{"id":30408,"date":"2014-08-21T13:27:09","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T12:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=30408"},"modified":"2014-08-21T13:27:09","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T12:27:09","slug":"corrupt-people-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/corrupt-people-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Corrupt People In Nigeria?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Egbejumi-David<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Men in their 50s \u2013 especially the civil servants.<\/p>\n

At that age, men have lost their idealism, the stark reality of the Nigerian state stares them right in the face.\u00a0 I had often wondered and have always felt embarrassed when, in the past, I pass through Immigration at Lagos Airport and I\u2019m asked for \u2018something\u2019 by the grown men who manned those desks.\u00a0 But now that I get to spend a lot more time in Nigeria, I know why.<\/p>\n

Men in their late 40s and 50s begin to think seriously about retirement.\u00a0 In Nigeria when you retire, you are on your own and everything is in the air.\u00a0 You live in a state of perpetual uncertainty.\u00a0 You are never sure if you will get your regular entitlements or whether some civil servant thief will make off with it or stick it in his account for a few years to accrue obscene interest as that civil servant (ironically) prepares for his own retirement.<\/p>\n

But before all that, men in their 40s and 50s in Nigeria face awesome challenges.\u00a0 For all intents and purposes, they are their own local government.\u00a0 They provide their own electricity, they provide their own water, they provide their own security, to some extent, they provide their own healthcare, often times they maintain their own roads, they pay heavily for the education of their kids and some relatives, mobile phone charges are astronomical, and girlfriends to married men don\u2019t come cheap at all.<\/p>\n

An average civil servant in one of the big cities, say, Abuja or Lagos, could earn N800,000 per year.\u00a0 Rent alone is about N400,000.\u00a0 Abuja is particularly bad in that regard.\u00a0 Please completely discount public or government schools; these died a slow painful death several years ago.\u00a0 So three kids in private schools might cost N300,000 per term.\u00a0 There are three terms in a school year.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t even talked about food, NEPA, petrol\/diesel, clothes, weekend Gulder, church money, or money for aged parents yet.<\/p>\n

And then nothing happens in Nigeria but marriages and funerals.\u00a0 These cost a grip as well.\u00a0 Where is the civil servant or worker going to get the money for all of that?\u00a0 The Nigerian terrain is very unforgiving and very unsupportive; not like it was, say, thirty years ago.\u00a0 Government does not provide any social security support or cushion.\u00a0 In fact, government through its many agencies constitutes itself into a huge drain on people\u2019s resources.\u00a0 There are many, many agencies, particularly on the roads, asking for money for one thing or the other.<\/p>\n

I was in a company vehicle in Ogun State when I was stopped by a chap in a garish uniform.\u00a0 He demanded that I produce an \u201cOgun State Driver\u2019s Badge.\u201d\u00a0 I thought he was kidding but he wasn\u2019t.\u00a0 I told him I was only visiting but he advised that I give him a little something or go to their office.\u00a0 I elected to go to their office.\u00a0 Their boss was in the same colourful uniform, but he had on cowboy boots and a farmer\u2019s hat.\u00a0 Long story short; today, I am a proud owner of \u201cOgun State Driver\u2019s Badge, 2014.\u201d It costs N5,000.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need me to tell you that that completely ruined the rest of my day and that I haven\u2019t smelled Ogun State since then.<\/p>\n

But this is what workers go through every day.\u00a0 On top of that, they see elected politicians and other government officials making off like bandits unchallenged.\u00a0 Plus, people like mechanics and plumbers are just itching to cheat you.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The strain of simply living shows, and, frayed nerves and high blood pressure are never too far behind.<\/p>\n

So what does the civil servant or worker do?\u00a0 They become contract awarders or contract gate keepers.\u00a0 They\u2019ve set up a system whereby every competitive government bid goes through them.\u00a0 You don\u2019t get a look in unless you agree to split the money 70:30 with the worker.\u00a0 They would even prefer for you not to execute the job so that they can repeat the whole process the following year and ensure that thier kids\u2019 school fees are paid.\u00a0 This is why, despite heavy government investment, a few infrastructures remain in poor state.<\/p>\n

For those workers who are not in a position to influence contracts, they find other ingenious ways to fleece the public and to augment their finances.\u00a0 And so the Lecturer will deliberately fail a student whether the student passed or not, until the Lecturer is settled.\u00a0 The Police or Custom official continues to harass fellow citizens for money.\u00a0 They see your non-cooperation as injurious to their existence.\u00a0 They think you understand but that you are deliberately undermining them and short-changing their family.\u00a0 This is why some of them often turn ugly.<\/p>\n

And with retirement looming, the worker becomes more desperate, more dogged and more corrupt as he prepares for that great uncertainty because the government or anyone else won\u2019t look after him.\u00a0 He has to build a home for himself, buy another car or two, perhaps support graduate kids who don\u2019t have jobs, etc, etc.<\/p>\n

The corruption is insidious and, at the moment, the situation seems intractable.\u00a0 Paradoxically, this situation has made every worker \u2013 particularly civil servants \u2013 \u2018yes men.\u2019\u00a0 They are forever eager to parrot and excuse every government misdeed.\u00a0 They cannot afford to lose their jobs so they become cheerleaders and further abet their own long term struggle.\u00a0 An unfortunate vicious circle.<\/p>\n

Change will have to come from the top and it will require a lot of determined hard work and visionary, strategic leadership.\u00a0 But in the meantime, the worker has to cope with the vicissitudes of today and prepare for the uncertainty of tomorrow\u2026<\/p>\n

demdem@hotmail.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

Twitter: demdemdem1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Egbejumi-David Men in their 50s \u2013 especially the civil servants. At that age, men have lost their idealism, the stark reality of the Nigerian state stares them right…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Most Corrupt People In Nigeria? - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/articles-opinions\/corrupt-people-nigeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Most Corrupt People In Nigeria? - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Michael Egbejumi-David Men in their 50s \u2013 especially the civil servants. 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