Mark Anti-corruption Day on Nigerian Lighthouse Website
December 6th, 2007 | Published in Activism, Advocacy, Corruption, Governance, Nigeria | 17 Comments
From the Nigerian Lighthouse Team:
December 9th is UN International Anti-Corruption Day and Nigerian Lighthouse seeks to commemorate this day with a small but pertinent project.
The goal is to get as many people to write a 50 word (or less) message on how to eradicate corruption in Nigeria. All submitted messages will be posted at the website - nigerianlighthouse.org [http://nigerianlighthouse.org/] .
Most Nigerians have an opinion on how to stop corruption. Here is a chance to share that idea with the world! So, simply write a message of 50 (or less) words and send it to NigerianLighthouse@gmail.com. Then send another message to your friends encouraging them to participate as well. This will only take 5 minutes of your time and the rewards - sharing ideas that will definitely improve Nigeria - is more than worth it.
To learn more about the origins of International Anti-Corruption day, please visit the United Nations page at http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/about-unodc/9-December.html
Hope to hear from you all!
December 7th, 2007 at 1:47 pm (#)
Most people including myself are not aware that there is an Anti-Corruption Day. Of course most Nigerians have an opinion on how to stop corruption. But is this possible? Eradicating corruption in Nigeria or anywhere else is too big and simply not do-able. I am more inclined to a debate on combating and preventing corruption like the UN.
The United Nations Convention against Corruption is another example of “how not to do things” it is being rushed through in order to ensure its rapid entry into force. How about dialogue and engaging the root causes of corruption?
In our country, Nigeria for example, to stop corruption is to artificially remove a phenomenon that took a century to fester. What will we replace it with? Please do not forget a hugh number of people depend on this and it is their way of life.
December 7th, 2007 at 4:18 pm (#)
@Beauty, “eradicating corruption…not doable?” never say die. Long term goal but worth working for. In the short term combatting corruption is the start towards wiping it out for posterity to have a saner better living in Nigeria. Corruption should never be acknowledged as a way of life for anybody. I still know a few very honest and incorruptible people in Nigeria
December 8th, 2007 at 3:32 pm (#)
The world affairs is awash with corruption and some people even call it a mecca of mess. But out of this comes renewal and innovation where a lot of people are doing incredible things. Lets copy the best others have done and then use it as a platform to make ours better.
A few good people will not do it for Nigeria and again, eradicationg cprruption is not dooable anywhere! I accept near term dummy solutions but we must get away from the legacy of the Shagaris, Babangidas & OBJs in order to bring forth a better country.
The corridors of the UN, Vatican, White House, Palaces of Westminster et all reek of corruption but their society does understand the discipline and rigour it takes to deliver measurable benefits in terms of basic infrastructures like schools, universities, roads, basic medical care, water, public transport, security, and life and power generation.
December 8th, 2007 at 6:28 pm (#)
@ beauty: forgive my bias, but I am with Omotaylor on this one. The minute I believe that I cannot overcome corruption is the minute I stop thinking of possible, though small, solutions. It appears that your approach is to prevent corruption, that in itself is a useful means to at least dampen the systemic corruption we experience in Nigeria. That is also part of doing away with it, don’t you think?
December 9th, 2007 at 4:05 am (#)
@Beauty, I agree with your reasonings in all 3 paragraphs of your comment on Dec 8 and pray for the same so I say yes and amen to it. But playing on semantics sort of weakens part of it. Preventing corruption, eradicating it or doing away with it are all steps in the right direction. Let us take for example the disease called Leprosy; decades ago it was rampant, spreading and becoming part of Nigeria and there were many leper colonies (I visited one in Abeokuta in the late 60s or early 70s). But now we can say Leprosy is eradicated in Nigeria and the colonies have closed down. This is not to say that there arent a few lepers here and there in Nigeria but they are no longer dominant. Now let us substitute corruption with leprosy. Do you still think that the same cannot happen long term?
Let us all come together and support noble causes that will help us achieve our potentials in Nigeria and not allow this play of words to deter others or trivialise good intentions. Nevertheless Beauty I see where the frustrations are coming from, and this is the ABSOLUTE MESSY STATE OF OUR COUNTRY NIGERIA. But NEVER SAY DIE.
December 9th, 2007 at 4:43 pm (#)
I was going to reply your excellent thoughts by going into a fiery televangelist style fast mode like this “Natural selection is death. … Without huge amounts of death, organisms do not change over time. … Death is the mother of structure. … It took four billion years of death … to invent the human mind …â€, Nigeria cannot afford to wait.
But the real me decided to tell you all about one of my favourite books. Angela’s Ashes is a memoir by Irish author Frank McCourt, and tells the story of his childhood. I am sorry if you have not/read it, but it is worth everyone’s time. It is a sad book. An alcoholic and out of work father that drinks away any income, and for years the family subsists mostly on bread and tea. In the damp, cold climate of Ireland, the children have only one set of ragged clothing each, patched shoes and no coats or boots.
I would put our country in the same basket as Malachy McCourt, Frank’s dad who I think should have been committed into an asylum due to his odd manner. Our country is a huge failure like this one man but we can use our talents to turn our situation into progress by actually getting on with doing things that will enable change. We all agree we have the corruption problem, the question, which divides us, is whether the solution goes far enough.
December 10th, 2007 at 3:41 am (#)
@Beauty, first thanks for almost not going into a “fiery televagelist fast mode” for even the small mode got me confused, especially from a Beauty. I must confess I have not read the book by Frank McCourt and I will add it to my ever growing list of must read books and pray God I find time to read them all. Now this out of work alcoholic Malachy was left to carry on drinking away his and possibly family income hence the family’s misery. But if his friends & family had taken him for therapy and done the African Family assistance, the family would/could have been spared such pain and suffering. Shame he was not “committed to an asylum”. Thanks for your summation that “we can use our talents to turn our situation into progress by actually getting on with doing things that will enable change.”
December 10th, 2007 at 11:58 am (#)
It think Beauty, Omotaylor and Solomom are actually saying the same thing from the same perspective!
We have a cancer in our hands and you don’t treat that by preaching (even if you believe in faith healing). There are two major approaches to treating cancer(I’m a medically trained person):
1. You can give what we call chemotherapy or radiotherapy and hope the cancer will die off. Most often the patient is the one that dies off!
2. You can remove the cancerous tissue completely
Hash as it sounds, option 2 is still the best option for treating cancer today.
What we bloggers are doing now, which is what most people feel comfortable with is like option 1; Preach and hope things change. But most often things change but only for the worse. Because it is optional for people to change when you only preach. And like we all agree here, this cancer has somewhat become a tradition and means of livelihood for a large number of people.
Now how do you remove cancer? Simple. Surgery. Unfortunately surgery comes with pain and blood. I can guarantee no one will wish for these.
And, thank God! I can’t seem to see any surgeon in sight!!
So let’s preach on and hope the cancer dies off before the patient does!
December 10th, 2007 at 1:19 pm (#)
@Kunle, What do you suggest? Here is mine:
We can stop the rot in Nigeria by changing the corruption game and my suggestion can have a chance with an attitude of forgiveness. Corruption flourished because of the buy in from the very top of the Nigeria society and this top down relationship has cascaded into every aspect of life in our country.
A national corruption amnesty should be set up to allow people to hand in stolen monies without fear of prosecution. This should be allowed to run for 1 year starting on 14 December 2007. I also propose we let all the people that have stolen from us and used our national treasury as their personal piggy bank keeps the loot after that date.
This is because; we are an oil rich nation and can afford it. Here is a quick guide to oil futures, in 1972 the price of crude oil was about $3 per barrel, 1981=$35, 2007=$90. Please do the maths, we can afford to wipe the slate clean and stop labelling our people criminals.
Nigeria is a land flowing with “milk and honey” and not just oil, ask Accenture, Procter & Gamble, Shell, Anglo American, Coca-Cola, Sygenta, Unilever and others. Mal Nuhu Ribadu and EFCC should stop the anti corruption crusade and in order to begin a the huge task of auditing everything. Let us wake up to a culture of transparency by publishing all our accounts.
Whatever we had in the past will be divisive and in order for progress to flourish, we must stop being a beggar nation and take life to the rest of the world. Doing this from the top may lead to better education and understanding of life.
December 10th, 2007 at 5:05 pm (#)
Please read my fictional dreamland write up on this site:
http://community.africanloft.com/kickapps/service/displayMediaPlayPage.kickAction?mediaId=11189&mediaType=BLOG&as=4392&b=
Here is an excerpt:
“What happened was that God raised a Nigerian General Rawlings, who gave everyone the ultimatum to join in making Nigeria “better†or face the music. Those who thought he was joking were made scape goats and he cleared all corrupt leaders (don’t know how), but anyway after this the results of good governance set in and now its all too clear for all to see”.
So @Kunle, some of us will like the hash option 2 but as you rightly said, No surgeon in sight.
@Beauty, sorry this “forgiveness” policy may be setting an unusual precedent and open to abuse, for this is Nigeria. You are very kind.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:25 pm (#)
My educational needs are served by connecting in conversation and trying to understand the whys. This blog, Africanloft, and others deliver insights to a lot of life and its “preachers†must continue to help put the messages out there. These words may sound like blasphemy today, they may yet end up as bible of tomorrow.
@omotaylor, your fictional dreamland is on par with Tutuola’s epics and I was humbled to read it. It is now on my recommended reading. You did something, you wrote about it and it is in the doing that marks you out. We ought to move away from comparing seemingly unrelated subjects (in ref to @Kunle’s cancer metaphor) and face the consensus reality.
Additional education required include Fela Kuti’s songs from the past about corruption in Nigeria and as he said at the time, it is only about a few people at the top. He has moved on, so has Abacha.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
(William Shakespeare, As You Like It,)
December 11th, 2007 at 5:17 pm (#)
The topic of corruption is a tough nut to crack because at one point in our lives, most Nigerians have directly or directly benefited from it! And it has cultural underpinnings that runs deep into generations.
Example1:
Such as using the simple acts of irresponsibility like using government vehicles for personal purpose; using ‘long legs’ or connections to get stuff done, to the simple - often unsolicited gifts- given to, and received by, public servants/politicians for helping us out. These are the nuances of corruption and pretty much all Nigerians are guilty of it.
Example2:
Contrast this to the senseless mind-boggling pen-robbery – diversion of public funds to private accounts - or asking for ‘upfronts’ or kickbacks to award of contract. These are the sensational corruption that makes the headline news.
The question is how is 1 different from 2, aside from 2 being a worse version of 1?
When we talk of corruption does it apply only to example 2?
Can corruption really be eradicated given the symbiotic relations it has with our culture?
My take is that rather than talk about eradication or wiping out corruption, we need to seek ways to control it first. And the best way to do so is partly what EFCC is doing - if it can be done more boldly and unbiasedly.
It requires massive re-orientation of our socio-cultural psyche, where this will start, I don’t know – in the classrooms, churches and mosques, everywhere and anywhere.
To those is the need to implement a socially-responsible and socially empowering agenda. There is no reason why healthcare and education should not be free in the Niger-Delta at the very least. Maternal and child health ought to be free nationwide, tertiary education ought to be realigned to match the realities on the streets and international job markets.
Somehow, the ruling class must see the people as stakeholders, and the people must have a sense of ownership as well. How this will happen, I don’t know, but it must happen in order to control corruption. We all have stakes in the nation.
The tendency to be ‘corrupt’ is a natural default for humans, I suppose; what we need in Nigeria/Africa is a self-regulating, self-adjusting and multifaceted mechanism that forces people out of this default mode. This system must also be potent enough to identify and sanction those that revert to the default, whenever it happens.
December 11th, 2007 at 7:02 pm (#)
@Beauty; well said about the morality and sense in songs of the past, and you have indeed quoted a very good example FELA Anikulapo Kuti. Herbert Ogunde is another and even the comedy fun lyrical statements of FUNWONTAN contains messages that we need to practice, oh Lagbaja also tried in his “Bad Leadership” track. Music of yesteryears were very true to life and tried to keep the populace on checks. Your WS quote says volumes and I beleive posterity would be revisiting today’s words with nostalgia in the future. Hope it encourages them to toe the line. For this we continue knowing that our efforts would not be futile.
@Imnakoya, in addition to your suggestions, instilling and then inculcating discipline, morality, allegiance, integrity and hardwork in our children right from Nursery/Primary school (my slogan for this from time immemorial is “catch them young”) is a very good start also. I am hoping to make my mark in Nigeria in this respect and it is my prayer that many others would join in. Nursery and Primary schools are a very important tool in moulding the child and this encourages them to say “NO” to evil and corrupt ways of life when they become adults.
Can corruption be eradicated in Nigeria, maybe not but it could be deterred big time if the right punishment is always metted out to whoever is involved. I wonder what motivation and encouragement has been used on customs at the airport for lately they have been doing a wonderful job of catching and exposing drug pushers and money launderers, irrespective of their status in Nigeria. More grease to their elbows.
December 12th, 2007 at 3:57 am (#)
May I use the good news today about Nigerian government launching a welfare scheme to help poor families which will be met by cynical comments because previous anti-poverty schemes have failed because of corruption to answer @Imnakoya’s questions 1&2? Corruption of any form/type is wrong. It is not either or but a combination of wrongs which makes it wrong (that may not sound right but I hope you understand).
I will put corruption in the same basket as malaria and global warming which are technically impossible to eradicate or wiped out but control possible. I would also be interested in the how. That perhaps is another conversation. Lets go talk with the folks at African Loft.
December 12th, 2007 at 5:01 am (#)
Whatever disease we liken corruption to, we all seem to agree that it should be stemmed and controlled, although some believe it should be eradicated. As Beauty saud, how? is the question. The comments and contributions on NigerianLighthouse anti corruption campaign makes interesting reading and I have some useful tips pencilled. With permission from Nigerian Lighhouse, I will attempt to make a bullet point list of all the good strategies mentioned - watch out for this.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:50 am (#)
“We ought to move away from comparing seemingly unrelated subjects (in ref to @Kunle’s cancer metaphor) and face the consensus reality”
Beauty,
It’s kind of amusing to me that Omotaylor’s fantasy (I have the same fantasy and earnestly hope for the day it becomes reality)is more relevant than the fact that corruption is similar to cancer.I nearly dismissed this comment as unimportant then it occurred to me that you (and perhaps other readers) might genuinely not understand how corruption in Nigeria is closely related to the disease of cancer.
I don’t know if you live Nigeria. I have lived in the country all my life (I’m in my early 30’s). My occasional travels outside never lasted more than 2 weeks at a stretch and I have been in the healthcare profession for nearly 10 years.
I intend to convince you that the two issues are related and will go ahead to draw up a number of analogies:
1. Cancer is a disease of the body
Corruption is a disease of the society
2. Cancer occurs when normal body cells loose the control needed to behave properly
In corruption people loose the control needed to behave properly within the society
3. Cancer tends to spread to other parts of the body sometimes rapidly and has no respect for any organ
Corruption spreads in similar manner within the society and and can penetrate any organ of the society be it the leadership, business sectors, social life, police, courts, education system, families etc
4. Cancer destroys life of individuals
Corruption destroys life of a society and of course that of the individuals within the society
5. Cancer is difficult to get rid of
Corruption is just as difficult to eliminate
6. You can save a cancer victim by removing the cancerous tissue
You can save a nation by eliminating corrupt elements (Isn’t a Nigerian Jerry Rawlings part of Omotaylor’s fantasy?)
7. You need a determined surgeon to remove cancer
You sure need a determined Jerry Rawlings to rid a nation of corrupt elements.
So, I insist a discipline and determined effort to fight corruption from the top down will definitely be more effective than blogging alone!
December 12th, 2007 at 7:31 pm (#)
@Kunle, your analogy does make sense and I believe not too many people will dismiss it as trivial even without you breaking it down further. My question is “who will bell the cat? For Nigerians just love enjoyment too much to sacrifice big time. In the meantime we still depend on EFCC and conscience (only by a few), to stem corruption which is indeed eating into the bone marrow and spreading like wildfire. Oh how I long for a different Nigeria, but who will bell the cat, i.e. who is the surgeon? In the meantime, until we have an answer our nearest sense of doing sometthing will still have to be blogging.