Corruption as a national garb

Recently, a statement credited to the Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka was that it would amount to madness for anyone to think Nigeria would work. Before the elder statesman could make such statement, he must have lost all hopes about his country and regrettably has no cheering statement for his fellow country men and women. Among his explanation was the infiltration of every aspect of the country by corruption and the very reason he opined that under such an atmosphere, nothing would work.

As a solution, the reknown professor also added his voice to the call for restructuring and urged the national assembly to take a bold step in that direction even if the president was reluctant to do so. It is however doubtful if the national assembly would embrace a call for an arrangement that would ultimately erode their powers.   The professor was right in holding such opinion as per the un-workability of the present system which is totally riddled with deep corruption. Only recently, a Bank staff was said to have made away with whooping sum of forty billion naira and all efforts to trace his whereabouts proved abortive.

This will probably signpost what to expect from bank workers from now on although the top management of each Bank will also be working on how to prevent a recurrence of such shocker. If one views the issue critically however, most of the blame goes directly to the Nigerian government.

A nation’s citizens borrow a leaf from whatever the government does and if the truth be told, all the actions and activities of Nigeria’s governments have always tended to favour the extension of corruption. Cases of large sums of money under different state actors are always disappearing without trace and even whenever the culprits are unmasked, they still end being treated with kid gloves.

The government did well in setting up the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), with the mandate to arrest and discourage such criminal activities. Without doubt, the agency has been unrelenting in trying to justify its existence by going after those who are culpable of any of the crimes under its purview.

Ironically, Nigeria’s legal system has always tended to frustrate the agency from getting even with big criminals who usually get soft landing by the courts. Such turn of events which is bound to have a negative effect must have resulted in a shift of attention to other self-serving strategies.

With various accusations against the personnels of the agency and each of its chairmen facing trials coupled with news of officers of the agency themselves fighting openly over custody of seized items, it is doubtful if the anti-graft agency itself has not been submerged in the deep sea of the same scourge it was set up to fight.

Wherever anyone turns in Nigeria, the stories are always that of manifestation of  corruption. Whether in the ministries either federal or state, in the higher institutions and unity schools especially in the admission processes, among heads of public schools, among traffic officers, at the courts, at the market place, at the National Assembly, at the motor parks, in the law enforcement agents, in  the customs and immigration, in the airports and seaports, in private schools especially during external exams, in the community development associations, in the trade unions, etc, the common denominator remains none other than corruption which almost everyone has accepted as normal.

Many years ago, I wrote an article titled: ‘Loot And Go’ where I explained how governance in Nigeria is all about looting of the nation’s treasury. Ever since that article was published by The Guardian newspaper, things have even gone more haywire than it ever used to be with almost everyone involved in a scam or another in the struggle to survive a very harsh business climate. Surprisingly, Nigerians troop to their worship centers on Fridays and Sundays as if their entire being depends on it.

They listen patiently to whatever the holy books say about rectitude being a prerequisite for building a progressive society from their equally culpable religious leaders, their Imams and GOs who keep howling like newly -recruited town criers! What is the whole essence of supernumerary prayers and endless vigils in the midst of ceaseless atrocities?

How any nation immersed in so much corruption intends to make any headway remains to be seen. The holy book states that only righteousness exalts a nation while sin is a reproach. While Nigerians have a common habit of criticising and cursing their leaders, none of them ever realises the futility of curses when aggrieved citizens are as guilty as those they rain curses on.

Religious leaders who ride high on people’s ignorance will never tell their members the truth that all their worship amounts to nothing and are completely useless unless righteousness becomes the norm.

Rather than insist that things be done properly in order for anyone to be justified, religious leaders only perpetrate deceitful caucus politics within the churches hierarchy which is a clear indication that they themselves are also part of the rot they ostensibly preach against.
Oyewusi is the Coordinator of Ethics Watch International Nigeria.