THE PARADOX OF CORRUPTION AND PATRIOTISM
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
London, United Kingdom
akinadejum@aol.com
“Oh Lord, I pray to thee, if the condition of my getting to power is to be corrupt, please don’t let me get there. Oh Lord, if I get there and I have to be corrupt, give me the wisdom to get out of there. If I have to be corrupted by power, Oh Lord, strike me dead before I become corrupt. Oh Lord, let me use the power you give me to the benefit of my people, the human race and the world. Please do not abandon me in a corrupt world. Amen”
“Democracy has turned out to be not majority rule but rule by well-organized and well-connected minority groups who steal from the majority”. - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
To say that the country called Nigeria is a conundrum is a gross understatement. To both its people and foreigners, it is a country that is, in its extremity, baffling, frustrating, annoying and uncivilised, yet so full of optimism, goodwill, hope, enormous potentials, understanding. One confounding issue we have is the interaction, or lack of it, between its people and its leaders. Both of them can be frustrating. The leaders are also the people, of course, but the people are not the leaders, as one would have expected in any country, irrespective of political ideology. Political power, they say, is derived from the people, but in our case, it does not work that way. This is because the leaders often force their way into power, whether by use of the gun or via electoral corruption. And when we know these people have hijacked power, we, the people, still tolerate them. In fact, we worship them, just because we also want to be like them. So, sometimes, I am wont to agree with the saying that a people deserve the type of leaders they get.
Nigeria is a supposedly Federal Republic. The fact is, it is neither a federation nor a republic. Nigeria is my country and believe me, I am so proud to be a Nigerian and love my country and my people. I don’t have a choice, do I? But then, so will millions of Nigerians, inside or outside the country tell you. So will the evil cabal who have been misruling the country for nearly half a century tell you. So will the boldly, shamelessly and extremely corrupt civil servants; self –serving and greedy politicians; extremely and stupendously rich former heads of state and/or presidents and governors, both military and civilian; the rapacious Senators and Federal Representatives; the money-grabbing local council officials, state commissioners and federal ministers. So will the corrupting businessmen out to grab fat contracts from the government, collect the money and then do a runner, or at best, do a shoddy job. And believe me, so will the thousands of fraudsters, called ”419ers”, both within and outside Nigeria, who have dragged Nigeria’s name in the mud all over the world. So we are all proud and patriotic citizens of Nigeria, the so called Giant of Africa, actually more appropriately, the “Sick Man of Africa”.
All Nigerians are” patriots”. I am yet to see a Nigerian who is not “patriotic”. This is aptly exemplified when Nigeria is involved in a football tournament. Maybe this makes us different from the other people in this world. Corrupt officials and politicians and military officers who divert funds meant to make life better for their people into their own personal accounts are of course the most “patriotic” Nigerians. You will see and hear them making speeches (a very popular phrase is “Eschew corruption – Governor tells his people”) to the public, tongue in cheek, knowing they are fooling them. And we hear this nonsense and double speak with incredulity and anger, knowing that the same Governor or Minister is a thief who has been looting the treasury, and which you know is meant for the building or refurbishment of a hospital or to supply drugs and equipment which might have saved thousands of Nigerian life, if the money had been used properly.
We know of course that Nigerians are no different from other people in the world, or that only Nigeria has the problem of corruption. But you see, I am not “other people of the world”, I am Nigerian, and so I am only concerned, at least for now, about Nigeria. I am also aware that Nigerians all over the world have written thesis, essays, reports, treatises, dissertations, etc that should have appealed to our conscience and make the country a better place to live, but what effect have we seen? A lot of well meaning Nigerians have even given their lives in the pursuit of transparency, of good governance and better and deserved quality of life for their people. To what end? I am not about to re-invent the wheel here.
The point is: What are we as a nation? When is Nigeria going to be governable? When are we going to have the right people in government? Whose fault is it that these idiots have been ruling a country like this for several decades? Can we survive as a nation at the rate we are going? And a million other questions. Obviously, I cant answer these questions. There are Nigerians (and even non-Nigerians) who I would think are better qualified to answer these and other questions.
The first Nigerians to gain Western education did very well to establish a nation. We know them as the fathers of the nation. The sad thing is that they failed to pass their knowledge on to the right people, who would have upheld and continued with their values and hard work. In a large part of the country, the educated elite actually used their education and knowledge to oppress, cheat, loot and rape their own people for their own self-interest, greed and selfishness. Just because you don’t have a Western education does not mean you should not know what is good for you and your family. You need food, you need good health and other basic amenities that you are aware of, even if you did not go to school. Paramount is that even if you did not go to school, then your children should, so that they will help you later. But the action of the educated elite is such that this basic right to education is even denied to our children. The educated elite even denies the people not only the right to govern themselves, but also the right to food, good health, good water and ultimately, the right to live a good, productive and satisfying life.
The bottom line is that after forty-seven years of independence as a country, basic amenities such as healthcare, food and water, electricity, good roads, housing and a minimum acceptable standard of living should be a foregone conclusion to all Nigerians, given the money we are making from oil. Incidentally, nobody, not even the government of Nigeria, past and present, can actually tell you how much money Nigeria makes from its oil. There are several reasons for this: One, the Government itself does not know because it has little or no control over its production. Two, the Government does not want Nigerians to know even the true estimates, for the simple reason that people in government are making their fortunes from oil and Three, so much of the proceeds is being siphoned off by various concerns, both local and foreign, that it is impossible to know. There are other reasons that the reader may know of, but all of it point to one word: CORRUPTION.
In 2004, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, then Nigeria’s Finance Minister, said that Nigeria earned $20 billion the year before from oil alone. Further reports from respected world oil analysts said that so far Nigeria has earned over $400 billion from oil alone since it was discovered. This figure was in 2004. I will guess that three years later, this figure will be in the region of $500 – 600 billion, given the surge in the price of oil in recent years, due partly, ironically, to the Niger Delta problems. This information is enough to drive the average Nigerian to suicide. What? So much earned from what God has gracefully given to us as a people and as a nation, and so little to show for it. And these figures are just the ones declared. What about the billions not even declared by past governments? (for example, the money Nigeria earned from surplus oil during the first Iraq War of 1990 not to talk of how much we earned during the eight years of Obasanjo when the President himself was effectively also the Petroleum Minister and we know how high the price of oil had risen during those eight years). What about the money lost through “bunkering”, both para-legalised and illegal? What about the money lost through the oil operators themselves not declaring the right amount of oil that they took out of the ground?
Back to amenities from this interesting digression. We are not asking for Nigeria to go to the moon or to even produce a car – after all, a country like Canada, one of the world’s most industrialised and wealthy nation, does not even build its own car – all we are asking is for water to flow in the taps, food to be affordable to everybody, constant supply of electricity, a basic but effective healthcare system that will prolong our lives and reduce mortality rates, and a good transportation and communication system that will stand the test of time and make life easy for Nigerians. There are more of course, but dare we ask these “patriotic leaders”?
What is the point of siphoning and embezzling so much money and then burying it under the ground or sending it abroad to foreign banks? These patriotic thieves are even afraid to spend the money. Take a top official ostensibly in charge of our sports development. This official has made so much money over the past few years and has almost everybody in his pocket. He has his hands in every sports program in the country and he is super-rich. They also say he has very serious high-blood pressure. So, I asked, why didn’t he retire and enjoy his ill-gotten gains in retired bliss? I was told that the man can not afford to retire, because if he does, he fears that his replacement will expose him. He also thinks he is the only person in Nigeria who can do his job, despite not achieving anything for Nigerian sports during his tenure. What a greedy bastard?
I was once in the presence of a former deputy military Head of State or whatever he called himself and he was bemoaning the state of Nigeria’s sports in particular and Nigeria in general under one of his successors (By the way, his administration had previously been booted out or forced to leave in disgrace) He was saying how he would do this and would do that if he was in power. I could not believe what I was hearing. It was all I could do not to interrupt him and say “Oga, but you had your chance for 8 years when you were there, why didn’t you do it? What did you do for Nigerians during your tenure except rob them?”. This was the same man, it was rumoured, who in November 1994, came to London to watch England play Nigeria at Wembley Stadium and was looking for free tickets instead of buying them from his ill-gotten gains when he was in power. Can anybody fall that low?
So why does it seem like there is an abundance of corrupt Nigerians and a dearth of honest, well-meaning and dedicated Nigerians? If I knew the answers to Nigeria’s problems, I should be a genius, but we should look at it this way: The corrupt, who are actually in the minority, are so powerful and deadly, that the honest and well-meaning Nigerians do not have a chance in heaven of changing anything. Think of all the “juju” and the hired killers. The corrupt have such a stranglehold on Nigeria, it will take the Almighty to prise us loose from them. This cannot go on forever because one day, like the late Bob Marley sang, “the bottom will drop out”.
Another answer, if I may venture into controversy, is that we as a people are too apathetic and too optimistic – nothing wrong in the latter, but without any basis for being so. That is why Nigerians spend so much time praying in churches and mosques asking God to help. Please I am not against being religious. But you know why God will not help just like that? The churches and mosques where we go to pray are also corrupt. The priests and the mullahs know that those who sponsor their places of worship stole this money from the Nigerian people, but they will never condemn them in front of God and Man. The corrupt officials also go to these places of worship, and believe me, I wonder what prayers they are saying to God. I wonder whether they are asking for forgiveness or they are asking God to give them more chances to steal more or asking God to prevent them from being discovered. I don’t know and cant even imagine it. But the fact is they are in the same mosque and church as everybody, praying.
The corrupt Nigerian is so brazen. Nowadays, since a former military president practically “institutionalised” corruption in the Nigerian society, they don’t even give a damn about being discovered. They bask in their corruption. They are arrogant with it. They are shameless because people do not let them realise it is a shameful thing to do to rob millions of people and a crime to deny Nigerians a good standard of living and a sin to be directly and indirectly responsible for the death of thousands, if not millions, of Nigerians. They are confident in their dishonesty because they may eventually get away with it. And most importantly, they are certain in themselves because they are the rulers, they have the power and they have control of the government apparatus and thereby the resources which belong to all Nigerians. But they want it all for themselves. Damn the rest of the Nigerian people. They are a selfish and vicious clique, with no interest of their people in mind. Despite what they have stolen, they are never satisfied. They want to steal everything in sight that can be stolen. Yet, they are “honourable and patriotic” Nigerians.
When I look at it, it is a wonder that Nigeria is still standing as a nation. It is a wonder that anarchy has not prevailed and the country bankrupt. Then I remember the oil. What if the oil finished one day? I once came up with answer to why Nigeria is not bankrupt: I thought it was because of all the foreign money – dollars, pounds, deutschmarks, etc – that millions of Nigerians living abroad send home everyday. I thought that foreign money props Nigeria up, until my brother-in-law (one of the very few Nigerians that I respect) then brought me to senses by asking me whether I know how much of Nigeria’s money goes out illegally everyday. In short, the money Nigerians living abroad send home is but a drop in the ocean compared to the amount that the corrupt take out or have taken out. We are now being regaled about the scale of this greed and corruption on the pages of our newspapers everyday.
One of our former Heads of State, Babangida is reputed to be the richest Nigerian alive and one of the richest in Africa. Nobody has ever wondered or asked him how he made his money. Abdusalam is another billionaire ex-head of State who ruled for barely 8 months. Obasanjo went into Aso Rock with only 20000 Naira in his account, today it is rumoured he has 180 billion Naira. And we are not even talking of many ex-Governors and serving Governors, former Ministers and party officials like Anenih (dubbed the Most Dangerous Politician in Nigeria) etc. When Orji Kalu, himself very corrupt, asked Anenih to provide details of how he spent billions of Naira on our roads, Anenih allegedly sent assassins after Kalu. These are the “patriots”.
Corruption is a malignant disease that has eaten into every fabric of the Nigerian society. Nobody is immune from it. Nobody is safe from it. It affects everybody, one way or the other. You cant escape it. It does not matter where the Nigerian lives, home or abroad, corruption, Nigerian style, follows you. Even if you are not corrupt, it still affects you, because the moment you say you are a Nigerian to any foreigner, they immediately think of corruption and think of you as a corrupt human being. They stopped trusting you. Ask Nigerians living and trying to survive in the UK, South Africa, USA and in fact all over the world. Ask them what happens when they bring out the Nigerian passport at airports or when they want to open a bank account or even look for a job. The stink of corruption follows us everywhere. This is further compounded by the really corrupt Nigerians who are also in the same place as you.
Corruption must be a Nigerian, so they say. It is mind boggling to try and estimate how much money has been stolen, embezzled or misappropriated by Nigerians in power, (the great late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti used to call them Vagabond In Power, VIP). And these are only from rumours and the few ones that we know about, and only when they were exposed by their nemesis, the EFCC. Thousands more never even surface. When you try and guess, its like trying to guess where the cosmos starts and ends, you will end up crying. Nobody will ever know for sure how much money has been stolen by Nigerians from Nigerians since Independence. It is still going on of course. When is it going to stop?
When are we going to realise that this is not the way to run a country? A Nigerian, who had spent about 27 years in the UK, was given an appointment in one of the southern states in 1999. He was very excited about what he perceived then to be an opportunity to help his people, his state and Nigeria. He reckoned it was an opportunity to help improve the standard of life for his people, to give them basic and lasting amenities and most especially to translate what he had learnt abroad into practical realities at home. He was full of ideas and vigour. He was assured by the Governor that he will be given a free hand to do everything he wanted to do. He wanted to build a modern estate in his state, which will consist of low cost homes that ordinary people will be able to afford.
By his third year in office as the Chief Executive of the project, he was in trouble with the Governor (a really major disappointment and disgrace, eventually to his state, considering his educational and political background), the Deputy Governor, the Commissioners, the Secretary to the State Government, the Accountant-General of the state, etc. The poor guy was sacked on the radio, and they were going to bring false charges of embezzlement against him. Over 2 billion naira was allocated to the project, 220 million of it was released, and shared by these corrupt officials without this man approving anything or knowing about it. Later he was offered part of the loot and he refused. That was to prove his undoing. He was hounded out of office and disgraced publicly. The man is now a broken man with serious high blood pressure and facing ruin.
A little digression: Once upon a time in America, a man named Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks. He replied: “`Cos that’s where the money is”. It was an uncomplicated philosophy which served him well until he was caught and marched off to prison. Today, Mr Sutton would not have risked incarceration. Today, were Mr Sutton to be a Nigerian, he would have had the choice of being a Nigerian Politician, a Nigerian civil servant or a Nigerian contractor. Better still, he could have been a Nigerian Policeman, although he would have been severely limited as to making loads of money, but at least he could be in official authorised uniform and waylay people on the highway and collect money from them without facing any charges of armed robbery.
Of course, as one who operated outside the law, Mr Sutton might have experienced problems in working with this brotherhood of political and civil uprightness and patriotism. But the vast mountains of easy Naira and foreign currency on offer would surely have stifled his reservations.
You normally don’t need any qualifications to be corrupt, but in Nigeria, you do, in the sense that before you can reach a position where you can have your hands in the till, you need to be educated to some point. You need to be educated to be a civil servant and even for a politician to run for or hold a public office, he or she must have a minimum educational credentials. After you have scaled that hurdle, the sky is the limit. You can steal as much as like. Erm, another necessary qualification, you must have at least one godfather who can protect you in case you get found out. You must therefore also ensure that your godfather or godfathers are appropriately well oiled and well placed in the Nigerian society. It is the case of a big thief protecting a small thief and ensuring that the small thief survives to be a big thief in future. It is a vicious cycle of corruption.
About two years ago, the Chief Executive of Shell Oil Company was forced to resign, because he was heavily involved in the scandal of exaggerating the oil reserves found by Shell. No prizes for guessing, but Nigeria’s was the main country whose oil reserves had been deliberately boosted up. There are several issues here. Shell Nigeria claim they do so in order to receive generous tax allowances. Corruption. Secondly, and very importantly, that means we are not really sure of the exact quantity of our oil reserves. For all we know, the oil wells might dry up within the next 5 years or 20 years. We are not sure. Thirdly, we are not sure of how much oil Nigeria even produces.
In UK newspapers, following the Shell scandal, Nigeria was variously (and appropriately) described as an “impoverished country, notorious for its corruption” (Mail on Sunday, 7 March 2004). If descriptions such as this do not make our governments, ambassadors or High Commissioner, civil servants and politicians and even the whole of Nigeria ashamed, then we are truly immune to shame. Our High Commission did not even write rejoinders in the papers to at least fight their corner (Probably because they themselves know they cant fight the stigma). When I read it, I was ashamed. Mind you, I have read worse about Nigeria, but everytime, that feeling of shame is there. What can I do? When my Government is not even in a position to deny anything.
Why nobody, no successive governments, even including the Obasanjo Administration’s half-hearted and insincere attempts to fight corruption, and political leaders seem unwilling to do anything about battling corruption in the Nigerian society baffles me, when it is obvious that it is the one horrible vice dragging us down as a people and as a country. It is the one malaise that is a major block to our development. It is the one thing that has been causing death, disease, crime, illiteracy, mismanagement, insecurity of life and property and a lot of other things in our country for the past forty-seven years.
The country is replete with examples. If we could catalogue all incidents of corruption in Nigeria, the mere volume of the book will qualify for entry into the Guinness Book of Records, not to talk of the sordid details. The mind-boggling details of each corrupt incident will surpass the other. It would be unbelievable that in this world, a country of people so educated, so sophisticated and knowledgeable, could be ruled for the past forty-seven years by corrupt idiots. Enormous stuff, mind-boggling, unbelievable.
Corruption is a consequence of greed, not poverty, not power. There are many indigent people in the world, yet they are not corrupt. When you are greedy, you become corrupt, because you always want more, no matter how much you have. You are never satisfied. So when a greedy man finds himself in power, he uses that power to be greedier and acquire more than he needs, not considering the consequences to the people he is supposed to help or serve with his power. It is a sin in the eyes of God and Man. It can never be forgiven nor forgotten nor excused. When God gives a human being power, He expects that human being to use it to protect, to make life better for his fellow man who does not have that power. Power, especially political power, is not meant to be used brutally or to oppress. It’s purpose is for the good of other people who are not in the same strong position as you. Use the power given to you by God to help other people who are weaker than you, who are poorer than you, and who, without their consent and goodwill, would not have enable you to wield that power in the first place. Whether you got the power by hook or crook or deservedly, you owe the people and God your power. They can take that power away from you, no matter how long you hang on.
Rev. Fr. Ajakaye, the Diocesan Secretary General and Communications Director, The Catholic Diocese of Ekiti, has this to say in an article titled “Nigeria and Corruption”
Nigerians should learn to act honestly. I know a Vice-Chancellor of one of the Nation's universities, a revered Professor of international Law and Jurisprudence, who refused to use his status of offer admission to his son who scored 198 marks in the last exams of the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB), emphasising that the cut-off marks for the Law faculty where his son was seeking admission for were 200. To date, some people, including students and lecturers of the university, cannot comprehend why the VC had to behave like that to his son. According to them, he should have bent the rule for his son since he was only 2 marks short of the cut-off marks.
This is the Nigerian mentality that calls for urgent change. The generality of Nigerians tend to love to promote dishonesty at the expense of honesty. The honest professor believes in merits and he is prepared to make the university conducive for learning rather than allowing it to be congested due to pressure for admissions from parents and guardians for their wards. With the disciplined attitude of the VC, it will be difficult for anybody to influence him unnecessarily, while sanity will prevail in honest environment. This is the type of thing Nigerians are expected to practice daily.”
So who is the real patriot? The Vice-Chancellor or our political leaders? Patriotism, Nigerian-style, goes hand in hand with corruption, Nigerian-style.
