(Why) we are all corrupt (3)

Few weeks ago, I started this series on corruption. After two pieces, I interrupted the series to treat some other important topics that were rather timely and urgent. In this piece, I have modified the title slightly; as events in the last week provide me with the most profound examples that buttress and corroborate my point that we are all corrupt.

First, in the last week, the supposedly defeated Boko Haram released an unflattering video of the Chibok girls. While the government is still studying the video, CNN continues to broadcast the video and the interviews with some of the parents of these missing girls. For now, there is no hiding the fact that Nigeria, as a nation, has failed these parents. I will come to the implications later.

In the last week also, we have been inundated with the heroic stories from our Olympic representatives in Rio, Brazil. First, it was the Nigerian football team that was stranded in Atlanta, US, until Delta airlines came to their rescue. They arrived Rio six hours before their first match against Japan, which they won 5 – 4. Before then, many resorted to the social media to raise funds for their trips to Rio. The unique story of Chierika Ukogu, studying in the US, perhaps never benefitted anything from Nigeria except having Nigerian parents, competed in rowing for the country.

All these stories have one thing in common – they are symptomatic of the Nigeria that started to exist fairly soon after independence, especially from the 1970s. This “Nigeria” exploded thereafter, and the country became unfair, uncaring and sometimes, border on deliberate wickedness.

Each Nigerian responds to this “Nigeria” the way s/he deems fit. In a brilliant piece written by Hadassah Egbediin Ventures Africa, she reported how young Nigerians are swapping their countries and identities for their dreams in Bahrain. These young talents are representing Bahrain in the Olympics and other international sporting events. They have abandoned Nigeria, because Nigeria first abandoned them. She then quoted Bambo Akani, founder Making of Champions saying “with up to five Nigerian born athletes at the world U 20 Championship for Bahrain, and seven of them set to represent Bahrain at the Rio Olympics, it is high time that Nigerians awoke to the fact that there is virtually no functioning athletics development structure in Nigeria currently”.

Some may foolishly question the patriotism of these young Nigerians. Indeed, if the Nigerian football team had lost the first match against Japan, some ignorant Nigerians would have wondered why Japan should beat a footballing nation like ours. But being patriotic, often defined as the love, respect, and emotional attachment that you have for a country is never given. Rather, it is earned. And for many things that are earned, in the same way as love, and respect, the price is relative and is dependent on who is involved. How do I mean? What Nigeria has to pay to earn my patriotism is quite different from what she has to pay to earn another Nigerian’s respect, love and patriotism.

Very uniquely, patriotism generates national pride, devotion, love, support and national loyalty. How many Nigerians have these qualities in relation to Nigeria? It is quite understandable therefore if the parents of the Chibok girls do not exhibit any national pride, and indeed continues to talk to CNN, because it demonstrates it cares more than any Nigerian entity. Same if the Nigerian athlete that is attracted by what another country offers towards the fulfilment of his/her Olympic dreams, and the same way for a hard working student who has to travel to another country to fulfil his/her academic dreams.

Indeed, there can be nothing as personally humiliating when you are representing an entity that does not care. Following from this, many of us cannot and will very unlikely fulfil our dreams when our nations let us down, and when we do well, as the football team is doing, it is not because of the support we receive from Nigeria, but in spite of it. Invariably also, it does become nearly impossible for our nation to fulfil hers. Our destinies are interconnected with that of our nation.

Many may not see the interrelationships but the same thread of “wickedness” run through the Niger Delta problems, the Boko Haram victims, the IDPs, and the country’s Olympic representatives – Nigeria abandon us all from time to time. I even dare argue that it is the same for the thousands in our prisons. Nigeria abandons us all in our moment of weakness and vulnerabilities.

What is the implication of this? In many other countries, the country begins to woo you even before you were born. After you are born, they woo with the best education they could afford. After that you are trained to be and contribute in the best way possible you can for the nation’s progress. So, at each stage of your life, countries that care for every individual ensure that they provide the opportunity for the individual to realise and know that the nation care to see him or her succeed and fulfil his or her dreams, and in the process, help the nation fulfil hers. It’s the opposite in Nigeria. So, when you become a Minister like Solomon Dalung or the head of an agency or even the President, your preoccupation is self, because that is what you have always known, and that is why we have corruption in every facet of our lives. I thank you.

Ogho OKiti