Corruption: Synonyms - Sleaze, dishonesty,
exploitation, bribery, fraud, venality, vice.
Many of us
think we know what corruption looks or is like – a state governor dipping his
dirty fingers in the treasury and amassing ill-gotten wealth; an illicit deal
carried out by politician; a government official or civil servant taking a cut
in a deal; a policeman on the road harassing drivers, demanding and collecting
bribes or a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria collecting bribes to push
in a bill on the floor or during oversight functions. Corruption, however, is
bigger and closer to home than this.
The painful
truth is that corruption is everywhere. It is endemic to the country’s economy.
It might be more accurate to describe it as pandemic because, like a disease,
it is slowly but surely cutting off the blood supply to those who need it most
– the Nigerian people, 160 million of them.
In Nigeria, every
year, billions of money in Naira, Dollars, Euros and Pound Sterling goes
missing through mismanagement, illicit business practices and poor governance.
And the people, frustrated, helpless and totally deprived of knowledge, action,
education, welfare, good healthcare, housing, food security, good roads and
good governance, slump back into an abyss of hopelessness and continuing
poverty. This, in a country virtually swimming in oil and many other natural
resources!
There is no
country or society where there is no corruption. Corruption has been with Man
since the days of the Garden of Eden. It is part of us. But fortunately for Homo sapiens, corruption,
just like many other situations affecting the life of Man, can be managed.
Some species
of Homo sapiens have,
over the centuries; devised ways of managing many areas of their lives on
Planet Earth, and this include corruption. Some have not succeeded or even
tried to manage corruption. Some glorify it; some worship it; some sustain it;
some actually survive on corruption.
That is the
bane of my people, my society. We think, eat, sleep, act, glorify, worship,
tolerate, sustain, promote, and invigorate corruption. We think it is a way of
life; a good and right way of life in order for us to survive.
And
corruption, when you adopt it, and acquiesce to it, will always overwhelm you.
Nigeria’s corruption is even following its citizens anywhere they go in the
world. We cannot escape their stink which clings to us like a wet cloth or like
a spider web. Ask the so-called Nigerians in Diaspora.
A corrupt
society will constantly and consistently produce corrupt leaders or rulers. This
is what has been happening in the depraved Nigerian society, and that is why we
are, year-in year out producing corrupt leaders, administrators, civil
servants, businessmen, academicians, doctors, teachers, referees, students, and
even parents. Should we wait for any proof that some areas of endeavours are
immune from the octopus-like tentacles of corruption or its infiltration of our
lives?
The recent
and ongoing farce playing itself out with the Boko Haram kidnapping of over 250
children, mainly girls where we have United States and other foreign countries’
soldiers/adviser on one hand and the Nigerian Army and our government officials
on the other shows we are now at the final stage of corruption. Our corruption has
finally caught up with us, exposed us terribly and horribly to the world. Where
and how would they buy the guns when defence budget has found its way into
private pocket, military leaders or civilian administrators? The hydra-headed
outrage of corruption, satisfaction with, and ceaseless sanction and
celebration of mediocrity, greed, selfishness - and the likes - that have
bedevilled and still plaguing Nigeria will NEVER allow her to overcome or win
any human tragedies like this Boko Haram thorn in the flesh, simply because of
incompetence and mismanagement brought on by corruption.
This final
stage is called the systemic stage; the stage at which corruption is now a biome,
a fully-fledged, pervasive way of governance, way of life and structure of
society itself. Everyone, the honest and the dishonest, is caught up in it and
depends on it for their livelihood.
Today, regrettably,
everyone in Nigeria has been dragged directly or indirectly into this corrupt
environment. Our very existence and survival seem to depend on it. The economic
structure of Nigerian society, seen in such things as the lack of financial regulation
and accountability in the civil service that controls much of the day-to-day
decision-making and governmental activity most Nigerians have to deal with, and
the breakdown of the quality services like healthcare and education we once
enjoyed --- means that the only way one can survive for more than a year in Nigeria
is to become part of the corrupt system. In fact the saying in Nigeria is “If
you can’t beat them, then join them” and “the Nigerian factor”.
Many
genuinely honest Nigerians or foreigners working and living in Nigeria are
being forced into the humiliating and disturbing position of having to co-exist
with the thieves or have the thieves as their main clients if their businesses
are to survive. Other Nigerians, who are not corrupt, work hard at their jobs
and businesses without directly coming into contact with the thieving
politicians and corrupt civil servant of the corrupt government, maintain their
high ethical standards. But they too make a major compromise: they essentially
take a vow of silence.
However, to
keep quiet, to never speak out at all when one’s own country is being destroyed
by flat-out mass looting of the national treasury, is in itself another form of
taking part in the corruption or at least being guilty by association or guilty
by some kind of inexcusable silence.
In both
Christian and Islam tenets, the one who
does nothing when a crime is being committed or who looks the other way in the
face of major injustices is as guilty in God’s eyes as the one who actually and
actively commits the crime.
The reality
is that in Nigerian society, corruption is perpetrated by the few minority, but
actively tolerated, and even encouraged and promoted by the majority, for one
reason or the other such as political partisanship, ethnicity and religious
affiliation. There is the problem in Africa and Nigeria. Ironically, even the
perpetrators of corruption in our society are consumed by the corruption, but
they are in oblivion and know not. They think they are smarter than the rest of
us. The moment the majority, who are essentially the condemned victims, turn
their backs on the minority, we will see a decline in corruption and this will
transmute definitely to a better society for all.
Corruption
has caught up with us at last, and has even overtaken and overwhelmed us.
Corruption, as we know, is accompanied always by mismanagement,
maladministration, injustice, incompetence, tyranny, deceit, underdevelopment,
poverty, ignorance, selfishness, greed, cruelty, sadism, and even murder and
genocide.
Look at the
above words and tell me which is not present in our country and society today
in massive doses. Massive, unrestrained doses, that is the phrase, as, like we
all know, corruption exists in all societies, but at varying levels.
Solution? Simple!
Those ruling us, administering for us, managing our resources and lives for us,
working for us, at and in all levels of governance must change. Fear of God (if
you get away from Man, you can’t get away from God), excellent work ethics, sincere
desire, drive and commitment to serve selflessly; a love and compassion for our
fellow man/woman; and for the followers, we must adopt a lack of compassion and
zero tolerance for corruption. Expose the corrupt, don’t adulate them. Kill
corruption, or else, corruption will kill you.
What do I
know? What don’t we know? We all know what to do, but do we have the morality,
the will-power and the brutality to exorcise this cancer from our society
without any resort to ethnic, cultural and religious bigotry?
Tell the
Truth always.
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