By Emmanuel Okoroafor
Corruption has woven itself into the tapestry of the Nigeria narrative such that it has become the eternal plague of this most populous African country. For decades, this malady in its various manifestations – embezzling, backhandedness, kickbacks, internet fraud, thievery and all what not – have defined us more than our characters, capabilities and accomplishments. It is so bad that even one United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister had the cheeks to brand us “fantastically corrupt.”
For a country touted as the giant of Africa, the tragic flaw of corruption has whittled down Nigeria’s goliath stature to that of a Lilliputian. Today, it has become the gangrene eating away our corporate structure, the poison oozing from every pore of our collective body and the bile in our cup of wine. What is worse, even the younger generation has gradually bought into the corruption franchise. It is now fashionable to hear young people say, “If I get there (public position), I go chop (embezzle) my own.” Which means “if you can’t beat them, then join them.”
Many others argue that the perpetrators tend to go scot-free. These vermin – kleptocrats who steal the country blind; politicians who feed fat on our commonwealth; public office holders who put their hands into the national coffers and pilfer the national wealth (or is it national cake?) for their generation unborn; little thieves in uniforms who abuse the power of the state to rob the lower class of their hard-earned kobo – live among us. They oppress us with the opulence of their ill-gotten wealth and not anyone of them has been brought to book. So why shouldn’t we join them? A compelling but lame argument.In truth, nemesis awaits every one of them, because corruption is a vicious cycle, a beast with ugly fangs, and a grave sin with consequences that does not and will not spare the perpetrators, especially those in the middle rungs of the ladder, in civil service and the corporate institutions of the private sectors. They will all receive their just dessert at the end of the day―oh, yes!
A friend who runs a construction firm explained how a corrupt
government official had denied him a lucrative contract that would have been a
breakthrough for his two-year-old struggling company at the time.
“I got to the ministry that should
endorse our papers and the “Oga” was unresponsive and unwilling to help. I
understood his motive. He wanted a bribe, but the sum he mentioned was
outrageous. We tried hard to negotiate a reasonable sum for that piece of vital
government paper, but he wouldn’t budge. Eventually, we lost to a rival, for a
contract that we were duly qualified for. It took us another five years to have
another opportunity.” His story is familiar to that of most Nigerians.
But in his own case, payback time came 10 years later.
According to him, “Just last week” the same
government official, now retired and no longer enjoying the perks of office,
appeared at his company requesting to speak with the CEO of the company about
employing his son who since he graduated five years ago couldn’t secure a job.
Unbeknownst to the former mandarin, he was seated
before the same person he tried to force a bribe from years ago, and whom he
punished for failing to comply with his corrupt demand.
“He sat before me complaining about how things are
bad, people are corrupt, the system is broken, blah, blah. I kept quiet,
remembering how this man treated me 10 years ago. His rambling brought back
flashbacks of how I had pleaded with him on that day to no end; how he remained
unmoved when in frustration I’d told him – the way you people are going, very
soon there will be no businesses in Nigeria.” To cut a long story short, my
friend told him there was no vacancy. And truly there was none.
“I could
have referred him to another friend of mine who at the time was looking for
young graduates for employment in a branch of his real estate office in Lekki,
but I was not motivated to help him. I had done enough by not embarrassing him,
by not bringing up that episode from 10 years ago,” he explained.
The second corruption story of the night was of a “big boy” who worked in a
major oil company and habitually frustrated vendors and service companies
seeking contracts with the “Oil Giant”. His demand for bribes was
inordinate. This story came from our friend who owned a logistic firm in
the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry.
“I needed him to help win a contract. He stated his price, but it was a huge
sum we could not afford,” we heard from our friend. Five years later, the fixer
was retrenched. With the reversal of fortune, this bribe taker went cap in hand
to friends, acquaintances and old clients. But it was payback time for him.
Time to reap what he had sowed.
“He came straight to us for a job as a consultant. Yes, he had experience, and
trained abroad, but we rejected him flatly. I asked a junior staff to attend to
him. And my instruction was to dismiss him as quickly as possible. You don’t
reap where you don’t sow,” our friend justified.
You find these stumbling blocks everywhere today. They occupy
offices, big and small, wielding power over the future of an individual, a
company and even the country. They forget that corruption kills the hope of a
better tomorrow and in this country of ours, tomorrow offers no guarantee.
Blinded by filthy lucre, they forget that they will not occupy their privileged
seats forever. These tin gods frustrate businesses, forgetting that when
businesses are stressed, they fail; and when businesses fail, people will lose
their jobs. They weaken government institutions and good governance because one
act of corruption triggers a chain reaction that harms and weakens the system.
But sooner than later, they end up victims of their greed.
“He who lives by corruption is consumed by corruption in the end.”
A former Minister of Works had
opportunity while in office to reconstruct an important road. He corruptly
frittered away the opportunity. But a few years later, when he retired the aura
of invincibility gone, he joined the horde plying the bad road. The same bad
road he had the power and authority to repair or reconstruct but chose to
fritter the money away. He died on that same stretch of road. What an irony!
Corruption is a monster that spares no one. This
is a message to those who sit in high offices thinking they are untouchable;
those in government who feel unconcerned about the plight of the masses. The
rot in the system has a way of coming back to haunt them.
Several lessons abound from the scourge of
insecurity bedeviling the country presently. When the problem started, the poor
and the defenseless were the immediate victims of the perpetrators. But over
time, the noose widened for the neck of the bull (rich).
Today, relatives of these “big men” are among the
captives of bandits. Many of them, politicians inclusive, have paid ransoms to
free their wives, children, cousins, and associates. Police and military
officers have been kidnapped in the past five months and even the President of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been threatened by bandits/kidnappers.
Corruption spares no one.
By now we ought to have learnt our lessons. Our
economy is in shambles, the country is a big pot of mess and our young ones are
leaving in droves to other lands in search of greener pastures. The root of our
national tribulation is corruption, a self-inflicted problem.
*Dr. Okoroafor wrote from Lagos.
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