We love corruption By Victor Nwoko

Opiates and other drugs with
addictive potential produce effects
that are euphoric and illusory to the
user, creating a false reality. They
inhibit the ability of the individual to
reason rationally and effectively
through the changes they work in
the brain. These substances mimic
natural substances found in the
body, acting through legitimate
communication systems within the
body to produce effects that are
detrimental to the user. I cannot but
see the parallel between these
substances of abuse and the brands
of religion that has crippled our
beloved country, Nigeria.
Nigerians are very religious. Across
the land, religious activities and
institutions are as ubiquitous as air.
In fact, religion is a necessary
addictive to political, economic and
cultural life of the country. It
permeates every sphere of existence
of Nigerians inside and outside
Nigeria. But everywhere religion is
found among Nigerians, corruption
abounds much more. Although the
proof of causality will be too
onerous for this article, an
association may be easier to adduce
from the abundance of anecdotal
evidences out there.
Politically and economically, Nigeria
operates in a space defined by a
synthetic mixture of black magic,
religion and vacuous ideologies.
The result is a system that has its
moral and philosophical
underpinnings in a cocktail of
magical tales with religious
leanings. To illustrate this, one need
not look afar. A police officer is a
candidate for immediate double
promotion for doing his job
especially in the presence of the
Inspector-General or anyone with
the ability to effect such. In
countries where principles and order
are observed, the officer may receive
a medal for extraordinary bravery
but no promotion because there is a
laid down procedure and a guiding
principle for that.. Yes, although the
principles that informed the
procedures for promotions are
clearly stated in the police (or for
that matter, civil service, army, bank
etc) operational manual, it has no
meaning beyond the pages upon
which they are written. There is little
wonder why the vast majority of our
compatriots pray for double
promotions – we act outside the
bounds of rational principles. We act
by impulse, as if overwhelmed by
emotions to the detriment of our
capacity to reason objectively Due
process is a slogan in Nigeria while
it is a reality of life in functional
nations.
It is an accepted ‘truth’ within the
Nigerian religious establishment that
leaders both secular and religious
are ‘appointed’ of God. This
invariably means that such leaders
are only answerable to God. This
has led our people, leaders and
followers down the path of
complacency and laziness in the
fight for eternal vigilance over the
inalienable rights endowed on us by
our creator. We rather resort to
prayers in place of vocal opposition
that demand accountability; we turn
to fasting in place of civil opposition
that articulates a viable alternative.
Thus, we enable tyranny and
corruption; enthrone injustice and
ungodliness through our legitimate
religious acts. No religious leader to
my knowledge is accountable to the
congregation in financial matters.
Rather, they intimidate those who
receive the revelation of
accountability with heavenly curses
and punishments. They teach that
they are accountable to God alone.
We grow up in our religious groups
numb with respect to accountability.
We are neither supposed to demand
or expect it from our leaders. This
sure feels like opium.
There is a saying that the unborn
Nigerian child cannot wait to get a
share of the national cake. There is
some truth to this because the bribe
givers and takers are religious
Nigerians, The thieves pilfering and
pillaging the nation’s treasury are
religious Nigerians. Yes, pastors,
imams and other religious leaders
are parts and parcels of the corrupt
enterprise. Since money answers all
things, it has become king above all
things in our lives. How you come
about your wealth doesn’t matter; it
can be baptized, renamed and you,
canonized! Just bring a hefty sum
for the work of God. We legitimize
thievery, at least certain modes of it;
we kill our collective conscience and
we wonder why we keep producing
leaders who are callous and
unrepentant and very religious. We
trade in fraud and stock-up
corruption like treasure. Our pastors
preach sermons copied in its
entirety from televangelists or their
books while claiming such as divine
revelation received as they prayed.
Our professors copy (plagiarize)
other people’s books and sell them
as handouts to students. With the
stolen intellectual property, we sell
grades and graduate morally inane
students and we wonder why we
produce leaders who are clueless.
We bribe (un)civil servants to do the
very job they were hired and paid to
do and we wonder why the engine
of our government is dead, our
roads, death traps, our hospitals,
morgues and our aircrafts coffins.
We thrive in disorderliness and
crave darkness. Even those of us
outside the shores of Nigeria, we
crave for home in part because it
affords us the opportunity for ‘legal’
disorderly conducts. For us, to
queue in line is not just an
inconvenience, it is shameful and
beneath our person. We love
darkness because light will expose
our deficiencies, our weaknesses
and our wickedness. Light threatens
the root of our power. In our
religious houses, we discourage
reasoning and dissent because we
prefer uniformity to unity. Top civil
servants abhor dissent from their
juniors because they fear being
exposed as truly incompetent or
clueless.
Yes! We trade in fraud and breed
corruption because we have created
an environment where consciences,
individual or collective, suffocate
and die. This environment subtly
changes the natural wiring of
consciences like opiates do our
brains. The euphoria of a certain
quantity of booty dissipates quickly,
requiring larger quantities for the
euphoric effect. It flows down our
head through our beards like the oil
poured upon Aaron! No wonder we
are addicted to corruption.
Victor Nwoko lives in Philadelphia.