Many Nigerians have been cussing out British Prime Minister, David Cameron for describing Nigeria as a "fantastically corrupt" country in a conversation with the Queen, but apology to Oga Ben Bruce 'There is common sense' in what Mr. Cameron said.
Truth be told; is Nigeria not corrupt? We all know corruption takes many shapes, starting with embezzlement, bribery, killings, rigging in elections and so on.
Embezzlement of public funds- Remember Dasuki gate? Mr. Dasuki is currently being prosecuted for allegedly distributing over $2.1billion meant for arms procurement to relatives, friends, political associates and campaign officials of the Peoples Democratic Party.
However, many leaders have helped boost the economies of other nations by depositing embezzled money in foreign banks. Facts and figures have shown that on many occasions, the men who rule the country have embezzled funds into foreign banks.
After the death of the former president, President Sani Abacha, an investigation was carried out to detect the amount of money he embezzled in gas plant construction in the country. The investigations led to the freezing of accounts containing over $100 million United States dollars, which is still not fully recovered.
Kidnapping: Whenever it was time for election in Nigeria, small children in the country began to go missing. Why it is like that and what were the children used for? This is another face of corruption that breaks the hearts of mothers. The missing children were used by contesting politicians to perform ritual killings in order to get protections and other devilish powers that will enable them win elections. This is corruption and wickedness in the highest order because it involves the termination of human life.
Election rigging- During elections, the contestants hire thugs who go round the election polling stations to highjack the ballot boxes. When they steal these boxes, they then use their hands to vote for their candidate. In the recent times, the new tactics that the contestants have adopted is buying voter’s cards so that they can manipulate and use the cards for their own advantages.
Corruption in Universities and Colleges- It is not new to any real Nigerian to hear that corruption parades itself in secondary schools, Universities, polytechnics and colleges. Exam malpractices, harassment of women by lecturers and pressure to sleep with them for good grades and more!
The Police Force-Where do we start when it comes to the nature of corruption observed in the police? Do we start with the bribery, intimidation, sexual harassment of the young inmates in the prisons, or turning truths upside down? There is a saying that “police are your friends”; in Nigeria policemen are your enemies because they can deny the truth and collect bribes to do so. Because of the encounter many Nigerians have had with policemen, even the good ones among them are generalized as being bad. What a shame.
Even Football sector is not left out!- Players are not chosen by merit. It is all about who you know in top political offices or society.
In the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), corruption is the reason why Mr. A is elected as the leader of the group today and tomorrow the election is nullified and Mr. B chosen. Everybody wants to be at the head so that he will fill his bag with the national cake.
Churches nko? When churches are corrupt, what hope do Nigerians have? Some of the pastors go to the extent of using magical and devilish powers in running their church business in the name of God’s power. They give the congregations what they want without them knowing the source of their so-called power. Some have on many occasions been caught in adultery and fornication.
Internet Fraud- Some Nigerians, who are mainly youths, have been scamming their fellow citizens using illegal means. Some host websites online and claim to be giving jobs to job seekers and scam any who fall prey to their tricks. They tell job seekers to make certain payments for processing documents without them knowing that they will not be issued any job. Some Nigerians have been stolen from by cyber criminals.
Corruption in NNPC: From what we gathered, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation doesn’t even know the amount of crude it imports daily. There are possibly over 100 different means which the NNPC uses to siphon government revenue. From fraudulent subsidy payments to intentional delay of imported products to incur and accumulate demurrage with shopping companies.
NEPA (now EKEDC- The Eko Electricity Distribution Company- for Lagos residents)- Their own is even worst. How can they keep giving residents crazy bills, without any power supply or worse cases epileptic power? Some houses don’t even have meters, yet EKEDC reads ‘ghost’ meters and come up with annoying bills. Even if they eventually cut off the wire because users couldn’t afford to pay, bills keep coming in monthly. Please who reads and calculates in the meters in the spirits?
Need we say more?
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