We can win the corruption fight in Nigeria.

We can win the corruption fight in Nigeria.

By Chidi Wilson Nwachukwu

Each time the subject of corruption is discussed in Nigeria both in private and
public fora, attention is usually focused on the elected public officials, as if that
gate man in a village primary school is not capable of corruption. This is not
an attempt to defend those who paddle the ship of state in the name of our
president, Governors and other government officials, in fact they are suppose to
show a leading example to the masses. And because they also wield the power
and influence to ensure that those who are engaged in corruption are punished, it
makes it all the more easy to hold them responsible for the cesspool of corruption
our public offices have become.

Corruption is a hydra headed monster, and let me state that no country is
without one form of corruption or the other, but the case of Nigeria has taken
an alarming dimension and systemic. Imagine where the former Director General
of immigration was recently sacked for secretly recruiting employees into the
Agency without due process. We should think long and hard on the implication
of the DG’s action to our commonwealth as a people, and considering that
this unwholesome practice is also prevalent in other agencies of government
is worrisome. When someone is put into employment without requisite
qualifications and skills, I just don’t know what is expected of that person, and
how he think of those who put him in that position. Will he not also consider
them as incompetent? How much will he respect them and the position they
brandish? This simply brings me to the issue of integrity and corruption in Nigeria.

Most Nigerians, especially those who travel outside the shores have often
complained of disgraceful treatment meted out to them by foreign officials,
who would almost strip them naked on a suspicion of carrying a contraband .But
they forget so fast that we now live in a global village, and that our corrupt
tendencies are well known to other parts of the world. They already know that

we lack integrity, have no shame as a people and would do anything for money
and power, we even steal monies we don’t need. This is a country where a lot of
individuals are richer than their communities, they store in billions of Naira for
their unborn children, thereby depriving those children of self realization as well
as the ability to think and create wealth for themselves and their country . The
N32billion stolen by the pension thief was enough to turn many communities to
townships and stem rural urban drift as well as reduce unemployment.

Nigerians should stand against corruption, and our attention should equally shift
a little from big government officials being prosecuted by the EFCC to those little
attitudes that give vent to big corruption. In most government offices people
ask for money to do a job Government is already paying them to do via monthly
salaries, some even make demands as if it is their right to do so, yet most of us
don’t see anything wrong in this.

I strongly believe that if most Nigerians would say no to offering bribe to anybody,
the menace will stop. However to achieve this those issues that trigger corruption
will also be looked into by the government, if indeed it is ready to fight corruption
in this country. First on the list is the high cost of living especially in the Urban
areas such as lands and Housing, in the FCT, it is difficult for instance to acquire a
one bedroom flat with stable water supply and electricity for less than N500,000
in a decent neighborhood. Parents pay exorbitant school fees for their wards
even when it may not worth it, transporters charge fares indiscriminately from
commuters, and all these happen because there is poor regulatory regime and so
people keep running after themselves in a bid to meet up with these challenges .

Government cannot be mouthing campaign against corruption yet her policies
does not in any way discourage it, for instance government vehicles are mostly
expensive SUV’S imported abroad, even when we have local automobile
industries to encourage; in government offices you find imported Italian made
furniture, government officials also take their treatment in hospitals abroad
as little as for headaches, their wives deliver in hospitals abroad. They make
endless trips abroad in the name of conferences and seminars that has not
yielded any meaningful development to the country. in-fact, you need to see a
typical Nigerian preparing for a seminar, he is more interested in sight seeing and
shopping rather than pay attention to the subject of his trip.

However, it is cheering to hear from President Goodluck Johnathan recently that
2014 budget will target manufacturing sector, and I think it is the way to go in
creating employment and boosting local markets. Government should institute
policies that encourage creativity and hard-work, but above all appointments
should be given to the most deserving, people who are creative, competent with
integrity to protect. i had said it elsewhere that there is a nexus between integrity
and corruption, those who protect their integrity like the pot of clay will hardly
want to be indicted of corruptly enriching themselves ,because they believe that
they can as well achieve whatever they want genuinely through their intellectual
prowess, rather than cut corners. in-fact men of integrity see it as an affront on
the capacity of their intellect to be accused of corruption. Corruption is moral
bankruptcy wholesale and those involved in it have poor self worth. Again when
creative people are appointed to oversee an agency of government for instance, it
will be easy for them to recognize creativity and allow an inflow of ideas into such
an agency from Nigerians irrespective of their class and religion.

Corruption has continued to be on the increase in Nigeria because most people
“voted” or appointed into positions of authority by the government are political
cronies without the requisite credentials, and in the like manner they surround
themselves with same kind of people who spend money recklessly without adding
value to the economy.

Nigerians should learn to rise up by reporting every act of corruption no matter
how infinitesimal to relevant agencies, and follow it through to ensure that such a
persons get punished.

Nwachukwu,a Legal Practitioner lives in Abuja