• Friday, March 29, 2024
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The mathematics of corruption

corruption

When I met Namchir, it was glaringly obvious that there was something “off” about him even though it was extremely difficult to place a finger on what exactly it was. He was very well dressed in a well-tailored 3-piece suit but seeing that he was pushing a wheelbarrow under the hot sun, the contradiction was difficult to miss. His wheelbarrow was filled with what looked like decorations for a home but when I spoke to him, he had no home and he had spent the last couple of years accumulating all of these decorations none of which he’ll ever use. Yet, everyday, he went out collecting more and more of them. When the wheelbarrow filled up and I offered to relieve him of the agony of tugging along these assets that were of no use to him, he vehemently fought me off and often threatened to kill me. I heard he had attacked and caused grievous bodily hard to all those who, in the past, attempted to help him reduce the strain of carrying things he didn’t have any reasonable use for.

 

Funny enough, considering that he spoke very well, this “madness” was really hard to explain especially because he neither looked dirty nor unkempt and away from the nausea-inducing-putrid-stench from his wheelbarrow, he smelled rather nice.

 

Everyday, I meet a Namchir in the pages of the newspaper, in stories of $43million abandoned in a flat, $2.2billion (N800,000,000,000 for perspective) fraud, N10billion confiscated, N200million power bike crashed, 30 houses seized, people owning 4 Rolls Royce’s…mind boggling assets accumulated that have no reasonable use – these are all our Namchir.

 

I often wonder why people acquired so much in assets like cash, property, cars, and jewelry when it is more than evident that in their entire lifetimes, they could never exhaust it and yet, the greed for acquisition continues unabated.

 

I came across some interesting reading in the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming that pretty accurately explains this behavior and I’ll attempt to share.

 

First, let me introduce you to an average struggling-supposedly-middle-class Nigerian; let’s call him Namroop!

 

Namroop has struggled his whole life and has barely ever been able to make ends meet. He lives in an environment where he is forced to create, manage, fund and protect a mini-country all by himself by ensuring he has power, water, security, education, transport, healthcare for himself, his family and dependants and the cost of running this “mini-country” takes up at least 85% of his annual budget.

 

Now, try and picture that Namroop suddenly finds himself in a position where he knows that for the next couple of years (let’s arbitrarily pick the next 4 years), he has almost unfettered access to an obscene amount of money belonging to other people and imagine that he also knows that his fate following the 4 year term is relatively unknown which means that his future becomes insecure again like his past. Imagine he knows that in the 4 years while in this position, his accountability is to no “real” person or group except “God”, “godfathers” and his very malleable conscience.

 

Can you imagine the state of mind he would have in the next 4 years? Can you imagine the behaviors hell exhibit?

 

We should all have come across the mathematical concept of “Present Value or PV”, which basically means looking into the future, placing a monetary value on all the things you see in the future and then equating (calculating is more accurate) what that value is today using certain variables. (For this article, don’t bother yourself too much with the formula, just the concept.)

 

So, Namroop gets sworn into office for a 4-year term and immediately goes to work but as you can imagine, his primordial instinct of self-survival will be his driving force. He has never been trained in nor come across the delicate art of “delayed gratification” nor does he understand the concept of “greater good” nor “communal benefit”. He is well schooled, but significantly sub-literate and largely uneducated. Worse, he hasn’t been raised in a society that has regard for rule of law, nor is there reward for good nor punishment for error.

 

With this brief summary of his background, let me now introduce you to the inner subconscious workings of his mind.

 

Namroop’s primordial instincts kick in after month 2 of swearing in (month one is for parties, congratulatory messages, introductions, thanksgivings and finding the loopholes to exploit) and he subconsciously begins a complex mathematical decomposition of the present value of his needs for the rest of his life. He needs to subconsciously calculate what his lifetime needs in monetary terms for each of these line items (amongst many):

 

  • A befitting house in a befitting area
  • Contingency house for that house
  • An extra house or perhaps 2 more for his social status
  • A new generator for each of the houses
  • A back up generator for the houses
  • Each generator will be changed every 3 years
  • Diesel consumption for the rest of his life
  • At least summer holiday and general travel cost for himself and his family
  • School fees for all his children up to PhD level in Harvard, Yale etc
  • A house for each of his children in the city of their schools
  • Bi-annual medical check up abroad for himself, wife and whole family
  • Cost of anticipated treatment if check up shows any illness
  • Contingency funds for cost of treating cancer which MAY come up in any member of his family.

 

If all this will come to $250million then, he has to consider that he may have left a few things out and/or underestimated inflation and exchange rate volatility; so lest round it up to $500million (at current exchange rate, this is N180,000,000,000 –>N180billion).

 

We can’t forget that there’s a real possibility that he falls out with his god-father and then security agents are sent after him, so he has to anticipate reconciliatory cost with the god-father and if that fails, cost of appeasing the security agents. Since he would most likely have left office by the time these “woes” commence, he will have to ensure that while in office, he accumulates over and above his calculated PV to cater for these “costs”.

 

Of course, if the falling out is of a non-reconciliatory “ROTSOM” proportion, then all these “sacrifices” may be offered and yet fail and he ends up in court! He therefore needs a retinue of lawyers, and only Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) have the know-how to navigate delicate issues like this and possibly the ability of buy all the judges all the way to the highest level.

 

So whatever he has calculated that he needs, double it and add jara!!!

 

He will be consumed by a greed-driven attempt at fraudulent acquisition of all his “needs” and an interesting part of this state of mind is that even if he succeeds and the present value of all the anticipated expenses is acquired, if you were to ask him if he had money, he will answer in the negative. And no, he will not be lying. Take him to Sango or Amadioha and he will swear, successfully, that he has no money! Truth is, in his primitive mind, all this money acquired is NOT his at all!! It all belongs to all the various future anticipated vendors of calamity that he has created in his own imagination. He is merely, at this point, planning to keep the money in trust for them.

 

I define “poverty mentality” as a mental state of perpetual lack irrespective of need! It should be easy to see that Namroop’s state of mind is exactly this, so despite whatever assets he acquires over the 4years, Namroop will still see himself as being in a state of lack, he will still be poor and without wealth, despite having so much riches.

 

So, right after swearing in, you can see how Namroop begins to behave like Namchir; the man we all began and hopefully concluded as having major mental health challenges.

 

In closing, let me point out that the developed world is quite similar in thinking to Namroop but with a very small but highly significant difference:

 

Well, the developed world also finds the present value of all anticipated future needs but instead of individuals attempting the impossible by self-sustenance, they find the PV and then spread it across the entire community in affordable cost. So, instead of accumulate the projected cost of every conceivable future ailment, they have health insurance and everyone pays a little. Via taxes, they all contribute towards the free education of their children. Via affordable mortgage, they cater for the future needs for housing.

 

Instead of stealing the communal wealth, they create a social safety net such that everyone has a little of everything instead of just a few having a lot.

 

Until our public officials understand that true leadership is servant leadership, knowing that working for the ‘common good’ will always be more efficient than pursuing selfish interests.

 

Until citizens understand, expect and demand for their share of the commonwealth by fiercely holding leaders accountable for all communal assets and resisting the inherent abuse from public office holders we will continue to have a country ruled by the mentality of Namroops!

 

 

Zeal Akaraiwe

Zeal Akaraiwe is a financial analyst and social commentator.