CHAPTER ONE 1.0                                                                                                                             INTRODUCTION                                                                                                                                   Corruption is both a major causation of  and a result of poverty around the world especially in the third world countries. It occurs at all levels of societies, judiciary functions, civil service commission, large and small business, military and other services. Corruption affects the poorest the most, whether in rich or poor nations (Anup, 2010).In Nigeria, the issue of corruption is seriously troubling and damaging. It has dome damage not only to the Nigeria civil service, but also to the general socio-political and economic existence of the society. Recently, Nigeria was ranked as the 35th most corrupt nation in the world by Transparency International (TI), published in Leadership newspaper on 6/12/2012 no. 1858. Thus corruption in Nigeria civil service leads to slow movement of file in offices, taking bribe by top civil servants, ghost workers syndrome and lots of other pitfalls. Victor (2002) argues “even the mad people on the streets recognized the havoc caused by corruption, the funds allocated for their welfare disappears into thin air”. If this is the case, what is more of civil servant?Corruption poses a serious development challenge in the entire body politics simply because of its menace on the culture of good governance by subverting formal process.However, civil service is a body of permanent official appointment to assist the executive in formulating and implementing government policies Oyeley (1979). It is on the basis of the above argument that the Nigerian government establishes the civil service commission with the responsibility for policy design and implementation in support of defined social, economic, and political life of the state. The public attitude and behavior towards corruption can be judged as social phenomena. Corruption therefore, can be viewed as a general term formed for the misuse of public of position of trust for private gains (Adewuyi, 2008: 286). Corruption will likely appear on everyone’s list of factors obstructing Nigeria towards sustainable development. Corruption has proliferated (increased) to all segments of Nigeria economy (Adewuyi, 2008: 286).It is very glaring that Nigeria is in urgent need for rebirth. The World Bank (1996) stated that Nigeria presents a paradox. The country is rich but majority are poor, Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa and sixth largest oil producer in the world. It is also the largest producer of Columbite and has substantial deposits of some strategic minerals such as uranium, manganese, tin, lead, iron ore, zinc, natural gas and this is to mention but a few (Adewuyi, 2008: 287).(Emenyonu 2007: 33) notes that with hundreds of billions of dollars from oil, still Nigeria has one of the lowest per capita incomes. The infrastructural base of Nigeria is still primitive and worse than what it was at independence. According to him, between 1990-2005, the life expectancy of the average Nigerian declined a full three years from 47 years to about the same time with Malaysia which has a life expectancy of 74 years, meaning that a Malaysian citizen is expected to live 30 years longer than his Nigerian counterpart. In Nigeria, 194 out of every 1000 children are expected to die before they reach the age of five years compared with Malaysian mortality rate of only 12 (Adewuyi, 2008: 288).Corruption has been responsible for those predicaments. No society can achieve anything near its potential if it allows corruption to become full blown cancer, which is what it became in Nigeria. With corruption, there can be no sustainable development or political stability (Adewuyi, 2008: 287).