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The Discourse Of The Endemic Grand Corruption

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The discourse of the endemic grand corruption in Nigeria is inadequate without a critical scrutiny of the roles played by the multinational companies (MNCs) in facilitating and sustaining grand corruption. Scholars argue that companies, especially multinationals, are the biggest perpetrators using a sophisticated network of notional companies and corporate structure to facilitate corrupt practices in developing countries. In essence, grand corruption in Nigeria is to a large extent sustained by the involvement and collusion of multinational corporations operating within and outside Nigeria. The quest for global expansion, global competition and profit maximisation underscores the multinational corporations’ exploitation of the vulnerable endemic corrupt administrations in Africa by offering huge bribes. Leslie Wayne states that ‘as business has gone global, so has graft, particularly as companies in rich nations push into poorer regions’. The World Bank estimates that about $1 trillion in bribes is paid annually to government officials. Jeffrey M. Kaplan, a U.S lawyer who specialises in cases brought under the Foreign Corrupt Act, comments that ‘you are talking about millions of dollars going to dictators who are selling their national patrimony in countries where you cannot even get clean water’. Kaplan argues, ‘bribery is endemic to the human condition. If it cannot be rooted out, then you need to do something, and the FCPA, is that’. This underscores why proper

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