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Corruption And Underdevelopment
[A CASE STUDY OF HALLIBURTON]
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 7]
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• Objective of the Study
The major concern of this study is to
investigate how the growing incidence of corruption has stunned
underdevelopment in Nigeria. However, the specific objectives are stated
as follows;
• To discover if corruption is responsible for Nigeria’s underdevelopment.
• To ascertain if the persistence of corruption in Nigeria is linked to external factors.
• To determine if the deregulation policy is capable of curbing the menace of corruption in Nigeria.
• Significance of the Study
The
study has two basic significances. They are both practical and
theoretical in nature. Practically, this research work will be a guide
to policy makers, economists, political analysts, policy implementers,
and researchers. In other words, it will serve as a tool for the
government and private organizations on how to curb and prevent corrupt
practices and engender development in Nigeria. Theoretically, the study
will close the existing gap in the literature in corruption and by so
doing; add to the existing volume of knowledge on the connection between
corruption and underdevelopment and how it can be curbed.
• Literature Review
In
order to justify the objectives of the study, it will be necessary to
review the works of other scholars in the field of study since such a
review will provide us with adequate background. It is through such a
review that we will be able to diagnose the short comings of previous
studies and the way in which the present study will help in providing
solutions to the problems. Ebenezer [1986] in his book Corruption in a
Neo-Colonial State: The Nigerian Experience, tried to pose the
question—what causes corruption and why various policies that are
against corruption in Nigeria have failed? In his answer, he maintains
that our leaders failed to comprehend the real causes of corruption. He
emphasized that “corruption is a clear cut product of neo colonization
which bases its economic program on the capitalist form of developmentâ€.
Stretching further, he examined the efforts of past administrations to
bring to an end, the act of corruption and explained why they were
defective. According to him, they failed because corruption is often a
symptom of deeper difficulties in the societies where it is prevalent,
and usually operates within the broader context of other social
problems. The writer’s [Michael Johnston] argument is fraught with same
problems.
One of the problems is being that he was unable to
highlight these deeper difficulties which he sees as symptoms of
corruption. Hence, corruption is associated with slow economic growth,
reduced investment, and feeble property and contract rights, ineffective
institutions, limited social interaction and weak rule of law, poor
economic competitiveness, deep ethnic divisions and conflicts, low
popular participation in politics, weak protection of civil liberties,
low educational attainment, and closed economic and political systems.
In other words, corruption is pervasive in underdeveloped societies and
there is hardly any effective means of combating the cankerworm.
Okadigbo
[2000] stated that: “When a regional leader is at the helm of a
nation’s affairs, where loyalty to an ethnic group supersedes national
loyalty, where the national treasure chest is seen as the body of the
conqueror at Lagos, when the winner takes all or want to take all
without apology and without remorse. When the citizens are careless
about how wealth is acquired but cares more whether the conditions of
political economy of the state are complete, corruption becomes the
order of the day from top to bottom and from bottom to topâ€. This
implies that in Nigeria, the phenomenon of corruption must be subjected
to more intensive analysis as Nigerians bye and large, ask less of what
is stolen but more of who stole and from where he comes. It is by
discovering the much that was stolen, squandered, mismanaged or siphoned
abroad that the citizens would begin to appreciate the link between
corruption and underdevelopment as those resources that were frittered
away would have been able to stimulate the economy and engender
socio-economic and political development of the country. What is
underdevelopment? Many scholars have given different meaning to the
concept. To Rodney [1972] underdevelopment results from unequal
interaction between two societies. The more this unequal relationship
lasts, the more the backwardness of the less privileged ones. In other
words, development is a sign that the developed and underdeveloped
societies came into contact when they were in different levels. He
further said that if the underprivileged society hopes that they can
make ways in this type of relationship, then it is deceiving itself. The
poverty of the less privileged one is the development of the other.
This situation will be worsening as far as the relationship continues.
He gave example of the European capitalism and the indigenous hunting
societies of America and the Caribbean. He said that the contact between
the two nearly exterminated the later. This can be applicable in what
is happening in the capitalist society today, this is a warning that as
far as the relationship lasts, the third world countries will not make
any breakthrough to industrialization. From experience, it could be seen
that the situation is worsening instead of improving. He uses Soviet
Union, China and Korea as the concrete instance of the operation of this
rule. He said that these countries were nearly exterminated when they
came into contact with the more mature capitalism of the western Europe
and that these societies advanced to their present state of development
because they succeeded these relationship with the capitalist world and
followed a new path altogether. He went further to conclude by saying
that, “indeed, as far as the two biggest socialist states are concerned
[the former Soviet Union and China], socialist development has already
catapulted them beyond states such as Britain and France, which have
been following the capitalist path for centuries. Rodney [1972]
catalogued the disadvantages that go with the unequal relationship with
the advanced countries. He mentioned poverty, stagnation, greed etc. and
traced the present predicament of Africa to the time it came into
contact with the advanced countries. In the 15th century, this contact
gave birth to the underdevelopment of Africa today. This in this view is
why Africa has continued to stagnate and Europe continues to develop.
In other words, before this contact, Africa has been developing on their
own pace but, this was truncated since its contact with the capitalist
world. Rodney concluded by delinking from this relationship and the
adoption of socialist mode of production in line with the Soviet Union
and the Republic of China. He based his argument on the fact that
socialism aims at and has significantly achieved the creation of plenty,
so that the principle of egalitarian distribution becomes consistent
with the satisfaction of the needs of the members of the society. To him
when this is achieved, the workers and the peasants will control the
economy, and the exploitation and misery will end. What Rodney [1972]
has said, is what is really happening to Africa today. I strongly share
his view of severing the relationship from the two advance capitalist
countries, though he did not tell us of the consequences of this option
and how to avoid it or the palliatives to cushion the effect of
delinking. Ake [1981], in his Political Economy of Africa, dwelt
extensively on the contemporary features of African economy and how they
might be changed in the future. He traced the history of Africa from
the colonial period to the neo-colonial period. He also dwelt
extensively on the strategies which the national leaders have adopted to
engineer development but these strategies failed to work because of the
international atmosphere which make the plan unrealistic. In his
opinion, “more often than not the plan is really not a strategy for
development but an aggregation of projects and policies, which may
sometimes be incompatibleâ€. He agreed that the underdevelopment of
Africa is as a result of its long contact with capitalism, and pointed
out that the national bourgeoisie contributes a lot to the
underdevelopment of Africa through their connivance with the
international bourgeoisies by applying
wrong and incompatible
policies. He went further than Rodney [1972] and Fanon [1961] to show
the conditions that led to the emergence of the petty bourgeoisie, the
instrument of this accumulation and the national post-colonial state.
According to him, the post-colonial state involves itself in the class
struggle. That is to say that the state was highly politicized.
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