---------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUNDAY MUSINGS: On Corruption in Nigeria - "419: The Game is Not Over!"

by

Mobolaji E. Aluko, PhD
Burtonsville, MD, USA


Sunday, September 17, 2000


--------------------------------------------------------------------------


INTRODUCTION - SOME ANECDOTES
-----------------------------

This was not a good month for me and for Nigeria, corruption-wise. Why do
I write so?

On Wednesday morning, September 13, I got a phone call out of the blues
just as I was preparing to go to work.


---

The "419" phone call

Telephone rings: Grrrrnng-grrnnng!

Me: Hello, Aluko speaking.

Caller: (with a thick, detectable Nigerian accent, and speaking hurriedly)
Give me your fax number. I need to fax something to you.

Me: (puzzled) How can I just give you my fax number like that? Who are
you? I mean, you have not even introduced yourself !

Caller: This call is from Abuja, from the Secretary to the Head of
State.....em, em, Secretary to the Senate Committee on Contracts..

Me: (shouting) Shut up, you 419! Go to ...well, wherever! (dropping the
phone).

Caller: (quickly dropping the phone, and swearing in some language I will
not disclose.)

My wife: Who was that?

Me: Some stupid 419 call from Nigeria - again!

---


So why did I quickly and so immediately shout "419" after this so-called
"Abuja" call? I mean, can't some top Secretary from Abuja have been
calling a whole me?

I reacted that way because in fact I had indeed received unsolicited a fax
on my home machine a few days earlier, using internet free faxing
facilities! I am now copying from the paper in my hand the message
identification first line of the fax:

"Page 1 of 1 7:35:35 AM /9/6/00 209-315-9373 Distributed by
Fax4Free.comT"

I now reproduce the full document, originally all written in caps in the
original faxed document, but here reproduced in more readable print:


QUOTE

---------------------------------------------------------------------

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
NATIONAL HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY - ABUJA
SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN CONTRACT PAYMENT
DIRECT TEL/FAX LINE: 234-1-7743689


Attention: Honourable Contractor Date: 06/09/00

Dear Sir:

RE: Payment of your contract fund

The incessant complaints of Nigeria's foreign contractors have reached and
attracted the attention of Nigeria's House of Senate [SIC]. Such
complaints have ranged from undue extortion of monies from our foreign
contractors, illegal transfers, to diversion of contractor's monies to
bank accounts other than those nominated by the contractors. We are aware
that these practices have existed over a long period of time but worsened
during the past inept military regimes and lingered on until the present
regime as there still exist such elements in our parastatals, ministries
and financial houses.

Such occurrences have remained painful sore points in the image of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria and utter contracdition [SIC] of our efforts
in laundering the international image of our dear country.

Consequent upon these and after exhaustive consultations with the
president, Olusegun Obasanjo, the following ministries/parastatal,
agencies and office, which have been hitherto involved in the above
mentioned malpractices have been prohibited, forthwith, from carry [SIC]
out the function of vetting approvals and payment of contract claims or
any other duties relating to the setlement [SIC] of our foreign debts.

They include:

1. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
2. Federal Ministry of Finance
3. Office of the Accountant-General
4. Presidency
5. International Remittance Dept.
6. Officer of the Governor, CBN
7. All Task Forces
8. Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
9. Justice Ministry 10. Debt Reconciliation Ministry
11. National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON)
12. Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC)
13. Office of the Deputy Governor (CBN)

You are therefore advised to stop all dealings and communication with the
aforementioned offices. In their stead the Senate Committee on Foreign
Contract Payment has been inaugurated and given the sole authority to vet,
approve and pay all outstanding contract debts with all necessary despatch
[SIC].

While we apologies [SIC] on behalf of the Federal Government for all the
undue delays and inconveniences, you are advised to acknoledge [SIC] this
letter reconfirming your bank particulars and contract details to this
office immediately to avoid mistakes when remitting your fund.

The earlier you respond to this message, the earlier action will be on
your contract file and the better for us.

Best regards,

Signed

SENATOR FRED BRUMEH [sic]
CHAIRMAN SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN CONTRACT PAYMENT

---------------------------------------------------------------------

UNQUOTE

First, Senator Brume's name was spelt wrong, and I am certain he is
completely unaware of this letter. Secondly, it does not take a
rocket-scientist to discern that this sic-filled letter, however craftily
written, is a "419" letter written to deceive, once again, the unwitting
"contractor" to disclose vital information about himself that will then be
used to extort him or her based on some desperate hope to get either
something for nothing, or GENUINELY obtain some money owed him or her by
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. However, if all 13 agencies named above
are now no longer able to deal as stated, what would that say about our
whole system? Should that not ring a bell?

Not so easy, I guess! In case you are wondering how DANGEROUS these
tempting letters can be, let me relate another story: On August 17,
barely a month before this "419" phone call, I had gotten a call from an
old friend from graduate school days in California, a White guy, now a
businessman, a deep Christian fellow, asking that I call him. We attended
the same church in California, our families have exchanged holiday visits
between Seattle and Burtonsville, his son and mine were born at the same
hospital within a month of each other eighteen years ago, etc. So we have
been in touch ever since, and we recently exchanged family pictures when
our sons both graduated from high school within the past two months and
are both now in college. I immediately called, and also left my email
address to prevent phone tags. This is the email exchange, abbreviated:

QUOTE


EMAIL FROM FRIEND

On Thu, 17 Aug 2000, BD wrote:

> Bolaji, greeting to you as well. I hope you are well. The picture you
> sent of [YOUR SON] was impressive--he looks as tall as Hakeem Olajuon!

Materials deleted

> I am attaching a message that came in from Nigeria. It is seeking a
> relationship without specifically referring to our products and
> services. It may just be sort of a mass email looking to find someone
> to bite. However, I would value your feedback and how this might be
> cultural to Nigeria so I will know how to best respond. Thank you for
> your consideration.
>
> God's blessings on you and your family!

MY RESPONSE

Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 19:52:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Mobolaji E. Aluko" <maluko@...>
To: BD <bd.@...>
Subject: Re: Nigerian proposal

B..

Nice that you got back to me quickly!

The letter you received is a CLASSICAL INTERNATIONAL SCAM, called "419",
for which my country, unfortunately, is infamous. I am sure that you
would NEVER fall for such a scam.

To read more about the general scam, check these websites:

http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/onsite.htm
http://www.lpconline.com/Nigerian_fraud_letter_scam.html

--- materials deleted---

Best wishes, and God's blessings.

Bolaji

MY FRIEND'S LATEST RESPONSE

From: BD <bd.@...>
To: "Mobolaji E. Aluko" <maluko@...>
Subject: Re: Nigerian proposal (fwd)

Thanks for your response. And, it was nice to hear from you. I
appreciate the information and warning about this possible scam. We did
not respond and they never contacted us again.

---- materials deleted --

UNQUOTE


Another potential disaster averted, this time the scamming of a dear
friend!

To cap this my "Nigeria-corruption" month up, two further things occurred:
first Transparency International published its Year 2000 Corruption
Perceptions Index (CPI) of official, public-sector corruption. The new
index is based on multiple surveys from 1998-2000 rather than just one
year as previously done. Unfortunately, it now lists Nigeria as moving
from 27th most corrupt nation (last year 1999, out of 99) to being the
most corrupt nation out of 90 countries surveyed in 2000. See:

http://www.transparency.de/
http://www.transparency.de/documents/cpi/2000/cpi2000.html

The report could have come at no worse time than when President Obasanjo
was state-visiting the UK, and talking about debt-relief and new
investments in Nigeria. It will also further devastate the psyche of
Nigerians in the wake of the recent highly-publicized Senate contract
probe, and question how much progress we have really made in this nascent
democracy. However comfort must be taken that the data includes the year
1998, and Nigeria should insist that Transparency International ALSO
publish what the list would have been IF only year 2000 had been used as
done in previous years so as to discern the relative contributions of the
intervening years.

I must tell a quick story here, most probably apocryphal: a Pakistani
taxi-driver's story is that Nigeria bribed Pakistan so that Pakistan would
agree to be designated the most corrupt in 1997 and Nigeria, hoping to
polish its image a bit, would be designated second place. Go figure who
was really the most corrupt that year!

Finally, the second happening: I received a free copy of an interesting
book on Nigeria sent to me by a good friend Charles Pascale of the 419
Coalition [http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal]. A witty, well-researched
and author-autographed book written by one Brian Wizard, it is titled
"Brian Wizard's Nigerian 419 Scam: "Game Over!" [See
http://www.brianwizard.com.] I could not help but chuckle at the title and
say: "Chuck, the game ain't over yet!"

If, within a month, I can be faced with FOUR different encounters of "419"
issues, I wonder what has changed? This is more than serious!


STEMMING THE CORRUPTION
-----------------------

So how do we stop the corruption in Nigeria, including "419" scams? This
is the million-dollar question, which needs a final answer, which I will
attempt to give! In international trade, "419" is particularly serious,
because it is a death sentence like AIDS, a cancer that causes a violation
of all trust in international commerce, and makes crooks out of innocent
Nigerian people, casting them in bad light even before they open their
mouths.

But corruption is like any other crime in Nigeria: there must be the
motive, means, and opportunity, and a reasonable assurance by the criminal
that he will not be detected, and if detected he will not be punished, and
if punished it will not draw consequences which make the crime too
expensive. Therefore, if we systemically REMOVE - or seriously mitigate
(as the case may be) any of these factors: motive, means, opportunity,
non-detectability and non-commensurate punishment - we will be well on our
way to successfully combating corruption in our country.


Motive

The motives for financial corruption are GREED, POVERTY and FEAR OF RETURN
TO POVERTY. Greed is a spiritual deficiency, and can only be removed by
spiritual means. So a spiritual rejuvenation, hammered on by our
religious institutions, must definitely be embarked upon. While government
is made of men and women who should be spiritually upright, the promotion
of religion by government [as in Sharia in some states in Northern
Nigeria] can create its own problems, so it is the province of the
religious instutitions, not the government, to hammer on this spiritual
dimension of our crisis.

Poverty is another matter. Government has a primary responsibility of not
only alleviating poverty but creating prosperity. Thus it must create the
conducive infrastructural environment in society such that its citizens
are gainfully employed, not roaming the street and not letting the devil
find work for idle hands; that those working in government are paid
living wages; adequate pay is paid for commensurate responsibility; and
bosses do not award themselves such fat salaries as to make their
underlings believe that they too are entitled to "government" money by
fair-or-foul means. Of course, there is also a spiritual dimension to
poverty, for from Proverbs in the Holy Bible we read the prayer that "God,
please do not make me poor such that I will steal, or make me too rich
that I will forget thee..."" Thus both the poor and the rich have the
propensity to be corrupt, but for different reasons.

Finally, fear of the return of poverty is due to the lack of job security
and social security (insurance) when work is no longer do-able. This
could also account for the greed and the outlandish accumulations of
wealth that characterize our nation. Consequently, the laws of the land
should protect indiscriminate job firings, and, like in other developed
countries, social security monies should be BY LAW be put aside for one's
sunset years.


Means

With $1-N100 exchange, a visitor to Nigeria is bound to be shocked at the
amount of hard currency one has to carry around! Our society is still a
cash-and-carry society, with "Ghana-must-go" bags being the means of money
transportation. In fact, I understand that as much as 60-80% of the cash
in Nigeria is in circulation among its citizens, and not in banks! It is
more like 20-40% in developed countries, maybe even much less in the
United States. This large proportion of money in circulation (and hence
low savings) not only encourages home burglaries and highway robbery, but
also affects interest rates offered by banks, making them unreasonably
high.

Until and unless cash is de-emphasised in transactions - and this can best
be done by government by insisting that it will deal only in checks or
money orders as much as possible - the ease with which bribery and
corruption via exchange of cash can be done will overwhelm hopes of
stemming corruption. This is where user-friendly BANKING REFORMS, as well
as technology, particularly ELECTRONIC IDENTIFICATION of the citizenry and
NETWORKING of ELECTRONIC DATA BANKS will be of the greatest value.


Opportunity

There is too much DIRECT contact between the citizens and bureaucracy:
you must go to this office to get a form, go to that office to get a vital
document, return several times because a particular official, the ONLY
official designated to handle your interest, is not in. The service
centers themselves are few and far between, increasing the level of
desperation among patrons. All of this leads to greater opportunity for
desperate people to offer bribes, and bribe-takers to be able to demand
them with impunity.

The recent Senate contract scandals, despite serious misgivings about the
probe itself, are symptomatic of the contracts scandal that pervades the
ENTIRE public sector of Nigeria, and would no doubt contribute to the low
Transparency International's CPI on Nigeria. It appears that there are no
standards of contract and purchase in government, and if there are, they
are not widely known; there are no published lists of customary prices of
items to be contracted or purchased, to serve as guide for easily
determining whether a quoted price is high or low. A government list
depicting accredited suppliers and contractors should be maintained for
each government agency (this should be a subsection of the general
government list), and this list should not change within the fiscal year
except for unusual circumstances. Use of open tender should be the rule,
not the exception. For example, the US General Services Administration has
a website http://www.gsa.gov which is available to the world, thereby
encouraging transparency and accountability.

[See also
http://pub.fss.gsa.gov/vendorguide/section-d.html;
http://pub.fss.gsa.gov/sched/far-8400.cfm ;
http:.//www.epa.gov/opptintr/epp/gsa.htm;
http://www.mcbride.com/contracts/federal/gsa/terms.htm.]

We should not have to re-invent the wheel all over again. Since we are yet
an import-dependent country, nothing stops us from negotiating with BOTH
local AND foreign companies, as well as friendly foreign governments so as
to obtain the same or even better published favorable terms with which we
get some equipments and supplies (with possible consideration for our
poverty, plus insurance and freight). Finally, contract and purchase
administrative officers - as well as the government's Auditor-Generals -
MUST be given adequate salaries, independence and such security of
position that they cannot be overruled by those who might request them to
do things fraudulently. Even the president should not be able to say,
"Buy this - or be fired!" The law should protect such contract overseers,
who should themselves be subject to periodic audits.

Furthermore, government should look into ALL of its operations to see
where it can cut out the need for citizens to go distances to get
essential services. Churches, mosques, schools, hospitals, market-places,
non-governmental organizations and others must be used wherever possible
to provide certain essential services and non-sensitive documents on
behalf of government, and telephones and postal services should be
efficient enough to allow for enquiries and mail-in of completed
documents.

I cannot leave this section without relating an incident that I witnessed
in Ile-Ife on my way to Ibadan/Lagos about August 1 of this year when I
last visited Nigeria. From the center of Ile-Ife to its outskirt, over
about a five-mile distance, the car I was in followed directly behind this
one packed commercial "Danfo" bus that was also travelling to Ibadan.
Because of the recent Ife-Modakeke "troubles", there were mobile police
checkpoints at about every half-mile, maybe less. AT EVERY ONE OF THESE
STOPS, THE DANFO DRIVER, IN A PERFECT WELL-CHEREOGRAPHED MOTION, HANDED
MONEY TO A MOBILE-POLICEMAN, WHO SWIFTLY PUT IT IN HIS POCKET! They did
not even seem to care who was watching in the next car. At every single
stop! I was so incensed that I took out my camera and said that I would
take a candid picture at the next stop, but our own driver "begged" me not
to do so, that if we were caught doing so, it would be trouble. I
insisted (saying that I would be careful), but at the fourth mobile-police
stop, the fluidity with which the driver handed the money to the policeman
was so smooth that even a nano-second shutter camera would not be able to
snap it! At that point, I asked my driver to speed up, and I caught up to
the side of the Danfo driver, and spoke to him in Yoruba, shouting why he
was handing money to the policeman even without them asking! He said,
smiling "Eh, e ma binu, won o ni je ki nko ja ti mi o ba fun won!" -
"Don't be angry, they will not let me pass if I don't give them
something!"

We fell back and continued to follow the Danfo bus. At the next two
stops, he continued with his nefarious act, and when finally we sped past
him for the last time, he just looked at me smiling as I shook my head! I
could not cry, so I smiled too!


Detectability

I believe that detecting most of the crime is easy IF THERE IS A WILL!
One is therefore forced to believe that in some cases, there is just a
plain, conscious aversion to detection. For example, the mobile police
men taking money so brazenly on the Ife road could be easily detected, but
they seemed to care less! For example, the 419 merchants of shame use
ACTUAL PHONE NUMBERS in Nigeria that you can call and fax responses to -
how did they get these numbers, and how come the givers and the takers
cannot be shut down RIGHT AWAY? I mean, for example: the Lagos number
"234-1-7743689" at the head of the 419 letter from the "National House of
Assembly" - WHOSE NUMBER IS THAT, AND WHERE AND HOW WAS IT OBTAINED? Why
can the authorities in Nigeria not track this particular number down and
determine who obtained it?

Also, of course, the low level of technology usage in our country makes
detectability of most financial crime - and hence the ability to even
begin to punish the criminal - extremely difficult. Again, one must
emphasize, as I wrote above, that ELECTRONIC IDENTIFICATION of the
citizenry and NETWORKING of ELECTRONIC DATA BANKS will significantly aid
in this respect. This is where the much-discussed multi-billion-naira
Identification (ID) Card project is more important, in fraud detection,
rather than its much-touted proposed use in census or in elections. After
all, in Nigeria, it is not the voting or counting that matters, but the
announcement of the numbers and winners! :-)


Punishment

No number of new anti-corruption laws written in the books in Nigeria will
succeed if the JUDICIAL SYSTEM itself is corrupt. There are already enough
laws in the books, but unfortunately, one often gets the feeling in
Nigeria that the people feel that the personnel of our very judicial
system - or more precisely the arresting policeman, or the judge in a
particular case - has his or her price, and hence ultimately justice can
be perverted. Consequently, corruption and crime continue with impunity.

In respect to judges, the Justice Kayode Esho report, the work of a panel
on the judiciary inaugurated by (of all people) the late Gen. Sani Abacha
on December 29, 1993 has so far has been secreted away. It is reported to
have case studies allegedly showing the indictment about 47 judges caught
in various forms of judicial rascality. A full disclosure and
implementation of the report's recommendations would go a long way to
sanitizing our judicial system. We should not also forget the Okigbo
report on the Central Bank (1994) and the Abisoye report on the NNPC (also
in 1994) both of which have not seen the light of day. It is pertinent to
quote the erudite Justice Aguda here from a recent speech: "A country can
still do well with bad laws but it cannot do well with bad judges. This is
because if the judges are upright, they can mitigate the injustice,
inhumaness created by people who made bad laws. But when judges are
corrupt, even with good laws, development, justice cannot thrive".

The size of our police force, their minimum level of education, the
resources (e.g. police cars, guns and walkie-talkies) available to them
and their salaries must all be revised if we are truly concerned about
making our society safer for the citizenry and for investment purposes.

[See, for example, my essay

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlukoArchives/message/36
"MONDAY QUARTERBACKING: How many policemen do we actually need?" ]

However, the corruptibility of law-enforcement officers is a spiritual
issue, but it also has its means, motive, opportunity, detectability and
punishment components.

Finally, when those that have been found guilty of egregious corruption in
government still get recycled to government, or deal with government, it
speaks much (or little) of our values. This again is essentially a
spiritual matter, but a graduated five-year-by-five-year-to-life ban
scheme by law on government positions can be placed on such miscreants
after they have been fairly tried in the court of law and indicted.


EPILOGUE
--------

One is painfully aware of the disincentives of the perception of our
country Nigeria as a chronically corrupt one - disincentive to new
investment, to debt relief and to self-esteem as we travel around the
world. However, I have always held, sometimes to the annoyance of some of
my compatriots who think that I am minimizing issues, that the Nigerian,
as a human being, is no less corrupt or more corrupt that the Englishman,
or American or Japanese or Ghanaian. Corruption is certainly not
exclusively written into our genes. The problem is that over the years we
simply have not addressed our corruption in a systemic manner, and we have
had governments themselves, both military and civilian, that have
encouraged the corruption and hence have not sat back FULLY to address it.

I hope that by breaking the problem down into means, motive, opportunity,
detectability and punishment components, and by putting the feet of our
civilian governments, present and future, to the fire, we all can
contribute to the ongoing attempts to holistically and systemically
address solving this major problem of our country.

That is a hope and a prayer.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


For a companion piece, see my February 14, 2000:

SUNDAY MUSINGS: On Nigerian Criminality and Public Accountability
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AlukoArchives/message/35

----------------------------------------------------------------------------