AUTHORITY STEALING
How Greedy Politicians and Corporate Executives Loot the World’s Most Populous Black Nation
by
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James Ibori is a thief. He admitted stealing $250 million from Nigeria’s treasury and was convicted on 17th April 2012 by a Southwark Crown Court in London. That was the third time Ibori would find himself on the wrong side of the British judicial system. In 1991, he and his wife were arrested for theft from Wickes DIY store in Ruislip, Middlesex, and fined £300. In 1992, he was convicted of handling a stolen credit card and fined £100. The time he was caught on the wrong side of the law, he would not escape with a fine but spend the next 13 years of his life behind bars; 5,000 kilometres away from home.
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About the Book
Corruption has eaten deep into the fabric of Nigeria, the world’s most populous black nation. Authority Stealing gives a graphic account of how public officers in Nigeria plundered the country’s resources impoverishing the lives of the very people they were elected or appointed to serve. Nigeria is considered one of the world’s most corrupt countries ranked 143 out of 182 countries in Transparency International’s 2011 Corruption Perception Index. Nigeria exports and sells over two and half million barrels of crude oil per day earning huge revenue. Despite this, however, over 75 million people representing more than half of the population live in absolute poverty largely due to corruption and mismanagement of state resources by political leaders. The dysfunctional state of public utilities and infrastructure in the country is also a direct consequence of high level corruption. Over $380 billion had been stolen or wasted by Nigerian leaders since independence in 1960. Many politicians and corporate executives who amass wealth illegally become so powerful that they subvert the judicial system. Some of them were not so lucky though as chronicled in Authority Stealing.
About the Author
Bolaji Akinola is a Nigerian journalist and social commentator. He is the president of Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN). Akinola holds an MBA from Lagos Business School (LBS). He is a member of the Governing Council of the LBS Alumni Association and president of Executive MBA 15 Alumni Class of the School. A graduate of the University of Agriculture Abeokuta (UNAAB), Akinola also holds a master’s in transport management (MTM) degree of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) and a PGD (Journalism) of Times Journalism Institute, Lagos. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria, with his wife and two children.