It was in the late 1880s that Nigeria nay a large part of Africa was divided like some spoil of war between European Countries at the abominable Berlin Conference of 1884-85.The Conference ended with Africa partitioned among European countries whose identities and ambitions could not have been further from what many African countries truly needed – countries that were soon to be viciously plundered. Till this day, countries like the DR Congo and South Africa still bear the scars a heinously stealthy war.
Even the country Nigeria a child of colonialism. There was no country until Lord Lugard amalgamated the Southern and Northern Protectorates in 1914.His wife had named the country in 1897 in what was the defining rubber-stamp of colonial crudeness.
The Brits may have left the country in 1960 but they continued to bear down on the country in many ways for many years after. They may not have been as insistent and as invasive as the French in the post-colonial or even neo-colonial tactics they have used in their erstwhile colonies but they have been ever present.
A brutal and bloody Civil war was to change the reality for Nigeria in 1967 as a country that was founded on such carefully concealed but nonetheless fragile grounds gave in to the weight of making something out of nothing, and the wiles of a few weasels clad in army uniforms.
The Nigerian Civil War may have ended in 1970 but the scars remain. The smoke remain and has succeeded in clouding every effort banked into forging genuine national identity and granite national unity for the country ever since.
So many things have been tried and thrown away. So many people have been tasked and then trashed as Nigeria has sought to find a formula that works just fine. With the failures that have mounted over the years, every new discourse about Nigeria’s unity in diversity has sounded even more hollow than the last.
Since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, an overarching question has been that of corruption. The foundations may have been laid in the 80s and 90s when the savage military dictatorships of Babangida and Abacha turned public funds into personal play things. However, it took the return of democracy and the triumph of transparency over terror for Nigerians to know the true extent of the scourge. Indeed, till this day, there are genuine fears that the true depth of the rot is not fully known. This is because there has never been a thorough forensic audit to determine just what the country has lost to the thieves it has allowed to stampede its corridors of power.
As per recent rankings released by Transparency International, Nigeria continues to perform desperately poorly in the rankings of the world’s least and most corrupt countries.
According to the 2022 Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International on Tuesday January 31,2023.Nigeria scored 24 out of 100 points on the index.
Out of the 180 countries to be ranked, Nigeria ranked a scandalous 130 in what was a dirty slap on the face of every rhetoric tested and every route tried to get Nigeria to shed some of its corruption in the last few years.
The progress which saw Nigeria move up four spots from the previous ranking when it placed 134 may be as deceptive as they come for it did not indicate that Nigeria became less corrupt in that time but simply that other countries picked up the pace of their plunge into the precipice of corruption.
It is auspicious if not providential that the ranking is coming a few days before Nigeria’s general election and just when Nigerians are feverishly counting down to the day a much criticized president will leave office.
Efforts may have been made by President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle corruption in the last eight years but the overwhelming feeling is one of frustration at the slow pace of the efforts and their general inefficacy The feeling of frustration is especially cruel when cast into the light of the fact that Nigerians overwhelming elected the president in 2015 and returned him to power in 2019 because he had promised to give corruption a run for its money.
Nigeria has apparently been shoved into the last chance saloon by the many problems which seem to be convulsing the country all at the same time. So many of these problems find their root in corruption.
If there was ever a time for Nigerians to check the scourge, it is now and it will begin with the seemingly pointless but extraordinarily powerful act of making the right choices at the forthcoming elections.
It has become an emergency for each step or misstep now may just be the last for the country. But the greatest hurdle the country may yet face in the war against corruption is the dominant mindset that convinces many that corruption is in Nigeria to stay.
The real change may have to begin from within afterall.
Kene Obiezu
Twitter: @keneobiezu
