Accountability, Transparency & Nation Building: The Antitheses of Corporate Theft & Regulatory Agency Graft

Abstract

The challenge of nation building in Nigeria has assumed the level of grave worry due to several inherent complexities that currently evoke national and global concerns. The study objected an assessment of the role corporate theft and agency graft have played in undermining the task of nation building through several corrupt practices like accountability and transparency deficits. The methodology adopted to drive the study consists of observation, anecdotal narratives and use of theoretical framework that are supportive of the conceptual issues in the general conference theme. The study revealed damaging under-hand practices of corporate giants and how most of them get collaboration and connivance from regulatory agency actors to rip-off customers, understate revenue collection levels and engage in „heist‟ that on the aggregate undermine nation building and economic growth and development. These account for the seeming complexities in administering Nigeria across socioeconomic and even political fronts. It is also the reason why countries with which Nigeria was at par at independence are currently far ahead in sustainable development. The impact of the corrupt practices has in combination resulted in Nigeria being rated as the world‟s headquarters of poverty, including instability and crime. Remedial strategies suggested include: electing/appointing competent and honest leaders and CEOs with vision into public and private establishments, adopting potent innovations and technologies to drive our transformational touch points, buying made in Nigeria manufactures to curtail revenue loss through brazen imports, among others.