Nigerians do not hate corruption, only its consequences

The issue of corruption is so over flogged within the geographical entity called Nigeria that you can be forgiven for thinking the flaw is peculiar to the country.  Corruption is worldwide and it ultimately benefits the rich, rulers and corporations to the detriment of the ‘common people’. It is easy to adduce the problems of Nigeria to corruption and fail to see that most people in the country do not really view it as a problem but a means to an end. Nigerians kick against corruption only when they suffer from its consequences in aspects of their lives such as power, fuel, health, education, etc. The same people can however be crassly corrupt or corrupting when it benefits them, even if the benefits are temporary. The enjoyment and active encouragement of temporary relief through the popular ‘fire brigade approach’ instead of asking for and implementing long-term plans is the bane of our national development.

Nigeria is still largely a paternalistic and illiterate society with cultural tendencies that lend themselves to encouraging ‘lucky’ individuals to provide for the ‘less fortunate’. The ‘less fortunate’ never ask why they are not fortunate and assume their position is preordained. If you tell the average Nigerian that corruption is responsible for over twenty years of lack of power, stable fuel supply and general backwardness he/she may hear you and nod in agreement but would not understand how they have contributed to the situation. In Nigeria, the term ‘bread winner’ takes on a debilitating connotation because a single individual with means may find himself or herself taking care of the needs of nearly twenty people including his or her immediate family. Under such barrage of neediness it is somewhat difficult to meet all expectations without trying to secure more resources. It is at this point that most individuals fail; whether rich or middle class, because they tend to want to live up to expectations. They either try legitimately to diversify their sources of income or choose the easier route of exploiting loopholes within the Nigerian bureaucracy to enrich themselves. The latter choice is the favourite course and the one that is almost universally adopted.The concept of ‘oga’ tends to accord respectability to individualsthat Nigerians think are sources of their livelihood or bribes. These ‘ogas’ can do no wrong and when they are accused of corruption,their stigmatization is stymied by petty parochialism such as; na only him dey steal, or na because him be Moslem or Christian, or because him be Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo, etc? Excuses and support for classless corruption is easy to come by in Nigeria. Years ago; I witnessed a well-placed person in the civil [nothing civil about it] service caught red-hot-handed on national TV trying to bribe a government official. When he finally came back home after his release on bail, people were going to his house to ‘commiserate’ and to ‘pray’ with him! The triumphal entry into his hometown of disgraced IGP Balogun a few years ago is a case in point that we generally do not hate corruption.People waited along the road as if Nigeria was about to get a second shot at being independent from Britain. The former IGP probably knows how to ‘shake body’ anytime he is home and the potentates in his hometown knew what they gained during his time in office. Corruption is for the most part actively encouraged by Nigerians whenever they can get a willing conduit in the form of a ‘bread winner’ at the national table.

Those in power understand that to keep the nation in their perpetual grasp there must be an institutionalized patriarchy where resources flow from very few hands to the desperati below. The only condition is that people must be pauperized both in mind and body such that they are ready to sell their souls. People are today mesmerized by material possessions, especially as dictated by western tastes. We love our Guccis, Calvin Kleins, Samsung TVs, I-Phones, Dubai-type houses, PatekPhillipes and Rolexes without putting any effort towards how we can manufacture ours. This fits into the world’s economic system as dictated by the corporatocracy and encouraged by the international monetary system. When you go to any so-called state funded primary or secondary public school in the country today and then drive back to the hallowed halls of our legislature – you need not ask why the country is in such terrible state. The leaders exist in their own parallel universe that is far from the realities on ground. 

Nigerians have paid and are still paying a huge price for institutional corruption because when national assignments become secondary to the personal gains of an individual, the assignment would either not be carried out or done poorly. National assignments that affect the lives of Nigerians are seen as golden opportunities for self-aggrandizement. For example, the power generation and the subsidy scam probes were headed by legislators. The ‘lieslators’ however threw the greater good away and embraced covetousness by accepting bribes and scuttling any meaningful resolution of the reason why money spent on power and oil subsidy have yielded only darkness and endless queues at filling stations. There are roads in Nigeria that have not been rehabilitated since the civil war. Contracts have been awarded but the intention was not to build or rehabilitate roads but rather to fill pockets and maintain the balance of political power and influence in Nigeria. Corruption is so lucrative that ‘religious’ leaders actively encourage it as ‘open doors’ and ‘breakthroughs’.  The clergy is ready to guarantee you a place in heaven if you pay for it with a round sum of cash here on earth. Everyday avoidable tragedies are blamed on ‘blood sucking demons’. We rely on prayers to prevent car accidents and air disasters when simply building better roads, traffic rule enforcement, stringent air traffic rules and equipment would suffice. Armed robbers operate for hours on federal and provincial roads as if we are living in a war zone. It has become easy for foreign elements to bring the country to its knees because they are able to get succour and encouragement from within the country’s elites and security apparatus. 

Buhari has said ‘either Nigerians kill corruption or corruption kills Nigeria’. As for now, corruption is winning. It is killing widows and desecrating orphans. Men can no longer be men and women are losing their virtues. The little educational training we get in the country only prepares us to be slaves rather than masters in the world economic order because it fails to address the fundamental question of who and what is a Nigerian. As corruption seduces Nigerians to look for stomach infrastructure the collapse of the superstructure is inevitable.

jrotimibgood@gmail.com