CORRUPTION IS MUCH MORE THAN STEALING

When the furore about the president’s comment on stealing and corruption hit the upper decibels in the media, I was rather mildly amused by all the fuss. I marvelled at how some commentators twisted and imputed screwy meaning to an otherwise simple statement made in plain English.

If you browsed through the pages of most Nigerian dailies and that of popular social media platforms, you would agree that the President, not for the first time, was unfairly dragged to, and nailed to the cross, at the Golgotha of adverse public opinion. I read one such damning commentary by a certain civil rights lawyer on the pages of The Punch’s website. The lawyer asserted that President Jonathan’s “differentiation of the acts [of stealing and corruption] was clear evidence that the President’s government was corrupt.” He further opined: “Defence of stealing as different from corruption is indicative of the fact that President Jonathan is morally bankrupt. What the president has said is an admission of guilt and that his government is corrupt. It is a distinction without substance. It is calling one object two different names.”  

Of course, if you haven’t watched the broadcast of the Presidential Media Chat in which the President purportedly made the public “defence of stealing,” but read only the above commentary, your outrage would be excused. But what exactly did the President say?

On the Presidential Media Chat broadcast live on 5 May 2014, President Jonathan said, “Over 70% of what is called corruption [cases] even by the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies, is not corruption, but common stealing.” He further clarified this position in the most recent episode of the Media Chat. He said he only quoted a statement made by a former Chief Justice of the Federation (Justice Dahiru Musdapher) during a meeting he held with stakeholders on how to fight corruption. Apparently, this view is not the exclusive preserve of the honourable Chief Justice. Ekpo Nta, the Chairman of the ICPC, have the same views. He was quoted by The Punch as saying, “Stealing is erroneously reported as corruption. We must go back to what we are taught at school to show that there are educated people in Nigeria. We must address issues as we were taught in school to do.”  

I am going to be fair to the President and take his statement at face value. Having said that, the ensuing debate on whether stealing is the same, or not the same, as corruption begs the questions: what is corruption? What is stealing? Are they one and the same?

Corruption is difficult to define. There is no one single universal definition that captures its multifaceted manifestations. In a broad sense, it entails the breaking away from, or departure from, morality, ethics and civic virtues. But let us look at two definitions from two key authorities: The World Bank and the provisions of Nigeria’s anti-corruption law.

The World Bank defines Corruption as: The abuse of public office for private gains. Public office is abused for private gain when an official accepts, solicits or extorts a bribe. It is also abused when private agents actively offer bribes to circumvent public policies and processes for competitive advantage and profit. Public office can also be abused for personal benefit even if no bribery occurs through patronage and nepotism, the theft of state assets or the diversion of state revenue.

The Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 simply define corruption as, “bribe, fraud and other related offences.” It makes the following offences punishable under the Act:

1. Acceptance of gratification by a [public] official either directly or through an agentCorrupt offers to Public Officers
2. Corrupt demand by persons
3. Fraudulent acquisition of property
4. Fraudulent receipt of property; where the fraudulent receipt is related to postal matter, chattel, money or valuable security
5. Deliberate frustration of investigation by the commission (ICPC)
6. Making false statements or returns
7. Gratification by and through agents
8. Offer and acceptance of gratification to and by a public officer as an inducement or reward
9. Offence of using office or position to gratify or confer unfair advantage on oneself, relation or associate
10. Bribery in relation to auction transactions
11. Inflating the price of goods or services above the prevailing market price or professional standards
12. Award of contract without budgetary provision, approval and cash backing
13. The transfer of services on another project
14. Failure to report bribery transactions
15. Dealing with, using, holding, receiving or concealing gratification
16. Making of statements, which are false or intended to mislead
17. Making false petitions

Section 382 of the Criminal Code gives a clear definition of what a thief is in the eyes of the law. It states that a thief is, “a person who fraudulently takes…or fraudulently converts to his own use or to the use of any other person anything capable of being stolen”

What can we infer from the foregoing definitions? Is stealing the same as corruption?

I once chanced upon a discussion between a friend and a mutual acquaintance. The acquaintance was lamenting about how a couple of security guards working for his engineering firm had, over a period of eight months, connived with the company’s storekeeper to steal and sell the firm’s armoured cables worth more than N2.6Million. As I listened to his lamentations, I recalled another discussion I had with another friend a year earlier. Some staff of his ministry had complained to him about how their Project Manager had ‘cornered’ all the means of profiting from a World Bank assisted rural development project. They alleged that he had, overnight, transformed from a lanky Assistant Director into a bloated multimillionaire with properties in choice locations in the state capital and a palatial country home in his village. It is said that he, in connivance with the top echelon of the ministry, demands a hefty commission on every contract awarded to construction companies et al by the protect management team.

Which between these two scenarios qualifies as a case of corruption? Should the management of my friend’s engineering firm drag its security guards and storekeeper to the ICPC or the EFCC? If a neighbourhood rascal steals a loaf of bread from a corner shop or a cashier at a large super market pockets some of the cash from the day’s sales, are they in the same league with the Project Manager above or the top government officials who misappropriated funds from the Police Pension Fund?  

If you ask me, I will say no. Corruption is much more than stealing. It encompasses offences committed by public servants or other persons against the state. Clearly, not all cases of stealing would qualify as corruption according to the ICPC Act. By the same token, stealing government assets and diversion of state revenue are corrupt practices. In that sense, Mr President, Justice Musdapher and Ekpo Nta are right to say, “…[most of] what is called corruption…is not corruption, but common stealing.”