hin their own ranks.5
The Federal Minister of Communications, Audu Ogbe, said that the Nigerian federal government loses 50 million naira every month as salaries to non existent workers.6 Nigerian importers are said to obtain foreign exchange from the coun try's Central Bank to pay for raw materials in foreign markets, leave the money in their foreign bank accounts, and then ship
4L. Adamolekun, Politics and Administration in Nigeria (Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum Books, 1986), 134.
6A. Ogbe, quoted in C. Achebe, The Trouble With Nigeria (Enugu, Nigeria: Fourth Dimension Publishers, 1985), 41.
3containers of "mud and sand" to Lagos.7 It is also contended that knowledgeable "observers have estimated that as much as 60 percent of the wealth of this nation is regularly consumed by corruption. . . . Public funds are now routinely doled out to political allies and personal friends in the guise of con tracts to execute public works of one kind or another, or licenses to import restricted commodities."8
As the civilian and military governments in Nigeria have shifted into and out of power, the type of corruption associ ated with each has tended to flourish. The phenomenon has led to the development of a cynicism on the part of many Nigerians toward governmental integrity.
CAUSES OF NIGERIAL GOVERNMENTAL CORRUPTION
The two primary causes of governmental corruption in Nigeria are (1) weak political leadership, and (2) tribal/ ethnic tensions. These factors are examined separately in the following discussions.
Leadership, in its different aspects, contributed
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