Today, Georgia ranks alongside Finland as having the least corrupt police force in the world
Although corruption has since become analogous to a directive principle of state policy in Nigeria, it is a self-evident truth that President Goodluck Jonathan did not introduce it to the country. It is also untrue, whatever he might have done in that wise, that IBB socialized corruption in the country. It is my view that the honour belongs to the late Major-General Yar’ Adua who, from his Katsina redoubt, but operating principally from Lagos, corrupted the political process by sending huge sums of money as political expenses towards his presidential ambition in the early ‘90’s whereas the practice before then was for party members, of all classes, to make monthly contributions for party funding. In the Awo days, nothing made an Action Group party member, more proud than showing his party monthly contribution card. At that point in Nigerian history, members truly owned their political parties.
I am not making this allegation lightly as I was personally present, in ‘91/92, when a former Secretary to the government of Nigeria handed a Ghana Must Go bag to the late university Professor who took us there for purposes of going to register members into the late General’s party in Ondo state. And that, I reliably learnt, was by no means a lone event. The other person present, a Lawyer, can confirm that, because that party was different from Papa Ajasin’s PSP group to which I belonged, I did not even as much as permit myself to be present wherever it was, that bag was opened. I excused myself.
What is true, however, is that under the current presidency, corruption has multiplied a hundred fold largely because of President Jonathan’s audacity in defying PDP’s zoning policy in 2011 and the concomitant necessity of having to then outspend the Atiku campaign which, in itself, was not cheap. That humongous funding would come mostly from sources known and unknown and the misguided, attempted removal of oil subsidy in January this year was a direct consequence of that. The need to recoup has contributed, in no small measure, to what a recent PUNCH newspaper investigation showed as a total of N5 Trillion in stolen funds under this barely 18 month-old government.
That publication is yet to be controverted by the government.
The above notwithstanding, I am positive that President Goodluck Jonathan can still translate to a statesman, even, Father of the Nation. But he must be ready to damn the consequences of a rather simple process which is guaranteed to enjoy mass support. He must first relinquish every intent to contest the v2015 election and then, GO AFTER THE ROGUES, big and small. The President is not here being invited to re-invent the wheel. Rather, he is being called upon to emulate his one-time GEORGIAN counterpart, Mikhail Saakashvili as much as possible, in what has become known worldwide as: THE HISTORY OF GEORGIA. The fact that Saakashvili was defeated in last month’s general election by Ivanishvili of the Georgian Dream Coalition, after nine years, does not vitiate this miracle that holds so much for Nigeria.
Happy reading.
This is a story of possibility from Georgia that should strengthen our hope in changing Nigeria in spite of its circumstances. It was told by Plamen Monovski, the CIO of Renaissance Asset Managers:
“When the Prime Minister comes to sell you an IPO, you, the investor, take the meeting. When that Prime Minister turns up with no bodyguards and shows remarkable knowledge of the company he is promoting, you, the investor, take notice.
When Nika Gilauri, the Premier of Georgia, tells you that the prosperity of his country has been achieved because it has become one of the “least corrupt” countries in the world, you, the investor must take note.
But it was not always like that.
After the demise of the USSR, Georgia was not only one of the most corrupt of the former-Soviet republics, it was one of the most corrupt countries in the entire world. Bribe-to-drive was the norm; police stopped cars at least twice an hour to extort some good money. The then Interior Minister infamously quipped: “Give me petrol only; my people will take care of their own salaries.”
Being a traffic cop was so lucrative that you had to pay a bribe of between $2,000 and $20,000 to get the job in the first place. Graft was endemic. Georgians passed more envelopes to bent officials than the post office does letters. Meanwhile the economy crumbled and the state was left bankrupt and powerless.
The election of Mikhail Saakashvili changed everything. A bold reformer, he was swept to power in the “Rose Revolution” at the end of 2003 by the overwhelming desire for radical change. His closely-knit team is unified by a common vision and supported by both the parliament and judiciary.
The new government was not just radical – it shocked and awed. Ministers, oligarchs and officials were sacked or arrested. Those who resisted were dealt with decisively, sometimes brutally. The state confiscated $1bn worth of property. Custom officials bore collective responsibility; an entire shift would be punished if one officer was caught accepting bribes. Corrupt university professors were kicked out with a lifetime ban from academia. But the piece de la resistance was Saakashvili’s order to sack the entire 16,000-strong police force on a single day, to replace them with some of the best and brightest university graduates. Today, Georgia ranks alongside Finland as having the least corrupt police force in the world and their standout uniforms are rumoured to have been designed by Armani.
The campaign expanded irresistibly. Tax offices were equipped with CCTV; university examination papers were printed in the UK and held in bank vaults until needed; and officials were constantly tested in sting operations. The proactive assault on graft was accompanied by a PR campaign to undermine respect for criminal groups and introduce respect for the law. The campaign then turned to the sectors. First up was the power sector that was widely used as a cash cow, as it is here in Nigeria, for well-connected oligarchs. In less than a year, Georgia went from net importer to exporter of electricity and the sector became the target of long-term foreign investment.
Tax collection followed. Georgia’s tax base consisted of just 80,000 companies in 2003 and tax collection was a mere 12% of GDP. Saakashvili slashed red tape and introduced flat personal and corporate taxes. Eight years later over 250,000 companies are on the register, and pay the equivalent of 25% of GDP. Georgia now boasts one of the most liberal tax regimes in the world, at par with the Gulf States and Hong Kong.
Lastly came deregulation, with many rules and agencies simply abolished, removing channels of corruption in the process. Among other things, car registration became so easy that used cars became the largest export item in 2011. Georgia moved swiftly from the bottom of the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking (112) into the top 20 (16) by 2012. Foreign investment followed and fuelled a multi-year surge.
But perhaps, the most lucrative Georgian export would be the fight against corruption itself – from which many states mired in graft could benefit. The Georgians patented a process whose steps are replicable: establish early reform credibility by radical action, launch a frontal assault excluding no sacred cows, attract new blood, limit the role of the state via privatization and deregulation, use technology and communication to maximum effect, and above all, be bold and purposeful. Georgia’s close and distant neighbours should take heed. Their prime ministers and presidents have got their job cut out for them.”
Without a doubt, time has come for Nigeria to embrace the spirit and letter of such radical reformation to avoid the needless, prevalent and sickening bloodshed that now characterizes our national life.
I am not that naïve not to know that corruption, which is now the name of every Nigerian sector will fight back ferociously. So did it in Singapore when Lee Kuan Yew and a group of Singaporean leaders bonded together, frontally confronted corruption in its most virulent form and transformed a poor, multi-racial city state into an astonishingly successful and corruption-free nation. Interested readers should go grab a copy of : FROM THIRD WORLD TO FIRST: The Singapore Story, 1965-2000 by L.K Yew.
What is essential here is for Jonathan to know that he occupies, as yet unknown to him, the hottest part of the Nigerian kitchen. He must wake up and be counted as he could also kill off the dreaded Boko Haram with a successful crackdown on corruption. He needs to do this if he would like to see his name on the good side of history. Those currently misleading him will not even appear on the footnotes of that history.
