Moving From Size to Process: Decoding Corruption Among Senior Public Officials in Nigeria – A Shift from Quantifying to Understanding.

Nigerians are known for their emotional engagement, whether discussing faith, immigration (Japa), politics, or football. That is not a bad thing at all.

The discourse on corruption in Nigeria, however, tends to be emotionally charged, affecting our responses and perceptions. Furthermore, the frequency and sensationalism of corruption reports have both desensitized us and stirred strong emotions (if both can exist in tandem that is but I guess they can).

Beyond the headlines however, the core issue lies in understanding the systemic aspects of corruption at a fundamental level.

The focus should extend beyond the amounts involved or how cases are reported. Rather, a deeper understanding of the processes facilitating fraud and corruption is essential.

The fixation on sensationalism and political narratives often overlooks the crucial question of how corruption occurs at a granular level, hindering genuine efforts to curb the issue.

We should be asking ourselves really fundamental questions about how these things are able to occur so regularly;

·?????? Fund Transfer/Payment Authorization: I have often asked myself how can one minister of head of an agency in Nigeria "authorise" the transfer of funds of such large magnitude? Are there funds transfer limits? should ministers have such authority given they are political appointees?

·?????? Financial Policy Adherence: If they do not have who authorised these payments? Did they meet the financial policy and guidelines in place? if they didnt who approved the exception and on what basis? How can we ensure that fund transfers align with established financial policies and guidelines, especially in government transactions?

·?????? Banks' Role: What role do banks play in processing government payments, and what checks and balances exist within the banking system to prevent irregularities? afterall they must have payment mandates for ministries and agencies. Given the size of these payments they must have been referred to someone for approval. Or they weren't?

·?????? Transaction Approval Process: Who approves government transactions, especially those of significant magnitude, and how are exceptions handled within the approval process?

·?????? Queries and Documentation: Again when the instruction came to be executed did someone ask why this was being done? The minister didn't create the payment request or pressed the approval button so who did? Did anyone query these transactions and if they did where are the emails and memos and who approved them subsequently? Are there records of queries raised during transactions, and where are the emails and memos documenting the approval process for significant payments?

?Why is it important to talk about these things in granular detail?

?Majority of people are not knowledgeable enough about the inner workings of payment systems and they don’t need to be but that is why journalists should go beyond just the headlines because by ventilating these processes a lot more people would understand a few things

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·?????? These types of fraud requires more than just the minister or political office holder to execute. It requires people who are either incompetent, indifferent, afraid of raising objection or otherwise culpable. We need to understand these in detail.

·?????? There should be a process and if it doesn’t exist we need to know why and if it does and it isn’t being followed why?

·?????? Imagine what we do not know…we see the big numbers but if the process is porous imagine how much money is flowing out of government agencies on a daily basis?

Money Has No Legs after all and we need to start moving the conversation from from "How Much" to "How" in untangling corruption among senior public officials in Nigeria

Finally we need to come to a point whether we require a separate agency that would be responsible for executing payments for all ministries and parastatals in Nigeria or approving any payment request above a certain amount. Some would say that’s excessive bureaucracy but a problem needs a solution.

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Anyway I am talking too much