CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA; A STUDY OF THE GOODLUCK JONATHAN ADMINISTRATION (2010-2015)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
One of the greatest threats to economic and political development of any nation is corruption. Therefore, the challenges of corruption remain a major devastating issue facing Nigeria since the colonial period, and this phenomena has become a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of our system (Ademola 2011).There are many unresolved problems in Nigeria, but the issue of the upsurge of corruption is troubling. And the damages it has done to the polity are astronomical. The menace of corruption leads to slow movement of files in offices, police extortion tollgates and slow traffics on the highways, port congestion, queues at passport offices and gas stations, ghost workers syndrome, election irregularities, among others. Even the mad people on the street recognize the havoc caused by corruption – the funds allocated for their welfare disappear into the thin air. Thus, it is believed by many in the society that corruption is the bane of Nigeria. Consequently, the issue keeps reoccurring in every academic and informal discussion in Nigeria. And the issue will hardly go
away (Adeyemi, 2016).
Some writers say that corruption is endemic in all governments, and that it is not peculiar to any continent, region and ethnic group. It cuts across faiths, religious denominations and political systems and affects both young and old, man and woman alike. Corruption is found in democratic and dictatorial politics; feudal, capitalist and socialist economies. Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist cultures are equally bedeviled by corruption. And corrupt practices did not begin today; the history is as old as the world. Ancient civilizations have traces of widespread illegality and corruption. Thus, corruption has been
ubiquitous in complex societies from ancient Egypt, Israel, Rome, and Greece down to the present (Lipset and Lenz 2000). This does not, however, mean that the magnitude of corruption is equal in every society. Some countries are more corrupt than others! As George Orwell notes in his widely read book, Animal Farm: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others (Akindele, 2011). Since corruption is not new, and since it is a global phenomenon, it is not peculiar to Nigeria. However, corruption is prevalent in Nigeria and in many other African and Asian nations; the leaders as well as the followers are corrupt (Lipset and Lenz 2000). Consequently, it has defied all the necessary medicines. If there is a lack of control of corruption in every sphere in the nation, it is then like the old saying: When water chokes you, what do you take to wash it down(Sen 2001).Perhaps, because corruption has received an extensive attention in the communities, and perhaps, due to the fact that it has been over-flogged in the academic circles, corruption has received varied definitions. Corruption has broadly been defined as a perversion or a change from good to bad. Specifically, corruption or corrupt behavior involves the violation of established rules for personal gain and profit (Sen, 2001).
