Corruption continues to increase in Nigeria

In Nigeria, efforts to fight corruption have been increasing by each successive government. However, the amount of corruption that goes on has increased as well. Nigeria actually has a lot of anti-corruption laws on the books, but the problem only seems to worsen.

From the Vanguard, corruption expert Dr. Peter Langsett weighed in on the problem.

An Anti-Corruption expert, Dr. Peter Langsett who stated this at a two-day Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes Summit in Abuja, maintained that unless there is a considerable improvement in the per-capita income of the average citizenry, corruption would continue to undermine the socio-economic and political development of the country.

While advocating for the establishment of State Anti-Corruption agencies to complement the efforts of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr.Langsett tasked these anti-graft agencies to be more proactive and to go after those he described as the ‘big fishes’ whom he said should be held responsible for not only plundering the nation’s economy but for the geometric rise in poverty induced crimes in the country today.

According to him, “it is a pity that a recent survey indicated that Nigeria’s GDP per capital, is much lower than what obtained in the 1970’s due to corruption which is a major predicate of money laundering, what baffles me however, is that this country has the highest number of laws and anti-graft institutions in the whole world.”