HOW CORRUPTION HAS EATEN DEEP INTO NIGERIA

There is this story of a Nigerian minister who went for a conference in another country. A counterpart in that country took him  to his home. It was such a beautiful building . the Nigerian minister asked his counterpart how he managed to build such a house. The counterpart replied “ you see that bridge there(pointing at the nearby bridge) and said that ten percent of it is this house”

When the same conference  was held next time in Nigeria, the Nigerian minister invited that his counterpart to his own home. The visitor was startled at the state of the art mansion. He quickly asked,”how did you manage?”

The Nigerian minister replied,”you see that valley there,there is supposed to be a bridge there,that bridge is this house.”

Hope you understood the story above?, if you didn’t, read carefully again because the story above indicates clearly how corruption has eaten deep into the four corners of this country.

every government that comes into power comes with a very touching story of bringing an end to corruption, at the end of their tenure, they either  become more corrupt than their predecessors or at worse, leave the nation the same way they saw it when they came in.

Corruption has assumed different dimensions coming in all sizes and shapes and permeating all level of our society. Corruption is in our homes,communities, churches,schools, markets,different levels of government, the judiciary.

The dilemma here is that each of us is pointing at the other of being corrupt or we conclude that almost every Nigerian is corrupt.corruption is majorly caused by greed and necessity.

Society’s recognition of ill-gotten  wealth has heightened the problem. It is a common sight nowadays to see even armed robbers and thieves as traditional title holders and knights of the church all in the name of money.

In the past, these were taboo. Our society will be better for it, if we shun ill-gotten wealth and instead of giving such people titles, we ex-communicate them.this will be a lesson for our youths.but that would seem hard because nowadays a lot of people are consumed with the desire to acquire wealth such that they are ready to become a blind sheep to their shepherds of wealth.

Public servants are not exempted because they now use corrupt means to provide for their gratuity and pension in which normally will be difficult to come by. Government should also strive to provide these social amenities to salvage these need-driven classes of corrupt people.

Another major source of corruption is societal pressure. The society expects a certain level of living from is citizens. In most cases, the standard is ordinarily not attainable. A person is expected for example, in addition to owning a house in his place of residence, own one again in his place of origin. No thanks to lack of citizenship rights,which consistently reminds one that one is not an indigene of one’s place of residence.