That Nigeria is the most corrupt
nation in the world is not news. What is evident however is that corruption is
no longer a vice to Nigerians; indeed, it is a culture. Nigerians consider
corruption as a routine. It is so genetic that many now see it as unavoidable,
peculiar to Nigeria; one considered a blessing in disguise. Let us call a spade
a spade and not a farm tool, many see corruption as a way to bridge the gap
between the rich and the poor. We assume because certain people carry proceeds from
the black gold, which is supposed to be our commonwealth, we also should find
ways to exploit other people. What we fail to realise is that the malaise
corruption is baring us naked like the lunatic in the market square.
It is because it has become a
culture that even a child who can speak in Nigeria knows that it is glorious to
celebrate financial crimes. Therefore, it is not shocking when we have educated
Nigerians giving credence to this fact. Many believe there is no crime in
finding ways to beat protocols to get ones desire. It is characteristic of the
average Nigerian to find short cuts to getting things done just to avoid the
due process; that is why a Nigerian cannot stay in line on a queue. They would
rather find a friend who can help speed things up. I remember when I used to
visit banks before the advent of the online banking and ATM usage, when on queue;
an impatient customer will find someone in line to give his teller.
It is not difficult to justify
that corruption is an inherited trait of every Nigerian child. After all, their
parents travel abroad to give birth to them so they can enjoy the privilege of
dual citizenship and then bring them here back home; yet still receiving the
rights of those kids as if they are resided in their birth country. The children
are already a part of it constructively. They work them into schools not on
merits and get their youth service corp. scheme fixed up so that while they are
serving, it is in absentia so they can travel abroad for their masters. These kids
grow up to be our politicians and Bank managers who forge documents and siphon funds
abroad. The only way they consider a norm is the surrogate life in their
identity.
We find corruption in the tiniest
events such as market women adding a little more than required on goods, when
we deliberately purchase goods at night so that we can spend fake or torn
condemned moneys, when we forge documents so that we can find favours, when we
doctor fuel pumps and dispense less quantity than paid for. It occurs when we
pay a little extra to avoid transfers or instigate our own transfers to better
places at our work places, when we swap files of rightful people for promotion
for that of our own people or ourselves.
In Nigeria, we do not deem our
white attires soiled with palm oil. For us the stain is only a pattern, a way
of life. That is why regardless of Anti money laundering policies of the
Central Bank of Nigeria money laundering goes on every second. All that needs
done is a little tip for the manager so he can ignore that the transaction took
place. It is all merely a matter of documented policy for the auditors. After all
the CBN itself is chief in the acts – you will not find mints in the bank; even
bankers consider mint notes a miracle. Whereas, at every party in Nigeria,
there is a ceaseless rain of new notes sprayed by the big wigs and readily
available to the moneychangers because those pay commission to the apex banks
to get them.
Nigerians do not loathe
corruption or corrupt practices. Only what is condemned can be a crime not what
is a culture! All we know as Nigerians is ‘chop make I chop, God no go vex.’ We
all want a bite of the cherry in every form. That is who we are; a culturally
displaced people with misplaced values and rights. How can we be corrupt when
as children, our parents paid for us to have the best Senior Secondary School
Certificate Examination? That is not a malpractice. After all, the invigilator
will reel out answers to us or pretend to sleep while another one solves the
questions. Can it be malpractice, when there are special Joint Admission
Matriculation Board centres for us to have our exams written and pass once we
can pay the ‘special’ fees? Yet the same parents lament on the dwindling
standard of education.
Why do we need to believe in hard
work when our parents already have a job waiting for us in one of the companies
they are the board chairperson? It is a waste of time to go through the due
process when in the blink of an eye, a contract can be signed for a non
existing company ones the chief executive officer has interest in helping his
friend.
In our country, we are not
corrupt, we just have interest in certain things and use our weight to influence,
and we disregard competence and merits for personal gains. Once the lot of one
is better, it begins to reflect on the community so why let the community
benefit directly rather than remotely. We are not corrupt but we are impatient
to do things because we cannot define right from wrong. Even our government
aids us to skip tax and when we eventually pay, they carry it in their Ghana
must go bags to Switzerland.
We are not corrupt because even
when the law catches up with us, all that matters is whom we know, and not what
they know or the gravity of the crime. The best they recover from us is
trickles of the converted commonwealth.
ADEKANYE ADEYINKA OLAJIDE.
This is the true pic of the situation we find ourselves in this country of our. And until we all start to change our individual selves, it's gonna continue till God knows when............................ good one bro
ReplyDeleteThe longest comment ever from Bola and it could not have been more precise. That must mean a thing. Well, like you said, we can't stop hoping and wishing we put our house in order. Thank you sir.
DeleteNew Bank notes are scarce. Bankers sell it to them. Everything is just wrong. To we(nigerians) its normal. All the instances you used are 100 percent true. I weep 4 my country.
ReplyDelete