Its not news anymore that Nigeria is morally corrupt. It isnt news either that our leaders are the architects and engineers of corruption. Listening to a couple of people talking in a commercial bus, a man says “to be a politician, you have to be corrupt, if fact, if you are not corrupt, you cannot be accepted into politics”. Quite insightful indeed.
They went on to say that even who are not in politics are already corrupt, for example: bus drivers/conductors, market men and women who want to make 100% profit over something they didn’t add value to, staff of government agencies / parastatals, etc. These and many other people, ‘the average Nigerian in summary’, are on the way to the top – therefore when they ‘get there’, we cannot expect them to do any good thing for this country.
The discussion went on and on, and arrived on the average Nigerian child who, at his/her young age, ‘even a 6–year old kid’ knows how to cheat and lie for financial gain. A man went on to ask: “if we say our children, our youths are the hope of Nigeria’s tomorrow, and these children are already corrupt in their young age, does Nigeria really have a future”?
“Ki lo de ehn, what kind of a devil is in this country” an elderly woman joined in the discussion, then she asked in the Yoruba language the question which I’ve translated to English and used as the title of this post: can Nigerians ever develop the culture that abhors corruption?, as in, is it ever possible?
We were about 10 in the bus, and unfortunately, 6(six) concluded that they were not sure - it was impossible that Nigerians ever develop a corruption – free mentality. I noted to myself: are people not loosing hope in this country?
I’ll like to know what your own opinion / answer is: can Nigerians ever develop the culture that abhors corruption? Yes / No; why / why not!
they say, they say