The Fourth Republic commenced with the election of General Olusegun Obasanjo as the President of Nigeria in 1999. Indeed, the sixteen unbroken years of the military era from the fall of the Second Republic in 1983 and the restoration of democracy in 1999 represents an era in the history of the country when corruption was practically institutionalized as the foundation and essence of governance. The question now is how did the relationship between leadership and corruption during all of the regimes mentioned above differ from each other. The answer to this is not farfetched. Without mincing words, it is not out of place to argue that a careful analysis of all the regimes reveals that leadership and corruption are positively correlated. This argument is based on the fact that virtually all the leaders came to power with the sole purpose of enriching themselves and their cronies rather than offering selfless services to the nation and its people. However, the magnitude of corruption during the era of the various civilian and military regimes cannot always be determined with precision because the trend, ways and means of illegal self-enrichment were not similar. Again, the military often come to power accusing the ousted military/civilian regime of corruption and incompetence. The end result was that Nigeria became a chessboard in the hands of the military class with various military individuals, at different times, attempting to seize power primarily to enrich themselves.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 08:34:58 +0000
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