Journal of Contemporary African Studies

ISSN: 0258-9001 (Print) 1469-9397 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjca20

Corrupt acts in the Nigerian construction industry:

is the ruling party fighting corruption?

Andrew Ebekozien

To cite this article: Andrew Ebekozien (2020): Corrupt acts in the Nigerian construction
industry: is the ruling party fighting corruption?, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, DOI:
10.1080/02589001.2020.1758304

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2020.1758304

Published online: 30 Apr 2020.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 19

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=cjca20
JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN STUDIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2020.1758304

Corrupt acts in the Nigerian construction industry: is the ruling

party fighting corruption?
Andrew Ebekozien
School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia; Bowen
Partnership, Quantity Surveying Consultant Firm, Benin City, Nigeria

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Corrupt acts are possibly on the increase and have hindered Received 10 March 2019
infrastructural development across Nigeria. This paper attempts to Accepted 14 April 2020
investigate the impact of the All Progressive Congress (ruling
KEYWORDS
party) led government in the fight against corruption with Construction sector;
emphasis on the construction sector and proffer possible policy to corruption; corrupt acts;
mitigate via unexplored dimension. Hence, phenomenology type Nigeria; ruling party
of qualitative research was adopted to address the issues from the
underlying. A connecting framework was developed from the
identified root causes of the forms of corrupt acts, for better
understanding as it relates to mitigating corruption in the
Nigerian construction sector. From the findings, there is a need to
develop a control system to evaluate corruption performance of
public construction project and publish the report annually or
quarterly among others is recommended.

Introduction
Corruption exists with humanity and in all sectors. Hence, it is a global issue and not a new
problematic phenomenon. From the arrest of seven top soccer officials of International
Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in 27 May 2015 (Heimann and Mark 2018); to
the Malaysian Wealth Fund ‘IMDB’ scandal described by the United States (U.S.) Attorney
General (Loretta Lynch) as the largest kleptocracy case in U.S. history (Nuffnang 2016), and
to the Panama Papers that sparked-off or rejuvenated many investigations, trials, and con-
victions to those found guilty (Garside 2016; Securemi 2016). This again brought to light
the concern of the former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, in his revolutionary
speech in the year 1996, calling for international action and attention to deal with what
he coined the ‘cancer of corruption’ (Wolfensohn 1996). More than two decades later,
this portrayal of corruption as a dangerous ailment appears to be fitting, as construc-
tion-related is currently a multifaceted, multijurisdictional, and multibillion-dollar occur-
rence that hamper the future advancement of worldwide infrastructural improvement.
Ambraseys and Bilham (2011) found that the construction industry worth US$7.5 trillion
annually in 2011 and projected more than double in the next decade. Also, the sector
was identified as the most corrupt sector of the world economy. One of the possible
outputs is form of bribes to subvert inspection of construction sites and compromise

CONTACT Andrew Ebekozien ebekoandy45@yahoo.com

© 2020 The Institute of Social and Economic Research
2 A. EBEKOZIEN

the quality of construction. Also, there have been reports of impulsive collapse of new
building across the world. This attest to a lack of construction oversight (for example,
Shanghai, 27 June 2009; Delhi, 15 November 2010).
In Nigeria, being the giant of Africa by size and gained her independence 59 years ago,
the expectation on how corruption could be tackled head-on was high when the All Pro-
gressive Congress (APC) led government took over on the 29 May 2015. The ushering in of
the APC led government in 2015 at the federal level came with great hope, expectations,
and globally acknowledged for their anti-corruption stand before the election. Many
people saw the development as a dawn of a new beginning to tackle corruption with a
resultant effect on good governance and democratic dividends to the people. However,
this may have been replaced by frustration and hopelessness, resulting to several open
letters to Mr President with the recent one published on 15 July 2019, and authored by
the former President Olusegun Obasanjo (Punch 2019). Sotubo (2016) reported that the
present government fight against corruption is perceived by many as mere speech-
making. There are cases of alleged corrupt construction-related cases against top party
members. For example, Odunsi (2018) reported an alleged video online where one of
the ruling-party state’s governors, allegedly receiving stacks of dollar bribe. Point Blank
News (2016) reported the uncompleted monorail project executed by the former Gover-
nor of one of the states governed by the ruling party government.
Several studies, including Ugochukwu, Uchenna, and Andrew (2015), Ukase and Bem
(2015), Ebekozien, Abdul-Rashid, and Mastura (2017), Iheme (2017), and Ebekozien
(2019b) have shown that corruption is the root cause of the socio-political and economic
woes of Nigeria. The worst-hit is inadequate infrastructural development. No country can
advance in the absence of infrastructure and functional independent institutional frame-
work to tackle corruption (Ogundiya 2009). The 2017 Corruption Perception Index (CPI)
released by Transparency International (TI), ranked Nigeria 148th position out of 180
world’s least corrupt country (Sahara Reporter 2018). Whilst in 2014, Nigeria was ranked
136th from 144th the previous year (eight-point improvement). The CPI for 2018
dropped to 144th position from 148th the previous year (2017) (Omokri 2018). This indi-
cates that the Presidency may need to increase the fight against corruption head-on irre-
spective of who is alleged involved to rebuff the perception of many Nigerians that the
present government is slow in the fight against corruption as validated by the recent
report from Transparency International. The 2018 CPI result is a difference of four-position
upward to the advantage of Nigeria, an indication that corruption is being addressed by
the government but need to do more. Akinloye (2018) reported that the U.S. 2017 Human
Rights Report indicted the ruling party government because they failed to implement laws
against corrupt practices and exemption from punishment stayed across the board at all
levels of government. This is not a good record for a government that came with a genuine
intention to put her country on the right path to economic growth.
Possible evidence shows that this government needs to put in more effort in the fight
against corruption. For example, the US$24 billion Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) contract scam allegation as reported by Taiwo (2018). This is possibly not adding-up
for an enabling platform to fight corruption. This paper attempts to investigate the forms
and attributes of corrupt acts in the Nigerian construction sector and proffer policy solutions
to mitigate corrupt practices. Thus, one of the justifications for this paper is that the con-
struction sector as the engine of any economy should be corruption-free. A corrupt-free
 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN STUDIES 3

Nigeria’s construction sector would translate to evidence of infrastructural facilities across

the country. Among the resultant effect of infrastructural facilities is unemployment mitiga-
tion, economic growth, small and medium enterprises increases in size among others. Also,
corruption seems to be active even after several studies, hence, the need for this qualitative
approach to unveil the root causes of the corrupt acts. The following objectives will be used
to accomplish the main aim of this paper:

(i) To investigate the forms of corrupt acts in the Nigerian construction sector and the
role of the ruling party.
(ii) To identify the attributes of the forms of corrupt acts.
(iii) To suggest possible policy solutions that can mitigate construction related-
corruption.

Corruption in Africa
Africa being a continent has its own perceived peculiarities (Grell-Brisk 2019). For this
paper, the emphasis is on corruption. Hanson (2009) stated that Africa is widely considered
among the world’s most corrupt places. Whilst Apata (2018) opined that there is corrup-
tion in Africa but emerged from Western invention as part of the post-colonial constructs.
The author affirmed that corruption is not part of Africa’s history and culture but largely in
the colonial culture that Africans inherited and adapted. Whilst Martin (2018) avowed that
corruption was framed as a product of African state failure and patrimonialism. The author
averred that anti-corruption campaigns and agencies remain unavoidably embedded in
lopsided and speedily restructuring relations of power and wealth across the world.
There is a need for more studies to unravel the foundation and trail of these interactions.
Corruption is anything but a weird word to a normal Nigerian. It is exploitative or illicit
conduct, particularly of individuals in power of authority. It is maltreatment of public office
for selfish interest. This includes theft of public funds, nepotism, and adulteration of figures
for personal motive, and so on. There is no universal definition of corruption but one of the
most cited definitions of corruption was given by Nye (1967). The author defined corrup-
tion as ‘any act that diverges from the accepted norms of the society often with the
motives of status benefits or monetary gains’. Corruption has done immeasurable harm
to every facet of Nigeria, most especially the construction sector that acts as an economic
catalyst in any growing economy (Ebekozien, Chukwudi, and Uchenna 2015). It has under-
mined institutional framework established from democratic proceeds, impeded economic
development and advancement, and caused impoverishment amidst bounty. This has
caused Nigeria from making political, social, development, and economic advancement.
The worst-hit is the currency depreciation, many companies downsized while other relo-
cated to nearby countries, many out of jobs, resulting to a country of mass joblessness for
the past years (Chiazor, Mercy, and Mike 2017; Ogunleye 2017). The outcome may have
deprived millions of Nigerians access to good buildings for learning, housing, good build-
ings for health, roads, and other infrastructural facilities. This term ‘corruption’ has possibly
turned the Nigerian economy into shambles. This is possibly the reason Mr President says ‘
… we have to because there are serious citizens of this country that say unless Nigeria kills
corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria … ’ (Ebhomele 2015, 1). The President made this
4 A. EBEKOZIEN

comment before the election as the APC presidential candidate; now elected for the
second term from 29 May 2019 to 28 May 2023. Currently, there are many allegations
and counter-allegations within the party that calls for concern, such as the US$24 billion
NNPC contracts awarded; NGN1.1 billion budgeted to clean the office of the National
Security Adviser, allegations against the APC National Chairman during the party primaries
among others (Inyang 2018; Nwachukwu 2018a).
This paper focuses on the way the leading party is tackling the corruption issue from
budget to implementation in construction related-projects in Nigeria. This is because
many Nigerians, more than any previous governments have the perception that the
Buhari’s Government will fight corruption head-on. This is one reason this government
was voted into power by the people. However, it has been from one scandal to another
of corruption-related issues and this has caused caterwaul to many Nigerians. Emenena
(2018) reported that barely six months into the Buhari’s administration; the issue of Treas-
ury Single Account implementation was alleged to have been fraught with corruption. Fol-
lowed was the padded 2016 budget. This became a concern to many Nigerians because an
administration that prides itself as intolerant of corruption would not allow such leakage.
Taiwo (2018) identified five out of many cases that is making people reconsider value
attached to the Buhari’s anti-corruption fight as follows: alleged employment scandals
in Central Bank of Nigeria and Federal Inland Revenue Service, alleged grass-cutting
scandal of ex-secretary of the federal government, US$24 billion NNPC contract scam,
alleged recall and promotion of Mr Abdulrasheed Maina among others.

Corruption in the Nigerian construction sector

For this paper, corruption consists of three components as identified by Frahm (2018).
They are the party that requests corruption (demand side), the party that offers it
(supply side), and the party aware of what is happening but remain silent (condoning
side). This condoning side is a possible attribute of the present administration in some
of the cases reviewed like the Vice President gatehouse of three-bedroom apartment
that worth NGN250million (US$694,444), prayer mosque of about 100 square metres
size for the Senate President, Deputy Senate President’s and the Vice President’s residence,
was awarded for over N200million (US$555,556) as alleged by Senator Dino Melaye
(Umoru 2017a). But the Vice President Office countered that the allegations regarding
the gatehouse. They claimed that the gate-house was completed during their predecessor
administration (Nwabughiogu 2017). Also, the East–West Road contract awarded in 2006
with initial project cost of NGN211 billion (US$580.5 million); in 2017, it was reviewed to
NGN726 billion (US$1.997 billion) but with promised that not less than 30 names of con-
tractors would be sent to the anti-graft agency for possible prosecution for their roles in
the road project and other key projects awarded by previous administration (Dakaa
2017). The names of the contractors should be made public and the rule of law should
be allowed to take its place.
Similarly, a governor alleged that his predecessor spent over US$440 million on the
monorail in the state but the project is far from completion while his counterpart in Cross
River that has spent less than US$400 million has its rail project almost ready for use
(Point Blank News 2016). While in Moscow, Russia, the same project cost about US$240
million by the same monorail manufacturer. Where did Nigerian politicians get it wrong?
 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN STUDIES 5

Majority of these politicians chanted ‘we need change, we must fight corruption’. Ayodele
et al. (2011) and Inokoba and Weleayam (2011) identified poverty, excessive love for money/
greed, politics in the award of contracts/’godfatherism’, and professional indiscipline/
unethical behaviour as the root causes of corruption. Others are profit maximisation by con-
tractors, quackery, the fall-out of endemic societal corruption, favouritism, underpay consul-
tancy fees, insecurity of job, lack of transparency among others. Ameyaw et al. (2017)
revealed three primary impacts of construction corruption as follows: corruption risks in
construction projects (micro), impacts on the expansion strategies of global companies
(moderate), and social and economic impacts (macro). Inflated contract sum, increased
bribery and corruption, collusion tendering, negligence and shoddy construction, uncom-
pleted project abandoned among others were identified as the effect of unethical procure-
ment practices on Nigerian public building projects (Ebekozien 2019b).
Locatelli et al. (2017) identified size, uniqueness, government involvement, number of
contractual links, project complexity, lack of frequency of projects, work is concealed,
culture of secrecy, entrenched national interests, lack of due diligence, and the cost of
integrity as the factors that makes construction projects susceptible to corruption. Mat-
thews identified uniqueness, complex transaction chains, work concealed, official bureauc-
racy, the scale of infrastructure investments, and procurement method adopted as
features that provide opportunities to inflate costs and conceal bribes in some instances
in the construction sector. In the study of Chan and Emmanuel (2017), inadequate sanc-
tions, poor documentation of records, insufficient transparency in the selection criteria
for bidders, poor professional ethical standards, great project complexity among others
were identified as the corrupt practices in the construction industry. The outcome of
this is the evolvement of different forms of corrupt practices as found in Chan and Emma-
nuel (2017) study. This is presented in Table 1, adapted with modification of additional
sources for this paper. Majority of these forms may play out in the Nigerian construction
sector. This is part of what this paper will investigate and how the ruling party has miti-
gated the occurrence.
This brings the paper to the question of what can be done to reduce corruption in the
Nigerian construction sector? This is because evidence of corruption is increasing and the
present administration possible has not been able to mitigate the cancerous disease to a
large extent. One of the major policy solutions introduced by this administration is the
‘Whistleblowing Policy’ in December 2016. The government stated that over NGN200
billion (US$550.2 million) has been recovered via whistleblowing policy in less than two
years (Pulse 2018). The relevance of the whistleblowing policy to fight corrupt acts in
the Nigerian construction sector is possibly significant and should be explored more. Miti-
gating corruption in the Nigerian construction sector is a complex governance challenge
because of the nature of the construction projects as earlier discussed. Ayodele et al.
(2011) recommended wage increase for civil servants, strict compliance to contract
awards via the Public Procurement Act (PPA) 2007, and corrupt construction professionals
to be sanctioned by the respective professional regulatory board. Even with the agitation
of increase from NGN18,000 (Now US$50 @ NGN363.5/US$1) to NGN30,000 (US$83) per
month, possibly from next year; workers are still underpaid. While Ogunsemi (2015)
suggested that the design process component of the Procurement Act 2007 and the
Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) should be strengthened via comprehensive docu-
mentation at the commencement of construction projects. While construction projects
6 A. EBEKOZIEN

Table 1. Forms of corrupt acts.

Nos. Construct Forms Additional Source(s)
1 Bribery Acts Ogundiya (2009), Le et al. (2014), Loosemore and Lim (2016), TI (2016),
Ebekozien (2019b)
Bribery Ogundiya (2009)
Kickbacks Ogundiya (2009), Brown and Martin (2015)
Facilitation Kenny (2012), Transparency International (2016)
payments
Influence peddling Bowen, Peter, and Keith (2012)
Lobbying Transparency International (2016)
2 Fraudulent Acts Le et al. (2014), Ebekozien (2019b)
Fraud Le et al. (2014), Locatelli et al. (2017)
Collusion Shan et al. (2016), Ebekozien (2019b)
Front companies Bowen, Peter, and Keith (2012), Brown and Martin (2015)
Ghosting Bowen, Peter, and Keith (2012), Brown and Martin (2015)
Money laundering Stansbury (2009), TI (2016)
Deception Stansbury (2009)
3 Collusive Acts Ebekozien (2019b)
Bid rigging Brown and Martin (2015), Ebekozien (2019b)
Price fixing Tabish and Neeraj (2011)
Cartels Stansbury (2009)
4 Extortionary Acts TI (2016), Ebekozien (2019b)
Extortion Sichombo et al. (2009), TI (2016)
Client abuse Zhang, Bo, and Martin (2016), Transparency International (2016),
Intimidations Chan and Emmanuel (2017)
Coercion Sichombo et al. (2009)
Blackmail Smith (2009)
5 Discriminatory
Acts
Nepotism Willar, Bambang and Vaughan (2016)
Favouritism Wibowo and Wilhelm (2014)
Patronage Brown and Martin (2015), TI (2016)
6 Unclassified Acts
Embezzlement Bowen, Peter, and Keith (2012)
Conflict of interest Bowen, Peter, and Keith (2012), Ho (2013)
Professional Ayodele et al. (2011), Ho (2013),
negligence
Source: Modified from Chan and Emmanuel (2017, 8).

audit should be published annually. Ukase and Bem (2015) emphasised the need for the
support for civil society because of the role played at the centre of the fight against cor-
ruption, good governance, rule of law and in the face of weak anti-corruption institutions
cannot be over-emphasised. An example is the alleged use of N270million (US$750,000) to
clear grass in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp by the Office of the former Sec-
retary to Government of the Federation. It took the intervention of the Socio-Economic
Rights and Accountability Project (civil society) before he was directed to step aside
(Moses 2017). What about the alleged forged National Youth Service Corps certificate of
the former Minister of Finance? The government swing into action after many cries
from civil society (Olowolagba 2018a). This shows that the civil society role cannot be
over-emphasised.

The theories that informed this paper

This section discusses the related concepts and theories that support the framework of
this paper to mitigate corruption in the Nigerian construction sector. The study adopted
the Public Interest Theory or Public Interest Theory of Regulation and Institutional
 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN STUDIES 7

Theory. Contemporary Institutional Theory is employed to examine systems ranging

from micro interpersonal interactions to macro global frameworks (Scott 2003). The
key insight, however, was the recognition that models of rationality are themselves cul-
tural systems, constructed to represent appropriate methods for pursuing purposes and
the models provide templates for the design of organisational structures: ‘the positions,
policies, programs, and procedures of modern organizations’ (Meyer and Brian 1977, 343).
Also, in a similar study by Locatelli et al. (2017), Institutional Theory was adopted to
understand the concept of construction projects and corruption as a social phenom-
enon, hence justified in this study. While the Public Interest Theory clarifies government
mediation in business sectors and related authoritative principles as reactions to show-
case market failures and market needs to boost social welfare (Hantke-Domas 2003).
Additionally, it contends that regulation advances the general welfare as opposed to
the interests of efficient partners, for instance, the construction contractors. Several
scholars see regulation theory as a positive theory (Ndubueze 2009; Iheme 2017; Ebeko-
zien 2019a; Ebekozien, Abdul-Rashid, and Mastura 2019). One of the uniqueness of this
theory is the belief that it is for the ‘public interest’, thus, applying this theory to mitigate
corruption in the Nigerian construction sector because the poor masses are the worst hit
in a corrupt environment. Appendix 1 illustrates the study’s framework of achieving miti-
gated corrupt-free Nigerian construction sector with the support of the two credible
theories.

Methodology
Phenomenology type of qualitative research approach was adopted. This is one of the
novelties because previous studies, for example, Ayodele et al. (2011), Le et al. (2014),
Ukase and Bem (2015), Iheme (2017), among others employed quantitative or reviewed
approached in proffering solutions to mitigate corruption in the Nigerian construction
sector. While this paper is tailored to address the forms and attributes of corrupt acts in
the Nigerian construction sector via a qualitative approach to address the paper’s objec-
tives. In an attempt to bring to the front burner and proffer possible solutions, this paper
employed unexplored dimension via semi-structured face-to-face interviews with the key
informants. This is in line with Stysko-Kunkowska (2014) that affirmed the approach allows
collecting data from people who had the experience. The 20 participants interviewed were
five senior civil servants (Participant 1–5), five construction consultants (Participant 6–10),
five politicians (Participant 11–15), and five construction contractors (Participant 16–20) in
Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The civil servants comprised three seniors in the Ministry
of Power, Works and Housing, and two seniors from the Federal Housing Authority. For the
construction consultants, two senior Architects, two Senior Quantity Surveyors, and one
Civil Engineer with working experience ranging from nine to 35 years. The construction
contractors interviewed were from companies with prior experience in the activities of
contract award processes in Nigeria setting and were either managers/owners or
project managers with working experience ranging from eight to 39 years in the business.
For the politicians, three of them were Personal Assistant to serving Senators of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria while the other two were former Honourable Members of a State
House of Assembly. The identity of the participants was sealed for confidentiality
reason. This is because of the sensitive contexts of the subject matter. The purpose is to
8 A. EBEKOZIEN

maximise the protection of participants’ identities and maintaining the value and integrity
of the qualitative data.
The need to develop an epistemological understanding of the methodological
approach adopted is germane. This paper believes that the phenomenology type of quali-
tative research approach can provide a more illuminating framework for investigating the
impact of the ruling party-led government in the fight against corruption, and proffer
possible policy to mitigate the act in construction projects delivery. This is more suitable
because no study has attempted to explore this in the Nigerian context to the best knowl-
edge of this paper. However, because this approach involves the experience of the central
phenomenon from the participants, phenomenology becomes expanded into analytically
exploring via themes about the essence of the experience. These themes are applied to
the forms of corrupt acts, attributes, and possible solutions respectively. One of the impor-
tant points which emerge from this is that the key stakeholders in public construction pro-
jects are perceived as contributors to the corrupt acts. The extent and nature of the
perceptions can be an area for future study.
The main objective of the face-to-face interviews was to identify the attributes of the
forms of corruption in the Nigerian construction sector and investigate the role of the
ruling party as perceived by participants and proffer possible policy solutions. Validation
was done by secondary sources (journals, newsprints, and government documents). The
interviews were transcribed and MAXQDA 2018 was adopted to support the thematic
analysis (Creswell 2014; Ebekozien, Abdul-Rashid, and Mastura 2019). Between August
and early November 2018, 20 interview sessions were conducted. This is because of the
need to cut across the broad spectrum of the key-informants, achieve saturation and vali-
dation of findings that emerged during the oral interviews (Creswell 2014). Appendix A
showed the covering letter and semi-structured questions to ensure validity, reliability
and replicability of the study. One of the novelties of this paper is an attempt to
examine the various corrupt acts in the construction industry by Chan and Emmanuel
(2017) in Nigeria’s context via a phenomenological approach. Also, engaged the partici-
pants who described a lived experience of possible solutions to mitigate the unethical
act. From the 20 document transcripts, 98 codes (highlight coding = 45, emoticode = 05,
and text coding = 48) were generated and derived 16 categories. From the 16 categories,
emerged three themes. The following section reports the results and discussion.

Results and discussion

This section presents the results and discussion of the findings from the investigation and
attributes of corrupt acts and proffers policy suggestions to mitigate them. Evidence
shows that the first term of the ruling party has possibly not satisfied the expectation of
the people. The findings and discussion will be examined under three themes as pursues:

Theme one: forms of corrupt acts

Theme one ‘forms of corrupt acts’ give a platform to the participants to highlights the
forms of corrupt acts in the Nigerian construction sector. In light of this background,
responses from the majority of the participants agree that bribery and fraud are the notice-
able forms of corrupt acts. However, the study findings show the emergence of other
 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN STUDIES 9

forms of corrupt acts such as ‘client abuse’ also known as clientelism by Transparency
International (2016). Participant 17 says …
a situation where you’re told before the final endorsement of the contract that you must
submit 15% to 30% of the contract sum if not, the contract would not be given to you …
this is open light day ‘extortionary acts’. What will you do? …

This finding agrees with Odunsi (2018). The author reported an alleged ‘video saga’ where
a state governor showed up in a video cut supposedly receiving ‘kick-back’ amounting to
about $5million from construction contractors. This is a top party leader of a party that was
voted to power to fight corruption. Corruption may be fighting back within the ruling
party. This is one of the reasons the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron
described Nigeria as one of the ‘fantastically corrupt’ countries (The Guardian, May 19,
2016). It should be noted that not all Nigerians are corrupt.
Viewpoint from participants (2, 4, 12, and 14) agree that cunning construction consult-
ants and contractors do collide to do display acts of collusion for a selfish reason. Partici-
pant 19 says:
… for a particular contract, in 2017, firm ABC was given prior notice of the upcoming bid and
tender documents even before the official announcement because he was a friend to the con-
sultants and the client (government project) … so it was a work-over for them. I got to know
after we spent our hard earned resources to tender for the job, not knowing it was a formality
… “Participant 20 says” … you need to come from a certain part of the country to secure a
contract, qualified or not qualified is insignificant if you are from that part of the country
… Is this not domestication of corruption?

This is a good example of discriminatory acts, unmerited favour, and nepotism. Nepotism
is one of the worst attributes of corruption in the Nigerian construction sector (participants
3, 7, 9, 12, & 18). This finding agrees with Nnanna (2017) and Chan and Emmanuel (2017).
The former author stressed that the bombshell of the US$25billion contract scam had attri-
butes of governance by nepotism. This needs further verification. While the latter authors
affirmed that the discriminatory act is an act of displaying more favour based on ethnicity
and patronage. Appendix 2 shows the thematic network analysis of the findings in a web-
like presentation with the corruption in construction as the global theme, forms of corrupt
acts as the organising theme, and attributes of the forms of corrupt acts as the basic
themes. The findings show the summary of the five main forms of corrupt acts in the
Nigerian construction sector as follows: bribery, fraudulent, collusive, extortionary, and dis-
criminating. This paper findings slightly differs from Chan and Emmanuel (2017) that
found additional forms of corrupt acts called ‘unclassified acts’.

Theme two: attributes of forms of corrupt acts

Theme two ‘attributes of forms of corrupt acts’ allow the participants to identify the attri-
butes associated with each form of corrupt acts found in the Nigerian construction sector.
Responses from the majority of the participants agree that kickbacks, payment fast-track-
ing, bribery, influence peddling, and lobbying are the attributes of bribery acts. Bribery is
almost becoming a normal culture because unethical practitioners and government
officials respectively handle cases of alleged bribery with levity, while arrest and prosecu-
tion are patchy and one-sided (participants 3, 8, & 14). Majority of the participants agree
10 A. EBEKOZIEN

that fraud, deception, and dishonesty are parts of fraudulent acts while participants (1, 8,
15, and 16) opine that money laundering is associated with international-based contrac-
tors. In the opinion of participants (4, 9, 11, & 17), there are reported cases where
corrupt politicians use construction firm names to transfer money out illegally in the
name of goods purchased for construction ‘ghost projects’, or to collect illicit money for
themselves. This agrees with Taiwo (2018). The author reported a grass-cutting scandal
allegation a top rank party member of the APC led government.
For collusive acts and cartels (participants 2, 7, & 9), bid-rigging (participants 7, 8, 9, 13,
18, & 19), price-fixing (participants 2, 4, 6, 10, & 18), conflict of interest (participants 4, 9, &
15), and embezzlement (participants 3, 12, 16, & 19) are attributes associated with corrupt
acts. This collusive practices, for example, rigging and price-fixing happen during the ten-
dering process (participants 7 & 9). The unethical design team members are accomplices in
this act of corruption. Findings show that collusive practice is higher at the project
execution stage, such as relaxed enforcement of quality and contract performance stan-
dards. While client abuse, intimidations and threats, blackmail, and coercion are attributes
of extortionary acts. This is one of the huge challenges in the fight against corruption in
Nigeria. Corrupt persons in power use this medium to oppress contractors not willing or
ready to support their dictate either by frustrating the subsequent payment or divert
the allocation for that particular project. Findings agree with Odunsi (2018) and Ebekozien
(2019b). The former author reported an online video of the alleged collection of a bribe by
one of the governors of the state ‘client abuse’ from contractors. This is possibly one of the
reasons David Cameron of Britain described Nigeria as ‘fantastically corrupt country’ (Chan
2016).
“… How do you expect to mitigate corruption when some states government have not paid sal-
aries for more than four months, they run despotic democracy” (participant 8). Viewpoint from
participant 9 says, ...I was approached to tender for a job but have to submit “kick-back” 15% of
the contract sum as “PRO.” I declined the offer.

The attributes of the discriminatory acts include favouritism, patronage, and nepotism.
Findings agree with Ogundiya (2009) that suggested demystify ethnicity to alter in a posi-
tive approach and mitigate corrupt tendencies. The participants except the civil servants
agree that these attributes are more pronounced in this present administration in the
history of Nigeria. This is not only in the construction sector but in other sectors of the
economy. It is possible that the civil servants do not want to come out openly to
express their perception but their body language duly communicated the message. Par-
ticipants (8, 13, 16, and 19) agree that there is clear blatant nepotism, cronyism, tribalism,
and high discard for federal character principle which is contrary to the attributes of
fighting corruption; to them, the 2017 CPI released by TI was expected. Findings agree
with Nwachukwu (2018b) and Akinfehinwa (2018). The former author claimed that the
Deputy Senate President of Nigeria says that Buhari’s hypocrisy, tribalism, nepotism has
resulted in many agitations. The latter author reported that Senator Dino Melaye has
huge the good people of Nigeria to rise and say no to despotism. The summary is pre-
sented in Appendix 2, and findings slightly disagree with Chan and Emmanuel (2017).
They found additional acts, categorised as ‘unclassified acts’. The attributes associated
with this category are professional negligence, conflict of interest, and embezzlement.
The emergence of attributes and forms of corrupt acts in the Nigerian construction
 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN STUDIES 11

sector from the qualitative findings of this study is one of the novelties and theoretical
contribution to the body of knowledge.

Theme three: way forward to mitigate corruption

Theme three ‘way forward to mitigate corruption’ in the Nigerian construction sector
allows the participants to proffer solutions to this deadly contagious disease called corrup-
tion. The recent figure from TI indicates that corruption is on the increase in Nigeria and if
something is not done to curtain this cancerous element called ‘corruption’ in the con-
struction sector, the prospect of economic growth in Nigeria would remain a mirage.
This is because the performance of the construction sector is one of the key variables in
the development of any economy. While the ruling party claims to have shown commit-
ments to mitigate corruption, the corruption index is yet to fully reflect this assertion (par-
ticipants 8, 11, & 15). Participant 10 says,
… Do you know that in 2014, the CPI was better than the ruling government that has given us
the impression that they are fighting or have fought corruption to stand-still? My question is if
their assertion is true, why is CPI ranked 148th position in 2017 after three years of ruling as
against 136th position in 2014? This is food for thought

This has become a concern for many Nigerians that after 59years, Nigerians are in search of
leaders that would put national interest above self-serving interest (participant 9). Hence,
the need to rethink ways of addressing this menace called corruption via sincere political
will which is possibly missing. Participant 2 says:
… The need for reforms such as improving transparency and accountability in PPA 2007,
strengthening professional standards and quality management is equally as important and
deserving of attention from the practitioners. We should not expect the government only
to fight corruption, it should be all-inclusive …

This is in line with the Institutional Theory. While participant 8 says:

… that the PPA 2007 should be reviewed to accommodate the International Organisation for
Standardisation ISO 37001, known as the anti-bribery management systems that deal with the
incidences of bribery and fraud as applicable to the construction industry

This is in line with the Public Interest Theory of Regulation, setting policies for the interest
of the masses because they are the worst hit in a corrupt system, hence the need to
protect them.
The era of contravening or breach the Oaths of office as stated in the 1999 Constitution
(as amended) or the PPA 2007 because the persons involved are alleged ‘untouchable’ like
the case of alleged corrupt party members should be avoided if the government is sincere
to fight corruption head-on (Umoru 2017b). This is one of many cases of alleged corrupt
acts against the ruling party (Participants 11, 14, & 18). Findings agree that the anti-corrup-
tion agencies should be reawakened via the independent operation and follow due
process in prosecuting corrupt charges as against being used as a tool to fight the opposi-
tion. This allegation should be investigated in future studies. Findings agree with Inokoba
and Weleayam (2011). Hence, the anti-corruption agencies should not see themselves as
members of the ruling government but independent agencies to investigate and prose-
cute alleged culprits after investigation. There is need for improvement. This should be
12 A. EBEKOZIEN

done without seeking for the alleged Presidency approval for the so ‘untouchable ruling
party members’, before the investigation and possible prosecution (Participant 11, 15, &
19). Although Presidency on several platform has debunked this allegation.
The Nigerian judicial system needs to be rekindled because of the bureaucracy of avoid-
able adjournment by the defence counsel to frustrate cases or court order by the alleged
corrupt persons or possibly sponsored to the investigation (Participant 3, 6, & 9). Findings
agree with Bazuaye and Desmond (2016), Olowolagba (2018b), and Ngbokai (2018). The
latter author confirmed that a restraining order issued by a State High Court, stopping
the committee constituted by the State House of Assembly to investigate the alleged
video on-line bribe scandal. Also, the call for the resignation of the ruling party chairman
on several allegations of corruption and abuse of office by some of the aggrieved top party
members during the last party primaries that led to him being a guest at DSS office; calls
for concern. The need for the development and application of more specific and ground-
breaking tactical anti-corruption frameworks to reduce the high incidence of corruption in
the construction sector cannot be over-emphasised. Thus, this paper has stirred up new
areas and more research on how to mitigate corruption in Nigerian construction projects.
Every weak democratic system enhances corruption to flourish (Participant 12). In the
opinion of participants (3, 5, 8, 14, & 18), evaluation of corruption performance for
public projects should be conducted yearly and report made public. Also, the code of
ethics and professional conduct of practitioners be re-emphasised while encouraging
the public sector to focus on improving governance and efficiency via standard operation
procedure. The civil society should continue in the spirit of ‘unprofitable whistleblowing’,
of alleged obvious cases such as the alleged grass-cutting contract among others.

Conclusion and recommendation

Many Nigerian scholars have worked in the corruption-related area but not regarding
forms of corrupt acts in the Nigerian construction sector. This is one of the research
gaps this paper has filled. Despite the significance of corruption in public construction pro-
jects, many scholars find it not suitable to write about it. Hence, getting an in-depth knowl-
edge of corrupt acts and the main sources of corruption made this paper one of the
essential drivers in corruption research in the Nigerian construction sector. This paper
adopted an unexplored approach via qualitative research and employed two theories
(Public Interest Theory of Regulation and Institutional Theory) for a better view of how cor-
ruption in the Nigerian construction sector could be mitigated. Therefore, the civil society,
construction practitioners, and academics have a responsibility to mitigate corruption to
the minimal, especially for megaprojects. Hence, the need to join hands with Mr President
to fight corruption in all ramifications. The Nigerian judicial system and other stakeholders
in the society should continue to join hands with Mr President in this sacrosanct matter.
The need to develop tools and guidelines in addition to the PPA 2007 cannot be over-
emphasised. This would allow the control systems that address the corruption perform-
ance of a construction project to be evaluated transparently. This can be in the form of
construction projects audit published annually and conducted by Qualified Quantity Sur-
veyor in conjunction with other members of the design team via standard operation pro-
cedure. One of the limitations of this paper is the use of a qualitative approach for data
collection but this does not affect the robustness of the paper’s findings and discussion.
 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN STUDIES 13

Also, this paper has awakened the anti-corruption agencies, policy and decision-makers on
corruption matters to build up anti-corruption mechanisms that address precise attributes
and forms of corrupt acts in the Nigerian’s research construction sector. Also, other African
countries can adopt some of the suggestions to improve their anti-corruption mechanism
in the construction sector. This paper has given birth to a new area of discourse in Nigeria’s
research world, such as corrupt acts in the construction sector as part of the study’s impli-
cation to the body of knowledge. Therefore, there is a need for more research in this direc-
tion. This would unravel the discourse to proffer possible solutions to mitigate corrupt acts
in the construction sector in Nigeria and by extension Africa as a continent. Also, this adds
to the paucity of theoretical literature on this topic and to be of illustrative use to other
future researchers.

Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Prof. Abdul-Rashid Abdul-Aziz and Prof. Mastura Jaafar for the supervision of the
author’s PhD in Quantity Surveying Section, School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti
Sains Malaysia. The author is very grateful to the anonymous reviewers for providing constructive
comments to enhance the quality of this paper.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor
Dr Andrew Ebekozien holds a PhD in Cost Management and Master of Technology in Quantity Sur-
veying from Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia and Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria
respectively. He has produced many books, chapters in books, international journal and conference
papers. Also, a peer reviewer for numerous Web of Sciences and Scopus indexed journals.

ORCID
Andrew Ebekozien http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4663-5592

References
Akinfehinwa, John. 2018. “2019: Say No to Despotism – Melaya urges Kogi electorate.” Daily Post,
November 4. http://dailypost.ng/2018/11/04/2019-say-no-despotism-melaye-urges-kogi-electorate/.
Akinloye, Dimeji. 2018. “U.S. Says ‘Massive Corruption’ is Evident under President’s Leadership.”
Pulse.ng., April 24. https://www.pulse.ng/news/local/us-says-massive-corruption-is-evident-under-
buhari-id8298644.html.
Ambraseys, Nicholas, and Roger Bilham. 2011. Corruption Kills. Nature 469: 153–155.
Ameyaw, Ernest, Parn Erika, Chan Albert, Owusu-Manu De-Graft, Edwards John David, and Darko
Amos. 2017. “Corrupt Practices in the Construction Industry: Survey of Ghanaian Experience.”
Journal of Management in Engineering 33 (6): 050170061-1–05017006-11.
Apata, Gabriel. 2018. “Corruption and the Postcolonial State: How the West Invented African
Corruption.” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 37 (1): 43–56. doi:10.1080/02589001.2018.
1497292.
14 A. EBEKOZIEN

Ayodele, Elijah Olusegun, Ogunbode Akintoye Benson, Ariyo Ibironke Esther, and Alabi Olumuyiwa
Michael. 2011. “Corruption in the Construction Industry of Nigeria: Causes and Solutions.” Journal
of Emerging Trends in Economics and Management Sciences 2 (3): 156–159.
Bazuaye, Bright, and Oriakhogba Desmond. 2016. “Combating Corruption and the Role of the
Judiciary in Nigeria: Beyond Rhetoric and Crassness.” Commonwealth Law Bulletin 42 (1): 125–
147. doi:10.1080/03050718.2016.1157504.
Bowen, Anthony Paul, Edwards Peter, and Cattell Keith. 2012. “Corruption in the South African
Construction Industry: A Thematic Analysis of Verbatim Comments from Survey Participants.”
Construction Management Economics 30 (10): 885–901. doi:10.1080/01446193.2012.711909.
Brown, Jeremy, and Loosemore Martin. 2015. “Behavioural Factors Influencing Corrupt Action in the
Australian Construction Industry.” Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 22 (4):
372–389. doi:10.1108/ECAM-03-2015-0034.
Chan, Sewell. 2016. “David Cameron Calls Nigeria Corrupt, and its President Agrees.” The New York
Times, May 12. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/world/europe/david-cameron-calls-nigeria-
corrupt-and-its-president-agrees.html.
Chan, Albert, and Owusu Kingsford Emmanuel. 2017. “Corruption Forms in the Construction Industry:
Literature Review.” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 143 (8): 1–12. doi:10.
1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001353.
Chiazor, Idowu, Ozoya Mercy, and Udume Mike. 2017. “Unemployment in Nigeria: A Bomb Waiting to
Explode: Issues, Diagnoses and the Way Forward.” Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal 4
(2): 183–194. doi:10.14738/assrj.42.2555.
Creswell, John W. 2014. Research Design Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 4th
ed. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Sage.
Dakaa, Terhemba. 2017. “Nigeria: N726 Billion East-West Road Project Designed to Fail- GOCCT.” The
Guardian, December 14. https://allafrica.com/stories/201712140150.html.
Ebekozien, Andrew. 2019a. “Root Cause Analysis of Demand-Supply Gap to Low-cost Housing in
Malaysia.” PhD thesis submitted to Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia.
Ebekozien, Andrew. 2019b. “Unethical Practices in Procurement Performance of Nigerian Public
Building Projects: Mixed Methods Approach.” Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban
Management 14 (3): 41–61.
Ebekozien, Andrew, Abdul-Aziz Abdul-Rashid, and Jaafar Mastura. 2017. “Comparative Analysis of
Low-cost Housing Policies in Malaysia and Nigeria.” International Transaction Journal of
Engineering, Management, & Applied Sciences & Technologies 8 (3): 139–152.
Ebekozien, Andrew, Abdul-Aziz Abdul-Rashid, and Jaafar Mastura. 2019. “Low-cost Housing Policies
and Squatters in Nigeria: The Nigerian Perspective on Possible Solutions.” International Journal of
Construction Management. doi:10.1080/15623599.2019.1602586.
Ebekozien, Andrew, Ugochukwu Stanley Chukwudi, and Okoye Peter Uchenna. 2015. “An Analysis of
the Trends of Foreign Direct Investment Inflows in the Nigerian Construction Sector.” Amerian
International Journal of Contemporaray Research 5 (1): 53–69.
Ebhomele, Eromosele. 2015. “If We don’t Kill Corruption, it will Kill us- Buhari.” PM News, February 12.
https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2015/02/12/if-we-dont-kill- corruption-it-will-kill-us-buhari/.
Emenena, Bright. 2018. “Buhari’s Season of Scandals.” Scoopinions, January 25. http://www.
thescoopng.com/2018/01/25/buhari-scandals/.
Frahm, Ole. 2018. “Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa’s Established and Stimulated Democracies: The
Cases of Ghana, Nigeria and South Sudan.” Crime, Law and Social Change 70 (2): 257–274. doi:10.
1007/s10611-017-9730-2.
Garside, Juliette. 2016. “Panama Papers: Inside the Guardian’s Investigation into Offshore Secrets.”
The Guardian, April 16. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/16/panama-papers-inside-
the-guardians-investigation-into-offshore-secrets.
Grell-Brisk, Marilyn. 2019. “Arrested Development? Sub-Saharan Africa in the Stratified World
Economy 1965–2015.” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 37 (1): 93–111. doi:10.1080/
02589001.2019.1585525.
Hanson, Stephanie. 2009. “Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Council on Foreign Relations, https://
www.cfr.org/backgrounder/corruption-sub-saharan-africa.
 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN STUDIES 15

Hantke-Domas, Michael. 2003. “The Public Interest Theory of Regulation: Non-existence or

Misinterpretation?” European Journal of Law and Economics 15 (2): 165–194.
Heimann, Fritz, and Pieth Mark. 2018. Confronting Corruption: Past Concerns, Present Challenged, and
Future Strategies. New York, USA: Oxford.
Ho, Christabel. 2013. “Communication Makes a Corporate Code of Ethics Effective: Lessons from
Hong Kong.” Journal of Construction Engineering Management, 128–137. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)CO.
1943-7862.0000568.
Iheme, Owuike John. 2017. “Factors for the Implementation of Affordable Federal Public Housing
Policies in South-South Region of Nigeria.” PhD thesis submitted to University of Salford,
Manchester, United Kingdom.
Inokoba, Kuro Preyo, and Ibegu Tina Weleayam. 2011. “Economic and Financial Crime Commission
(EFCC) and Political Corruption: Implication for the Consolidation of Democracy in Nigeria.” The
Anthropologist 13 (4): 283–291. doi:10.1080/09720073.2011.11891209.
Inyang, Ifreke. 2018. “APC Crisis: Oshiomhole Opens Up on being Arrested by DSS, Blasts PDP.” Daily
Post, November 10. http://dailypost.ng/2018/11/10/apc-crisis-oshiomhole-opens-arrested-dss-blasts-
pdp/?utm_source=DailyPost+Newsletter&utm_campaign=679895d52e-Morning_headlines&utm_
medium=email&utm_term=0_7c25dc3ce6-679895d52e-227856449.
Kenny, Charles. 2012. “Publishing Construction Contracts to Improve Efficiencyand Governance.”
Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 165 (5): 18–22.
Le, Yum, Shan Ming, Chan Albert, and Hu Yi. 2014. “Overview of Corruption Research in
Construction.” Journal of Management in Engineering 30 (4). doi:10.1061/%28ASCE%29ME.1943-
5479.0000300.
Locatelli, Giorgio, Mariani Giacomo, Sainati Tristano, and Greco Marco. 2017. “Corruption in Public
Projects and Megaprojects: There is an Elephant in the Room.” International Journal of Project
Management 35: 252–268. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.09.010.
Loosemore, Martin, and Benson Teck-Heng Lim. 2016. “Intra-organisational Injustice in the
Construction Industry.” Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 23 (4): 428–447.
Martin, William. 2018. “Lessons of the Northern war on African Corruption.” Journal of Contemporary
African Studies 36 (4): 437–448. doi:10.1080/02589001.2018.1513125.
Meyer, John, and Rowan Brian. 1977. “Institutionalized Organisations: Formal Structure as Myth and
Ceremony.” American Journal of Sociology 83: 340–363.
Moses, Rose. 2017. “Cost and Consequences of Grass Cutting.” Vanguard, November 2. https://www.
vanguardngr.com/2017/11/cost-consequences-grass-cutting/.
Ndubueze, Okechukwu Joseph. 2009. “Urban Housing Affordability and Housing Policy Dilemmas in
Nigeria.” PhD thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Ngbokai, P Richard. 2018. “Alleged Bribery: No Going Back on Ganduje’s Probe- Kano Assembly.”
Daily Trust, November 8. https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/alleged-bribery-no-going-back-on-
gandujes-probe-kano-assembly.html.
Nnanna, Ochereome. 2017. “Nepotism, Mother of All Corruption.” Vanguard, October 9. https://www.
vanguardngr.com/2017/10/nepotism-mother-corruption/.
Nuffnang. 2016. “Malaysia 1MDB Controversy.” Nuffnang, April 28. http://malaysianindian1.blogspot.
com/2017/04/malaysia-1mdb-controversy.html.
Nwabughiogu, Levinus. 2017. “Jonathan Completed, Renovated N250 m VP’s Gatehouse Contract.”
Vanguard, February 19. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/osinbajo-washes-hands-off-
controversial-n250m-vps-gatehouse-contract-renovation/.
Nwachukwu, Owen John. 2018a. “APC Crisis: What Gov. Amosun Said About Oshiomhole’s Reported
Arrest by DSS.” Daily Post, November 8. http://dailypost.ng/2018/11/08/apc-crisis-gov-amosun-
said-oshiomholes-reported-arrest-dss/.
Nwachukwu, Owen John. 2018b. “How Buhari’s Hypocrisy, Tribalism, Nepotism Result to Many
Agitations- Ekweremadu.” Daily Post, January 27. http://dailypost.ng/2018/01/27/buharis-hypocrisy-
tribalism-nepotism-result-many-agitations-ekweremadu/.
Nye, Joseph Samuel. 1967. “Corruption and Political Development: A Cost-benefit Analysis.” American
Political Science Review 61 (2): 417–427.
16 A. EBEKOZIEN

Odunsi, Wale. 2018. “Video of Kano Government, Ganduje Allegedly Receiving Stacks of Dollar Bribe
Emerges.” Daily Post, October 14. http://dailypost.ng/2018/10/14/video-kano-gov-ganduje-
allegedly-receiving-stacks-dollar-bribe-emerges/.
Ogundiya, Sarafa Ilufoye. 2009. “Political Corruption in Nigeria: Theoretical Perspectives and Some
Explanations.” The Anthropologist 11 (4): 281–292.
Ogunleye, Kehinde Eric. 2017. “Political Economy of Nigerian Power Sector Reform.” In The Political
Economy of Clean Energy Transitions, edited by Douglas Arent, Channing Arndt, Mackay Millier,
Finn Tarp, and Owen Zinaman, 391–401. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford.
Ogunsemi, Rufus Deji. 2015. Value for Money in Construction Projects: The Quantity Surveyor’s Quest.
Inaugural Lecture Series 71, delivered at the Federal University of Technology, Akure on
Tuesday, August 18.
Olowolagba, Fikayo. 2018a. “ICPC, NYSC Stop Investigation into Kemi Adeosun’s Forged Certificate.”
Daily Post, September 18. http://dailypost.ng/2018/09/18/icpc-nysc-stop-investigation-kemi-
adeosuns-forged-certificate/.
Olowolagba, Fikayo. 2018b. “EFCC Accuses Orji Kalu of Jumping Bail, Court Gives Ex-Gov 7 Days to
Return.” Daily Post, November 6. http://dailypost.ng/2018/11/06/efccaccuses-orji-kalu-jumping-
bail-court-gives-ex-gov-7-days-return/.
Omokri, Reno. 2018. “Corruption: Shameful under Buhari, Nigeria’s Moved 12 Steps Backwards in TI’s
Report.” Vanguard, February 22. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/corruption-shameful-
under-buhari-nigerias-moved-12-steps-backwards-in-tis-report-reno/.
Point Blank News. 2016. “Why I won’t Touch Amaechi’s Rivers Monorail-Wike.” Point Blank News,
March 28. http://pointblanknews.com/pbn/exclusive/wont-touch-amaechis-rivers-monorail-wike/.
Pulse. 2018. “Nigeria has Recovered Over N200 Billion from its Whistleblowing Policy in Less than 2
Years.” Pulse.ng., May 8. https://www.pulse.ng/bi/politics/nigeria-recovered-over-n200bn-from-its-
whistleblowing-policy-id8354794.html.
Punch. 2019. “ICYMI: Full Text of Obasanjo’s Open Letter to Buhari.” Punch. July 15. https://punchng.
com/full-text-of-obasanjos-open-letter-to-buhari/.
Sahara Reporter. 2018. “Transparency International Ranks Nigeria 148th World’s Least Corrupt
Country.” Sahara Reporters, February 21. http://saharareporters.com/2018/02/21/transparency-
international-ranks-nigeria-148th-worlds-least-corrupt-country.
Scott, W. Richard. 2003. Organisations: Rational, Natural and Open Systems. 5th ed. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Securemi. 2016. “What are the Panama Papers? A Guide to History’s Biggest Data Leak.” Securemi,
http://www.evault.com.my/a-guide-to-history-biggest-data-leak.
Shan, Ming, Le Yun Chan Albert, Hu Yi, and Xia Bo. 2016. “Understandingcollusive Practices in
Chinese Construction Projects.” Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and
Practice. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)EI.1943-5541.0000314, 05016012.
Sichombo, Balimu, Muya Mundia, Shakantu Winston, and Kaliba Chabota. 2009. “The Need for
Technical Auditing in the Zambian Construction Industry.” International Journal of Project
Management 27 (8): 821–832.
Smith, H. Jimmy. 2009. “The Global Anticorruption Education and Trainingproject.” Leadership and
Management in Engineering 9 (3): 139–143. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)1532-6748(2009)9:3(139).
Sotubo, Monjola. 2016. “U.S. Activist Accuses President of being Partial in Anti-corruption War.”
Pulse.ng., June 21. https://www.pulse.ng/news/politics/buhari-us-activist-accuses-president-of-
being-partial-in-anti-corruption-war-id5175706.html.
Stansbury, Catherine. 2009. “The Global Infrastructure Anticorruption Centre.” Leadership and
Management in Engineering 9 (3): 119–122. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)1532-6748(2009)9:3(119).
Stysko-Kunkowska, Matgorzata. 2014. Interviews as a Qualitative Research Method in Management and
Economics Sciences. Warsaw, Poland: University of Warsaw.
Tabish, S., and Jha Kumar Neeraj. 2011. “Analyses and Evaluation of Irregularities in Public
Procurement in India.” Constr. Manage. Econ. 29 (3): 261–274.
Taiwo, Skakirudeen. 2018. “5 Corruption Cases that Affected Nigeria’s Anti-graft War in 2017.”
Pulse.ng., February 22. https://www.pulse.ng/bi/politics/5-corruption-cases-that-affected-nigerias-
anti-graft-war-id8021288.html.
 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN STUDIES 17

Transparency International. 2016. Anti-corruption glossary, forms of corruption. http://www.

transparency.org/glossary.
Ugochukwu, Stanley Chukwudi, Okoye Peter Uchenna, and Ebekozien Andrew. 2015. “The
Challenges Facing Foreign Direct Investment in the Nigerian Construction Sector.” International
Journal of Engineering, Business and Enterprise Application 13 (1): 6–12.
Ukase, Patrick, and Audu Bem. 2015. “The Role of Civil Society in the Fight Against Corruption in
Nigeria’s Fourth Republic: Problems, Prospects and the way Forward.” European Scientific
Journal 11 (2): 171–195.
Umoru, Henry. 2017a. “Senate to Review Constructionof VP’s Gate House Put at N250 m.” Vanguard,
February 2. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/senate-review-construction-vps-gate-house-
put-n250m/.
Umoru, Henry. 2017b. “Grass-cutting Contract: Senate c’ttee’s Final Report Indicts Nabachir Lawal.”
Vanguard, May 3. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/05/grass-cutting-contract-senate-cttees-
final-report-indicts-babachir-lawal/.
Wibowo, Andreas, and Wilhelm Alfen. 2014. “Identifying Macro-environmental Critical Success Factors
and Key Areas for Improvement to Promote Public-private Partnerships in Infrastructure:
Indonesia’s Perspective.” Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 21 (4): 383–402.
Willar, Debby, Trigunarsyah Bambang, and Coffey Vaughan. 2016. “Organisational Culture and Quality
Management System Implementation in Indonesian Construction Companies.” Engineering,
Construction and Architectural Management 23 (2): 114–133. doi:10.1108/ECAM-02-2015- 0026.
Wolfensohn, D. James. 1996. “People and Development. A Paper Address to the Board of Governors,
Washington, DC, October 1st.” World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/
243871468141893629/People-and-development-address-to-the-Board-of-Governors-Washington-
DC-October-1-1996.
Zhang, Bing, Le Yun Xia Bo, and Skitmore Martin. 2016. “Causes of Business-to-Government
Corruption in the Tendering Process in China.” Journal of Management in Engineering doi:10.
1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000479, 05016022.

Appendices
Appendix A
Dear Participant,
Request for Interview
Over the years, there is a perception that the Nigerian construction sector is corrupt. The present
Nigerian Government was voted into power based on the campaign promises to fight corruption
head-on. Hence, the need for this research titled: Corrupt Acts in the Nigerian Construction Indus-
try: Is the Ruling Party Fighting Corruption? Specifically, the research is proposed to be achieved
through the following objectives:

i. To identify the attributes of the forms of corrupt acts.

ii. To suggest possible policy solutions that can mitigate construction related corruption.

Kindly note, questions for the interview is going to be within the stated objectives. Also, responses
provided by you will be collated and analysed together with that of other participants. This will make
up the valued and helpful contribution to achieving the success of this research work and all infor-
mation provided will be handled with utmost confidentiality.

Hence, your valuable time and other inputs in answering the questions and other contributions will
be highly appreciated. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

(Researcher)
18 A. EBEKOZIEN

BASIC QUESTIONS FOR ALL THE PARTICIPANTS

(1) In general terms, from your perception, what is the level of corruption in the constructtion
sector?
(2) What is your take on the role of government in mitigating corrupt practices?
(3) What is your take on the role of other stakeholders in enhancing corrupt practices in the con-
struction sector?
(4) Can you identify the attributes of the forms of corupt acts you know?
(5) What are the possible solutions to mitigate corrupt acts in the construction sector?
(6) What is your take on the effort being put in place to date to fight corrupt practices by the ruling
party?

Appendix 1: Proposed study’s framework

Appendix 2: Thematic network analysis of the forms and attributes of corrupt

acts in the Nigerian construction sector