Braving bribery- Bashir Kabir

By Bashir Kabir

The consequence of widespread corrupt practices and due process malpractices in the public and private sector has bred an entire generation completely oblivious of due process and compliance traditions.

A generation that sees no harm in the perpetration of what seems to hurt no one by doing it to speed up or access service of individualistic interest. This generation of Nigerians sees such moves as smart and a savviness of ‘ease of doing business and manoeuvring the bureaucratic environment.

It is not just the generation of the millennials (those under 30 or thereabout), it goes back to the generation of our parents where the act of giving bribery to oil the cogwheels of processes and procedures in both the private and public sphere is seen as an integral part of the normal expectation if not the best way of going about it.

It is called ‘alheri’ in Hausa parlance which loosely means ‘kindness’. How kind is this kindness is where a hundred things could take different dimensions. It is the same ‘kindness’ that cumulatively manifests into disasters in form of poor service delivery, poor quality civic projects, and consumable products, the list goes on.

A client showing gratitude for a service well rendered might be referred to as him or her giving a ‘tip’, which in some cultures is accepted as not a problem. However, things begin to look ugly when the person who gave the service has the power to ask for such ‘tipping’. This person often has the capability to deny access to service or to block its ease. That is when ‘alheri’ is not what it seems anymore. Subtle or outright extortion can occur, with the victim having no option but to comply if they wanted to have the service rendered or the product served.

Gratification in cash or kind in the public service sphere is not acceptable. It directly contradicts the code of conduct that details how service should be rendered. Likewise, it is the same in the best business practice in the private sphere. Ethics and compliance programs applied by private businesses frown upon the same gratification as a means of safeguarding a company’s integrity for excellent service.

Having laid that background, let’s look at a scenario. We all by now know that the pump price of petrol per litre is in the process of inevitably going up. If that sounds like a wild assertion, the systematic control of dispensing the fuel at the filling stations and the apparent hoarding by the marketers is proof enough that indeed the road to the increase is well cleared up.

Not quite unexpectedly, these filling stations are using all kinds of tactics to make sure that they retain as much commodity as they could pending the awaited increase. The profit to be made from such a strategy is humungous. Most filling stations are for example using only one dispenser to control the amount sold at a time. Others completely shut down the pumps and patiently awaited the official increase.

Queues are already beginning to form at various stations due to this controlled dispensing. I was at a filling station with my gallon to buy petrol for the generator at home. The two attendants at the only pump dispensing told me that the manager has ordered not to sell to gallon-carriers.

I was not shocked by the revelation, I’ve had enough shockers and this cannot be one of them. But, I had many questions mainly to ask myself such as, is it a policy already to not sell to gallon-carriers, do they not know that people do use generator sets at home because obviously electricity is not available. Or even some emergencies that would warrant using a gallon? Deep down I knew the answers to all these; It is selling control that simply amounts to deprivation of service for personal interest. The crookedness of the marketers has reached this level for the simple reason that they could do what they want and get away with it.

While I stood there wondering what country this is. The woman dispensing looked at me, shamelessly and with everyone hearing, and told me if I would pay an extra 200 naira they would sell me a fuel that amounts to five thousand. yes, this is the generation that sees nothing wrong with doing something wrong simply because it is a common practice.

It was my choice now. To be a good responsible citizen and report the whole filling station hopping in seven days an investigation would be mounted that would eventually see to the prosecution of the shameless woman and punishment meted to the management of the filling station for the bad business practice. Not to mention bringing the end of the unscrupulous indecency of withholding the selling of the fuel so everyone could buy it without hassle.

Or, I could just pay the extra charges (as a bribe, of course) and get my fuel because I needed the fan to turn at night so my kids could sleep. Honestly, it was not even a dilemma at that point. I knew I had to have that fuel. So, I negotiated, paid a hundred naira instead of two, and got the fuel.

There would perhaps be some people that would rather not pay any extra charges because it is bribery, which it is, whether extorted or giving willfully. They might have confidence in the authority that something would be done to remedy the situation. But I am not that person, to be honest. I don’t believe anything would be done just as it was with the case of allowing selected rice producers to have a field day manufacturing substandard rice and selling it at an exorbitant price.

A bribe can be defined as an act of dishonestly persuading someone to act in one’s favour by a gift of money or other inducements. The word persuasion could cover a wide range of connotations in this context. Sometimes this persuasion is silent but clear enough to whom it may concern.

Service may be withheld or encumbered until the client finally gets the idea of where he or she has failed to get the vibe and do the needful. In that situation, the bribe-taker can easily feign innocence of not articulating for any favour. Again it is the client’s intention to be ‘kind’.

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In some cases, a third-party conveys the message, even more freely categorically cutting the magnitude of the bribery needed to cover his particular need. This is another bribery by proxy where the final taker can still pretend they don’t know anything about it. Other times, the taker explicitly demands it, like in the case of the petrol woman.

The consequence of not complying with a bribery demand can be catastrophic to the victim. Things can be turned against them with total denial of service of making it considerably difficult for them. Injustice is another consequence of non-compliance which warrant asking the question; what bravery does it take to refuse to yield to paying bribery?

Undoubtedly, it takes immense guts of steel to decide to swallow the consequences of not giving bribery whenever it was demanded.

In the current corruption-ridden systems that we have in the country, it is considered safer to comply with the ease of paying the bribe and moving on to the next most important thing in life (such as not starving) rather than noncompliance.

That doesn’t make it any less harmful and consequential. It will Absolutely not help to make things right. What would, however, lie in the Strengthening of institutions to mitigate conditions that make bribery easily perpetrated and accessible. Prosecution of a person committing the crime will too.

Kabir, a public analyst writes from Kano.