Corruption is likely to appear on everyone's list of factors obstructing the Nigeria's path towards sustainable development. Yet, rather for it decrease, corruption has proliferated to to all segments of Nigeria, making it the "common cold" of Nigeria social ills.
One may pause for a moment and ask, what is this evil that men do and yet lives after them?
The answer to the above question has been a contentious one for ages. However, corruption has been broadly defined as a perversion or a change from good to bad. Corruption or corrupt practices have been said to involve the violation of established rules for personal gain and profit (Sen, 1999). In his own words, Nye (1967) defined corruption as behaviour which deviates from the formal duties of a public role, because of private gains regarding personal, close family, private clique, pecuniary or status gains. It is a behaviour which violates rules against the exercise of certain types of duties for private gains regarding influence.
According to A. J. Ogunleye, Corruption is a cankerworm that introduces arbitrariness and discrimination in decision makings so that rules, regulations and procedure are circumvented within a course of action for selfish gains. Corruption is a concept, a harmful phenomenon to personal growth and the economic development of a nation. A corrupt individual is better referred to as a sociopath who will often require the attentions of a personologist; and or behaviour.
Corrupt behaviours include; misappropriation, nepotism, fraud, embezzlement, extortion, favoritism, rigging of elections, and falsification of voters register, over-invoicing, money laundering, examination malpractices and even the present day cultism; (most especially among students).
Socially, the effects of corruption could be enormous. For example, the current call for privatization of Nigeria Power Holding Company and deregulation of the Nigeria economy that is being critically opposed by some Nigeria elitists resulted in revealing the recently submitted result of the oil subsidy probe in Nigeria, as reported by Vincent Ovia, where it was found out by the Honourable Lawan Farouk probe panel that fuel consumption in Nigeria was inflated by about 30 million litres per day and thus resulting in the government expend of over 2.4 trillion Naira in the year 2011 alone (ThisdayLive, 15th April, 2012
Another example is the internet fraud, which is popularly referred to as "yahoo yahoo" can be quite disturbing. It is dishearten to find undergraduates and even graduates involved in this so-called Job. We see it as fraud but they see it as a Full Time Job, and they keep saying Yahoo Yahoo is a very difficult task. Boys ranging from age 17 - 40 something, now make a whole lot of money through this "channel of money-making", and if they are being questioned, usually, the reply you get is, "Na our money wey oyinbo don collect from our parent, na him we dey collect and we never collect am finish".This problem has eaten too deep and I am afriad the authorities have no capacity to stop it. Months ago, a neighbour of mine was caught in Ado-Ekiti because of this yahoo yahoo thingy. Few days later, I saw him and he was like he paid N750,000 as bribe to the EFCC.
Just like what African China said in his song " poor man wey steal maggi na them we dey see for crime fighters". So when the so-called EFCC is said to now takes bribe to set some culprits free what else can be done? Its more like a merry go round.
It is pertinent to record that corruption is at its' top in Nigeria because most Nigerians measure good life with flamboyant affluence and conspicuous consumption. An individual, in Nigeria, whose age ranges between 18 and 45 years and yet has no house(s) and car(s) (exotic and sleekly) of his own is rather perceived as cursed and doomed for life. An attempt to prove to the world and Nigerians that one is not cursed, and, or doomed, accounts for why many Nigerians engage in dubious activities to cut corners to affluence.
Instances are ritual killings, cases of fraud, forgery, embezzlement and abuse of office; are issues of loss of moral reasoning, moral values, and moral judegment. An example is the recent case of N23.3bn pension fund embezzlement.
These behaviours continue because humans are essentially hedonistic, we tend to learn and internalize behaviours of people who live in affluence and opulence and they, invariably, serve as our models’. This phenomenon is most apparent where, even, persons that have been indicted of corrupt practices are celebrated rather than punished. For example, many of the second republic politicians who were found guilty of corrupt practices, and even a host of the past military leaders who were accused of corruption, are today in the corridors of power in Nigeria. The likes of Salisu Buhari, Jim Nwobodo, Chief Bode George, Boni Haruna, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Ibrahim Babangida and Joshua Dariye to mention a few, are some of the individuals who has either been accused, or found guilty of corruption but today dictate the shots in Nigeria. Late Chief S. M. Afolabi was accused of corrupt practices involving the National Identity Card.
A healthy environment devoid of stimulation to learn, internalize and reproduce criminal tendencies and corrupt practices is advocated.
Successive Nigeria governments must wake up to their responsibilities of providing essential services for her citizenry, ensuring a safe haven for peaceful co-existence, and punishing corrupt individuals and other sociopaths adequately, to prevent others from performing other or similar criminal acts.
We must not also lose sight of the fact that a learnt act can equally be unlearned. Therefore, through reinforcements and public enlightenment campaigns, Nigerians can learn to appreciate social values and change their orientation through moral value judgements.
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