Beyond Corruption in Nigeria
My piece where I noted that Nigeria should take NNPC public was effectively drowned with corruption about/in Nigeria. Instead of a robust debate I had expected, as usual, most commenters simply could not overcome the corruption infrastructure in the Nigerian system to take a look at the perspective.
I respect the ideas, but I will like to make a point as I have tried in some of the comments: Nigeria suffers process failures which make civil servants look "corrupt" even when they may not be. I want us to see how we can redesign a nation with institutions that will technically eliminate such process failures.
In fighting corruption [the way we do it today], we are dealing with the people. We keep arresting them, which is fine. But if we do not change the process, we will not achieve anything in the long-run. How do we engineer a system that makes corruption harder? That is my point. We cannot be shouting about corruption without examining processes. My point is that if Nigeria changes the NNPC process (yes, the way business is done), we can have glory.
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Here are three cases I want us to consider:
- Before some state governments introduced TSA, most took overdrafts in banks, even when they had cash in other accounts in the same bank. While people could classify this as corruption, I will focus on noting that this it is process failure. I am not in the hearts of the governors to know while they would prefer to waste about 20% of their funds on bank fees. Yet, I do know that most times, before TSA, they did not know their cashflows.
- Universities across Nigeria struggle with transcripts. Some cannot even graduate students for NYSC because they could not compile their grades on time. You will not accuse those workers as corrupt. Simply, their systems are broken. The same goes on school fees where some schools cannot tell you who had paid or not.
NNPC has a broken process. The Corporation should do better. But I do not believe that the failures we see are due to corruption. Nigeria needs to build better structures in its governance processes: until we focus on such, some people will have the rooms to keep disappointing. Yes, TSA has done more than ICPC and EFCC combined on fighting corruption
I quite agree with you on the fact that we need to build processes most especially institutional processes that will outlive the founders. By doing this, we need to see beyond politics at things are currently perceived in Nigeria. EFCC and ICPC and other government agencies together with ministries should have a transparent internal control processes.
Let me give you an example, I was in a public school 2 years ago to process my post graduate transcript, and during my conversation with another fellow who recently applied for his PhD, he said he was asked to produce his transcript before admission. he sent a mail to his UK school on his phone, provided his credit card details and the email of the recipient school here in Nigeria. In 24 hrs, the school confirmed the transcript and the officer was amazed at the level of speed.
This is the level some (if not all) our public school should be if at all they want to be relevant, competitive and productive. The new age is spurred by technology which has greatly influenced, not just human thinking alone but overall human and societal development which has made the world a better place.
I want to see Vice Chancellors with entrepreneurial mindset, driven with innovations. I want to see government agencies that are functional on technology. You don't have to go to Ministry of Lands in Lagos to get your documents processed. you should be able to do some of these thing online and on the phone. Physical contacts should be seriously minimized. Same goes to cashless system etc.
Just as you have rightly suggested, the future should not just catch up with us unprepared.
