A survey on corruption in Nigeria has revealed that 30 per cent of citizens in the country paid bribes to public officials in 2019.
The report was presented by the Nigerian government in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Statistician-General, Dr Yemi Kale, of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that out of all Nigerian citizens, who had at least one contact with a public official in the 12 months before the 2019 survey, 30 per cent paid a bribe to or were asked to pay a bribe by a public official.
The 2019 survey shows also a notable increase in the overall proportion of Nigerians, who had at least one contact with a public official in the 12 months before the survey.
Nigeria is ranked as one of the world’s most corrupt countries in the world.
Unscrupulous leaders pilfer the national coffers and stashed away billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts. By some estimates close to $400 billion was stolen between 1960 and 1999.
Sani Abacha alone is estimated to have stolen the equivalent of 2 – 3 per cent of the country’s GDP for every year that he was President.
That is a staggering – almost “astronomical” – amount of money because if you were to put 400 billion dollar bills end-to-end, you could make 75 round trips to the moon.
Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil exporter, but its natural resources make it particularly vulnerable to corruption.
The oil-rich Niger Delta is a case in point. Corruption deters much-needed foreign investment, which keeps countries mired in poverty and its people deprived.