ANTHONY ESIN
Corruption has been defined as the state of being bad and dishonest, especially in matters concerning money. Corruption is also said to be a perversion of morality, integrity, character or duty out of ulterior motives, without any regard to honour, right and justice.
In other words, undue favour for anyone for some monetary or other gains, can be described as corruption.
Similarly, depriving the genuinely deserving from the right or privilege is a corrupt practice. Shrinking from one’s duty or dereliction of duty is also a form of corruption.
Besides, theft and wastage of public property constitute varieties of graft. Dishonesty, exploitation, malpractices, scams and scandals are various manifestations of the vice.
Corruption is not a unique peculiar Nigerian phenomenon. It is witnessed all over the world in developing and developed countries.
It is experienced in every sphere of life, including business, administration, politics, and religious circles.
Concerned about the seriousness of the problem and it threat to the stability and security of societies, the United Nations even had to declare an internationally Anti-corruption day.
To tackle corruption in a country like Nigeria, government has adopted several approaches. The Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, ICPC, was inaugurated on September twenty nine, 2000, with the aim of receiving and investigating reports of corruption, and in appropriate cases, prosecute offenders.
Again, in 2003 the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, was established as a law enforcement agency to investigate financial crimes such as advance fee fraud and money laundering.
While the ICPC targets corruption in the public sector, especially bribery, gratification, graft and abuse of office, the EFCC investigates people in all sectors who appear to be living above their means.
In spite of these measures, the level of corruption in the country is still reckoned to be high.
Sometime ago, the Transparency International, the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, rated Nigeria as the one hundred and forty-sixth least corrupt in the world.
This is an indication that the legal and institutional bulwarks erected against corruption in the country have made efforts in confronting the monster, but much, however, still need to be done to prevent the surge of dishonesty in our nation.
What then will bell the cat called corruption, in the nation, to stop it from eating up the commonwealth and destroying the country’s prospects?
To overcome the capacity of corruption, every countryman and woman must individually, start the fight of self-correction and discipline.
So, rather than continue to sermonize on the pervading malaise, everyone in the country should stop giving or receiving bribes, stop the dishonest use of public office for private gains, stop promoting ethnicity, tribalism and deal with one another on the bases of honesty, integrity and morality.
The cancer of corruption in the polity can be cured, not by indulgently blaming those in positions of authority for its occurrence, but through self-purification by all.
For, if the war against corruption will ever be won in this clime, we will have to follow what Solon has said: “He that has learned to obey will know how to command”. This means that everyone should do what they preach, when it comes to corruption.
