MANY FACES OF CORUPTION IN NIGERIA (1)

I have heard and read many write ups and statements from both people in leadership positions in this Great country of Mine- Nigeria- and other fellow citizens talked about corruption and its impact on Nigeria’s growth and development. I am in agreement with them that this ugly giant corruption is the bane of Nigeria’s lack of development and success.
However, I strongly believe that there is one major lacuna that is being overlooked by most people which I believe is an important factor in curbing corruption, and that is the different sources of corruption which I have aptly tagged, ‘The many faces of corruption”. So in this write-up, I am going to take time to reveal these different sources of corruption in Nigeria with the hope that the various anti corruption agencies in each of these various sources will rise up to their responsibility and ensure that corruption is reduced to minimum level if not totally eradicated. There is a common saying amongst the Yoruba’s that says “Ti Olorun bati fi ota eni wonni, kole panimo” that means when one has been able to identify his/ her enemy, your enemy can’t kill you again. So I believe that we can’t fight or kill corruption in any system if we don’t really know the various sources of corruption in that system, otherwise if known and nothing is done, it then means that we are only hypocritical about the issue and are not really ready to nip corruption in the bud.
Firstly, permit me to quickly list out all the various sources of corruption identifiable by me before I go into its analysis. The various sources of corruption paramount in Nigeria today are in: (1) Education (2) Energy (3) Family (4) Religion (5) Corporate business environment (6) Civil services & (7) Government. It is obvious that the most harped among these is the corruption in governance, but the truth is that corruption in government is an extension of other major sources of corruption.
I shall briefly try to analyse each of these sources with the help of shedding light on it to enable the anti corruption agencies in each sector to rise up to their challenges to curb this ugly giant once and for all.
Corruption in the education sector: I have been in the education sector now for eleven years and in all these years I have witnessed all sorts of unscrupulous activities that make me cry. For the lack of time, I will quickly say he that there are two major areas where corruption has almost become a tradition in our education sector. The first is in the secondary level of our education. No one can dispute the fact that our secondary school leavers are no longer reading for their exams, all they now rely on is expo or leakages or direct assistance from external people during exams. When I was young, the usual practice is to look for people who have past question in each subject we are about to sit for in exam and start practicing the questions in those past question and even after exams you will be obligated to keep your exams question papers for junior student coming behind you as they will come knocking for it sooner than later. Apart from that, you may also enrolled for extra mural lessons to augment whatever you have learned and taught in your regular school, and of course, the rate of success in those years were far better than what is obtainable now. But these days, the reverse is the case, in fact it has become so bad that the few students who are ready to read are totally discouraged from reading. For instance, virtually in every part of this country you will get special SSCE/ GCE centres, in fact they are so conspicuous that they have become normal, and what is special about these centres you may ask? They are ready source of expo or “chukwuli” as they now call it. At these centres, the students have options. They could either just registered for expo in the exam halls which is the cheapest ranging from between two thousand naira to four thousand naira per subject or be register for personal assistance in which case, those students in these category will be put in a special room within the school used for the exam usually the vice principal or principal’s office where the exam will be answered and photocopied for each student to be copied. This also range from between four thousand to ten thousand naira per subject and of course the most expensive option they refer to as “non appearance” in which case the students won’t even bother sitting for the exam as the centre will help arrange for another person who will sit for the registered students for all the papers that the students registered for. Of course these range from between ten thousand naira to twenty thousand naira per subject, and these fees so to speak would have been paid before the commencement of the exam otherwise “no show”. Now if these are not corrupt practices, then I want to know what they are.
The most annoying part of these is that these special centres are known by each exam bodies and I mean both WAEC and NECO directly or indirectly and I will give you my Facts. Since the beginning of this millennium, these exam bodies have put up various technological process of registration (even though these is also a form of corruption as you will discover soon) by which each student is expected to log in to the organisation’s website and register. The major reason put forward by these bodies for doing this is to curb exam malpractice such that when each students register, his or her data will be captured in the organisation’s data based and the system will automatically be given a random centre for the examination closer if not closest to the area of residence of the applicant, is that not so? Well not to worry as each of these centres (and I am speaking from what I have personally experience them do) have special codes given by officials of these exam bodies that once inputted, all the applicant they (the special centre admin) will thereafter register will automatically be in the same centre which the code belong to and of course, these so called special centres are not supposed to know these codes. So tell me if this is not corruption!!
In fact, I have seen parent going to register their wards/ children for lesson and the very first thing they will ask you is if you have special centre/ assistance that will be given to their wards. If you answer them in the negative, you will never see their break light as they will immediately go look else were and they are sure to get! Each of these special centres of course pays some money to their partners in crime who are inside these exam bodies. If we are truly sincere in eradicating corruption, why are these centres on the increase? Why have not the minister and commissioner for education not come out and begin arresting these centres? Less you are confused about what I am saying, most privates secondary schools these days are also used as special centres, in fact these has been on the increase in the last five years, before then only private lesson or tutorial centres were involved but now, most private secondary school, have joined the bad wagon. A teacher friend of mine once told me he had to resign when he was called to come and solve exam questions in the special room to be photocopied and given to the school students writing May/ June WAEC. To these private secondary school, their expenses is reduced by half as all the student registered through the school is automatically expected to write the exam in the school premises, as such, the school do not have to have insider in the exam bodies to achieve their aim. The attendant result of all these atrocities is that the students are now relaxed and have become more indolent than usual as they are not so much bothered about reading to pass their examinations as they know that their school will help them out.
This is not only applicable in final secondary school exam, from the JSS1 to JSS 5, the same happens. If you are a teacher in any of these private schools and you are sincere you will agree with me that these private schools have an unwritten law of not failing any student. How this is to be done is left for the subject teachers. You do not need any clairvoyant power to know that the more private schools we have, the more the failure rate of students in their final exams, this is because these students have been spoon fed and packaged right from their first year in secondary school. The most unfortunate being that these schools are now using this inflated success to cajole the gullible parents into paying more school fees, in fact the parents have been made to believe now that the higher the school fees, the more successful their wards and or children will become, what a pity!!
I can go on and on but time will fail me to unravel the various cans of worms paraded with impunity in our secondary education.
When you come to the tertiary level of our education, you will find the same. You have to pay through your nose to get admitted into any of our public and private schools. You will pay more than ten different charges before you are pronounced a student in Nigeria. From the initial application scratch card to result checking scratch card to registration scratch cards to acceptance fee, to medical fee to departmental fee to etc. all of which is unique and different from actual school fees, the list is endless. Once accepted as a full student, you will begin to contend with lecturers who are more than happy to ensure that you do not graduate with good grade. Some will boldly tell you to you face that no matter how brilliant you are, you can never graduate with a second class upper, some will even vow to you that you will never graduate out of the school if you don’t do their biddings. All this are the monster that are militating against the standard of education in this country, they are all one form of corruption or the other. How will a product of such corrupt process be expected not to be corrupt? How will such a one be void of corruption when he or she becomes a leader? It is a circle of what goes around coming around!!