“Corruption is Social Evil” “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
In its simplest sense, corruption may be defined as an act of bribery or misuse of public position or power for the fulfillment of selfish motives or to gain personal gratifications. It has also been defined as “Misuse of authority as a result of consideration of personal gain which need not be monetary”.
In recent Centuries Nigeria has earned a place among the top most corrupt countries in the world. Corruption in Nigeria is a consequence of the nexus between Bureaucracy, politics and criminals. Nigeria is now no longer considered a soft state. It has now become a consideration state where everything can be had for a consideration. Today, the number of governors with an honest image can be counted on fingers. At one time, bribe was paid for getting wrong things done but now bribe is paid for getting right things done at right time.
It is well established that politicians are extremely corrupt the world over. In fact, people are surprised to find an honest politician. These corrupt politicians go scot-free, unharmed and unpunished. Leaders like President Muhammadu Buhari or late Murtala Muhammedare a rare breed now who had very little bank balance. The list of scams and scandals in the country is endless. We are all living witness to the 2003 all African games scandal in which billions of taxpayers’ money meant for the games was siphoned by some corrupt individuals. The NNPC is now an empire of corruption in Nigeria, it serves the cabals and control the destiny of the country.
Is it possible to contain corruption in our society? Corruption is a cancer, which every Nigerian must strive to cure. Many new leaders when come into power declare their determination to eradicate corruption but soon they themselves become corrupt and start amassing huge wealth.
There are many myths about corruption, which have to be exploded if we really want to combat it. Some of these myths are: Corruption is a way of life and nothing can be done about it. Only people from underdeveloped or developing countries are prone to corruption. We will have to guard against all these crude fallacies while planning measures to fight corruption.
It is not possible to kill or remove the corruption by improving the Social-economic conditions of the people. Because we all know that the most of the people who are corrupted are not economically or socially backward, surely they will be having a notable social status.
“Despite a decade of progress in establishing anti-corruption laws and regulations, these results indicate that much remains to be done before we see meaningful improvements in the lives of the world’s poorest citizens.”
The following steps should be considered to eradicate corruption:
Greedy business people and unscrupulous investors should stop bribing the political elites.Don’t be either at the receiving or at the bribing end. Political elites should stop putting their private gains before the welfare of citizens and economic development of their regions. Government should include a chapter in text books related to corruption and its desire consequences.
We all need to stop talking about Corruption and start the process to end it now. Corruption is going to end only when people like us stand up and speak out.
If we do not take step forward to remove corruption from root, the word developing country will always be attached with our country Nigeria. So we the common man are solution for removing corruption from our Nigeria and hence we will be helpful in making our country developed.
It is possible. Today’s generation is willing to change this system. And soon corruption is gone out from Nigeria.Every person should have his own responsibility to avoid corruption
A strong youth movement in the countryonly can remove corruption and each student should take a vow to begin this exercise courageously within the family-Former.
Comrade Ahmed OmeizaLukman (Kiev Ukraine)
