programme. The Bank of Industry is preparing N200 billion single loans. This is good. But doing all this without addressing macro corruption seems like a very futile exercise.

What would have been a better way for the president to make this statement?

I think he (the president) should have just specified it in the area of funds. In that sense, we can see that there is amazing progress. When you are changing Naira in the black market or in the official rate, there is very minimal disparity. That is good. But as an investor, I will look at other ratings as well. I would look at our governance ratings. Let me give you some statistics by Barometer, which are mindboggling.

I found out yesterday that 60 to 67 per cent of Nigerians paid bribes for police help. 53 per cent paid to avoid trouble with the police. 56 per cent paid bribes to get government documents. Eight out of 10 people say corruption increased somewhat or a lot from May 24 to May 25. And on the level of perceived corruption, 70 per cent of Nigerians, say the police are the most corrupt. This is followed by the presidency with 62 per cent.

Then parliament with 65 per cent, local government councillors with 55 per cent, and judges with 54 per cent. So, all these percentages are casting a doubt on whether Nigeria is truly corruption free. Before coming in as an investor, I would look at all these things. I would ask: how will I be able to enforce my judgement? How is the climate? But I have to do certain things that would compromise my integrity. The president should have been more specific when he made that statement. We cannot fool what we already know. We cannot fool the people.

Can reforms in one sector justify such a sweeping declaration?

We have so many sectors that we need to focus on. I also believe that if there are strong consequences, corruption would automatically be reduced. We talk about policies on a high level such as whistle blowing. Yes, it is good, but why can?t government start small? Why can?t they say if this happens, this will happen to you? When I tried looking at how many convictions the EFCC made in 2024, I was completely disappointed. We need to see the high level convictions. We need to see more of that to build the trust in the populace. Also to build the trust to the extent that if an individual messes up, no matter how high he or she is, he or she will bear the consequences.

What benchmarks would need to have been met before Nigeria can credibly claim to be corruption free across the board?

I like the Corruption Perceptions Index, where we scored 25 per cent. The average in sub-Sahara Africa is 33 per cent. Can we at least get to the average, which is abysmal? In fact if my child scored 30 per cent I would punish him. But can we get to 33 per cent, and then we can start talking about being corruption free or getting better? But we are 25 per cent. (Saturday Vanguard, but headline rejigged)

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