From another Nigerian forum, I lifted this interesting perspective on corruption as it affects the leadership-followership discourse in Nigeria and I concur with the author completely. What do you think?

In Nigeria we (the followers) are more corrupt than our leaders.

I have no doubt that the prevalence of corruption (financial, moral) in Nigeria stems primarily from the followership with a gradation to the leadership. Like in all societies, few, if any Nigerians are born as leaders; people evolve to leadership positions. Thus, before we ever became leaders we were followers and we have probably a few thousands of leaders compared to several hundred millions of followers. The Nigerian followership have wrecked more havoc on our image than the leadership. Ranging from the office clerk who asks for bribe money before he can pull up your file, to the police constable who collects bribe and even kill for failure to give, to the market woman/man who tampers with her/his measure and scale devices to dispense less produce at same price as standard amount, to the student who is a cultist and an armed robber, to the unemployed who resorts to kidnapping to live, to the ''savvy'' 419ner plying his trade on cyberspace, to the unrelenting drug courierers and fake visa arrangers, to students who indulge in exam malpractice and their parents who often abet the act, to the sportsman/woman who under-declares their age or take performance-enhancing drugs to gain advantage over other.

At some point in life, the Nigerian follower who indulges in one or more of these evil acts becomes a leader and we expect them to change and be better citizens who show good leadership? Though I am also a geneticist by training and one of my mentors had once told me that there could be genes directing the expression of bad behaviors in human, I do not believe that the penchant of our leaders to be bad stems from any inherent genetic composition that is suddenly switched on, on assumption of a leadership position. Rather, I believe that it builds up slowly but steadily (gradation) from what we were as followers. Take for example an okada rider (we have read many such stories) who barely could survive with his okada business who resorts to using his bike for robbery. He carries you in his bike and midway into the journey, in some outlandish location, he robs you of your cell phone and bag and disappears into thin air. Next, he joins the PDP as one of the many thugs of some godfather politician and after several years of loyal thuggery, he is sponsored to become a local government councilor. Suddenly the okada rider (who barely could afford 3 square meals a day a few years back) becomes the owner of duplexes and assorted range of cars in the city. What did he do? Using the experience garnered as a mere follower, he has colluded with like minds (including the LG chairman) to embezzle council money. Same for the cultist Nigerian student who goes abroad for further studies and end up being wanted for identity theft and credit card/medicare scams, who if unknown to those back home, returns with some ''Toronto'' certificate, gets recognized (Nigerians like anything foreign, including ''foreign'' Nigerians), vies for a position with his illicit wealth, rigs his way through and then becomes a leader.

With the tip of our fingers, we can count the number of leaders that have contributed in ruining all that Nigeria should have become. Can we do so for the number of followers? Hell no, because they are in their millions. What am I blabbing here? For us to get it right, we must work on ourselves, the followers, before looking to the leaders to do so; the masses (followers) must be re-indoctrinated to the default status (be good, work hard, don't cheat). If we fail to look in the mirror, we will continue to point accusing fingers at our leaders while new crop of corrupt followers keep joining that elite league of leaders and taking us further down the path to national destruction. Look here http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Nex, gold_after.csp and here http://sify.com/sports/another-niger, mqEjhegab.html to see what brothers/sisters do to feel greater than others. Tomorrow one of them might become the minister of sports or the head of the sports commission and we expect them not to even arrange performance-enhancing drugs for sports people? A society without a followership (to succeed the leadership) is doomed, more so one with a corrupt followership.

''Change does not come from the top, it comes from the bottom''. Barack Obama.

Dont mind those shouting on top of their voice now. Na hunger dey worry them, as soon as they get one govt post/ contract and he will be worse than ibb, they will haunt their neighbors and take the wives of their enemies. A country of thieves.

invisible!:

Dont mind those shouting on top of their voice now. Na hunger dey worry them, as soon as they get one govt post/ contract and he will be worse than ibb, they will haunt their neighbors and take the wives of their enemies. A country of thieves.

No mind us jare. All of us go dey analyse our leaders like say we go do better if we go there.

Thats why I dont bother posting in this politics section. The posters here just post cos they envy our polticians.

I agree with all the comments. Only Nigerians can change Nigeria

@ op
look, we are only more corrupt because
1.) there no jobs
2.) people need to feed themselves and there family and if it means for anyone to be corrupt to feed there children they would do it.
3.) nigeria is frustrating for anyone that is poor because no electric no generator and anyone would want to live that kind of live.
4.) our leader need to teach by example on hw to be a non-corrupt leader.
5.) we need to create jobs for area boys were in factorys or something.

^ To a certain extent i think you're correct. The average Nigerian was forced into corruption in the early 80's when corruption became the order of the day.
A situation where standard of living dropped so drastically caused a reaction in the populace. If for example in an emergency situation a flood wreaks havoc on a city, the people in the city if not provided for by authorities would begin to loot shops and other apartments for their basic needs just to survive. See what happened in katrina, same thing

jason12345:

@ op
look, we are only more corrupt because
1.) there no jobs
2.) people need to feed themselves and there family and if it means for anyone to be corrupt to feed there children they would do it.
3.) nigeria is frustrating for anyone that is poor because no electric no generator and anyone would want to live that kind of live.
4.) our leader need to teach by example on hw to be a non-corrupt leader.
5.) we need to create jobs for area boys were in factorys or something.

Thank You.

Real question we should be asking is; WHAT LED TO THE CORRUPTION? You cant solve a problem without first attacking the roots.
Even if civilians corruption cease for a period, it will later continue if the MAIN PROBLEMS are not fixed.

@edoyad
From my experience, corruption started earlier than the '80s, it is only now that it is more rampant and overly upfront than the way it used to be.  I remember molue drivers used to give the bribes by hiding the money inside their driver's license to popo, now it is upfront in front of everybody. What about obtaining drivers license prior to the '80's. It is who you know.

@safari man, you have to understand that corruption exists in every society, it's like that little glitch in the 'matrix' . Even the least corrupt countries have a little corruption going on cos humans as we know them are prone to error.
The problem is when it becomes institutionalised and begins to hamper every sphere of life. So while corruption might have been existent for decades, i believe the economic problems that came about around that era institutionalised corruption in our psyche.

All,

You may excuse the reasons for corruption all you can including claiming it is due to poverty, but you cannot give reasons why
1. People do expo. Is that due to poverty too?
2. People understate their age to gain certain advantage
3. A rich leader keeps stealing money, upon money, upon money


If all motorists refuse to give bribe, how many of them will the police shoot?

Akin-Egba:

All,

You may excuse the reasons for corruption all you can including claiming it is due to poverty, but you cannot give reasons why
1. People do expo. Is that due to poverty too?
2. People understate their age to gain certain advantage
3. A rich leader keeps stealing money, upon money, upon money


If all motorists refuse to give bribe money, how many of them will the police shoot?

@ #3, I thought we were discussing the followers? Are you insinuating that people allow corrupted leaders to steal because our mindset is settled around corruption?

Ileke-IdI:



@ #3, I thought we were discussing the followers?  Are you insinuating that people allow corrupted leaders to steal because our mindset is settled around corruption?

Read the topic. ''Followers are more corrupt than leaders''. Most corrupt leaders were probably already corrupt before they became leaders. Many Nigerians alter their real ages? Why is that so?

Akin-Egba:

Read the topic. ''Followers are more corrupt than leaders''. Most corrupt leaders were probably already corrupt before they became leaders. Many Nigerians alter their real ages? Why is that so?

True @ the bolded.

No matter what, its still leadership failure.

im telling you, look at goodluck jonathan's page on facebook
filled with sycophants ,all singing his praises day and night,when the only thing he has done is to award contracts for new airplanes and for buying dustbins and his wife imports rice to distribute to people

True.

Yes, there is corruption in every society, but it is the willingness of Nigerians to embrace corruption as a way of living that is scary. If Nigerians truly find corruption repugnant and are willing to fight against it, No one would be even considering PDP and her members as a party of progress. But as usual, siddon look is the comfortable way of life for all Nigerians, and the leaders see that and are taking advantage of you and I.

Nigerians deserve the leaders they get

I am not entirely sure how you came to the conclusion that Nigerians are more corrupt than those in Leadership. I do hope that we start at least asking the right question of our leaders. For instance, in 2007, the current president declared assets well in the high 200 millions(excluding his wife's worth). This was a man who, 3 years prior, was just a PHD holder with no serious business ties. I would think we would ask him how he came to all that money in and if he is going to declare his assets, as well as his wife's(and children if any wealth has been shared) this time around? We want to make sure we continue with the practice of at least having them reveal how much they have [s]stolen from us[/s] before hand.

Kobojunkie:

I am not entirely sure how you came to the conclusion that Nigerians are more corrupt than those in Leadership. I do hope that we start at least asking the right question of our leaders. For instance, in 2007, the current president declared assets well in the high 200 millions(excluding his wife's worth). This was a man who, 3 years prior, was just a PHD holder with no serious business ties. I would think we would ask him how he came to all that money in and if he is going to declare his assets, as well as his wife's(and children if any wealth has been shared) this time around? We want to make sure we continue with the practice of at least having them reveal how much they have [s]stolen from us[/s] before hand. 

If our presido dey over-declare him assets before hand, it means that he had planned to do so before hand too. That supports the argument that our thieving leaders were thieves before they became leaders. The ones who were not thieves as followers, e.g., Buhari, Idiagbo, Tafawa Balewa, Zik, Awo, did not turn thieves as soon as they were elected or took office. The followers will not ask these questions you have in mind because it is not important to them. What is important to them is how to transcend from being followers into being leaders so that they can grab their own portion of the cake before it finishes.

@Poster

So ordinary Nigerians are more corrupt than our leaders abi, ordinary Nigerians embezzle 191 Billion abi, ordinary Nigerians are involved in Haliburton Scandal abi, it is the ordinary man that determines who is prosecuted abi?
Please stop talking out of your behind, the power of coercion lies with our leaders, the fact that they are not making proper use of that power is not the fault of the ordinary man.
You might be corrupt, I am not, our leaders hold our common wealth and they are meant to dispense it in the most appropriate way, in any other country, we will be at war because of the extreme poverty that infests our lands.

hercules07:

@Poster

So ordinary Nigerians are more corrupt than our leaders abi, ordinary Nigerians embezzle 191 Billion abi, ordinary Nigerians are involved in Haliburton Scandal abi, it is the ordinary man that determines who is prosecuted abi?
Please stop talking out of your behind, the power of coercion lies with our leaders, the fact that they are not making proper use of that power is not the fault of the ordinary man.
You might be corrupt, I am not, our leaders hold our common wealth and they are meant to dispense it in the most appropriate way, in any other country, we will be at war because of the extreme poverty that infests our lands.

Funny perspective. Those leaders have children who are ordinary Nigerians and they enjoy the wealth that their leader parents steal without complaining. Some even go on to use their parent's stolen wealth to intimidate other children. So those children are already learning to be corrupt when they take office in the future.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY……………………




I have enormous tracts of land and vast volumes of water, but cannot feed myself.


So I spend $1 billion to import rice and another $2 billion on milk.


I produce rice, but don’t eat it. I have millions of cows but no milk.


I am 50, please celebrate me.








I drive the best cars in the world but have no roads,


so I crush my best brains in the caverns,


craters and crevasses they crash into daily.


I am in unending mourning,


please celebrate me.








My school has no teacher and my classroom has no roof.


I take lectures through windows and live with 15 others in one room.


All my professors have gone abroad, and the rest are awaiting visas.


I am a university graduate, but I am illiterate. I want a future,


please celebrate me.








Preventable diseases send me to hospitals without doctors, medicines or power.


All the nurses have gone abroad and the rest are waiting to go also.


I have the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world;


and future generations are dying before me. I am hopeless, hapless and helpless,


please celebrate me.








For democracy’s sake I stood all day on Election Day.


But before I could ink my thumb, results had been broadcast.


When I dared to speak out, silence was enthroned by bullets.


My leaders are my oppressors, and my policemen are my terrors.


I am ruled by men in mufti, but I am not a democracy.


I have no verve, no vote, no voice,


please celebrate me.








My youth have no past, present nor future.


So my sons in the North have become street urchins;


and his brothers in the South have become kidnappers.


My nephews die of thirst in the Sahara and his cousins drown in the Mediterranean.


My daughters walk the streets of Lagos , Abuja and Port Harcourt;


while her sisters parade the streets of Rome and Amsterdam .


I am grief-stricken,


please celebrate me.








Pen-wielding bandits have raided everything in my vaults.


They walk the land with haughty strides and fly the skies with private planes


They have looted the future of generations unborn;


and have money they cannot spend in several lifetimes,


but their brothers die of starvation. I want a kit of kindness,


please celebrate me.








I can produce anything, but import everything.


So my toothpick is made in China; my toothpaste is made in South Africa;


my salt is made in Ghana; my butter is made in Ireland;


my milk is made in Holland; my shoe is made in Italy;


my vegetable oil is made in Malaysia*** my biscuit is made in Indonesia;


my chocolate is made in Turkey and my table water made in France.


My taste is far-flung and foreign,


please celebrate me.


*** To think that Malaysia came to NIFOR in Edo State in the 70's to acquire the Palm Oil Technology


My land is dead because all the trees have been cut down;


flooding kills thousands yearly because the drainages are clogged;


my fishes are dead because the oil companies dump waste in my rivers;


my communities are vanishing into the huge yawns of gully erosion, and nothing is being done.


My very existence is uncertain and I am in the deepest depths of despondence,


please celebrate me.








I have genuine leather but choose to eat it.


So I spend billions of dollars to import fake leather.


I have four refineries, but prefer to import fuel,


so I waste more billions to import petrol. I have no security in my country,


but send troops to keep peace in another man’s land.


I have hundreds of dams, but no water.


So I drink ‘pure’ water that roils my innards.


I need a vision,


please celebrate me.








I have a million candidates craving to enter universities,


but my dungeons can only accommodate a tenth.


I have no power, but choose to flare gas,


so my people have learnt to see in the dark and stare at the glare of unclothed flares.


I am shrouded by darkness,


please celebrate me.








For my golden jubilee,


I shall spend 16 billion naira to bash around the bonfires of the banal.


So what if the majority gaze at my possessed, frenzied dance;


drenched in silent tears, as probity is enslaved in democracy’s empty cellars?


I am profligacy personified,


please celebrate me.








Why can I not simply reflect and ponder?


Does my complexion cloud the colour of my character?


Does my location limit the lengths my liberty?


Does the spirit of my conviction shackle my soul


Does my mien maim the mine of my mind?


And is failure worth celebrating?


I AM NIGERIAN, PLEASE CELEBRATE ME


AND ITS ALL ABOUT THE FOLLOWERS ?

lannre:

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY……………………


AND ITS ALL ABOUT THE FOLLOWERS ?

Who said so? The topic In Nigeria We (the Followers) Are More Corrupt Than Our Leaders suggests that both groups are corrupt. The crux of the matter is that the followers are so corruptly primed that they make no difference when they become leaders.

I heard a very interesting take on this:

Our leaders are corrupt because there are more than 'subtle' expectations upon them from their followers. Expectations such as, tar our roads, give us jobs, scholarships etc (at the expense of others) contribute towards making the leaders 'steal' not only for themselves, but for their extended families and kin.

The problem is most of the illgotten monies are coming from the natural resources and common people don't see it. If one is actually paying taxes and then you see the politician looting in such alarming rate, one would rise up.

Akin-Egba:

If our presido dey over-declare him assets before hand, it means that he had planned to do so before hand too. That supports the argument that our thieving leaders were thieves before they became leaders. The ones who were not thieves as followers, e.g., Buhari, Idiagbo, Tafawa Balewa, Zik, Awo, did not turn thieves as soon as they were elected or took office. The followers will not ask these questions you have in mind because it is not important to them. What is important to them is how to transcend from being followers into being leaders so that they can grab their own portion of the cake before it finishes.

I didn't say he over-declared -- where did that one come from? Any who, any explanation that gets you to sleep better is fine by me.

Kobojunkie:

I didn't say he over-declared -- where did that one come from? Any who, any explanation that gets you to sleep better is fine by me.

So what does your statement below means? You carry water for mouth when you dey write am?

For instance, in 2007, the current president declared assets well in the high 200 millions(excluding his wife's worth). This was a man who, 3 years prior, was just a PHD holder with no serious business ties. I would think we would ask him how he came to all that money

this is a quality nonsense.
do u know the definition of a leader? one who has the mandate to make rules and regulations guiding the acts of others. by govt, we are talking abt the executive, legislature and judiciary. if our govt make good laws, interprete them and punish law breakers, u and i as fellowers will have no room for what is happening in nigeria.
leaders or good leaders are those that lead by good examples. what kind of example was cecilia ibru showing other bank workers when she was stealing over N100b from a bank she was to be a leader? what kind of example was balugon showing to the rest of the police force when he was stealing funds mearnt for everybody? what kind of laws are our legislatures making when yerima was saying he believe in islamic laws and went ahead to marry an under age? what kind of a leader was obasanjo when he cld not take off his eyes on his son's wife?
can u just stop for a minute and find from your dictionary the meaning of the word follower? it is an act of following. in which ways do u think we are not follwoing well as nigerians?
the bomb that exploded in abuja were definitely made available by those we call our leaders. the arms in circulations are been imported by those we call leaders while we followers use them nicely?
pls, in ur readiness to prove ur point, just mention one country of this world where u have good leaders and bad followers or where u have bad leaders and good followers.
followers and leaders are two ppl that move in the same directions.
bibilically, it is writen that a blind man can never lead a blind man otherwise both of them will fall into a ditch.
mr. poster, say something meaningful and forget this cheap popularity u are seeking here.

Akin-egba
your post is on point. Change in Nigeria can only be possible if we eliminate the corrupt mindset of our youth. That is the only way we can begin to ask the right questions, and request the right things of our leaders.

Most people who are screaming - corrupt leaders/marginalization/etc etc, are mainly trying to get into the limelight, become future politicians and continue robbing us.

If we can't change ourselves, and influence positive change in the people around us, no President/leader is going to change anything.

orangemen:

this is a quality nonsense.
do u know the definition of a leader? one who has the mandate to make rules and regulations guiding the acts of others. by govt, we are talking abt the executive, legislature and judiciary. if our govt make good laws, interprete them and punish law breakers, u and i as fellowers will have no room for what is happening in nigeria.
leaders or good leaders are those that lead by good examples. what kind of example was cecilia ibru showing other bank workers when she was stealing over N100b from a bank she was to be a leader? what kind of example was balugon showing to the rest of the police force when he was stealing funds mearnt for everybody? what kind of laws are our legislatures making when yerima was saying he believe in islamic laws and went ahead to marry an under age? what kind of a leader was obasanjo when he cld not take off his eyes on his son's wife?
can u just stop for a minute and find from your dictionary the meaning of the word follower? it is an act of following. in which ways do u think we are not follwoing well as nigerians?
the bomb that exploded in abuja were definitely made available by those we call our leaders. the arms in circulations are been imported by those we call leaders while we followers use them nicely?
pls, in your readiness to prove your point, just mention one country of this world where u have good leaders and bad followers or where u have bad leaders and good followers.
followers and leaders are two ppl that move in the same directions.
bibilically, it is writen that a blind man can never lead a blind man otherwise both of them will fall into a ditch.
mr. poster, say something meaningful and forget this cheap popularity u are seeking here.

So, Mr orangemen
Give me an example of a good leader in Nigeria who you will recommend to lead us to the promised land. Most Nigerians (even, those wey dey claim holy) have embraced corruption as a way of life.

Leaders are chosen out from followers!!!

Wasn't Jesus a good leader? Why didn't he make all the people do right Good leadership can only go so far. If the people are corrupt, everything will always fall apart.

Change starts with you and me. Don't sell your vote, don't vote for him because he is your brother, or because he will give you contracts. That is what corruption strives on.