The Nigerian House of Representatives and Corruption, (1999-2011)

Abstract

Corruption is one of the major problems contending with the

Oiling the Legislature: An Appraisal of the Committee System in Nigeria’s National Assembly

“…Frequent allegation of corruption against some members constitutes another challenge facing the Nigerian federal legislature. The legislature has the duty of controlling and protecting public treasury, upholding the standard of transparency, ethics, accountability, efficiency and leading by example so as to serve as a spring board for a democratic and corruption-free society (Joshua and Oni 2014). The…”

“…The Legislature and Law Making in Nigeria: Interrogating the National Assembly… Nigerian legislature at all levels of government-federal, state and local has not been able to satisfactorily discharge the onerous duty of protecting public funds and other resources due to the activities of some of its corrupt members (Alabi and Fasagba 2009;Oni 2014). Rather than facilitating accountability through scrutiny of the executive, some members often pay attention to the material and financial benefits they could amass using their power and office (Alabi and Fasagba 2009;Benjamin 2010;Oni and Joshua 2014).…”

Legislative kleptocracy in Nigeria: systems approach

“…The imperativeness of setting up and utilizing legislative financial probity indicators cannot be underestimated in the legislature. The objective criterion of legislative financial probity indicators for the sustainability of legislation devoid of kleptocracy is rooted in an identification of potential fraud prior to its perpetration (Joshua and Oni, 2014;Leveson, 2015;Das, 2017).…”

“…Nevertheless, activities of this chamber over the years" reveal that it "is indeed an accomplice as far as corrupt practices are concerned in Nigeria" (p. 561). In their recommendations, Joshua and Oni (2014) recommended the harsher penalty for kleptocratic legislators inasmuch as they are the ones who make laws for the governing society. Ibietan (2013), as well as Sunday and Lawal (2016), concurred that kleptocracy heightens whenever and wherever weak accountability triumphs.…”

Unabated Corruption in the Government of Nigeria Despite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission: Who Bells the Cat?

“…Nigeria is richly endowed with oil and gas resources, but the country's continued reliance on loans from international financial institutions raises questions about the transparency and accountability of its utilization of the huge revenues resulting from these two resources… [which] continues to be used corruptly… (Bakre & Lauwo, 2016:45). Corruption, though one of the concepts in social sciences which have occupied local, international, management, and development discourse, the phenomenon has reached a hydra-headed degree bothering the liveliness of the Nigerian state (Joshua & Oni, 2014). Since independence, the delivery of critical infrastructural development projects and the workings of government institutions have been negatively affected by corrupt practices among the managers of resources in Nigeria.…”