Corruption, indiscipline and the Church democracy (1)

In Nigeria, corruption occurs in all forms of activities. One can therefore talk about corruption in politics and governance, corruption in corporate organizations, corruption in Churches, corruption in traditional institutions, corruption in trades, etc.

Corruption in politics and governance takes different forms. When a body which is saddled with the task of conducting elections fails to play by the rules, and allow people to be picked rather than elected, that body and indeed the entire exercise become corrupted. This, regrettably is what we have continued to witness in Nigeria.

When the electoral wishes of the people are not respected, the tendency is that those who have been corrupted not to play by the rules are, ipso facto, corrupted by those who are themselves corrupt. This is why the history of our politics has remained a dreary chronicle of corruption among politicians who award contracts with 10 per cent reserved for themselves. Of course, to do this, they look for fellow corrupt contractors.

What this entails is a vicious circle. Once the root is corrupt, the entire body is inevitably corrupted in return. Most governments in Nigeria are susceptible to political corruption in the form of bribery, extortion, nepotism, patronage, graft and outright embezzlement.

As the Governor of Anambra State, I have seen and witnessed corruption in action. Most people who deal with Government have their eyes on looting. Some contractors, if not properly monitored, tend to execute jobs given to them below specifications. Some are even too cheeky to harass one through phone calls only to demand to be settled.

Thus, most of us who govern States are actually put under pressure to engage in acts of corruption. These people who want to be paid what they did not work for, come under different tempting guiles. Some have the temerity to promise certain percentage if they are paid unmerited amount. If one is not strong-willed as to discipline one’s appetite, one will give in to their demands.

A leader strictly speaking is supposed to be fair to all. He/she should distribute the resources of the State in the spirit of justice, equity and fair play. As the Governor, one of the accusations I have had to contend with is that I do not concentrate development in my area: town, local council, etc as some of my predecessors did. In confronting a situation such as this, I have often asked myself if doing so is being fair. It may not involve stealing the people’s money, but it is corruption, because it is a deviation from the proper way things should be done.

One of the commonest forms of corruption in our country is outright embezzlement of entrusted funds. In Nigeria, we no longer shudder at the news of people stealing billions of Naira belonging to the State. We witness, instead, where proven cases of embezzlement of public funds are tolerated, especially among the elite.

Let us not think that corruption is for the elite alone. It is not so. Recall that the definition of corruption includes deviation from the normal. If a man of God, who, rather than emphasize on piety, abandons his calling to pursue other things, he is certainly corrupting the Ministry. If a political office holder deviates from the part he is supposed to walk and engages in extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage and rent-seeking, he corrupts his calling. If a man paid to do something willfully and tactically refuses to do it until he is “settled”, he is corrupt and he corrupts the system.

If a bricklayer paid to mix twenty bags of cement, mixes fifteen, he is indulging in corruption. One can go on ad infinitum, but suffice it to say that whatever we do without recourse to due-process, fairness and equity is tantamount to indulging in corruption.

Let me emphasize, at this juncture, that no institution in the world is completely immune to corruption. No country in this world, no matter how stringent its codes are, is entirely free from corruption. But some institutions/countries are more corrupt than others. We must humbly accept that ours is classified as coming under corrupt countries, going by all reasonable indices as the reports of Transparency International have continued to show.

One can say that this or that Church or this or that school is corrupt because, in the case of Church, some “men of God” have lost their original callings and allow themselves to be subsumed by materialism. These “men of God” jostle with you and I in pursuit of earthly things, forgetting that there are some acts that cannot be justified by any known philosophy of human frailty, not because of the act, but because of the actor. Thus, one’s desire can be a condition for corruption. The ideal expectation of ministers of the Church is holiness, but once they deviate from this, they become corrupt.

In a secular world, many conditions favor corruption: lack of transparency in Governance, lack of good governance that is accountable to the people, weak rule of law, weak judiciary, lack of protection for whistle blowers, poorly paid salaries and illiteracy among the population. Costly political campaigns where people donate money to those seeking political offices often turn out to be campaign bribes to be repaid with contracts.

Corruption kills enterprise; it kills professionalism; it kills hard work. Nobody wants to work hard where corruption is prevalent. For example, some school children, rather than study hard to pass the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Examination (JAMB) relax and patronize the so-called “Special Centers.” The philosophical question which comes to mind in this kind of situation is: “Why should I work hard when I can always get what I want through other means?”

Because of corruption many things are today wrong in Nigeria. Other countries use money collected from tolls to maintain their roads, but when we had tolls in this country, nothing came out of it. A typical university has about ten Faculties and it take about 300 Million Naira to build a faculty, translating into 3 Billion Naira yet people steal more than that and yet we do not have enough universities. With a population of about 47 Million, South Africa generates 32, 400 megawatts of powers, while Nigeria, with about 140 Million population do not generate up to 1,000 megawatts all because of corruption.

Corruption also undermines democracy and good governance by subverting due process. Corruption makes the cost of doing business to skyrocket, which ultimately affects the cost of goods. When contractors pay kickbacks on demand, it affects compliance with government’s specifications. It makes officials to contrive new rules and to delay the performance of their legitimate duties.

Corruption generates economic distortions in the public sector by diverting public investment into capital project where bribes and kickback are more plentiful.
Corruption destroys countries and is the major vice that has destroyed Nigeria. Though a corrupt country has legislations to protect and guide against corruption, but when these become subverted, the aim is to a large extent defeated.

In conclusion, therefore, what we finally require of the Church and the secular world in order to combat indiscipline and corruption are role models. The time has come for the Church to resume the traditional role given to it in the form of a divine mandate by the Lord Jesus Christ: “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5: 13-16) “But if salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? Of course, it is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled under people’s feet.”

If the Church scored a pass mark in carrying out Christ’s injunction, it is my humble opinion that the twin evils of Indiscipline and Corruption will effectively be put in the bag. The question then arises naturally: How should the Church play its role in order to achieve the peoples’ adherence to the Christian tenet so that the monsters of Indiscipline and Corruption no longer plague us? I dare answer this question by suggesting that a good, first step is for the Church to lead by example, for the leaders of the Church to operate by the principles of personal example.

The Sun News On-Line