Evaluation of the Effects of Corruption in the Armed Conflict in Northeast and Other Situations of Violence in Nigeria

Abstract

Corruption is regarded as the abuse of public office for private gains. This is done when an official accepts, solicits, or extorts a bribe. Also, public office is abused when private agents actively offer bribes to circumvent public policies and processes for competitive advantage and profit. It can also be abused for personal benefit even if no bribery occurs, through nepotism and clannishness, the theft of state assets or the diversion of state revenues. Corruption in Nigeria has been responsible for the pernicious enervation of government and governance whether military or democratic since independence. Corruption engenders the occurrence of conflicts involving large-scale organized violence. This is because of how endemic corruption is and the various attacks it has on the life, progress and development of the state. It has robbed the state of peace and progress; unity and harmony. Again, this results into class conflict which materializes into various forms of revolution as carried out by the Niger Delta militants, the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra and the internecine bloodletting of the Fulani Herds men marauding across the country without let and hindrance as a result of corruptive nepotism and clannishness pervading within the Federal powers. This work analyzes the catalyzation of corruption on the armed conflict in the Northeast and other situations of violence in Nigeria. The work also examines the domestic legal regimes established to stamp out this kleptocratic menace and concludes that there is the need to strengthen these laws, especially by the further amendment of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to constitutionally establish an independent and special court to try corruption cases in the country.