At independence, (1960) Nigeria was a multi-party democracy with a federal constitution. Its parliamentary system gave promise of evolution towards a stable pluralist political system. However, this system was soon undermined by the nature of political forces of the time. During this period, three political parties emerged to dominate Nigerian politics: The National Council for Nigeria and Cameroon’s (NCNC), Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and Action Group (AG). However, the disagreement over the 1962/63 population census figures ruptured the Federal coalition of NCNC and the NPC. The conflict over the census exacerbated political tensions that had previously led to outbreaks of violence in the Western Region and some parts of Northern Region. These situations led to the first military intervention in January 1966. After the second coup that was a reprisal for the wanton killing of Easterners in Northern Nigeria, the Eastern Region attempted in 1967 to secede and to create an independent 1960 homeland (Biafra) which resulted in a 30-month civil war. In response, the Federal Military government began to create more state to outflank and break-up the eastern region by providing homelands for ethnic minorities of the region, but also to break –up the dominant bases of power in the west and the north. The military believed that by creating a large number of relatively weak states under a strong central government it could overcome the instability of the past. In other words, the military sought to unilaterally redefine the shape of Nigerian Federation into one consistent with its own hierarchical structure and vision. The result was the creation of multiple state structures. Though seemingly inconsistent with the logic of military rule. The military believed that elected local government would provide a more viable and legitimate form of government at the local level and further weaken the States. Few local government areas were established initially. But over the years the number grew astronomically. During the 1970s, Nigeria evolved from a poor agricultural economy into a relatively rich, oil-dominated one. The economic policy orientation during the 1970s left the country ill prepared for the eventual collapse of oil prices. Public investment was concentrated in costly, and often inappropriate, infrastructure projects with questionable rates of returns and sizable recurrent cost implications, while the agricultural sector was largely neglected.Nigeria’s industrial policy was inward looking, with a heavy emphasis on protection and government controls, which bred an uncompetitive manufacturing sector. While attending an O.A.U summit in Kampala, Uganda on Tuesday 29 July 1975, General Gowon’s government CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA. Indeed, corruption is one of the greatest challenges of the contemporary world. It undermines good government, fundamentally distorts public policy, leads to the mis allocation of resources, harms the private sector and particularly hurts the poor. Many aspect of bribery and corruption include accepting gratification, giving or accepting gratification through agent, Fraudulent acquisition of property; fraudulent receipt of property. Offences committed through postal system, deliberate frustration of investigation, making false statement or returns gratification by and through agents, bribery of public officer; using office or position for gratification; bribery transactions; false or misleading statements to the commission and attempt (conspiracy) punishable as offences. Corruption respects no national boundaries and it deeper poverty around the glebe by distorting political, economic and social life. Transparency inter national (TI) was born from the experience of people who witnessed first hand the real threat to human liver posed by corruption. Today, corruption at the highest levels captures headlines everywhere, and people are becoming aware of its disastrous consequences. Indeed, Nigeria is one of the poorest countries in the world (world Bank, 2003; united nations, 1999). Several factors contribute to the persistence of national poverty, and corruption is definitely one of them. Oil and Gas have brought wealth to Nigeria but these industries have historically provided opportunities for corruption on a massive scale. The corruption perceptions index (CPI) is a poll of polls, reflecting the perceptions of business people and country analysts, both resident and non-resident. The table below shows the relative performance of Nigeria's CPI (1980 –2002). Here, the comparisons to the results from previous years should be based on the country’s score, not its rank. A country’s rank can change suggesting that now countries enter the index and others dropout. A higher score suggests that respondents provided better ratings, while a lower score suggest that respondents revised their perception downwards. However, year-to-year in a country’s score can result not only from a changing way of a changing way of a country’s performance but also from a changing sample and methodology. With differing respondents and slightly differing methods change in a country’s score may also relate to the fact that different viewpoints have been collected and different questions being administered.
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