Corruption among Senior Civil Servants in the Budget Office - Abuja-Nigeria - Assignment Example

For the past ten years, Transparency International (TI) which is a Geneva-based NGO has consistently Nigeria among the ten most corrupt nations in the world (Ayoola, 2005). It would indeed be appropriate to say that in Nigeria, every level of society is extremely plagued with corruption. It is on this trend that this study is based on looking at the manifestations and implications of corruption in Nigeria. It examines the entrenched institutional and societal attitudes on these social issues and efforts of managing them. Some of the anti-corruption strategies include educational programs run by anti-corruption bodies. Others include intelligence, arrest and prosecution of corrupt senior civil servants among others. This paper will conclude with a theoretical review of this social menace and the effects of anticorruption in civil service.

1.2. Corruption in general

The social problem of corruption is not limited to a particular society, rather it is a scourge that rears its ugly head in every society, though in varying magnitudes. Corruption is a threat to political stability, democratic governance, and sustainable human development. As an antithesis of development, and progress, corruption creates social unrest, political instability and a crime-infested environment (Seberu, 1990). Corruption breeds inefficiency, mediocrity, incompetence, unethical values as well as other base instincts like greed, rapacity, and avarice in people. There has been no common ground on what constitutes corruption, however, the most adopted broad definition presented by the Oxford dictionary (2001) terms corruption as a destruction or perversion of integrity in the discharge of public function and duties by bribery and favors. However, it would suffice to say this definition is crime-infested because it does not take into account the aspect of corruption that relates to behavior.

In that regard, therefore, Smith (1976) presents a more all-encompassing definition terming it as a diversion of material wealth that was intended for the effective delivery of socially desirable goals into the pockets of a few individuals. In the same breath, Adegbite's (1976) definition of corruption is premised on change of state. To this end, he demonstrates corruption as a change from a state of correctness, uprightness, or truth to a state of recklessness, wrong, bad, or taunted use. He also defines it as a change from a sound state to, a putrid state. Others who have attempted all-encompassing include Hoogvelt (1976) who sees it as simply a process where societal rewards are traded. On his part, Akanbi (2004) considers corruption as the abuse of public trust or power either for personal gain or for the benefit of people or a group that he has an allegiance interest.