Institutionalised corruption cutting across every strata of society has the bane of the Nigerian state in the past two decades or more. The Nigerian nation, Africa’s only real hope of an all black global power have faltered again and again due to the dysfunctions caused by corruption on a scale that stretches the ability of the human mind to comprehend…and this is no hyperbole.

In this two part series we identify and examine the impact of decades of mind bending corruption has had on Nigeria and propose solutions to tackle and ultimately abolish this menace.

Part 1 (Identifying the root cause corription)
Part 2 (Bold solutions to tackling endemic corruption)
PART 1.

Three generations of Nigerians have been wasted and there is seemingly no end in sight. We have become a nation of moon walkers, taking one step forward and three steps backwards. While it is true Nigeria has become the economic power in Africa and its middle class had risen, the nation had at the same time is fast becoming the Harvard for political instability and civil unrest in Africa. Wether good or bad every Nigeria does is nearly unrivalled.

The richest black man on Earth is Nigerian.

The richest black woman on Earth is Nigerian.

Africa’s largest middle class is in Nigeria (47 million)

The country with the longest spat of continous civil unrest is Nigera. Nigeria had just an 18 month break after the Niger Delta insurgency before the Boko Haram insurgency sprang up.

The world’s deadliest terrorist group is Boko Haram. (Take that ISIS) The Jihadi group whose level of babarity borders on insanity, enough to make ISIS squirm.

Africa’s cultural and entertainment super power is Nigeria.

The country with the world’s most entrepreneurial population is Nigeria.

The country with the most church and mosque per square meter is Nigeria.

The happiest people in the world and most terrorist people in the world.

A technology giant, Africa’s space super power. The country with more satelite in orbit than the rest of Africa combined yet cannot guarantee basic electricity for its people.

Africa’s largest oil producer yet spends hard currency importing the very product it produces….SMH.

Which way my people.How long should we be a nation of moon walkers? Rich but poor, powerful but weak, loved across Africa but hated across Africa.

It is in my humble opinion that the Nigerian State is divine. There is no other nation in the world like Nigeria.But a divine mantle us only as good when utilised. Nigeria is running out of time. We cannot continue nor sustain this level of volality and violence and corruption. We cannot continue being the Republic of Suffering & Smiling. If history is anything to go by, great nation’s have collapsed repeated as a result of dysfunctions and corruption. For Nigeria to actualize her true potential three things need to happen :

End Corruption.
End organization dysfunction.
Build up a military strong enough to detour external aggressors.
Understanding organizational and dysfunction is the first and necessary, but not sufficient conditions to eradicate them.

One doesnt have to look far to idenify the corruption and dysfunctions which has plagued and will ultimately destroy the Nigerian State. They are right in front of our eyes.The pervasive systemic dishonesty among the Nigerian people, the mind staggering misappropriation of funds as observed in the bloody nose and humiliation the Nigerian military suffered before haven to so up, the theft of public funds by corrupt politicians as observed in the uncovering and reporting of $20 billion missing from the Nigerian treasury by Nigeria’s former Central Bank Govenor Sanusi Lamido and his subsequent firing by the President Goodluck Jonathan, and countless other examples.

Another problem frequently not taking serious is corruption among the nations security services.While corruption and economic failure can bring a nation to its knees, nothing can bring about the faster collapse of a nation than security instability and the incompetence of the security services in maintaining law and order. The fact that the greatest existential threat in Nigeria’s history came a time of unparalled economic growth bears testament to that fact.

The pervasive de-professionalism of the Nigerian armed forces , often self induce by massive missaproproation of funds and corrupting the core functions of the nation’s military establishment has left to the death of over 30,000 Nigerians, and emboldened external state actors like the Franco alliance to bring Nigeria to its knees. By clandestinely providing weapons and funding to Boko Haram the Franco alliance hoped to fracture the economic and political behemoth of the region, with one thing in mind – Nigeria’s staggering energy reserves. Nigeria has the world’s 8th largest proven oil reserve of about 41 billion barrels, valued at $4 trillion. With the help of France Nigeria lost the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon. The Chadians still have their eyes trained on the potential massive reserve of oil in the Borno Lake Chad region.

Briming with confidence and pride from their sucessful defeat of Libya’s army in the desert, the Chadian army in the mid eighties invaded and occupied several villages in Borno State. Nigeria’s response was swift and decisive. Nigeria’s current President and former Army General Muhammadu Buhari was tapped to drive out the invaders.

But Buhari was not interested on driving out the Chadians, he was determined to teach the invaders a lesson they will never quickly forget. In an operation that lasted 72 hours the Nigerian Army assault force led by Muhammadu Buhari not only pushed out the invaders, he defied the order given by Nigerias president to halt and chased the Chadian forces deep into Chadian territory until Nigerian troops was 2 kilometres away from Ndjamena, the capital of Chad before retreating. Summoned by the President and facing a possibly court marshal, his excuse was that he did not realize his forces have crossed into Chadian territory.

….Back to reality

An example of the pevasive and endemic corruption of the Nigerian military and its deadly consequences is seen when in 2014 the corrupt ridden administration of Goodluck Jonathan risked the territorial integrity of Nigeria by the inappropriate outsourcing of the core function of the core functions of the Nigeria’s diplomatic team to Chad, a country who weeks before was caught red handed trying to smuggle SA-7 surface to air missile system (a weapon the Nigerian military does not posses) to Boko Haram, to shoot down Nigerian attack helicopters that have been decimating the ranks of Jihadi group Boko Haram, bringing them to near collapse.

The unrivalled stupidity of the Jonathan administration as clear for all to see when Nigeria agreed to a cease fire deal brokered by Chad, Nigeria’s only real military rival in the region. Under the agreement Nigeria was to pay and undisclosed amount of money to the Chadian government everyday, to finance Chads attempt at diplomacy. Not surprisingly weeks later, taking advantage of the lull in fighting a rejuvenated Boko Haram came back with a bank.The Jihadi group, that months before was on the verge of collapse came back stronger and was able to occupy territory the size of Costa Rica.

Where we clearly see that when internal governance fails, and the relevant oversight and anti corruption institutions are dysnfunctional, corruption and incompetence can occur on a pervasive scale, the nation may collapse, or settle into an equilibrium state where the government cannot its core functions and persists by throwing money at a problem. Many dysfunctions arise from a failure to understand the system level behaviors of external State actors despite the fact Nigeria has a Ministry of Foreign Affairs that is allocated billions of dollars in the annual State budget.

In effect the dysfunctional organisation, called the Nigerian government is kept alive by financial “life support” at the expense of the Nigerian taxpayer. Not enough rice production to meet local demands? Import rice. Refinery doesn’t work? Import oil.
The question arises inevitably , whether there is an abstraction which captures why endemic corruption in Nigeria persists and why the Nigerian people continue to tolerate it.

The relationship between a parasitic and a parastoid presents a useful empyrical analogy for studying the problem of persistent corruption in Nigerian society. A parasite is an organism that spends much of its lifecycle attached to a host organism, from which it draws nourishment t also exploit the host for shelter and reproduction. A stable equilibrium is often established, where the paraditeavtively subverts the internal physiology or behaviour of the host, to pursue its own selfish biological aims, especially in propagation through reproduction and typically aims to keep its host alive in this state for as long ad it can be exploited.

Now, the host usually suffers loss of health, reproductive potential and shortened lifespan. Where the latter is prominent, the parasitic organism is described as a “parastoid” as it eventually kills its host. Parastoid interactions are essentially predatory, hence a parastoid organism predates upon its victim using the tools and techniques of the parasite.

It is important to distinguish parasitic and parastoid relationships with host, from “symbiotic” relationships with hosts. A “symbiote” coexists with its host in a mutually beneficial relationship, forming a transient community in which organisms both benefit. In effect the species coexist, battering products and services, in a sense the partnered organisms cannot dirg8vr without each other.

Central of the success of parasitic adaptations or parastoid predation on hosts is the successful use of deceptions. Now these parastoids dont play games, they crafty and wicked. How do these parastoids deceive their victims

Degradation if information where the attacker hides in the background noise, or produces noise for the purpose of concealment or camouflag.
Corruption if information, whereby the attacker mimics what is it not and lies and lies to misdirect and mislead the victim.
Denial of information, where by the attacker impairs, disables and confuses the victim.
Denial of information by subversion, whereby the attacker subverts the victim’s mechanism used to detect and defeats attacks.
It is Important to note that parastoid employ any, but frequently all of the 4 strategies to overcome the host organism defences, rendering it incapable of recognising that it is under assault, or responding to an attack. The mos successful parasites make extensive use of corruption and subversion, and are often impossible to dislodge easily once firmly rooted.

The very general definition of of parasitic and parastoid behaviour presents a useful frame work for stufying the problem of mind boggling corruption and sheer incompetence in a dysfunctional system.

Nigerian politicians and their cabals are social systems in which mostly people an absurd amount of money and time in pursuing their political goals. They deceive the poor masses and their supporters in their quest for power, and are rewarded for their efforts, mostly in material times. The latter appears to be one of the most common motivators for people to aspire to and become part of the corrupt ridden system even if they know the goal of these politicians is for self enrichment.

For the government to function effectively, the agenda’s and goals of the people must be closely aligned with agenda and goals of the government. Most of the problem we have in governance in Nigeria today arise from various misalignments between what the intended goals of the country and the people running the affairs of the country. There are various ways in which such a disconnect between the people and the political leadership might arise, but mostly, they are related to the structural corrupt practices and obscenely expensive system of government Nigeria adopted.

The Nigerian political structure is modelled after that of the United States. By the United States has been the richest economy on Earth since 1866, it is the richest country in the history of the world. Nigeria is not, yet Nigeria runs the most expensive system of administration in the world in a territory barely the size of California. If this is not madness then I don’t know what is.

The problem of parasitic and parastoid behaviours in the Nigerian government epitomizes the instance of a political disconnect between the political establishment and the people and conflict, where the misalignment is a willful act by corrupt political cronies seeking to exploit their positions in the political fabric of the country to maximize their individual gain at the expense of the masses.

Trivial examples include political figures in Rivers State (they know themselves) wasting billions of naira and resources from the state coffers to pursue their agenda. More serious examples include political lawmakers manipulating policy and practises to favour themselves at the expense of their billionaire partners and friends with no care in the world about the people who elected them into office. The latter instances present by far the greatest risks to the countries very own survival.

https://defensenigeria./2017/07/20/part-1-the-parasitic-plague-that-has-bedeviled-nigerias-military-industrial-complex/
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