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The presentanti-corruption war being waged by the President Muhammadu
Buhari regime hasexposed the weak moral undergirding on which the country
rests. The battle to extirpatecorruption and its well-known debilitating
effects on the country’s moral fiberhas exposed the fact that most
Nigerians live on the grid of corruption and theseemingly palliative it
offers them in dealing with their problems. The levelof rot and decay
afflicting the moral sinews of Nigeria were clearlyunderestimated before
the present effort, which is the most far-reaching andcomprehensive
assault on corruption since our flag independence in 1960. To saythe
least, the present battle to fumigate our terribly-infected system
hasexposed most Nigerians in their full ugliness and hypocrisy. The war
againstcorruption strains our moral nerve to its breaking point because
the hard truthis that most Nigerians live off corruption and they are wont
to see any battleagainst the epidemic as a war against them.
From thedisappointing religious leader who has turned his pulpit to a
theater ofscurrilous assault on the war against corruption to politicians
who have donevirtually everything to belittle and sabotage the war against
corruption. Fromthe traditional ruler that sees the war against corruption
as a war forannihilation to the businessman who has found out that he
cannot survivewithout the patronage of corruption. From the youth that is
being made to believethat corruption is the surest means of survival to
the political opinionist whobelieves that he will never survive unless
corruption is allowed to fester.From the journalist who had found out that
he cannot practice his art outsidecorrupt patronage to minions that feel
the pangs of not being fed from thecrumbs of corruption, there is no
hiding the fact that any meaningful waragainst corruption in Nigeria will
look like a mass holocaust which is why noNigerian leader had made any
meaningful effort to stem the corruptionpestilence before Buhari came.
Let’s facethe fact. Corruption had been allowed such a long reign that
some Nigerians arebeginning to believe that any war against it is a war
against the country. Corruptionhas been so ingrained in Nigerians that
most Nigerians easily believe that anybattle against it is a battle
against them. Corruption has been so deep-rootedthat Nigerians now accept
it as normal. Corruption and corrupt acts have beenso tolerated that many
Nigerians genuinely feel that removing it from our bodypolity can spell
doom for all Nigerians. This is the reason why so manyhitherto-respected
public figures brook no shame today moaning so noisily abouthow the
country had been brought to her knees because we have a regime that
isdedicated to the task to tame the allure of corruption. That is why
someshameless religious leaders have so soiled their robes and callings by
makingopen cases for the sustenance of corruption. That is why many
journalists haveinterred their honor, integrity and objectivity in the
putrid grave ofcorruption and are o unabashed doing everything to sabotage
the war againstcorruption. That is why many respected voices have, in
moments of desperationfor illicit cash, submitted to be interred in the
rubles of corruption. That iswhy politicians have resorted to very deadly
measures to stymie the war againstcorruption and frustrate its
protagonists.
But have weasked of the real benefits the country gained in its long years
of patronizingcorruption. Pray, what structures have we built as a nation
since we submittedhook, line and sinker to the debilitating atrophy of
corruption? What realvalue have we gotten for our long period of romancing
high-level corruption?The answer is that we got nothing but rot, decay,
defenestration, wreckage andtotal damage. The capital we made from our
long tryst with corruption is theprostrate and hugely despised country
Nigeria was in the internationalcommunity before Buhari came with his
winnowing fork. The dividends ofcorruption in Nigeria are the fatuous gang
of rich thieves we had and anexpansive swath of hopeless, directionless,
malnourished masses that ogledwhile their narcissist trade of mass
stealing lasted. The benefits we got fromour long corrupt past are the
dead infrastructures we ended up with, thetwining security miasma, the
mass unemployment, hunger and privation that allcombined to reduce Nigeria
to a state of nature where life is brutish, shortand nasty!
Let usrecall that before Buhari came with his war against corruption,
almost everyvoice, both here in Nigeria and outside Nigeria believed that
corruptionconstituted the greatest impediment to the growth of the
country. Almost everyvoice believed that expunging the corruption parasite
from the country’s systemholds the key to Nigeria’s attainment of global
enviable status. Let us recallthat before Buhari came, religious leaders
were running themselves giddy withthe cry for someone that can lead the
country from the corruption quagmire. Letus recall that opinionists were
poignant in demanding Nigerian leaders to wagea frontal war against
corruption. Perhaps it is certain that none of these knewthe real depth
corruption had reached or how seemingly impossible it is toeliminate
without exerting so much skin-pain on the society. Perhaps mostNigerians
never knew the extent corruption had a hold on them and their meansof
living.
Today,Buhari has offered himself as the sacrificial lamb that attempts the
impossibletask of severing the bond that holds Nigerians and corruption
together and theuprising against that effort is being felt everywhere. Now
knowing how thesystem is intertwined with corruption, most Nigerians have
offered a volte-faceand are indeed making curious and strange cases for
corruption. We have seenhow tempestuous the battle to stop corruption has
been on the political scenewith politicians going very desperate levels to
compromise and indeed stop thebattle against corruption. We have seen how
our religious institutions havecapitulated to the aroma of corruption by
making very embarrassing casesagainst the present war against it. We have
seen how journalists have almostthumbed down the war against corruption in
very clear terms and shamelesslymaking cases for the corrupt and corrupt
practices and reliving the good olddays of ceaseless corrupt patronage
from those that stole the country silly. Wehave seen how politicians
contract desperate means, including mass killing,incitement, hate speech
and very many odious means to stop the war againstcorruption and reap the
illicit political capital from such obnoxioustendencies. We have seen how
the masses have been made to erroneouslycapitulate to the antics of
desperate politicians by several means. They are beingmade to bay hunger
in such disgusting manner that shows that fightingcorruption tantamount to
mass hunger. All these speak of a collapsed societaland individual moral
fiber that is responsible for the near collapse of thecountry in the first
place. Simply put, this is a symptom of a society that hadbeen built on
the quicksand of corruption.
Yes, we knowthat corruption has so many disciples and is bound to mobilize
tremendoussoldiers to fight back against any effort to stop its ravenous
spread. But thefact remains, as President Buhari has always said, we must
either killcorruption or it will kill us. There are no half-ways about
this. The decrepitnature of the Nigeria Buhari inherited is an apt
testimony of the disastrouseffects of corruption. The wrecked and
vandalized form of the country thatBuhari inherited while minions of
corruption were growing fatter justadvertises the fool-hardiness of
corruption. The prostrate state of the infrastructuresthat were handed
over to Buhari tells of the horrific aftermaths of corruption.The pallid
state of the economy, the pervasive poverty, the overwhelmingjoblessness,
the dead and prostrate economy that predated Buhari’s war
againstcorruption, even with the rich earnings from a persistent oil boom
shows thatcorruption still remains the deadly virus it had been and needs
nothing but thekind of total battle Buhari is taking to it now.
The nationmust do everything to rebuild its collapsed moral sinew.
Nigerians need to tametheir lust for illicit favour from the state,
readjust to the reality of hardwork and living within their means. They
must accept the present war againstcorruption as a necessary battle we
must wage to get our country on the rightfooting for greatness. We must
live with the reality that nothing easy comeseasy and accommodate these
realities as the needed moral templates that willguide Nigerians towards
building a new country not shackled by internecinecorruption and greed.
Peter ClaverOparah
Ikela,Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com