Can we ever get rid of corruption from Nigeria or is the wish to do so a misguided one? Is corruption so embedded in Nigerians psyche and cultures that it is now like second nature to them, so that nothing anyone does will ever get rid of it? 

       When Nigerians gather one of their favorite topics of conversation is corruption in Nigeria .  Listening to them get all worked up over this corruption thing one would think that they are going to fight it with every fiber in their bodies.  But, no, such is not the case. 

         Perform this little experiment. Identify those Nigerians who are the most vocal opponents of corruption and target them for a little bribery. Give them money for performing the tasks that they are supposed to perform as part of their official duties.  Then see how many of them would feel outraged that you dared compromise their integrity by attempting to bribe them.

       The chances are that well over ninety percent (90%) of these Nigerians would take bribes from you.  That is correct; while making a whole lot of noises about the evils of corruption, the average Nigerian would engage in corruption. They are all talk and no integrity.

         Corruption exists in every country but perhaps nowhere is it as rampant as in Nigeria .  Nothing gets done in Nigeria without money exchanging hands between people. Whether it is dealing with the Nigerian police, custom officers, government bureaucrats (it even costs you money to obtain a supposedly free form from a Nigerian government office), gaining admission to schools, obtaining jobs, securing government contracts etc you have to exchange money with somebody to get things done.

        One would be naïve regarding human nature to expect a country to be completely corruption-free. Realistically, if a country can reduce corruption to less than ten percent (10%) of its population, it is doing fine. On the other hand, no country can do fine with the outrageous level of corruption in Nigeria .

      Clearly, Nigeria is not going to become economically developed with the absurd level of corruption in it. Every person knows that all you have to do is give Nigerians a few dollars and they look the other way as you literally carry their country’s resources to the West.  How is Nigeria going to be economically developed with that kind of attitude in Nigerians?

ORIGIN OF CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA

         Corruption is not really new in Nigeria .  Corruption has been with Nigerians for as long as Nigeria existed.

         Consider. The founder of Nigeria , Frederick Lugard, invented and imposed what he called warrant chiefs upon those Nigerians who did not have traditional rulers. He intended to indirectly rule the people through the artificial chiefs he invented for them.  Instead of these so-called chiefs resenting the fact that they were agents of foreign rulers, they took pride in their phony positions and imagined themselves the most important human beings since Adam.  They carried themselves as great kings and embarked on oppressing their people. They subjected their people to outrageous bribery. To even see them entailed bringing some bribes up front.  Their notion of political and social importance was that they were bribed before they rendered the “justice” they were supposed to render by their British colonial master.

       Nigerian warrant chiefs (properly put, thieves) were essentially anti social cum narcissistic personalities.  They were amoral, felt no guilt from wrong doing, did not have conscience of right and wrong; did not feel remorse from hurting their own people, in fact, enjoyed abusing their own people; injuring their own people made them feel important; they lived to seek admiration and attention from the people and did every thing they did just so that they seemed very important persons.

         Working for their people’s good was not part of the mental make up of Nigeria’s warrant chief thieves; what mattered most to them were seeming socially very important persons, VIPs. These Nigerians were narcissistic and anti social personalities. That is to say that they had personality disorders; they were psychologically sick human beings.

         (Sigmund Freud defined mental health as the ability to love and care for other people; Alfred Adler defined mental health as the ability to have social interests, to work for the common good of society rather than working for ones self interests only. As Adler sees it, those who work for their self interests, only, are neurotic.) The warrant chiefs imposed on some Nigerians were sociopaths and psychopaths, period.

      Contemporary Nigerian politicians have not improved one bit on their early twentieth century counterparts. The typical Nigerian politician is an outright sociopath, an antisocial cum narcissistic personality disordered person.

        There are always exceptions to every generalization. In that light, we may grant that, perhaps, ten percent of Nigerian leaders are healthy human beings, that is, those who work for public interest?

       The salient point, though, is that Nigerian leaders, from the inception of Nigeria in 1914 to the present (2007) have been criminals in political office. There is no two ways of going about it. What we have in political offices in Nigeria are criminals masquerading as political leaders.

       A proper political leader lives to identify his people’s needs and serve them and seeks way to do what develops his people economically.

       That, certainly, is not the motivation of typical Nigerian politicians; most of them go into politics with the specific intention of transforming their public offices into thieving offices. They want to steal from the public treasury, and while at it seem very important persons in the publics eyes.

        Criminality and narcissism are the two common traits of Nigerian politicians.

(It is amazing that this observation, which I reached independently, was made by the colonial masters. Go read the writings of most of the colonial administrators of Nigeria, from district officers to county commissioners, area residents, regional lieutenant governors, and the country’s British governors…most of them observed that Nigerians are primarily narcissistic and seem motivated by desire to seem important in other people’s eyes and would steal to obtain the money to make themselves seem important.  They noted that the typical Nigerian seemed motivated by efforts to become chiefs, that is, important person; and that Nigerians seldom are motivated by public service, as healthy human beings should be. Since, according to psychoanalysis, narcissism is found where there is arrested development, they generally concluded that Nigerians were infantile personalities. Some of these colonials were very brutal: they doubted that Nigerians, folks with arrested emotional development, could ever effectively govern themselves. To govern effectively, folks are supposed to suppress their selfish needs and devote their lives to the public good. If you take issue with these negative assessments of our ancestors by our colonial masters then examine contemporary Nigerians. What are they doing but masquerading about insisting that you call them engineer this or that though they cannot build diddle squat, professor this or that though they go for years without producing useful knowledge, Doctor this or that though they write at sixth grade, elementary school levels. Nigerians are still as attention seeking as their colonial masters saw them doing.)

          So, when did this apparent generalized Nigerian character disorder: antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders, come into being?

     I believe that Nigerians, in fact, all Africans have been disordered human beings since they embarked on the unnatural mission of selling their own people. Africans have had personality disorders since slavery days.

        Islam came to Sahel Africa around 900 AD (?). Shortly after that, West African Muslims were selling other Africans to Arabs. We have it on historical record that by 1000 AD African slaves were sold to Arabs.  Mansa Musa of Old Ghana took thousands of African slaves to Mecca and sold them there.

         (That is what African kings are for: selling their people. Contemporary African leaders, like their old ancestors, are still selling their people to the white man. If you do not develop your country so that Nigerian professionals come to the USA and work as janitors and security guards, that is, perform menial labor for white men, what are you but a god damned slave seller?)

         In the mid 1400s, Henry the navigator of Portugal sent his ships to the coast of West Africa .  By the 1480s, Portuguese sailors had pretty much explored the West African coast, from Dakar , in Senegal , to the Cape of Good Hope, in South Africa . 

       By 1500 (at least) West Africans were already selling their children to the Portuguese. (The first African slaves came to the USA in 1619, at James town, Virginia , which the British settled in 1607, four hundred years ago.)

       Africans had had practice in selling themselves to Arabs and, apparently, found it easy to sell themselves to Europeans, too. The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade lasted to about 1900 (?).

         That is to say that for a thousand years (900-1900), at least, Africans sold themselves into slavery.  

        Perhaps, there was domestic slavery in Africa before Africans began selling themselves to foreigners? Perhaps, slavery existed in Africa prior to 900 AD? (I say perhaps, for though I have read many books on African history, I know that most of them are made up stories and not yet proven as facts.)

           Africans habituated their psyche to selling their own people.

           What kind of people would sell their children into slavery?  Think about it. Let go of all your ego defense mechanisms, psychological rationalizations and just think about it, as objective as you could. Africans are human beings and nature’s god gave them intelligence, too, so they can engage in dispassionate thinking (as opposed to their habitual emotionalism which they take as thinking).

       It is a sociopath, a psychopath, an antisocial personality, a criminal that sells his own children into slavery.

         (It is also sociopaths that buy slaves; we all know that the typical American character trait is antisocial; but America is not our present interest; criminal Americans have their rendezvous with destiny, sooner than later, as their crime based empire implodes on their face.)

     Just think of what life in slave trade Africa was like and you are horrified. A child leaves his home to go play with other children and African slavers apprehended him, marched him to the coast and sold him (See Equino Olauda’s interesting narrative of how he was captured at age twelve from somewhere in Alaigbo and sold into slavery.)  Villages randomly went to war with each other for the sole purpose of capturing slaves to be sold to either Arabs or Europeans.

       My God, people must have lived in tremendous fear. No wonder many Africans have elevated paranoid traits. Life was totally Hobbessian: nasty, brutish and short for most Africans. 

        It is as if these people were savages who had no interest in the welfare of their fellow Africans! (No wonder many Africans do not want to be psychoanalyzed; they are probably apprehensive of the dirt that would be seen in their unconscious minds. In psychoanalysis, the client is encouraged to free associate, to say whatever comes to his mind, without checking or blocking it with reason; to engage in transference relationship with the analyst, to project to him; that way he cathects what is repressed into his unconscious mind, brings it to the ego conscious mind and the analyst analyzes them and explains their import. What is repressed into the unconscious makes people behave irrationally, as we see Africans behave! Many Africans, today, would sell their people into slavery…the way my fellow Igbos attacked me, for stating obvious truths about them, tells me that they would easily sell me into slavery. There is tremendous evil in Africans unconscious minds and they do not want to examine this evil, and correct it. Watching them humiliate each other, attack each other, attack to destroy, tells you that there is underlying primitiveness in these people. )

         (Or were they not savages? Let us hear you engage in your futile ego defenses and tell us that it was all the white man’s fault. Go ahead and blame your favorite scapegoat, the white man.  We have heard that excuse before. Very few persons are now listening to such infantile rationalizations for why Africans tolerated evil for as long as they did. And they still practice evil by not working for their people. They cart their people’s wealth to the West and their people are the wretched of the earth. Instead of facing their emotional brutality they seek to redirect blame by telling us that it is all the fault of “Papa” white man and that they are children whose fate other persons are responsible for. It is the mark of childishness to deny responsibility for ones fate and blame other people for it. No human being is a total victim of others behaviors, for, in a system, all parts contribute to what affects all parts. An adult takes responsibility for his fate, good or bad. Our characters determine what we get out of life.)

       I am contending that the Nigerian character has been corrupted since around 1000 AD.  I am saying that corruption is not of recent origin in Nigeria .  I am saying that corruption is deep in Nigeria ’s various cultures. I am saying that corruption is deeply embedded in the Nigerian psyche.

        I will be brutally honest with you. I have not seen a Nigerian who is not prone to corruption!

        Worse, I have not seen a Nigerian who seems mentally healthy! Most of them seem to have character disorders. And the most pitiful aspect of it is that they do not even know it. And they do not seem interested in knowing.

         (A certifiable paranoid personality on Naijapolitics does exactly as you would expect such a person to do: hide his identity, feel that other people are out to get him, is guarded, is suspicious, is grandiose in his self assessment, sees his uneducated ideas as profound, wants to be respected and fears been demeaned; as a suspicious, untrusting paranoid, he feels free to investigate other people’s backgrounds, presumably to ascertain the truth or lack of it about their claims, while hiding his own background, so that nobody could investigate it. And he does not see the irony of his behavior! A person interested in the truth living in darkness, in the shadows, hiding from the sun light, so as not to be known as he is: a freaking potentially harmful paranoid personality. When paranoids feel demeaned they can attack the person they feel degraded them. They feel totally inferior and compensate with false superiority and act as if they are superior, and if you point out their underlying sense of inadequacy they will attack to kill you.  This paranoid man feels totally entitled to do the amoral things he does, protected by the darkness he lives in. When told that he is mildly mentally disturbed, instead of been grateful that some one cares enough about him to give him an objective feedback about his warped character, he fumes in the mouth and denies his obvious personality disorder. Alas, denial does not eradicate the obvious. By generalization, Nigerians denying their psychological issues does not make those issues go away.)

         So, can corruption be eliminated from Nigeria ?  

        I do not think that we can eliminate corruption from Nigeria in the near future. I do not think that this century will see a corruption free Nigeria . 

       Corruption is too embedded in Nigerians for it to be easily eliminated. Nigerians have corrupt characters and corrupt cultures. They have had this problem for over a thousand years, and only a fool would expect such a long standing problem to be cured over night.

         Does this mean that we should throw up our hands and give up?  Not at all. It means that we must appreciate the degree of the sociopathy and psychopathy we are dealing with and face it squarely. 

         It means that the various Nigerian governments must pass stringent laws against corruption and implement them in a draconian, merciless manner.

       It means that if you take bribes that you ought to be caught and sent to do time in the big house. (Not American type jail where you are fed by the public, but Stalin’s Russia type of Gulag, where you are sent to Siberia, Sahara desert,  and used to do public works, such as irrigate the Sahara desert and, if necessary, die from that hard. Thieving, corrupt animals have no business polluting the human environment with their unproductive lives.)

       Nigerians, indeed all Africans, must address this corruption issue with single mindedness.  With luck, by the end of the twenty first century we would begin to get a good handle on corruption.

        If we can reduce our people’s corruption to ten percent of the population we are doing well. As it is, with over 90% of the people prone to corruption, clearly, we are going nowhere, economically.

OTHER ISSUES

      Of course, there are other factors contributing to corruption in Nigeria . In fact, there are structural contributors to the absurd level of corruption in Nigeria . Consider that most of the revenues powering the Nigerian economy are obtained from the Niger Delta. As it were, the rest of country takes the resources from a section of the country to improve themselves. This is patently unfair, not when we consider the degradation of the landscape of the Delta region!

         The “thiefocrats” at Abuja take money from Ijaw-land and share it among themselves.  As long as these thieves are able to loot Ijaw wealth and put it to their personal uses, they have something binding them together. But when that resource runs dry, like thieves all over the world who no longer have a common place to steal from, they would fall in on each other and attack each other.

       Chaos and anarchy would reign in Nigeria if there were no oil money to steal and squander.

       Structural problems are easily corrected. The over reliance on Niger Delta oil resources can be corrected if Nigeria restructures itself into a true federalism and have each area control its destiny, including its resources. The various governments would then be compelled to find other resources to maintain themselves.  They would, ultimately, get the people to pay income, property, sales and other forms of taxes, the usual revenue stream for governments.

        One acknowledges that there are serious structural contributions to the absurd level of corruption in Nigeria . As long as the Federal government is essentially a thief thieving Ijaw resources and using that money to buy the governors and other thieves that support it, corruption will be endemic in Nigeria .

        I am, at present, not focusing on structural (political, economic) issues. The point this essay makes is that corruption in Nigeria is long standing, is, in fact, over a thousand years old; that corruption is totally embedded in Nigerians psyches and cultures and that we must make psychological and  sociological efforts to heal Nigerians of this social-political malady. Until it is healed, until we reduce Nigerians proclivity to corruption, Nigeria is going nowhere. All that money from oil will not make any difference in Nigerians lives. A fool and his money are soon parted. The West takes our monies because we are fools. When we become wise, care for our people, instead of overlook their needs, work for our people’s interests no one would “underdevelop” us; we would develop us.

Have a happy new year.

Ozodi Thomas Osuji

January 1, 2007

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 04.01.2007 12:27

felix  Villager

# 2 " I will be brutally honest with you. I have not seen a Nigerian who is not prone to corruption! Worse, I have not seen a Nigerian who seems mentally healthy! Most of them seem to have character disorders. And the most pitiful aspect of it is that they do not even know it. And they do not seem interested in knowing." First it was the poor igbos,...now "fellow Nigerians" are having their fair share of Ozodis cake , maybe the generalisation will be exported to every inhabitant of planet earth with the next article!...and so who is having a character disorder??? huh? me? you? we? igbos? Nigerians? or my brother Ozodi???...hmmmm Thanks for the undiluted insult Mr Osuji!!! Posted by felix| 04.01.2007 14:25

nero africanus  Villager

# 3 i have been reading osuji's articles for sometime now and i must say that even though his mind is severely deranged you can actually see that the writing comes from an otherwise brillant mind. the brillance of osugi's mind and the derangement of that same mind stand side by side and you can actually see it and establish a patten after reading several of his articles OSUGI IS A MISANTHROPE WHO HATES HUMAN BEINGS BUT HE DOES NOT REALISE IT there were one or two brillant insights in that article, as regards the corruption . i personally believe that corruption in nigeria is a result of its lawlessness . in the traditional societies in pre colonial nigeria was very well ordered societies which had minimal corrption indeed it was virtual non existent. however, what nigeria is suffering from today is the resource curse of the oil and it is only a weakness of the institutions and their susbsequent undermining by individuals which started with the military under obj's first regime. to disprove osuji, in nigeria today , there is no corruption in private organisations where all the menbers have a stake , they just wont allow it. all other peoples are as corrupt as nigerians if not more if their societies and laws allow it . NIGERIANS ARE CORRUPT BECUASE THEY KNOW THAT IF THEY TAKE A BRIBE OR LOOT PUBLIC FUNDS NOTHING WILL HAPPEN AND NO EFFORT WILL BE MADE TO RECOVER THE FUNDS this is the same principle that applies to 419 , people indulge in it because they know nothing will happen . in any case 419 is a standard case of two greedy people , FOR EVERY FRAUDSTER FROM 419 , THERE IS A GREEDY VICTIM this is the reason why i feel no sympathy for them what soever . you have somebody who is poised to defraud a nation , isnt that corruption , please can somebody tell that to mr osuji the most dangerous part of corruption is the fact that the average nigerian is willing to do things that nobody else will dream of doing and he sees it as normal. nigerians particularly the younger ones in europe while they may not indulge in serious crime does not have any qualms with forging a reference letter , he actually sees it as normal. the social side of corruption is the most dangerous. nigerians need shock and therapy for corruption , only draconian laws will disabuse their minds , like those of idiagbon.............. Posted by nero africanus| 04.01.2007 15:28

ithinkbetter  Villager

# 4 There is tremendous evil in Africans unconscious minds and they do not want to examine this evil, and correct it. Watching them humiliate each other, attack each other, attack to destroy, tells you that there is underlying primitiveness in these people. god is dead...my dear! this's my last comment on this forum...i wouldn't discuss nigeria again...Nigeria is dead! Posted by ithinkbetter| 04.01.2007 15:57

tonsoyo  Villager

# 5 =ithinkbetter;147208>god is dead...my dear! this's my last comment on this forum...i wouldn't discuss nigeria again...Nigeria is dead! ithinkbetter, Na lie! we shall be laying ambush for you when you finally show up under a new name tagged "JJC". Posted by tonsoyo| 04.01.2007 17:26

Auspicious  Villager

# 6 =tonsoyo;147221>ithinkbetter, Na lie! we shall be laying ambush for you when you finally show up under a new name tagged "JJC". Abi...especially when you can't miss his style of writing! Why is he leaving anyways??? DW scared him off? NVS is like a drug..once you're hooked you're hooked! Auspy. Posted by Auspicious| 04.01.2007 17:39

Baba Boys  JJC

# 7 I fear some of the authors comments ring true about corruption problem. However, it appears the problem could be easily minimised if we manage the expectations of our fellow brothers and sisters. Everybody, especially family and friends expects you to be rich and have loads of dosh. The individual Naija fella feels under pressure to steal at any given opportunity. For example, if one does not build a palace in the city or village within few years of work you are considered a failure pronto. Therefore no one will given you time of day. I think corruption will be eradicated as soon as we are ready as nation to stop the practise. It is nothing to do with slavery or genetic makeup of our nation as the author stated. It is simply the fact that the culprits know they can get away with it with no serious consequence. I will urge members to stop attacking the author personally, instead try to destroy his argument as best as you can without resulting to threats or abuse. I think it is a sign of maturity if you can take both negative and positive comments. I look forward to the authors psychoanalysis article on my Yoruba's race. Happy New Year! Posted by Baba Boys| 05.01.2007 04:25

nero africanus  Villager

# 8 =Baba Boys;147278>I fear some of the authors comments ring true about corruption problem. However, it appears the problem could be easily minimised if we manage the expectations of our fellow brothers and sisters. Everybody, especially family and friends expects you to be rich and have loads of dosh. The individual Naija fella feels under pressure to steal at any given opportunity. there is a very thin line between ambition ang greed, however this is where i feel the problem lies , wole , okeke and musa go and steal and become wealthy nothing happened to them, they are celebrated everywere as our people love to celebrate wealth. the wives children and relatives of bola , okafor and abubakar will think they dont know what they are doing isnt that your mate. they are pressured into stealing but if theere were laws one, wole, okeke and musa will either not steal or they will steal and go to jail. when this happens there will be no pressure on bola , okafor and abubakar as well as the rest of the population. For example, if one does not build a palace in the city or village within few years of work you are considered a failure pronto. Therefore no one will given you time of day. ! we must remember that the drive to do well is what brings progress to a society, it brings the difference between advancement and backwardness , it only backfires into massive corruption in a lawless society rationalise it like this WHY WOULD YOU NOT STEAL IF YOU CAN STEAL AND NOTHING WILL HAPPEN this is the basic morality and philosophy of a thief Posted by nero africanus| 05.01.2007 06:22

ErikP  Villager

# 9 I hope you will forgive a few thoughts from a white man who loves Nigeria and many Nigerians? After all you have just read an article by a black man who has a less positive view of you all! First, I think the article had some good points about leadership being corrupted by slavery and (as a whitey) I was glad to see the Arab connection properly realized. The idea that Islam is "the black man's proper religion" is part of Arab cultural colonization. I also believe the "Oga Syndrome" is a bit of a curse. But no one can psycho-analyse 200 linguistically distinct cultures in the bold style of this article without telling a few lies of one's own. Traditional rulers also had the duty of protecting their own tribes from the predations of slavers and I assume some at least were successful at this. There is a parallel in the history of my own Norse people when around 700-1000AD it was the job of each Kinglet to protect his own people while trying to enslave and sell those outside the clan. What may not be parallel was that a Norse warrior could choose which king to serve! A Norse King who was not generous in sharing the spoils of war with the warriors would soon be a king without an army. Was there a similar system in West Africa? Please forgive my ignorance. Nevertheless, I dare to guess that the social structures of Northern Europe and West Africa were quite similar at that time. It seems that this crude and brutal Northern "social contract" - partly civilized by Christianity - became linked with old Roman and Greek ideas about separation of powers in society in Northern Europe. This helped to create a climate for more subtle and permanent ways of limiting and diffusing power (another way of saying that freedoms were won and preserved). I think the problem of Blacks selling Blacks to Arabs and Europeans has created a problem where the Chief oppresses the little man so that the traditional ruler takes far more than he gives and has also created a devaluing of African life compared to Arab or European life. But this is all history and while history conditions us it does not predestine us. It is sheer bad luck that African countries regained their independence at a time when Socialism was still alive. The idea of an all powerful government licensing and regulating all economic activity and even owning many industries played into the hands of a ruling class who believed a ruler was a man with a right to demand much and give little. Economic liberalization will help. Although the rich normally get richer in a laissez faire economy the super-rich in Nigeria are so incompetent that all they can do is export funds to managers in London and New York. The future lies in a new kind of Nigerian capitalism where people who know their culture intimately provide services and products to Nigerians using business models which sit well with the local culture. The expats in the USA and Europe will be no use, except perhaps to provide small scale start-up capital and a little expertise. A little of this is already happening. One advantage of "democracy" is that many more palms are being greased (corruption is more democratized than under the military:wink: ). Instead of perfectionist whining we should be glad that there are more people with spare cash and a genuine market for goods and services is growing in Nigeria. There are many hard-working and enterprising people there and we should be helping them get organized and strengthening local law and order so that jealous old-style crooks don't steal their goods or kidnap their families. Nigeria can not be saved from the top down. Too many Nigerians infected with Western intellectualism still believe in legislation, enforcement and idealistic theorizing. I am hopeful for Nigeria because a million little flowers are blooming. If I were younger I would be tempted to emigrate there. Posted by ErikP| 05.01.2007 08:56

Exxcuzme  Villager

# 10 What is it with everywhere you go in Lagos, everyone begs for money? As soon as you arrive MMA all the uniform personel begs for money. Thank God they dont waste your time to forcefully rip you off. Outside the airport, from the handicapped to able bodied hounds you for money. The police and different uniform personel begs you for money on the roads . You are not even safe at your house as relatives and friends including neighbors and anyone beg you for money. The pertern is replay in reverse until you leave Nigerian shores. I thought it is stressful abroad but home can be more stressful. Posted by Exxcuzme| 05.01.2007 09:23

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