TRUTH OR FICTION?

AS smart and intelligent as Nigerians are all over the globe. People classified all Nigerians as criminals regardless of your status. Is this because of the corrupt politicians, and government officials, or can someone please explain this slogan that we hear and read about daily to me please.

we are the 2nd most corrupt

so who is the 1st?

Absolute fiction - what is called bribery in naija is called lobbying in U.S. and U.K.
What is called 419 in naija is called foreign policy in UK and US.

All countries are equally corrupt, only naija is more blatant about it, unlike the 360degrees of British and American camouflaged deceit.

But you don't see politicians, and government officials embezzling public funds and tax payers money as rampant in Nigeria without consequence or repercussion for their actions. Nigerian youth are jail all over the world for conspiracy drug dealling and 419. Only in Nigeria you can find UNKNOWN SOLDIER using Granada on law enforcement station. Why are the top guns trying to protect the illicit act?

ODEKU:

so who is the 1st?

Bangladesh is the first.

what is their population compare to Nigeria?

We r the first.

I am glad someone else agree with me on the issue. Nigerians are also the most creative people I have ever come across In my life. we have all the made in Onitcha local Taiwan. still we are always trying to make fast money[color=#550000][/color]

Fiction. Nigeria is only percived as the worst, but it isnt. By the way, Banladesh has over 144 million people

Salako the analogy you have drawn between 419 fraud and the foreign policy of western nations does not hold water. Granted that poor foreign policy decisions by many nations including some of those made by Nigeria have resulted in adverse effects including war, it is still a very long leap in logic to issue a blanket claim that the foreign policy of any government is equivalent to fraud of the type committed by 419 jockeys on the internet, for example.

Nigeria is an extremely corrupt country, period.  Recently newspapers carried the story that driving licenses have been issued in Lagos state for years in exchange for money and with no written or practical driving proficiency test conducted any longer. The same goes for Nigerian passports which can be delivered to the home of any criminal with a mile-long rap sheet, if the right price is paid.   Paying a bribe to NEPA electricity supply officials will "disappear" all outstanding utility bills, which were concocted anyway without reference to meter readings. The need to bribe armed policemen at checkpoints has long been established in Nigeria as a potentially life-saving measure for prudent motorists.  Last week an estimate of 17 billion US dollars was reported in Nigerian papers as having been transferred offshore into the private bank accounts held by a number of un-named state governors, dwarfing the amount for which the Bayelsa state gonernor stands accused by the London police of looting from public funds.


If Salako has lived in any country outside Nigeria, including Ghana right next door in sub-Saharan Africa, then he would accept, albeit grudgingly, that Nigeria is in a league of its own when it comes to bribe-taking, embezzlement, extortion, fraud,  money laundering and drug running.  Accepting the validity of corruption-rating statistics published by organizations like Transparency International is the first step towards tackling the problem, while declaring such findings as untrue out of blind patriotism only perpetuates the crooked practices in all strata of Nigerian society.  A one-legged man announcing himself fit to participate in a hundred-yard dash deceives himself alone.

twu tok.

this is another method the western imperialists want to use to colonize us once again because we have the crude oil they need. the worse part is we nigerian are very simple minded, we just swallow it hook, line and sinker. By the way is haliburton a nigerian company? is arthur anderson a nigerian company? how about BCCI?

Oh, whatever, they can say all they want to say. Why do they keep coming back to Nigerian then? I guess everyone has somethin they want to steal from our Reserves then!

I don't believe they are trying to re colonize us. Nigeria today is civilized and up to date in the society, Nigeria in not a third world country any more, we earn the respect of other nations, we are a developing nation. the problem or corruption in Nigeria has been going on for agree undetected, influential people like FELA and Awolowo warn us couple years ago of the problem we are facing today. you are right the western world will come to Nigeria cause we have the oil, look at Iraq today, innocent people are getting killed daily all because of greed. Saddam is a bad man, but the killing Bush and his so called allies have done superseed Sadams atrocities

Why una dey kill una self? TI just released a report, I guess Nigeria will breath some fresh air from this.  In the past, there has been no foreign media report on issues relating to Nigeria without mentioning the word 'corruption'. Even the average 'good' Nigerian was forced to think of himself as corrupt.

Read the report here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4351076.stm

http://www.transparency.org/cpi/2005/cpi2005.sources.en.html

Note! no mention was made of corrupt multinationals - who seem to be at the core of corruption in a place like Nigeria.

Oh well, whatever! Tsk!

My brother na oyinbo man talk be that, how can you run a report on a country that you don't know nothing about. I still believe say na we be the 1st for the world, even pastor dey collect bribe for church and mosque. its in our blood and nature, we like to be flamboyant, and flashy. A Nigerian will walk in to a bank with the intention of committing a crime, and will walk in bold and take care of his business.

Have you carried out a case study on the most corrupt country? A lot of these so called polls are just forged by the people who prepare the polls, and most of these polls are engineered to make us- Africans look bad. We have had a series of bad reports in the past, but right now, its a case of Give a dog a bad name and hang him.
In our case, we already have a bad name by our own devices and as they say, its easier to destroy than to build. Its easier for the world-at-large to see us as the low-down dirty, fraudulent nation that they have us in their minds as, rather than the Image of an evolving Nigeria that lots of Nigerians Ambassadors (Chimamanda Adichie, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Agbani Darego, etc) are trying to build for the world to see.
I am a positive thinker and i believe that Nigeria will change for the better with time, by God's grace.

@Odeku, you forgot to mention that there are Nigerians who through hardwork, eke a living

you are right some of us working hard to make a living, but as soon as you tell people you are Nigerian, there is that look in their eyes, just because you drive a nice car and have a house dont mean you are crook

I heard in the news today that Nigeria has moved from being the 3rd most corrupt to something.. (I didnt hear clearly). And from today's BBC news, the 5 most corrupt countries in the world are:

[list]
[li]Chad[/li]
[li]Bangladesh[/li]
[li]Turkmenistan[/li]
[li]Burma[/li]
[li]Haiti[/li]
[/list]

So I think Nigeria should be from the 6th downwards... We dey improve..!!!

I don't think we are Improving, we are just to smart, as soon as people know what we are doing, we move to the next high level scam.

I disagree!! we r not even close to d most corrupt people in d world!! D problem we got is dat we r always exposing our dirty laundrys 4 everybody to see. we fellow Nigerians don't help. when some of us go outta d country we don't talk good about d country so we give other people who 've never been there b4 a very bad opinion of it. sure some of d people in high places r alwayz stealing d country's money but it's noting compared to wat's going on in other countries.

damygurl I disagree on that note, I left Nigeria when I was 12 and my friends and I here in Chicago, you can ask any one are just too proud to be Nigerians, we have Nigerians day here, and we talk well of our people and country all the time. No place like home

But at least u are still painting Nigeria black.
Abi no be u talk this:

Odeku:

My brother na oyinbo man talk be that, how can you run a report on a country that you don't know nothing about. I still believe say na we be the 1st for the world, even pastor dey collect bribe for church and mosque. its in our blood and nature, we like to be flamboyant, and flashy. A Nigerian will walk in to a bank with the intention of committing a crime, and will walk in bold and take care of his business.

I think Damygurl is right.

Goodguy you be JJC, abeg, this is a forum and i can voice my opinion, shey you dey for Chicago here and see how many Nigerians are in jail waiting to be repatriated for conspiracy crimes? This are all people I see in the club and Nigerians gathering. So don't tell me we are doing good when about 20% of youngstars in Chi town are in jail.

na u sabi.

Odeku, please correct me if I read you wrong, but your writing betrays a level of admiration for Nigerian criminals.   You talked about Nigerian bank robbers "boldly" entering a bank to carry out "business", and in a later post you alluded to the increased sophistication which Nigerians bring to bear on criminal exploits so as to stay one step ahead of the law.  Hollywood script writers have known for long that the machinations of criminal minds can make for good entertainment, but Oga Odeku,  does your admiration of outlaws extend to non-Nigerians as well, or just to your home-boys ?

Jakumo:

Odeku, please correct me if I read you wrong, but your writing betrays a level of admiration for Nigerian criminals. You talked about Nigerian bank robbers "boldly" entering a bank to carry out "business", and in a later post you alluded to the increased sophistication which Nigerians bring to bear on criminal exploits so as to stay one step ahead of the law. Hollywood script writers have known for long that the machinations of criminal minds can make for good entertainment, but Oga Odeku, does your admiration of outlaws extend to non-Nigerians as well, or just to your home-boys ?

Lol! Abeg, help me ask am oh!

damygurl:

I disagree!! we r not even close to d most corrupt people in d world!! D problem we got is that we r always exposing our dirty laundrys 4 everybody to see. we fellow Nigerians don't help. when some of us go outta d country we don't talk good about d country so we give other people who 've never been there before a very bad opinion of it. sure some of d people in high places r alwayz stealing d country's money but it's noting compared to what's going on in other countries.

This reminds me of Bayo from the Big Brother Africa House in 2003........... That boy painted Nigeria all shades of black and grey............

According to Transparecy International corruption perception index report released yesterday 19 octomber 2005 nigeria has improved but you are number 154, kenya number 145 in the world rankings.we need to pull up.
LETS SAFE OUR COUNTRIES FROM CORRUPT INDIVIDUALS.
i cry for kenya and nigeria.
please post your comments on this serious issue.
philip munyasia kithuka from kenya-Nairobi[/b]