Nigeria and the Anti-Corruption Crusade

By

Patience Abdon Gin

University of Maiduguri

Corruption has many faces and meanings. It could also be the same wine in different bottles. The word corruption sounds light on our tongues, but it has bedeviled and truncated our beloved Nigeria.

Over the years, this ungodly torment has found solace in our minds and our dear country Nigeria. As a result, so many of our patriots and service Nigerians have suffered a great defeat in the hands of this persistent monster.

As Nigerians, we all have dreams and aspirations that we sleep and wake with in our minds. But taking this menace which has spread its tentacles in to every nook and cranny of the country, making our vision numbed our efforts frustrated and our dreams on the verge of dying.

Nigeria is one country where government hikes up the price of   essential commodities like petroleum products and does not consider it necessary to increase the wages of its workers commensurately. In other words, successive governments in this country were and are still creating inflation with eyes wide open which worsens the assisting decadence in the country in terms of corruption and misconduct.

The essence of this little piece of writing is not to discourage fellow Nigerians in their quest for a better nation, but rather to point out the social and environmental factors under which the anti-corruption law is being operated in Nigeria.

Right from independence in 1960, Nigeria has been trying to wriggle out of the grips of corruption, mis-management and misconduct, but all to no avail. One of the major factors that ensure that corruption reigns in our beloved country is lack of adequate wages being paid to the citizenry. In a corrupt Nigeria the minimum wage presently used by the House of Representative does nobody no good.

The essence of paying the police and the citizenry intensely for their services is not due to the tremendous wealth a country has, but because of the realization of the destructive potentials of corruption to any society. Developed countries in the world live up to this expectation because they know too well that fighting corruption amidst poverty is a farce, and will not elicit the support and compliance of the people.

As a matter of fact, human nature being what it is, an anti-crusade cannot succeed under conditions of impoverishment. Unemployment will readily be construed as oppression and tyranny despite the fact that it is being implemented for the good of the society and people.

Paying the people well in Nigeria will help in the wholesale support of the people for the commission implementing the ani-corruption crusade. This is because an average citizen in Nigeria lives below the relative measures of comfort. This subjects him to temptations of jeopardizing his work place and the state by neglecting or refusing to render services expected of him.

But if fellow Nigerians know that their comfort will be provided by the state with the people’s funds, they will not hesitate to report any attempt by anybody to short-change the state through pen-robbery and kickbacks, since their welfare and continued comfort are placed at risk by extension.

Questions have been thrown regarding the inability of Nigeria ever being able to provide the short-comfort of its citizens, enough to make them not only shun corruption but to join in fighting it.

Taking a look at other countries that do not produce petroleum in any form like Nigeria does, any do not earn revenue from mineral resources; either solid or liquid but are doing far better than Nigeria despite revenue earnings from columbite, bauxite, tantalite barite and several others which are not even half exploited as they should be, one will surely wonder and ponder over the implications and outcomes of predicament.

More so, Nigeria has agricultural products that the world is craning for, groundout, maize, cotton, palm oil and rubber which if properly utilized will bring about comfort for the Nigerian citizens and maintain an ever lasting content among the populace.

All these put together show that Nigeria has enough wealth and potentials to be richer, enough to support an anti –corruption crusade which will transform all facets of national life, forever.

It must be known now that an authority that does not pay those rendering services it well, those working under its jurisdiction, such an authority does not have any moral right to sanction the workers for acts of corruption. A father that does not feeds his children and does not provide lives basics for them, will have God judge him if he punishes them for stealing. If the other, he provides them with basic needs and perhaps with some measures of comfort, he will be justified for punishing them severely if ever they steal.

What Nigeria is trying to do with the anti-corruption crusade in the present circumstances is introduce laws in an environment that constantly tempts the individual to break the laws. Within the socio-economic environment in our present day, introducing an anti-corruption law may be foolhardy because the enabling structures for its implementation and compliance are lacking.

In Nigeria, an overwhelming majority do not have portable water to drink, they do not have good roads to carry out commercial activities and their income per capita is too low to do anything more than just consume to stay alive.

How does one stop a ridiculously low income earner from taking bribe under the present inflationary circumstance?  It is like stopping a person who sees something charging out of his eyes form blinking or shutting his eyes.

The Nigerian government has much thinking and acting to do, on its own part. If its proposed anti-corruption crusade will succeed .

Most at times, some argue that Nigeria multi-ethnicity will not let an anti-corruption crusade thrive. This line of thought holds water only to the extent that government either consciously or by omission, as in the past, continues to perpetuate ethnic sentiments through its actions.

To surmount the ethnic problem, government may not need to do move than give every section and nationality in Nigeria a sense of belonging in the nation-state. Ethnic sentiments are fueled by inequity in the sharing of the national wealth.

Thus, jobs, political appointments, budgetary allocations, in fact, everything that comes from the center to the states and to the states and regions. In the midst of plenty, nobody remembers tribe.

People will only support the crusade for a better Nigeria, a corruption-free Nigeria if they believe in Nigeria. Faith in Nigeria, or in any country, or in anybody comes only with the evidence that one is cared for by the object of his faith or belief.

To combat corruption, government should work day and night to fashion out and impudent measures to eschew tribalism in all its ramifications.

Government, especially in a democracy is meant for the people. It exists to cater to needs and to realize the collective aspirations of the people because the people empower it. It is time that government starts to consider the impacts of its decisions and programmes on the people before embarking on them.

The state must also realize that in the absence of justice where everyone is equal before the law no antic-corruption crusade will work.

Some people are “untouchable” or above reproach are put in place, the law checking corruption will merely chase shadows.                       

Patience Abdon Gin

University of Maiduguri