Does Everybody in Nigeria really want Corruption Back?

It sounds outrageous and offensive isn’t it? But on the wheels of social media that seems to be the mantra trending. A short video approximately two minutes long displayed specially on WhatsApp platforms features a man believed to be a Ghanaian who claims: “Everybody in Nigeria is chanting bring back corruption.”

He continues that “if you eliminate corruption in Nigeria or Ghana today people will starve and in Nigeria people are dying of starvation now.”

Is he suggesting that everybody in either Nigeria or Ghana depends on corruption for living?

I beg to differ. In as much as I believe our two nations are saddled with corruption and probably most people indulge in corruption, the statement is however disingenuous. I think it’s ridiculous to assert that everybody in Nigeria likes to see corruption bounce back as it used to be before Mahamudu Buhari took the reins of power in Africa’s most populous nation.

So, in my quest to verify the source and the authenticity of the video, I googled the statement and gleaned other websites in Ghana notably Modernghana.com and Ghanaweb.com but to no avail. There was no luck!

But here is what I found concerning Nigeria , when I painstakingly combed other international websites: Somewhere in November 2016, the United Nations warned that about 75, 000 children risk dying ‘in a few months’ as hunger grips the country’s ravaged north-east in the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency. Note the report didn’t say people risked dying because corruption was ironically dying too. The story was written by Moses E. Ochonu who I think writes for Sahara Reporters.

The UN humanitarian coordinator, Peter Lundberg said the crisis in Nigeria was unfolding at ‘high speed.’

My attempt also to identify who the speaker is/was yielded nothing. However, I can safely say, the event was held somewhere in Ghana, it could be Accra if I’m not mistaken but when I don’t know.

At the background of the setting I saw what seemed like Freidrich-Egbert Foundation (a reputable organisation) apparel. I saw a Joy FM microphone perched in front of the speaker and other media houses’ paraphernalia.

Indeed you may call the statement as a tragedy of some sort. But there’s more to that. There was what seemed like comedy and there was also a parody. The speaker cracked the attendees up when he revealed this: “In social media now BUHARI means Brought Unnecessary Hardship Among Reasonable Individuals. “

In that short video, a group of journalists that attended the event apparently had a good laugh. And I felt tickled myself somehow.

The speaker remarked that. “Addressing corruption without understanding the political economy of corruption is very dangerous.”

He pointed out President Buhari and his technocrats didn’t plan well in the crusade against corruption.

“They did a very very sub-optimal theorisation of corruption in Nigeria. And the practical down to earth of the critical role of corruption in keeping the scope, structure and success of the Nigerian economy in the near term’” he argued.

If you eliminate corruption in Nigeria or Ghana today people will starve and in Nigeria people are dying of starvation now. ” the only way to avoid this is to find a social safety net for those who depend on corruption on the secondary and tertiary levels for survival.. And implement that simultaneously with the crackdown on corruption. So, that unintelligently, the fight against corruption can bring an economy to its needs and to the IMF...”

What in the world, why did Nigerians vote for a change?

The reason, they wanted corruption to be expunged from their society. Far too long politicians had not been truthful to them. Politicians had used them as pawn materials and had ransacked the public purse. It had always been politics as usual. They were fed up. They were sick and tired of the proverbial name tagging ‘as the most corrupt nation’ in the world.

So why would Nigerians want corruption back if they believe Buhari and his team is doing just that?

And I tell you what, that is fallacy and I will tell you why. I will also tell you what kind of fallacy garment the statement wears. I maintain that it’s mis-judgement. That statement isn’t a true reflection of the majority of the Nigerian population or electorate that voted for a positive change. Therefore, it must not be taken as a whole truth or something accurate.

First of all, not everybody in Nigeria supports corruption as the statement purports. And not everyone wants the canker back as it’s ridiculously portrayed in the said clip. Again not everybody in Nigeria is chanting or would be chanting for its revival, if indeed corruption was dead or eliminated. May I enquire: who are the chanters? Which group of people in Nigeria is invoking that corruption is brought back? Is it the 419 group? Is it the lootees or the money laundering barons?

Until we have empirical or scientific studies s to back the claim I think it’s baseless for anybody to make such a blanket statement. More so, I think an attempt by anyone or a group of persons to make such generaliisation is equally making a desperate effort to discredit and denigrate the peoples of both countries and what they stand for.

And who said nations that have social safety nets don’t experience—corruption, starvation or hunger and deaths in their system.

“In 2015, 42.2 million Americans lived in in food insecure households, including 29.1 million adults and 13.1 million children.13 per cent of households (15.8 million households) were food insecure. And five per cent of households representing 6.3 million households experienced very low food security.” Source: Hunger Facts & Poverty Statistics.

Furthermore not everybody in that populous nation depends on corruption for survival. There are nobles, there are hardworking citizens: Citizens who earn their living through honest means and not by fraud or racketeering. They are people who do not pilfer loot and line their pockets with the state’s funds or limited resources.

Besides, corruption hasn’t been eliminated yet and it can never be eradicated from that society. It can be reduced and perhaps the good people in Nigeria who voted for change and cried for the elimination of corruption are aware that the canker isn’t dead yet. However, the gradual reduction of corruption is helping to restore perhaps her lost image.

What’s factual about that claim is that corruption in Nigeria and Ghana is profound. That’s true. You don’t have to be an astronaut or a clairvoyant to figure that out. It flaunts its buxom weight in the alleys and streets of the nations’ cities and it makes kids wonder if their parents are corrupt too. Over the years society has relentlessly accused the police of being the most corrupt institution but it turns out politicians and public office holders rival them or are probably at the forefront.

President Buhari’s office according to Sahara Reporters had been characterised by what it termed ‘a trio of crises’: an economy on the brink of recession, escalating militancy in the Niger Delta and worsening power supply.

Nonetheless, the report credits Mr. Buhari for his fight against corruption. “The only bright spots in Buhari’s 15 months have been modest gains in the struggle against corruption and the fight against Boko Haram.”

That I think the majority of Nigerians are more than happy to seeing corruption crumbling before their eyes.