Barrister John Onwe, is a legal practitioner, a community leader and a literary enthusiast. He owns Hope Bay Library in the Ebonyi State capital, Abakiliki, floated to encourage reading culture in the state and beyond. Recently, he unveiled two books, Anatomy of Crime of Corruption in Nigeria: Constitutional Framework as the Taproot, Vol. 1 & 2. HENRY AKUBUIRO engages him on the contents of the book. With abundant evidences, the author affirms that Nigeria is a fantastically corrupt country, as the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said. He also accused Britain of sowing the seeds of corruption in Nigeria while blaming the Nigerian constitution for fostering the anomaly.
You recently released two volumes of the book, Anatomy of Crime of Corruption in Nigeria, what informed the writing of this book? What informed the writing of these books?
The book is my concern about the problem of corruption in Nigeria. Every Nigerian is effected, and, if you are truly concerned about the problem, then the logical step to take is to ask questions about the phenomenon of corruption, and, if you get no answers or unsatisfactory answer, you will be forced to conduct an inquiry into it to see if you could find the answer to the troubling questions agitating your mind about corruption. In my own case, I have participated in partisan politics and served in governments for over a decade, and, in the course of that walking the corridors of power and playing politics at the political arena, I came face to face with issues of corruption and I can assure you the encounter and the outcome were not quote palatable.
What troubled my soul and set my mind in turmoil was the seeming settlement of mind and acceptance of the fact of corruption as fait accomplish, that is, to say the resignation by all that it is unavoidable way of life, a sub-culture that has come to stay. And in that unpalatable situation you would be required to cooperate with, and in the system to make thing work according to a set agenda. It is this seeming resignation to the fact of official corruption that disarms even those that would have had some reservations about the social evil. And to avoid being marked as a loner or uncooperative or disagreeable person, the conscientious objector would be sucked in and baptised into the system and the vicious circle goes round interminably. It is this fact of Nigeria’s official life and officialdom that forced me to undertake a doctoral programme to study the problem and see if the causes would be found. And I am happy I conducted that research because it exposed the cankerworm and opened my eyes about Nigeria and the underlying causes that made Nigeria corrupt and entrenched it to become intractable. The result of the research formed part of the book entitled, Anatomy of Crime of Corruption in Nigeria, Constitutional Framework as the Taproot The book is in two volumes.
A former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, accused Nigeria of being fantastically corrupt, do you agree with him?
Did he actually accuse Nigeria of being fantastically corrupt? Yes and No could fit the poser. In the first place, it might be said that British Prime Minister David Cameron did accuse Nigeria of being corrupt since it was more of a conclusion he drew about the corruption perception index some world bodies have had about Nigeria and he was free to make an opinion about that perception. So, in a way, the Prime Minister, based on the objective data the world has about Nigeria, keyed into that world perception index to accuse Nigeria of being fantastically corruption. On the other hand, it could be said the Prime Minister did not accuse Nigeria of being fantastically corrupt but rather was only expressing opinion on a matter over which the world has accumulated impeccable facts or data to ground a perception about Nigeria. The declaration by David Cameron came about in 2016 when Britain or some other bodies were hosting an international conference in London on corruption. Nigeria’s President Buhari was billed to participate in the conference. At Buckingham Palace, the British ruling establishment had a meeting attended by the Queen, Elizabeth II, the Prime Minister David Cameron, the House of Commons Speaker, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Welby and one other member of British estates of the Realm. As these rulers were standing together discussing after their meeting, the Prime Minister David Cameron was caught in a tape overheard telling his compatriots about the conference on corruption in London and told them that he had heard about the conference and expressed surprise that Nigeria and Afghanistan, which, according to him, were the world’s two most fantastically corrupt countries, would be attending the conference. That was the origin of that statement.
Having done my research on the issue and made my findings, I can authoritatively agree with David Cameron that Nigeria is fantastically corrupt. That fact is writ large on the socio-economic and political canvass of Nigeria to require any further proof. Corruption is the lubricant that oils the ligaments of the Nigerian State and institutional machinery of Nigeria. Without corruption, Nigeria would have collapsed long ago. It is corruption that keeps Nigeria going, though it is a movement on the swivel chair. So much motion but no movement or progress from the swivel’s stationary position.
Part of your findings is that corruption is a carryover from colonialism, why do Nigeria rank higher than its colonial master in the corruption perception index?
My research on corruption departed from the usual route of inquiry into the symptoms of corruption but rather delved into the anatomy of corruption with a view to dissecting it to know its source, the anatomical structure, its compositions and complex make up. In this way, we were able to discover the root cause of corruption. And that root cause of corruption is the state structure Britain created and the legal order (constitutional framework) that was instituted to operate that state. The first basic fact that assails any genuine inquirer into the problem of corruption is the fact that it appears to be part of the Nigerian state and the ruling culture that drives the society. Why is this so? Nigeria was not formed because the peoples that inhabit it wanted it as they were disparate ethnic nationalities that knew nothing about each other prior to the amalgamation except for some casual acquaintances or interaction over spatial distances. And then some foreigners, Europeans and, in the case of Nigeria, Britain happened upon them. Britain granted some businessmen the permission to explore and trade in the coastal regions of Nigeria starting with Lagos. It created a consulate in 1849 and by 1862; it has conquered and colonised Lagos. By the turn of 1900, it has chartered a company called Royal Niger Company formed by a commercial buccaneer called George Goldie to take control of the entire Niger Delta, the interior of that coastal region up to Idah and finally the entire Northern Region. This company established commercial monopoly over these great swathes of territories and imposed administrative machinery that was at once autocratic and oppressive. To get treaties and land purchases from the natives, Goldie employed rough and underhand tactics to achieve his aims. By 1900, when his charter was revoked, he had virtually formed Nigeria, and Britain took over the country and appointed Captain Lugard, who had carried out most of the military campaigns and expeditions as the company’s chief security officer to conquer and subjugate the people as the new helmsman. By the time Lugard constituted Nigeria in 1914, the Nigerian state and country had been constituted on autocratic corrupt state and constitutional framework and, as we do know, autocracy breads corruption. Nigeria’s ruling culture has largely been military autocracy from inception to date and it is this ruling culture that is responsible for the intractable corruption Nigeria has been condemned to live under. Colonial rule was the rule of the conqueror, and the conquered has no choice of who rules him. So, since 1914 to date, Nigeria has been subjected under a conquest by the British and ruled under the resulting colonialism and colonialism the indigenous ruling elites weaned on the staple of British colonial autocracy inherited the state. While the indigenous civil rulers carried on the same British colonial autocratic constitutional framework it was soon overthrown by the military which inherited the post-colonial establishment. Military rule was a form of conquest and rulership was autocracy magnified. This autocracy was what they military rulers entrenched under the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria. For over two decades, the people have been subjected under the autocratic constitutional framework. It is this autocratic constitutional framework that is responsible for the intractable corruption in Nigeria and it will never cease to be so until this system is abolished and replaced with a constitutional framework agreed to, and made by Nigerian people that eschews autocracy and in its stead embrace democracy and rule of law.
As to the reason why Nigeria ranks higher in corruption than Britain, I can only say that Nigeria ranks higher than Britain in the corruption perception index because, though Britain colonised Nigeria, it did not form, structure and operate Nigeria on constitutional framework of freedom, equality, democracy and rule of law. Rather it ran Nigeria as a commercial facility fit for exploitation. Since 1688, when Britain experienced its Glorious Revolution that transformed it from feudal autocracy to capitalist democracy, with parliamentary system of government replacing the absolute monarchy, Britain has whittled down corruption and reformed its legal order which instituted rule of law and democracy. This ruling culture makes Britain to be less corrupt than Nigeria even though it was Britain that instituted Nigeria and it governance apparatus which is based on feudal autocracy by virtue of British Indirect Rule. British Indirect Rule, as imposed on Nigeria, was exhumed by General Murtala Mohammed and foisted upon Nigeria as the Lands Use Decree 1973 and the Uniform Local Government System of 1976 which system is entrenched in 1999 Constitution. This British legal and political order in Nigeria was exhumed by General Murtala Mohammed and foisted upon Nigeria as he exhumed the colonial Land Ordinance of 1906 applicable then only to the North and based on this feudal piece of colonial law decreed the Lands Use Decree, 1978. Having instituted this piece of law which was based on the economic ideology of feudalism, he quickly resuscitated the Indirect Rule Policy by introducing the Uniform Local Government System of 1976 which system is entrenched in 1999 Constitution. These two basic laws are the backbone of Nigeria’s constitutional framework and they are chief sources of corruption in Nigeria.
From your findings in the book, why has corruption seem to defy solutions in Nigeria?
Corruption is embedded in the state structure and constitutional framework of Nigeria and that makes it entrenched thereby making it intractable. It is more like corruption is legalised, because the law does not bind it, and it is beyond the reach of the law.
What are the effects of corruption on Nigeria and national development?
Official corruption, of which most of the acts are crimes, is not limited to Nigeria as it affects every country of the world but that of Nigeria and few other countries has attracted world attention due to its debilitating effects on national socio-economic and political development of the country. The major effect of corruption is that it has rendered the Nigerian state and country dysfunctional and consequently ineffective and inefficient to discharge the functions and responsibilities the world expects of it. In the first place, there is no rule of law which is the major social desideration that galvanises any state to be functional and effective to uphold law and order. And as you know, once there is no law and order, a country becomes a jungle fit only for animals. In Nigeria, there is no law and order as anything goes. Flowing from absence of law and order, the security of life and property is not guaranteed, and this breeds lawlessness which makes ordered socio-economic development impossible. As a result, public funds which due to corrupt acts of officers of state are routinely embezzled or stolen are dened the Nigerian state and its government resources to be deployed for social infrastructure. As a result, the social services are in shambles. Political culture has been damaged beyond repairs because of corruption and, in consequences of this, politics is kleptocratic. It is a game for rogues or those ready to endure the odium of the incongruities of public office?
What are the most practical ways to tame the dragon of corruption in the country?
The most practical ways to tame corruption is change the current state structure, the constitutional framework that make the constitution and the laws made under it to be subject to the discretionary powers of the public officials, be it the president, governor, local government chairman and even the officers of the law such as the Inspector General of Police and other heads and officers of other security apparatuses of the state are subject to the control and directions of the head of state. It is only in Nigeria that is supposedly under a written constitution and held up as a democracy that its head of state or president is invested with absolute authority over all the organs of the state and especially so in the control and usage of the coercive powers of the state as he appoints the heads of the police, paramilitary agencies and the army and these security services are at his becks and call and there is virtually no legal restraints on his exercise of the powers over these security services domiciled in his office. This is worse than monarchical autocracy. No other country in the world except some autocratic regimes in Asia and South America has such powers. This is at the root of ineffectiveness of rule of law in Nigeria and this is the taproot of corruption in Nigeria.
How effective are legal measures deployed to fighting corruption in Nigeria? Is the 1999 Constitution really helpless to tackle corruption?
One of the major issues tackled by my book on corruption is the effectiveness or otherwise of the legal framework and institutional measures Nigerian state and governments have made to tackle the phenomenon of corruption and the findings by the book show that the legal measures and the institutional framework do not work to tackle the problem of corruption in Nigeria. And part of the problem is that the legal framework and institutional measures as created by the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria and the law made under it are ineffective because the grundnorm made distinctions between who should be subjected to the law. In order words, the constitution does not institute rule of law as the absolute legal desideratum which must be obeyed. The constitution excluded the president, the governor and the deputies from being subjected to the due process of law during their tenures of office and so legal process cannot be taken against them. So, being elevated beyond the law and this obnoxious provision was borrowed from the British constitutional conventions that say that their head of stage, the Queen or king “does no wrong”, that is, that the king being the custodian of public law and morality cannot knowingly commit wrongs, because, if he does, he loses the power to uphold the law and punish offenders. As it is, Nigerian public officials are above the law except where they fell out of favour with the incumbent president; in that case, the government can initiate the legal process to whip such offending official to behave by pledging loyalty to him. And one that is done such offending official will be set free.
What is your target audience with these books?
The target audience for every book is the general literary public. For the book, Anatomy of Crime of Corruption in Nigeria: Constitutional Framework as the Taproot, Nigerians and the world reading public are the target audience. The aims of the writing will be achieved if the lessons drawn from the book are deployed to change the Nigerian system that makes corruption possible in Nigeria for the intractable corruption in Nigeria will never cease to be until this system is abolished and replaced with a constitutional framework that eschews autocracy and in its stead embrace rule of law.
You own a private library in Abakiliki open to the public, do you also write creatively?
I have not set my mind on engaging in creative writing such as poems, short stories and novels, but, as you know, I am a literary and cultural enthusiast. I am an associate member of Association of Nigerian Authors and do, as time permit, attend the association’s annual conferences and other activities. For my love for reading and writing, I opened a public library (Hopebay Library) here in Abakaliki for public use. It boasts of over ten thousand books and newspapers, magazines and periodicals properly bound in monthly collections from 1986 to date.