When the ancient Chinese decided to live in peace, they made the Great Wall of China, which they believed no one could climb it due to its height. During the first 100 years of its existence, the Chinese were invaded three times. The enemy infantry had no need of penetrating or climbing over the wall, because each time they came, they bribed the guards and came through the doors. The Chinese built the wall but forgot the character-building and emotional connection of the wall-guards.[1] Thus, fighting corruption in Nigeria without investing in human character formation is a journey to failure.
Corruption is the abuse of public office for personal gain or other illegal benefits. [2] It is a manipulation of policies, institutions and rules of procedure in the allocation of resources and financing by political decision makers, who abuse their position to keep their power, status or wealth.[3] Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, nepotism, patronage, influence peddling, graft or embezzlement. Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, though is not restricted to these activities.[4]
What are the causes of corruption?
The first and remote cause of corruption is found in the human instinct of self-preservation. Humans love themselves, and fear situations that will bring them pain lack, sickness, misery and death. So, they are often willing take actions that will save them from any of these undesired situations. In situations where their desired level of pleasure is unguaranteed, humans may be ready to take odd measures to obtain means of increased pleasure.
The second and immediate cause of corruption is the style of social organization where some people are given charge of other people’s resources. It begins with the decision (deceit or force) to combine different peoples’ resources with the excuse of greater productivity or general wellbeing. After this merger, some people take charge of managing the process of development and proper distribution of the collective resources. These people who take charge of managing the combined resources are often tempted to misappropriate the resources or roles to their benefits. This situation of misappropriation by collective resource managers strengthens the belief that ‘power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely’.[5] Thus, the more the number of people whose resources are pooled together, the more likelihood for corruption.
These two causes of corruption explained above can be addressed in different ways: education and transparent systematization.
The remote cause of corruption is the instinct for self-preservation which leads to the fear of lacking resources for sustenance and happiness. For “no man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.”[6] The choice of corrupt practices is embedded in the way people see things. A true way of managing the human instinct of self-preservation for social justice, instead of corruption, is social education. This is done by showing the long-term benefits of social virtues for common good. When people are enlightened and convinced of the long-term benefits of social virtues for their happiness, they freely choose it.
Transparent systematization is the organization of a society for various groups in a society to produce what they need, and to contribute to the society. A system is a group of things that are connected to work together like different parts of a body, computer or car. Each part of the body (heart-liver-lungs-skin-eyes-brain) produces specific values for the whole body, and benefits from the values produced by other parts. Though the several parts are linked together under the coordination of the brain, they are guided by specific principles to produce their different values for the body.
Likewise, human society is a group of different communities who collaborate and contribute for the good of the whole society. Like in human body, individuals and groups use their various resources to produce what they need and trade with others in the society. By owning and using their resources to produce what they can, they become more responsible for their property. Then, the leaders of the groups would have lesser chances of high-scale corruption. When different parts of a larger society produce what they need from their resources, and then contribute to the larger society, the chances of large-scale corruption reduce. But when there is a large pool of different people’s resources, it becomes difficult to manage, and easy to divert.
Which efforts have been made to fight corruption in Nigeria? We noted that corruption may be fought in two ways: education for remote cause and systematization for the immediate cause.
On the effort to address the remote cause, there has been a lot of speeches as efforts in fighting corruption in Nigeria. Religious associations, traditional rulers, public and private officials, pressure groups, unions, school teachers and lecturers, all talk about fighting corruption in Nigeria. However, this condemnation as fighting corruption in Nigeria is rarely shown in real life. On the contrary, there are evidences of clear approval of corruption in religious, political, social, academic and traditional institutions. This is seen in the continuous reward of noble titles on people with questionable wealth. All these sink deeper into the minds of both old and young observers: we verbally fight corruption but practically reward it.
The main cause of this discrepancy can be found in the absence of distinction and productive maturity of ethnic communities. The major factor for producing tools and items, which is mineral resources, in ethnic communities is seized by government.[7] So, communities that cannot produce items for their people’s needs or external trade, do anything possible to attract funds. They will even canonize the devil (robbers) if the devil provides them water, roads or food.
On the effort to address the immediate cause, Nigerian government has set up many anti-corruption agencies. These agencies are enabled to use force, pain, shame, media, technology or other possible means for fighting corruption in Nigeria. However, these agencies have been severally labelled agents of witch-hunting political rivals by incumbent governments.[8] Different parts of Nigeria accuse others of looting “our” common resources, yet they are unable to produce anything for themselves.
We noted earlier that one of the main remedies to the immediate cause of corruption is transparent systematization of resources. This is the reorganization for individuals and communities to own and use their resources and principles to produce what they need, trade and contribute in the society. Unfortunately, the Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act,[9][10][11] and the Land Use Act[12] were militarily used to seize the people’s lands and resources. As it is, the Nigerian senate who gain from them will never vote for an end to resource corruption in Nigeria[13][14], since they benefit from it.
A truer way of fighting corruption in Nigeria
The root of corruption in Nigeria lies in the forceful merger, which led to the concentration of resource rights in a single office. “Foundation once destroyed, what can the just do”[15] is a bible quotation that expresses the futility of fighting corruption on a corrupt foundation. If we wish to succeed in fighting corruption in Nigeria, the ethnic communities must retreat to take stock or their people, their values, resources, potential and needs, so that they discuss and agree to retrieve and use their resources for their people’s productivity and social responsibility. This will enable communities to appreciate the dignity in producing what they need and trade with the world.
When there is desperation for survival, uncertainty and centralization of resources, there will be corruption. However, when various individuals and communities retrieve the private rights to their lands and resources, the new education will emphasize the management of human instincts of fear, self-preservation and search for agreement and fulfilment.
[1] Story adapted from Ben Carson’s quote on Character education
[2] http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-corruption.htm
[3] https://www.transparency.org/what-is-corruption/
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_corruption
[5] John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dalberg-Acton,_1st_Baron_Acton
[6] Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Vindication of rights of men, 1790. Extracted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft#Vindication_of_the_Rights_of_Men_.281790.29 on 11-09-2017
[7] Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act
[8] https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/02/stop-witch-hunting-dikko-maritime-platform-tells-efcc-3/
[9] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 2
[10] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 2, paragraph 1
[11] Nigerian minerals and mining act 2007 act no. 20, chapter 1, Part 1, Section 1, paragraph 3
[12] 29th March 1978, Land use act. P7
[13] http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/238183-live-updates-nigerian-senate-votes-major-constitutional-amendments.html
[14] https://saharacable.com/nigerian-senate-dumps-devolution-powers-states/
[15] Psalm 11:3