 Published
October 25th, 2011
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
- Carl Bard.
One issue that has taken the centre stage of every social,
economic, religious and political discussion in Nigeria
today; is the issue of ‘Corruption’. It is a social
phenomenon of man’s greed for power and authority over
mundane grandeurs.
Recently, Nigeria was adjudged the second largest producers
and sellers of oil after Saudi Arabia in the world market.
Unfortunately and paradoxically, despite this great feat,
Nigeria still ranks lowest in the gross national product and
per capital income. Practically, this shows that ninety
percent of the populations live below poverty level. There
is more to it, than what the eyes see. Equally, inspite of
the abundance of oil in Nigeria, Nigerians still live the
lives in Hobbesian state of nature; there, live was nasty,
poor, short and brutish. This sorry situation anchors deeply
on corruption among public officers.
Today, Nigeria has become a country where those who embezzle
public funds are respected, adored and celebrated as heroes.
Public Officers in Nigeria enmass and do away with public
funds without being punished. This perhaps is rooted in our
poor and offensive socio-economic structure, which empowers
Public Officers to acquire wealth and public funds
recklessly in the expense of poor majority of the people.
It is saddened to note that few nonentities and cabals whose
means of livehood are questionable usually find their way
into power, gather public funds, become rich and are
celebrated as heroes. These individuals live larger than
live itself. They must be invited to every occasion.
Otherwise, such occasion can never adjudge to be hot and
successful. If they have not arrived at the occasion, such
occasion would not begin. Their presence is usually welcomed
by a thunderous ovation. They may have nothing mentally to
donate or contribute in terms of advice and counseling. The
highest donation such corrupt person has, is cash. This
shows that the future of our society is in danger, since
success is now measured on the parameter of how corrupt one
is. According to French Political Thinker Baron Montesquieu
“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. The
implications of these are deep and far reaching. Corruption
lies in power acquisition and becomes the disease of power.
Corruption is seriously in the minds of many Nigerians, due
to the fertile ground provided by the ineptitude of
political leaderships.
There are myriads of what could be regarded as the chief
causes of corruption in Nigeria. Firstly, there is lack of
conscientization of the people. The people are ignorant of
the workings of government. The clever and greedy so called
politician take the advantage of the trust of the mandate
bestowed on them to enrich themselves at the expense of
those that voted them into power. Secondly, corruption
spread like a bush-fire for any public officer who involved
in corrupt practices; as most of them had never had such
opportunity to serve the public or be a public office
before. Also, it has been observed, that some would be out
of public service position for one reasons or the other,
when eventually such fellow gets the opportunity to serve;
he/she will seriously strive to remove the state of
hopelessness bestowed in his household for long absence of
no job through quick and massive acquisition of public
funds. Thirdly, there are high expectations from the public
officer by the society. In order to meet up the high morale
and expectations from the public, the public officer is
bound to multiply his sources of income through
embezzlement. These reasons generally, have called for the
great need to make public office less attractive.
Available records show that there are no serious and
transparent efforts by the government in fighting
corruption. Despite the pretentious crusades and measures
against corruption in Nigeria, it has continued to
pathologically spread like epidemic diseases. The efforts
and structures of the government, private bodies and
religious leaders are putting to help combat the menace are
not only weak, but ineffective. That is why the public oath
taking which expresses “oath of office and oath of
allegiance” by public officers during swearing- in, does not
guarantee morality in the system..
Also, the mere anti-graft agencies in the country have never
had free hand in tackling corruption without interference
from the authorities that be. For instance, when a Public
officer is being questioned over corrupt practices,
“signals” would come from authorities above indicating
‘interest” in the person. Even, when the person is
prosecuted, there is no enough punishment melted to the
person. He is simply sentenced to few years of imprisonment
after which he comes out and continues to enjoy his acquired
and looted wealth from where he stopped.
There is need therefore, to introduce and institute a
traditional means to checkmate corruption in Nigeria. These
traditional means are the steps not taken so far to curb
corruption. Corruption should be seen as brand of thievery
and robbery. In African traditional society like in Igbo
land, the original way to deal with a thief is by exposing
and humiliating the thief, ie by “Igba Mbebe”, not just by
mere punishment. The person is move around the street and
allowing youths and women chant pejorative and abusive songs
to put the person into shame. Most times, the person is
stripped naked. The stigma will linger so long on the person
and brings back his/her moral rectitude. Secondly, as
already emphasized, the present oath taking during swearing
in for public officers is weak and by no means effective.
Traditionally, an advocacy and enforcement of swearing
“juju, Mmoo, Agbara, Sango, etc” should be introduced. It
may sound fetish but not alien to our culture. It is high
time we went back to our tradition and culture. Swearing
with “Agbara” and other traditional elements and forces do
not matter whether the person believes in it or not. The
efficacy of traditional oath taking does not need any body’s
approval or belief. If one does not believe in it, it is the
more reason why the person should swear to it. The
traditional oath taking serves some useful purposes as it
gives instant judgment and punishment and institute sanity
to situation and morality to the person, especially where
there are arguments, doubts and proof for innocence. The
person who actively swore by it, will always be conscious of
the repercussion and sledged harmer of the invisible and
mystic power of the oath. Ontologically, there is fear that
the power of the oath is invisibly watching the person and
his activities. At times, even, when the person naturally
falls sick, his thinking would be that, he must have behaved
wrongly against the tenets of the oath. This system will
ensure probity, accountability, transparency, faithfulness
and judiciousness by inculcating fear and engendering
morality in our personal stewardship and general system of
governance.
Man should not be dogmatically slave to mentality of evil
and immorality. As corruption has engulfed our system and
society, all hope is not lost. There is enlightenment in the
words of Holderlin that “where danger looms, salvation also
abounds”. There are a lot of options that are open for man,
if we want to achieve authenticity in life. We must attempt
to rehabilitate our attitude in public service. This can be
done by returning to pure human transcendence, which will
not only rescue our mind from the fear of poverty and
pinnacle of selfishness, but sanctifies and improves our
self person as a being.
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