Foreword
p. xvii-xix
Texte intégral
1The last two decades have been marked by a phenomenal increase in the incidence of corruption in many countries of the developing world and a growing national and international commitment to fight it. This, in turn, has produced a general re-orientation in the global perception of the causes of corruption and the best ways to deal with it, especially in the regions where it has become a pandemic obstructing development, political stability, and global security. Recent scholarly work devoted to the analysis of graft in public institutions often blames widespread corruption on deficient state policies—in the form of public monopoly, opaque administrative rules and procedures, and poor incentive structures—and weak institutions or, in extreme cases, total institutional collapse (multiple governance failures). This logically calls forth neo-liberal economic and administrative reforms incorporating, among other remedies, policies of privatisation and deregulation, aimed at reducing the role of the state in the economy and the removal of state monopolies and official discretion, and improved remuneration for public officials. A second aspect of these reforms has aimed at the reinforcement of institutional capacities—strengthening existing institutions such as civil society organisations (SCOs), judiciary, and the media—or the creation of new institutions, such as independent anti-corruption commissions (ACCs).
2Thanks to growing domestic pressure and the active support of a few vocal international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), development aid agencies, and financial institutions, these policies have managed to find their way, in one form or the other, into the policy agenda of virtually every developing country affected by widespread corruption. But what has been the actual result of their implementation? To what extent have they helped in reducing the incidence and/or perception of official corruption? What have been the main challenges? While evidence points to some progress in terms of a progressive fall in the level of corruption in many East European and Central Asian states such as Georgia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania, Moldavia, and Tajikistan, in the great majority of cases, notably those from Africa, the application of these policies has not produced convincing results.
3The case of Nigeria is very instructive. While the endemic nature of corruption has never been in doubt (as studies conducted over several decades have shown), it took three recent events in the late 1990s to force the issue onto the global agenda. The first was the revelation of massive plunder of state resources under the Sani Abacha dictatorship; the second was the global fight against money laundering connected with international terrorism; and the third was the soaring rate of poverty in many developing countries despite billions of dollars in overseas aid. Since 1999, when Nigeria completed a transition from military dictatorship to democratic rule, international pressure has intensified on its leaders to adopt radical reform measures to fight corruption. Indeed, the fight against corruption and criminality in Nigeria has become a major preoccupation, not only for major Western powers threatened by the money-laundering activities of international terrorist networks, but also for the international development institutions working to reduce global poverty.
4This book highlights the major steps taken by the Nigerian leadership, under the Olusegun Obasanjo civilian administration (1999-2007), to deal with corruption in Nigeria. Focusing more generally on activities at the federal level of government, but with occasional insights from some of Nigeria’s 36 states and 774 local government councils, this book will seek to provide some answers to the following pertinent questions: How effective have market and institutional reforms been in checking corruption in Nigeria since 1999? Why has corruption remained pervasive in Nigeria under the Fourth Republic (1999 to date), despite an avalanche of policies and programmes designed to fight graft and the often-restated commitment of Nigerian presidents to bring corrupt officials to book? What else could be done to achieve a significant reduction in the level of corruption in Nigeria? This book is an attempt to address these related questions in a systematic manner.
5The primary motivation for writing this book is the shortage of literature on anti-corruption projects in Africa, despite the proliferation of such programmes in the continent. The book itself is a product of several years of study undertaken with the generous financial support of the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA), Ibadan, the Leventis Research Corporation, the University of London (Centre of African Studies/School of Oriental and African Studies), and the African Studies Centre, Leiden. The study involved several months of fieldwork in Nigeria, which allowed me to conduct series of interviews with cross-sections of people, study library and archival materials, and retrieve and analyze dozens of official publications on the subject under study. This research was originally submitted in 2006 as a PhD thesis to the Institut d’Études Politiques, University of Bordeaux. It was later updated and translated into English from its original French version at the Centre of African Studies/School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where I worked as the Nigerian Leventis Fellow from January to March 2009, and reviewed finally at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, where I spent three months (September-November 2009) as a Visiting Research Fellow.
6In terms of scope, this book is essentially about the war against corruption launched and executed by the Obasanjo administration during the period May 1999 to May 2007. It is therefore not a study on corruption per se. In order to properly engage with and analyze the issues raised in the study, the book has been carefully divided into eight chapters, all arranged in a logical sequence. The first chapter presents an introduction to the study. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 offer an outline of the three broad strategies or policy instruments designed to achieve the goals of the Obasanjo anti-corruption policy. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 look at the actual application of these strategies and the three key challenges that have contributed to defeating the goals of the anti-corruption policy. The book ends with Chapter 8, which offers a brief conclusion to the study.

Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Creative Commons - Attribution - Partage dans les Mêmes Conditions 4.0 International - CC BY-SA 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
Anti-corruption campaign in Nigeria (1999-2007)
The politics of a failed reform
David U. Enweremadu
2012
Boko Haram: Islamism, politics, security and the state in Nigeria
Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos (dir.)
2014
Violence in Nigeria
A qualitative and quantitative analysis
Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos (dir.)
2016
Transnational Islam
Circulation of religious Ideas, Actors and Practices between Niger and Nigeria
Élodie Apard (dir.)
2020