CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
One of the major crises confronting the world today and has greatly undermined or perverted the actualization of the projects of development, democracy, human right and so on, is the burning issue of corruption. In many countries, the phenomenon of corruption has assumed an unprecedented front burner in National discourse in terms of its study, discussion, analysis, explanation, impact and so on. Incontrovertibly, corruption has gained recognition as a multidimensional (economic, political, social, bureaucratic etc), all-encompassing phenomenon with multiple manifestation and
consequences (insecurity, abuse of human rights, ethnic conflicts, capital flight, poverty and enormous wealth inequality etc) upon the entire humanity.
Generally, corruption is seen as a pestering sour of epic proportion that has deeply weakened the socio-economic and political fabric of the society.
The fact remains that, it has been identified as an evil that needs elimination. To this end, a lot of attention has been drawn and efforts made by various experts, public administrators, political scientists, groups, organizations and institutions, as well as international bodies to properly diagnose and understand it, in order to achieve the objective of curtailing, even eliminating or preventing the evil. Thus, the most intractable and troubling dimension of corruption is seeming indefatigably, resilience or rapid speed.
If corruption is global phenomenon, then in Ikot Ekpene local government area, it could be said that the vice marks a new epoch in its incidence as well as impact which more than elsewhere has proven to be more damaging, deleterious and completely obstructive of the development process. The point is made that the development process in Ikot Ekpene local Government Area has in the past and still continue to be undermined by corrupt practices to such an extent that the very existence and future viability of ikot Ekpene local government area are at risk.
In fact, there is no gain saying the fact that the multifaceted crises (cultism, insecurity, nepotism unemployment etc) in Ikot Ekpene local government is the logical result of the deeper crisis of ethical validation perpetrated in corrupt practices.
The issue of corruption has been over-flogged by scholars, academias and the general populace and has at various occasion recommended solution to curb the menace. The fact is that the solution on how to curb corruption is not too difficult to figure. The problem lies on the lack of audacious attempt by leaders to curb corruption. All over the country, seminars and symposiums are being held in order to “figure out a solution to curb corruption “. However, the actual fact is that they (the political elites at all helm of affairs of governance) know the actual problem bedeviling the country. With the emergence of a new government in the year 2015, many Nigerians were having great faith that corruption in the country will be minimized. In that year, power left the hands of People's Democratic Party (PDP) to All Progressive Congress (APC). One of the campaign promises made by the present President Muhammadu Buhari was the “ massive eradication of corruption in the country”. Irrespective of the campaign promises, Nigeria ranked low in transparency and high in corruption in that year. In the year 2015, out of the 168 countries surveyed, Nigeria was seen at the bottom of the table in the category of number 136 (Transparency Intentional 2015). This implies that Nigeria was the 32nd most corrupt country in the world in 2015.
In the midst of all the strands of corruption, it can be said that the political corruption predominates. This area of issue constitute the  potential issue of study. Thus is because those at all helm of the affairs of government, the political elites accounts for the sharing and allocation of values in the society. This misallocation of values and resources seem to be at the heart of citizen's socio-economic problems upon which multidimensional social vices Ikot Ekpene local government passes through, such as the recent cultism clashes that resulted to killings and street to Street arm rubbery.
Most times, it is inevitable to ask if any anybody can be exonerated from corrupt Practices. In every strata of the society and in every sector of the economy, corruption exists. Hence, the key lies on the need for audacious efforts to be taken in order to solve the problem of corruption once and for all.
Transparency International (TI) describes Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries in the world(Transparency International 2015). This is owing to the fact that despite the great economic potential of the country and her rich human and natural resources, the dividend of this is being enjoyed by a privileged few (corrupt elites) and the result of this is socio-economic underdevelopment.
It is on this note that the researcher focuses to examine the impact of corruption as it affects the socio-economic development of Ikot Ekpene local government area of Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria.