Ayodeji Rotinwa writes that the anti-corruption war of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government has gone online
Nigeria’s fight against corruption may be getting new citizen recruits thanks to Report Yourself, a web platform that allows Nigerians report instances of everyday bribery and graft.
Report Yourself is the brainchild of the United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria and local religious leaders in collaboration with non-governmental organisations who cumulatively have over 40 years’ experience in anti-corruption work as well as securing the economic and social rights of the Nigerian citizen.
The religious leaders are of an inter-faith body called the Religious Leaders Anti-Corruption Committee who have apparently assigned themselves a very specific task.
The platform was developed by civic organisation, BudgIT, which has been leading the charge for a few years in using tech tools to raise standards of transparency and accountability in government. It is funded by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement.
In April 2017, Ibrahim Magu, acting Chairman of the country’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission reported that the agency had recovered the sums of N521,815,000.00, $53,272,747.00, £122,890.00, and €547,730.00 through its Whistleblower Policy. The Whistleblower Policy which really took off this year encourages citizens to expose the (location of) loot of usually high-ranking public officials. And so staggering figures that almost make up the 2016 state budget of the likes of Ekiti State (N67bn) have been found in cemeteries, file cabinets and nondescript, unpainted buildings.
Report Yourself has no such grand ambitions.
“We hear of billions of dollars missing but the question we forget to ask is: where did the officials involved in all this, start? They started from petty corruption. They were once low level civil servants, politicians who stole at those very early stages. It was only natural that when the money was bigger, they would steal more. They didn’t just happen into high office and start stealing money,” Stanley Achonu, Operations Manager, BudgIT said in a press conference announcing the platform’s launch.
Report Yourself offers Nigerians the means to report everyday corruption whether be it a demand for a bribe to acquire an express service international passport, a driver’s licence or for no reason at all, as is commonly the case at police checkpoints.
Complainants also have the option of forwarding their report to the Nigerian Police Force Public Complaints Rapid Response Unit.
The platform will measure and track these reports and when patterns and high frequencies of graft reports have been identified, it will deliver its findings to the leadership of the agencies who have been reported against, recommending solutions. Report Yourself has the buy in of and will be working in conjunction with relevant security agencies such as the Police Force and EFCC.
“If we discover at the Ikoyi Passport Office, there is a part of the process where bribery demands are made, we might not be able to apprehend the person making the demand but once we are sure of frequency of reports from that sector we can begin to engage the leadership of the Nigerian Immigration Service and say: you need to simplify the process,” Achonu illustrated.
He went on to explain that the aim of the platform is not set up to pick out corrupt eggs but to provoke institutional reform and change where structures (or lack thereof) that enables corruption are eliminated. Why isn’t there for instance an express service for passport acquisition where citizens can pay a higher than usual but official rate for quicker service? Currently Nigerians are at the mercy of immigration service officials who charge arbitrary fees, bound for their pockets.
The rate is decided by the citizen’s desperation. How bad do you want it? How high will you pay to get it?
The costs of corruption are usually hard to measure. How does $38m found in an unoccupied apartment or a bribe for a driver’s licence really affect our lives directly?
US Charge d’ Affaires, David Young also speaking at the press conference put it in perspective with a short hypothetical story: Olufemi, a taxi driver is saving to send Tosin, his son to school. His licence expires. He tries to renew it. He cannot pay more than the N7, 000 it is supposed to cost. He is asked to pay a bribe (N20, 000) which he cannot afford. He waits in line for several days to get it renewed. He soon cannot wait any longer as he’s losing money not driving, stuck at the license office. He continues driving, unlicensed. One day, he is stopped by the Police. He is unable to pay the fine (N10, 000) for driving without a license. He is jailed. He eventually has to pay N125, 000 to be released on bail. This is the lump sum he has been saving to send his son to school plus money borrowed from family. Eventually, his son has to hawk to help make ends meet. Olufemi has also lost his car and means of income trying to pay debts.
“Because of Olufemi and Tosin, the fight against corruption is important. Corruption is not a victimless crime. I hope that Report Yourself starts a new movement in citizen engagement and I hope every Nigerian who is affected by corruption will feel empowered to share their experiences,” Young said.
Young’s story is the reality of many everyday Nigerian. It was powerfully delivered and elicited resigned sighs at the press conference.
But hope is not a strategy.
Nigeria is a mobile first nation with an internet penetration rate of 53 per cent (97.2 million users) according to the 2017 Jumia White Paper on Mobile Trends. According to an Alliance for Affordable Internet Case Study (A4AI), the average mobile broadband plan cost $13, which accounts for 13 per cent of the average monthly income of a Nigerian.
The United Nations Development Programme in a 2016 Nigeria National Human Development report states that 56 million Nigerians are poor.
People like Olufemi who are most vulnerable to the costs of corruption literally cannot afford to report it.
The average price of internet-enabled smartphones according to the Jumia White Paper is $117 (N40, 950, exchange rate conversion as at the time of this report.)
Lead Partner, BudgIT, Seun Onigbinde however revealed the platform will at a future time have an SMS option. A text costs N4.
Potential challenges notwithstanding all parties are counting on the inclusion of the religious leaders to galvanise Nigerians into the fight against corruption.
“Nigerians look up to them as leaders to fill the vacuum we have in our political leadership. Also, they wield a lot of influence. The leadership of security agencies will not refuse to meet with them.”
The religious leaders are expected to knock on the doors of these security agencies, asking for the institutional changes aforementioned. At the press conference, represented by Bishop Emmanuel Isong and Imam Shefiu, they also stressed they would deliver sermons once a month stressing the need for citizens to join the fight against corruption and preaching the gospel of the Report Yourself platform.
“The first step is to report,” Shefiu said quoting a verse from the Quran. “Whoever among you sees something bad, they must say it. If you cannot say it, you write about it. If you cannot write about it, you pray over it.”
Given the prevalence of special deliverance prayer meetings, night vigils, Nigerians’ ability to pray away evil is not in doubt.
Report Yourself recommends that Nigerians apply similar vigour to talking and writing about it.
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