Corruption and bad governance are twin evils feeding on each other and making Nigeria, as Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzoegwu said 61 years ago, while justifying military intervention in the polity.

Nigeria looks small in the eyes of the international community. There is no gain saying the fact that egregious corruption, which has since become the norm, is not only reducing Nigeria from the immodest claim as the giant of Africa, to the dwarf of Africa. If you will, corruption is the bone in the throat of Africa.

In 1806, Shehu Usman dan Fodio also denounced corruption in Hausa land, which he advanced as the justification for his jihad. From Nzoegwu’s bloody coup that toppled the First Republic that precipitated the Nigerian Civil War, to Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s primary reason on December 31 1983 for terminating the Second Republic, the prevalence of corruption in the public sector and society generally,, and the fight to curtail, if not, to eliminate it, will define the history of Nigeria for hundreds of year to come.

If Nigeria survives, one of the variables would be the success of the efforts to eliminate corruption and if Nigeria collapses, the prevalence of corruption would be one of the precipitating factors.

So much has been written about how corruption is eating us alive as Nigerians and contributing to social decay, not only in the public sector, but in the society generally.

The late Dr Yusuf Bala Usman, one of Nigeria’s foremost historians related some historical anecdotes which he linked to the cultural and historical roots of corruption in Nigeria. The failure of public servants to separate themselves from the public treasury, Usman asserted that Nigeria had been on the verge of the peril of corruption, its devastating impact on society, and the need to eradicate it for over 170 years.

Usman said corruption had provoked serious revulsion since the 15th century and the people had revolted against it. Quoting a prominent Benin historian, Jacob Egharevba, Usman recounted how Oba Olua of Benin, who reigned in the 15th century, was derided by his people.

Olua, was the prodiga,l who paid the debts he did not owe, a reference to the Oba’s habit of dipping his hands in the public treasury to pay debts for those who could not afford to pay. The Oba’s generosity was seen then as an act of corruption and this led to a chain of events that eventually undermined the Obaship, so much so that after Oba Olua’s death, no Oba was appointed for three years until his brother Ozolua agreed to ascend the throne of Benin.

Usman, a scion of the Katsina Royal Family, also recounted how in the 16th century, Yusufu, Sarkin Katsina who ruled for a short period in 1516, and who was a man of personal courage; was smeared by corruption, and pmocked by his people as Yusufu who killed a lion but was driven out of office because he stole the poultry of the poor.

It is clear from these historical anecdotes that corruption has existed as long as there has been an organized society and government in Pre-colonial Nigeria. However, Nigerians had, according to these historians, taken action against corrupt rulers from Oba Olua the prodigal to Sarkin Yusufu the poultry thief. Society had always frowned at corrupt leaders and corrupt practices, and people had ensured appropriate sanctions were applied. History also recorded that Nigerians never tolerated corruption and had indeed campaigned against it.

The nexus between corruption and bad governance is crystal clear and undoubtedly for inefficiency, ineffectiveness, lack of accountability and consequently, failure of many major and minor developmental projects.

Several factors are responsible for the present state of affairs in Nigeria, like religious sentiments, ethnicity, class and social stratification, and other primordial exertions. Corruption in its many manifestations and bad leadership are the main factors responsible for the decay.

The utter failure of leadership at all levels to respond to this cankerworm effectively, has engendered monumental failings and retrogression in public service delivery in the country. Public sector management of critical development and socio-economic initiatives has largely failed, to the detriment of national development and the general well-being of citizens, because of corruption and bad leadership.

As I said in this column two weeks ago, Nigeria is indeed faced with the present existential crisis of failing to respond effectively to the various contradictions in the society, especially the socio-economic, political, and critical national questions, like managing diversities, respecting the fundamental rights of Nigerians, and respecting their democratic aspirations to live in peace and prosperity.

The cause is not difficult to see, it did not happen in a vacuum. It is a deliberate action of people like you and me, who have failed to take Nigeria seriously. As a result of this reality, projects designed and paid for with the taxpayers’ money across the country have been abandoned and laid to waste across all the states of the federation.

According to the Chartered Institute of Project Management of Nigeria CIPMN, in 2017 about 56,000 projects valued at 12 trillion Naira abandoned since 1999, liter the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. Because of weak institutions of accountability, a globalized international money laundering system and a conspiracy of international criminal network of drug dealers, and reign of impunity, Nigeria has inexorably followed a catastrophic development trajectory.

At the apex of this monumental waste, corruption and bad governance in the Ajaokuta steel project, abandoned for over 40 years, with over $5 billion U S dollars, go down the drain.

Corruption has also affected the management of the electoral process, which many countries take for granted to the extent that every election circle in Nigeria, is like a state of war, as corrupt politicians pervert the electoral process through bribery, gratification, thuggery, and violence to capture power.

After the elections, the next turf is the hallowed chambers of the temple of justice as judges struggle to preside over election petitions, ostensibly, for filthy lucre. This has eroded public confidence in the electoral process, fostered decay in the public sector, and affected democratic development.

Although corruption is not unique to Nigeria, the sheer scale of theft of public resources, the audacity of public officials to indulge in corrupt practices with impunity, and the fact that corrupt public sector leaders flaunt their ill-gotten gains and primitive acquisitions, like a badge of honour, has not only brought shame to Nigerians, but odium, to Nigeria as a nation.

The Panama Papers published in Premium Times (2016) six mentioned prominent public officials ranging from state Governors, Ministers, senators (two former senate presidents were mentioned), and members of their families and associates, traditional rulers, the clergy, bank and financial services executives, and famous prominent industrialists who operated shell companies overseas where they hid proceeds of corruption, tax evasion, and illegal accounts in foreign jurisdictions, in violation of Nigerian laws.

Transparency International rates Nigeria low in the corruption perception index while in international relations, Nigeria is described in the most scurrilous of terms. Former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in a 2017 famous speech, described Nigeria as a “fantastically corrupt country’’, while General Colin Powell, former U S Secretary of State, described Nigeria as a “nation of incredible scammers”.

As to be expected, there was uproar by Nigerians. Some dug into the family history of Cameron and unearthed a history of family wealth accumulation based on tax evasion and all sorts of financial malfeasance.

Gen Powell, an African American, later rephrased his accusers by saying that many Nigerians, including the Nigerians in diaspora in America, were honest and worked hard to support their families.

Nigerians know that to live in denial is to harm the nation. Corruption poses an existential threat to the nation. Because corruption causes oppression and deprivation, it is also a tool for control.

As the late Eskor Toyo explained, exploitation is a process of gaining something out of or at the expense of the state or citizens. It is also the ‘’common grease of the machinery of social parasitism’’ associated with “power or authority to distribute benefits in an unequal society and this discretionary power is predatory.’’

By May 2018, Nigeria overtook India as home to the greatest number of people living in extreme poverty. China which equally has a huge population has within three decades pulled millions of its dirt poor peasants out of poverty and is now the second largest economy in the world. The glittering transformation of Singapore from a city-state with little or no infrastructure, when it became independent five years after Nigeria; and the peculiar case of Rwanda, a country that has witnessed one of the worst genocides on the African continent and has within two decades, been transformed, are often been cited as what a successful fight against corruption and an efficient public service can produce.

Addressing the deep-rooted and systemic nature of corruption in Nigeria, will require comprehensive reforms and strengthening of governance institutions, promoting transparency and accountability, and fostering a culture of integrity and ethical leadership.

It will also require sustained political will, sustained civic education at all levels, and the involvement of civil society, the private sector, and international partners in the fight against corruption.

The fight against corruption at all levels, is a national call to arms. Nigerians must wage this battle with heart and might. We must prevail so Nigeria may live.