The Failure of Anticorruption Campaign as a Failure of Law Reform in Nigeria

摘要

Since 2003, anticorruption war has become a major plank of Nigeria's governance reform. As part of the war, Nigeria has enacted anticorruption laws and established anticorruption agencies. This marks the triumph of 'law enforcement' over 'change management' approach to fighting corruption. This approach has not produced significant improvement in the integrity of governance and state institutions. Despite massive investment in law enforcement efforts, corruption remains prevalent and Nigeria's standing in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has not improved. This casts doubt on the potential of law as effective tool in the fight against corruption. The paper briefly reviews the history of Nigeria's failed engagement with anticorruption campaigns and identifies the reasons for failure in the law enforcement approach to fighting corruption. Utilizing insights from culture studies and institutional economics, the paper argues against legal formalism as it manifests in excessive reliance on law enforcement techniques and tools to counter corruption in Nigeria. The paper argues further that law enforcement is too limited to constitute the main strategy for fighting corruption because it faces mainly on the symptoms rather than on the underlying causes of corruption as a social pathology. Therefore, an exclusive focus on law in the sense of what prosecutors and judges do, is ill-suited as a cure for pervasive corruption. To effectively control or contain corruption, the paper recommends abandoning legal formalism and contextualizing and socializing law in the light of insights from culture studies and institutional economics to change political culture and improve collective action.