THE PHILOSOPHY OF UNITED NATIONS, CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA AND THE COMPLICITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY: SEARCH FOR A CULPRIT*

Abstract

Corruption in Nigeria has become such a sickening and systemic phenomenon, defying the expansive legal framework and administrative measures in combating it over the years. However, foreign complicity in the entire build-up of this scourge that is threatening the continued existence of Nigeria as a Nation State is one area that those with sympathetic disposition to the plight of the common man in Nigeria have not given any serious thought over the years. Thus, by doctrinal approach, this paper explored attitude of some developed economies in fuelling the inferno of corruption and found that unless this derogatory attitude to the values upon which the United Nations were built is checked, International Community would have contributed to Nigeria becoming a failed State. The paper found that domestic measures to combat the scourge of corruption will avail nothing as long as foreign complicity is not checked. The paper pointed International Community to a new dimension of foreign complicity in form of property development investment of corruptly acquired funds and thus recommended that in the spirit of the philosophy of the United Nations, International Community should combat foreign complicity in fuelling corruption more seriously, to avoid the regime of failures that informed previous world wars. The paper recommended that apart from International anti-corruption surveillance, foreign countries that contribute to corruption in any member nation of the United Nations should be made to forfeit their investment in such a country, including unguarded loans granted to corrupt Nations.