The Evils Of Corrupt Enrichment

By Okechukwu Emeh

Materials wealth is a protection against the deprivation, misery, shame and inhumanity of lack, poverty and squalor. When acquired in a fair and just manner or by dint of hard work, or divine favour, it is a thing of glory and up­liftment in the sight of God and right-thinking people. However, when wealth is achieved through illegitimate means, it is bound to be a source or reproach and resentment.

Today, Nigeria is evidently in a war against corrupt enrichment using public office, as being spearheaded with courage and determination by the administration of President Muhamma­du Buhari. Reassuringly enough, many people of goodwill across Nigeria have risen beyond the confines of petty sectional sentiments by receiving the unsavoury development of evils spawned in the land by our corrupt officials with disbelief, revulsion and indignation. This is inevitable against the backdrop of startling revelations from the ongoing anti-corruption investigations into various public institutions in the country, like the $2.1 billion arms deal.

It is not an overstatement that corruption is an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Ad­mittedly, the cancerous spread of this socio-economic cankerworm in Nigeria is one of the major reasons why Nigeria, notwithstanding her abundant human and material resources, is a classic example of stunted growth and arrest­ed development foisted by years of diversion of public funds badly needed for national transfor­mation into private pockets through unwhole­some practices like misappropriation, embez­zlement, fraud and bribery. Such economic and financial malfeasances are also a key factor fu­elling deprivation and despondency among our populace. Alongside this is the negative impact of endemic corruption on our external image, as frequently captured in our unimpressive ranking on annual global corruption indexes being conducted by renowned integrity rating bodies like Transparency International (TI).