The Fourth Estate and Anti-Corruption Campaigns in Nigeria
Abstract
Way back in the year 1952, the Emir of Gwandu was compelled by the enormity of corruption in the land, to move a motion in the then Northern House of Chiefs, urging native authorities to trace and punish offenders with strict impartiality, and to educate public opinion against bribery and corruption. Then in 1997, Transparency International rated Nigeria as the most- corrupt country in the world. Thus, when the civilian administration of Olusegun Obasanjo came on board in 1999, it instituted anti-corruption agencies such as: Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Code of Conduct Bureau, and charged them with the responsibility to wage war on corruption. It is worrisome that several years after the establishment of these agencies, Nigeria is still battling with the menace of corruption. Against the background of continued media campaign on corruption by successive administrations in Nigeria, this paper takes a retrospective review of the anti-corruption campaign of the of the Obasanjo’s administration of 1999-2007. The study identified structural, political and moral factors as impediments to that administration’s campaign against corruption, but concluded that the fourth estate lived up to its reportorial responsibilities with regard to the war on corruption in Nigeria. The paper then recommended among other things, that government should be sincere in its policies and programmes.