Corruption, social violence and ethical culture in Nigeria

Abstract

Corruption is the direct or indirect act of violence aimed at exploiting unmerited gain and or advantage from a person, structure, institution or environment. In Nigeria, corruption has grown to an unquantifiable level. The major causes of corruption include absence of political will, progressive suppression of the culture of accountability, geometric societal poverty and negative socio-economic conditions as well as greed and the get-rich-quick syndrome etc. The paper presents the multi-dimensional phases of corruption in Nigeria and the salient mandate of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). Unfortunately, the work reveal that the effectiveness of the above institutions and other corruption-watchdog setups has being watered-down by the negative push and pull effects of what is popularly known as the ‘Nigerian factor’. Finally, it argues that the most dangerous implications of corruption are the recurrence of social violence and the near-total collapse of ethical culture in every sector of the Nigerian national life, while recommending multidimensional transformative cultures of corruption management that must be collectively championed by the citizenry.