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Not
too many eons ago, the Government of Lagos State under Mr Bola Tinubu started a
mini revolution in the city of Lagos whereby motorists caught driving on the
wrong side of the road or otherwise driving carelessly are not only fined a
hefty sum of money, but are also escorted to psychiatric hospitals to have
themselves assessed, and at their own costs. It was, I was told, a very
successful initiative, but sadly, like many other good and welcome initiatives
in Nigeria, it died an unnatural death. That was because there was never any
real commitment to it.
The
fact that a lot of our citizens wantonly and deliberately disobey the laws of
the land – and believe me, Nigeria has a lot of laws, which if enforced as they
should be in a normal society, will give us a better and more organised country
– is a reflection of the lunacy and breakdown of law and order in that country.
By this I mean in its totality, not just motorists, armed robbers and
militants, but also corrupt officials in government, industry, business and
other sectors.
It
is for this reason that I have likened the behaviour of motorists to those of
our leaders. The problem of corruption in Nigeria has assumed enormous and
embarrassing proportions in recent years, although it has been with us for
decades. In fact, so grave is the problem that in 1998, the CBCN (Catholic
Bishops Conference of Nigeria) composed a special prayer against bribery and
corruption in Nigeria. This prayer is still being recited today at most
Catholic masses. (See my article – Corruption and the Nigerian Mentality,
Nigeriaworld.com )
Since
President Yar’Adua assumed the mantle of power in May 2007, the earth
shattering revelations that have surfaced on the monumental scale of corruption
in the previous administration of Olusegun Obasanjo has shaken Nigerians dizzy.
The monumental sums being bandied about is beyond belief. And we have hardly
started or ended. Like Americans say, “You ain’t seen nothing yet”. In fact we
will never know the real and true amount of Nigerian people’s money that have
gone into the private pockets of former Governors, Deputy Governors, Ministers,
Special Advisers of all tiers of government, Commissioners, Board and
Parastatals Chairpersons, Local Government Chairpersons and their councillors,
top and middle level civil servants, and even minor officials. It is like
looking for a needle in a big haystack, if you ask me. We are talking of
trillions of Naira here, because if only three ex-Governors can steal over 200
billion Naira between them, imagine the rest. And the stealing continues with
second-term Governors and new Governors alike. All of them think they can still
get away with it; they think they are smart enough to outwit the system. A
delusion of their minds.
This
is sheer lunacy. And that brings me to my essay. Gary Novak, (undated) an
“Independent Scientist”, quoted Ivan Pavlov (Nobel Laureate in Physiology
in 1904) as defining modern psychology by showing how stimulus-response
reactions are created in the mind. Without going into the experiment of Pavlov,
he showed that certain stimuli cause patterns of behaviour to be expressed as
developed reactions, and when these are repeated often, causes reactions to
become more developed over time.
The
reactions of corruption always have the same characteristics, with the starting
point being the assumption that prevailing over someone else would be
advantageous. In Nigeria, our leaders and/or those in charge of power and
authority create that advantage by stealing more money from the treasury,
buying more properties, and to take it to another level, buying private planes
and more valuable properties and vehicles in overseas countries, even when they
do not need to. This allows them to dictate terms to their advantage (as seen
when they are going for re-election or even during plea-bargaining) to the
detriment of other players – colleagues or the ordinary citizen. They see
themselves as playing a game of survival, and the only way they can survive is
to maintain a corrupt advantage over everybody else.
In
Sam Vaknin’s “The Psychology of Corruption” in Malignant Self Love (1999
-2007), he wrote “Most politicians bend the laws of the land and steal
money or solicit bribes because they need the funds to support networks of
patronage. Others do it in order to reward their nearest and dearest or to
maintain a lavish lifestyle when their political lives are over. But these
mundane reasons fail to explain why some officeholders go on a rampage and binge
on endless quantities of lucre. All rationales crumble in the face of a Mobutu
Sese Seko or a Saddam Hussein or a Ferdinand Marcos who absconded with billions
of US dollars from the coffers of Zaire, Iraq, and the Philippines,
respectively.
These
inconceivable dollops of hard cash and valuables often remain stashed and
untouched, mouldering in bank accounts and safes in Western banks. They serve
no purpose, either political or economic. But they do fulfil a psychological
need. These hoards are not the megalomaniacal equivalents of savings accounts.
Rather they are of the nature of compulsive collections.
Erstwhile
president of Sierra Leone, Momoh, amassed hundreds of video players and other
consumer goods in vast rooms in his mansion. As electricity supply was
intermittent at best, his was a curious choice. He used to sit among these
relics of his cupidity, fondling and counting them insatiably. While Momoh
relished things with shiny buttons, people like Sese Seko, Hussein, and Marcos
drooled over money. The ever-heightening mountains of greenbacks in their
vaults soothed them, filled them with confidence, regulated their sense of
self-worth, and served as a love substitute. The balances in their bulging bank
accounts were of no practical import or intent. They merely catered to their
psychopathology. These politicos were not only crooks but also kleptomaniacs.
They could no more stop thieving than Hitler could stop murdering. Venality was
an integral part of their psychological makeup”.
So
we see the relationship between looting of government treasury and kleptomania.
The same analysis above is very apt with our Nigerian politicians and leaders.
Some of them are so mad that that they keep their loot in their houses; some of
them even bury cash in graves; while some of them just go on buying every
property and business in sight, despite the fact that they can only sleep in
one room at a time, example, an ex-Governor who has 159 or so properties in a
single city.
Kleptomania
is a compulsive desire to steal. Psychologists and psychiatrists will tell you
kleptomania is a psychological disorder or aberration. It is about acting out a
dream or fantasy. Corrupt Nigerian leaders also see it a compensatory act; they
think politics is a drab, uninspiring, unintelligent and often, humiliating
business, which is risky and arbitrary. It is also stressful and full of
conflict. They also think they are doing us all a favour and therefore they
should be compensated adequately. In other words, they do not agree that their
salary is compensation enough and the fact that they are living virtually free
of charge on our money. Vaknin also goes further to posit that “politicians
with mild forms of mental health disorders react by de-compensation. They rob
the state and coerce businessmen to grease their palms because it makes them
feel better, it helps them to repress their mounting fears and frustrations,
and to restore their psychodynamic equilibrium. These politicians and
bureaucrats "let off steam" by looting”.
Another
fact is that a society where truth is not allowed to flourish is bound to be
corrupt; and with it, all other kinds of ills in the society. Such is our
society. That is why some people who can never tell the truth, and see nothing
wrong in telling lies all the time, are referred to as “pathological
liars”. Politicians thus devised a seemingly acceptable definition by
saying they are only being “economical with the truth”. However, a lie is a
lie. A corrupt person can never ever be expected to be truthful – another kind
of psychological aberration – because he/she always has something to
hide. Any threat of exposure then leads him/her to taking evasive action, and
he/she will even contemplate, and often resort to, mass murder. Incidentally,
it is not only the leaders or politicos that manifest this characteristic, but
even the ordinary members of society. Hence the veracity in the saying that
“A people deserve the leaders they get”. We must all share the blame for
our corrupt state.
Ian
Heath , 2003, wrote that “A person’s use of social and political power
usually reveals the limitations of that person. The limitations reflect the
moral boundaries of the person – narrow and bigoted boundaries often indicate
little ability to handle power for the common good. One limitation is the
belief that there is one law for those who have power and another for those
without it : the person with power respects only those who also have power.
This gives rise to a common failing. When a person has power, that power is
abused when it is directed into areas of society where the person has
psychological problems. Abuse occurs because the person’s psychological
problems undermine his moral principles and corrupt his exercise of power. Power is neutral but the person is not. So power magnifies both the person’s virtues and
his vices”.
Looking
at our systems in Nigeria today, it encourages corruption by the following
reasons: there is scarcity of goods and services; there is monumental red tape
and delay (bureaucracy); there is lack of transparency from the governments;
our judicial system cannot guarantee justice, fairness and equality; tribalism
and nepotism among the corrupt to protect each other (as with the expression
“thick as thieves” and no expression as “thick as honest people”).
With
the above causes of corruption are also four key players: the corrupt
politician, the corrupt bureaucrat or civil servant, the corrupt businessman
and the criminal, who combine together in different formulations, permutations
and combinations to perpetrate their corrupt acts on the people and the nation.
Incidentally, they are all of the same ilk, carved out of the same tree. For
example, if the corrupt politician were to be a businessman or civil servant,
he will still be corrupt in those roles, and vice versa for all four groups. It
does not matter what position or role they play either in governance or
business, or just any role in the society, they will always be corrupt. The
environment does not have any effect on them. It is difficult to say when the
civil servants are taking bribes because it is like trying to guess when the
fish in the water is drinking water. The civil servants are very much part of
the system and it is difficult to detect their corruption, but we all know they
aid the politicians to steal us blind, hence their culpability.
Most
kleptomaniac leaders, bureaucrats and politicians are also psychopaths,
therefore they rarely feel remorse or fear the consequences of their misdeeds,
and this only makes them more culpable and dangerous. Again, examples abound
currently with indicted or arrested ex-Governors, and their friends in
Government, still pulling strings in their incarceration or hideouts to remove
evidence, getting anti-corruption chiefs removed or even resorting to murdering
witnesses.
The
psychology which breeds corruption is that today corruption is a low risk, high
profit activity. There is no shame in being corrupt, as exemplified by those
arrested ex-Governors who are still strutting about on the streets, fighting
all corners, and in fact, still being hailed by their own people as some
malformed heroes. So if you can make easy money and also there is no loss of
prestige in the society, why not indulge in corruption? In fact the only
restriction of corruption can be from two sources. One is the internal check of
conscience and the moral values an individual gets form his family, background,
religion and his own society. In our current situation in Nigeria, moral values
of all kinds seem to have rapidly and irrevocably declined. The second of
course is external control, which the government can exercise to make
corruption a very dangerous exercise. As a Nigerian, I am concerned with
the second part, because, invariably, it is in Government that we find 90% of
corrupt officials in Nigeria, so how can the Government make corruption a
dangerous exercise to would-be corrupt leaders or politicians?
My
reason for writing this article is my belief that before one can understand the
reason behind this our national malaise, it is pertinent and important that we
understand the psychology behind corruption and the people who perpetrate it on
120 to 140 million people before we can devise effective strategies of
confronting the perpetrators. We need to study and understand their
psyche. It is also because of my inability, much as I try, to comprehend the
reason why corruption is so pervasive in the Nigerian society that I grew up
in. All many Nigerians had wanted in life, and what our family, background,
religion and society had taught us then was to have a good education, take up a
job in any sector of the society and do our best to ease the suffering of
society in any way we individually or collectively can, and that is simply by
working hard and serving our people. However I fail to understand why others –
corrupt, avaricious, selfish, arrogant, insensitive and murderous people – feel
the wealth of a whole nation belongs to them by right or by virtue of the
position they find themselves in – elected or selected. I cannot understand how
a Governor or even a Minister can walk or drive on the streets of Nigeria and
be totally impervious and immune to the suffering and poverty going on around
them. These people even feign ignorance of these and insulate themselves from
the public, as if they have never been ordinary citizens before. I cannot for
the world of me, reconcile being corrupt with being happy because you have more
money than me. Mind you, I am not naïve. I have needs too, as a normal human being,
but I don’t think I can be happy by depriving others of their needs or
entitlements too.
It
is therefore safe to conclude, from the psychological analysis of corruption,
that our corrupt politicians and leaders must be mad. They must be psychopaths.
This is the only plausible explanation for their behaviour. It is therefore not
asking too much if perhaps they should be subjected to very rigorous and
extensive psychiatric tests before they are allowed to run for office or take
office, as cumbersome and impracticable as this may seem. It is not even enough
asking them to declare their assets before they take office or before they even
run of office – they always manipulate this exercise in futility. A lot of them
are a danger to the Nigerian society, like armed robbers, policemen (yes)
and mad people on the street. Unfortunately, a mad person never realises
his/her problem, they think everybody else but themselves is the mad person.
But
I am sure that if we put our heads together and follow the dictates of Truth,
the Law, the ability to recognise good and evil, Nigerians will be able to come
up with effective solutions to check corruption and utilise government and
the people to check corruption. We must come together, we must survive and
enjoy together, we should build on our strengths of ideas and resourcefulness;
our ideas must be bright and shining and practical and sincere, and we should
remove the poison of misunderstanding between us and there should be no hatred.
Truth
be said, we are all fighting a very common enemy in corruption. Our very
survival and that of our future generations, now or unborn, depends on it. Some
people believe Nigeria is irredeemable and incorrigible and is a failed state.
The problem is those who hold such thoughts and opinions will die, along with
the rest of us, never knowing otherwise, and Nigeria will still be there.
Breaking Nigeria into several different nations will not solve the problem of
corruption, as we know that our corruption is not unique or peculiar to any
religion or tribe. Let the Ijaws have their own country today, and you will see
what happens to them when they control the oil. Let the Yorubas have their own
country today, and that is when you will know there is something called
“corruptis invincibilis”, the mother of all corruption. Give a country to the
Northerners, and you will know the truth about what corruption really is –
total immorality couched in religious ostentation. To the Igbos, a country
called Biafra, and that is when you see brothers killing sisters and fathers
killing sons because of money and corruption. Sorry; and all other tribes who
consider themselves mini-nations in Nigeria. It is only collectively that we
can fight it.
That
is the plain truth. So what the heck are you complaining about?
Akintokunbo
Adejumo, a social and political commentator on Nigerian issues, lives and works
in London, UK. A graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (1979) and
University of Manitoba, Canada (1985), he also writes on topical issues for
newspapers and internet media including Nigeriaworld.com, Nigeria Today Online,
Nigerians In America, Nigeria Village Square, Champions Newspaper, Gamji.com
etc.
He
is also the Coordinator of CHAMPIONS FOR NIGERIA,(www.championsfornigeria.org)
an organisation devoted to celebrating genuine progress, excellence,
commitment, selfless and unalloyed service to Nigeria and Nigerians.
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Posted by Robot| 17.01.2008 16:42