From Caliphate to Federal Republic

Before the start of the colonial period, reciprocal gift giving was a central aspect of statecraft in the Sokoto caliphate. The reorganization of government institutions during the early colonial period criminalized well-established practices even while undermining officials’ incomes and providing them with new means of improper enrichment. In this context, accusations of “corruption” were used as a way for British officials to condemn Nigerians, but only sometimes. During the earliest years of colonial rule, these malpractices could be characterized in this way, but more commonly officials’ crimes were disaggregated and called other things: embezzlement, peculation, slave dealing. The innovation was that the colonial government formulated the problem as one of official malfeasance, as a particular officeholder’s deviation from the norms of the office he was supposed to uphold. The legacy of this period was that the charge of corruption emerged as a political strategy and undergirded a new form of politics.

After World War II, successive Nigerian constitutions brought increasing degrees of internal self-rule. Emirate governance gradually lost direct administrative authority to other institutions. The personnel of the native authorities were eclipsed by officials of the secular state. At the same time, the constitution of legislative and executive bodies in regional capitals and at the federal capital of Nigeria created a whole new dynamic to political competition. Support for politicians was grounded in local ties, leading to competition for federal financing for local development. Geographical competition became ethnic conflict, which led ultimately to a bitter civil war. At the same time, the state tightened its control over the economy, export revenue, and investment. The new system fundamentally altered the position of the political elite, solidifying its role as a gatekeeper between Nigerian producers and the international economy. The result was to intensify the politics of corruption.