Nigeria is a country that is blessed with both human and material resources that can transform a state in the world and make such one of the best, if not the best in the world; but it is so unfortunate that corruption has stunted Nigeria’s growth in all ramification due to the failed promises of leaders in the past and recent years. According to western scholars, corruption in Nigeria has been existing from the days of its inception. As a matter of fact, it was one of the materials used in laying its foundation.This statement might not be totally true because I believe as people, we can fight corruption.
Many political leaders in Nigeria from the beginning of our fourth republic has made many attempt to fight corruption; rather than corruption to be reduced or eradicated, it is increasing and has now become the order of the day. In the year 2003, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was created to fight corruption in Nigeria because of the press by Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on money laundering that Nigeria is one of the 23 countries non-cooperative in the international community’s effort to fight money laundering. Abinitio the creation of EFFC in Nigeria has undone little in fighting corruption.
May 29, 2015 During the inauguration of president Buhari, He said in his speech “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody “. During this speech, he made it clear that he was going to fight corruption in Nigeria because this was the ground upon which Nigerians voted out the then incumbent president Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. The effect of corruption is enormous, some which includes bad economy, unemployment, poverty and many others. In visa processing to other countries, many Nigerians are being denied visa into those countries of their choice basically due to the stigma of the nation which is corruption.
Since Buhari’s administration has promised to curb this cankerworm and it has proven abortive, this in turn cause a great effect on the electorate and cause many to regret they are a Nigerian. Visa processing firm extorts the electorate with the government folding its arms. A case study of Mr Abbah, who wanted to travel to Johannesburg to attend the 10th Global Investigative Journalism Conference, said when he saw the breakdown of the payment he had made to the visa processing embassy he felt cheated because the cost of product is low while service charge is very high, and this has been affecting so many Nigerians just because of the failure to curb this cankerworm.It has made the electorate loss trust in the leadership of this administration. Since the anti-corruption fight of President Mohammed Buhari, money had been recovered from various politicians such as Sambo Dasuki for embezzling money meant for purchase of arms to combat bokoharam insurgent ,Raymond Dokpesi was alleged of money laundering and Olisah Metuh was alleged of collecting huge amount of money from the office of Dasuki.
All this money has not been used to do anything that will benefit the electorate, and the total amount has not been spelt out. And some other politicians are not probed just because they are in the same party with the president. For instance, the likes of Ibrahim Magu, EFCC chairman and the Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai.
This has caused Nigerians to loss its trust on the President Mohammed BuhariIncrease in unemployment rate due to the corrupt practices happening in Nigeria had made many companies that would have invested in our country afraid of setting their company here. They believe that this cankerworm would ruin their organization. Also, the money that should be used in creating jobs for the masses are being squandered by some top officials.The electorate will lose interest in any form of court jurisdiction, the Senate president in person of Dr.
Abubaka Bukola Saraki was tried with 13 corruption charges and non was genuine. Let’s ask ourselves a question is this possible or their is something wrong somewhere? Now in the case of offa armed robbery, people will not be interested in the case, because it is believed that they will finally free him even if the case was genuine and confirmed to be so. The citizens tends to lose hope in curbing corruption due to the failure of this present administration to eradicate it. The anti-corruption crusade has failed; the government themselves are being partial and are not probing people on their own side making the fight one sided as presumed by many. People might not come out to vote because they believed that their vote wouldn’t count.
Recently, the president disclosed that his party would not be able to match its opposition in next year elections, money for money, he claimed. For him to say that openely it means he has not really fight corruption which means he has failed in his promises to curb it; because when one who has money wins the election by the influence of their money, then corruption has been allowed to grow. This translate to the electorate that even if they cast their vote it might not count due to the president statement. Since this cankerworm has not been eradicated from the system, any of the politicians or political parties might use this avenue to cause violence during the 2019 elections as it had been happening years back. There might also be a form of rigging because it is easy to bribe any INEC officials in order to win the election, therefore making the election not free and fair.The ruling party, APC, might lose major official position come 2019 because the electorate had lost their trust in the leadership and this might in turn affect them, because people might not vote for them come 2019 as they’ve failed to fulfill their campaign promise which is failing to curb corruption. The electorate might see it this way that if they vote them again, they won’t fulfill their promises because they have already destroyed their trust.
what happened in 2015 elections might repeat itself, when the then ruling party lost most official position like that of the president.
