Mirroring Corruption Epidemic in Nigeria via the Biblical Lens: The Role of the Church

Abstract

Undeniably, the menace of corruption is perceived to have eaten deep into several phases of nations of the world; meanwhile, Nigeria is not an exception. The scope of this study is channeled basically towards the Nigerian context. The reality and actuality of corruption in Nigeria nation suggests that Nigeria still retains its popular known notch as the ‘giant of Africa’, being shortchanged for ‘giant of corruption’. Although, it can be argued that Nigeria is not the most corrupt country in Africa; its uniqueness being part of the corrupt countries is obviously glaring. It is not in any way an overstatement to say that corruption is the middle-name of Nigeria itself; with the fact that there seems to be no dailies in Nigeria media without a trending issue on corruption. With several religions in Nigeria (Islam, Christianity, African Religion); it is logical to ask why do corruption still prevails? Although ‘corruption’ is not a system of belief, it persists as a trending entity with many devotees, followers and disciples, having ingrained their mindset that the nation cannot function properly without corruption. The observed menace spurred the interest of this study, with specific attention to the Christian perspective. Christianity is one of the prevailing religious movements in Nigeria; therefore, the sphere of this research is in the Christian direction; how the Church can step in to help the messy situation. The temple of God (which is the Church) must be clean to restore the sanctity of the society. Observably, several Christians and Church leaders are with silence-syndrome approach and standing aloof mechanism to eradicate corruption; but worse is the case in the country. The fact that abstinence from secular activities (while trying to uphold Christian values as against corruption) is of no good effect is glaring; therefore, this research posits that the Church must exhaust all her platforms in speaking against corruption with Church leaders and Christians as worthy ambassadors of the Church.