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Utilitarianism is the belief
that the value of a thing or action is determined by its utility and it
is the ethical theory that all actions should be directed toward
achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), was British and the founder of the
doctrine. He was a philosopher, an economist and a jurist, but refused
to practice law. Instead, he did a thorough work in the reform of the
British legal system and on a general theory of law and morality. He
became well known, in 1789, for his “Introduction to the Principles of
Morals and Legislation. I am borrowing from his ideas of the useful and
the good. In that, Bentham came to the conclusion that, ‘Nature
has placed mankind under the influence of two sovereign masters, pain
and pleasure… they govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we
think; every effort we can make to throw off our suggestion, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it.’ Are our responses to corruption guided by pain or pleasure?
What Bentham believed came to
mind, not too long ago as I made a journey in company of two friends.
We had set out at 6:15 in the morning from
Zaria
in northern
Nigeria
for
Kaduna
, to catch the 7:30am flight, the only one for the day from
Kaduna
, to
Lagos
. Though we had the choice of two cars, we decided to ride in
one. We were chauffeur driven. The owner of the car we rode in sat in
front while the other friend and I sat behind. The discussion as usual
was the state of the nation. The theme as would be expected is the
perceived, or is it real, massive corruption in the power sector that
is rocking the nation. Before we got to
Kaduna
, we had all concluded that corruption in
Nigeria
has permeated the whole society and has most unfortunately spread to the grassroots level. We arrived at the
Kaduna
airport at 7:15am, just barely enough time to get onboard the
plane. We were late, almost too late to get onboard, and it seemed not
our best day, because the flight was already full.
We were left with two options.
We could go back to Zaria and forget about going to Lagos that day; a
one hour drive, or we could continue to Abuja; a two hour drive, where
we would have unlimited options of getting to Lagos. Each of these was
painful somewhat, but there was a third option that could ease our
pains. It was this third option that somebody implemented and with some
greases of the palm, we were on the aeroplane. Did we take the places
of other people or were we had? We may never know the true story. As I
sat, my mind loomed to some incredible dimension on the attributes,
which seemingly is a holier than thou attitude in the face of
corruption. Before now, I had always considered myself as one of the
last holdouts against corruption, yet here I was under the influence of
the sovereign maters of pain and pleasure. Did I, in my own little way,
take maybe the place of a rightful traveller and forced same to either
abandon his trip or take a tortuous route to
Abuja
.
My other friends did not see
it that way. They saw what we did as survival of the fittest and
nothing close to being driven by pain or pleasure. To them, there was
no correlation between what we did and the $16 billion dollars scam in
the power sector. They unashamedly continued to rage over the pain of
no constant-electricity supply in spite of the massive injection of
funds, though. They condemned those who have kept us without light for
so long, not minding their own pleasure in other areas of corruption. I
have come to the conclusion that as long as each one of us covets the
pleasure of whatever corruption at whatever level in the society, there
will always be pain; such as no constant-electricity supply. The
pleasure derived in corruption will always rear its head as some pain
somewhere. The pain of fighting corruption, however, will create
pleasures that will better the state of society.
As it is in
Nigeria
today, corruption has a value and is giving happiness to the
greatest number of people, irrespective of whatever station one
occupies in our society. That is the doctrine of utilitarianism. The
value of every action we take is determined by its utility. A society
that does not provide the basic things of life - shelter; food and
clothing to the majority of its people, will force that majority to do
whatever it takes to survive. We tend to give value to other people’s
corrupt acts while we skim over ours. Corruption no doubt has become
systemic and for that, some conclude that
Nigeria
is a failed state. I do not believe
Nigeria
is a failed state, but rather a country wallowing in
a condition that is a by-product of our chosen economic system. This is
not an advocacy for socialism, which is retrogressive and less
productive. The fittest will always be the only survivor in a gathering
where everybody is on his own. What suffer in such community are the
common interests. I once argued that it is our level of mental
development and has nothing to do with wickedness or greed.
God created me as a
creature of self-interest. My selfishness is, therefore, natural and
not because I am wicked. To overcome it in order to promote what is of
common interest in my community would definitely require higher
intelligence. It is not an accident that in our society in
Nigeria
only what are of common interest are the only things left to
rot. Look around you, you will find advanced level of individual
developments. Yet, what is common to both the king and the pauper; to
both the governor and the governed, are derelict. Check out, for
instance, the air we all breathe in our towns that the wind can blow in
any direction; it is polluted by the stench oozing out of our refuse.
The air smells so loud, you can hear it - but we could put fragrances
in our cars and homes to mask the odour. Roads, rail, public schools,
water works, etc. are all common to all, but we treat them as if they
belong to individuals by not fixing their defects. Electricity supply
is also common, but for as long as I can afford to run my private
generator, well! If after $16 billion dollars was expended on
electricity supply and I do not have constant power supply, what moral
justification do I have to protest? Those involved are corrupt, so do
I; mine is only limited.
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Posted by Robot| 30.03.2008 20:01