As a kid I use to think bribing someone with bag of money is something that happens only as trick in a screenplay: a hoax or imagination. Behold I grew up to the reality of cash being taken in fly cases in vans and paid as bribe. This avenue of wealth and prosperity is in fact feeding a frenzy of corrupt people that are quickly causing the decay in our societal morals and ethics.
Nowadays,our national honour are for auction. Our student union bodies gives honour to drug addict, they behave like illiterates, We can no longer take pride in our abysmal Super power index of corruption in the world.
Bribing is now considered an investment by many who seek government jobs. This investment, they assume, gives them a moral right to expect a return through more corruption. The public “servants” who dole it out seek greater investment. The honest and the financially weak often exit the government sector, only to reinforce this belief. The bureaucratic hierarchy itself is established based on the extent to which one can engage in corrupt practices, rather than on merit and honesty. The honest few with the determination to fight the system are either transferred to inconsequential roles or remain dejected and angry. The unabated corruption strengthens the power of public servants which is truly dwindling hope.
For citizens and businesses, it is faster and more efficient to engage in immoral and illegal activities in their interactions with government. Those who can, or are willing to, engage in such activities are likely to have fewer headaches and greater rewards.
Some activist argues that bribing as a means to achieve ends in an environment of pervasive corruption and archaic policies actually helps growth. But the system penalises honesty and weaken the citizens by means of bureaucratic delaying tactics.
The Nigerian Judiciary is certainly not left out of corruption it had been a succesful source of dwindling hope it has turned to where justice, conscience and truth are sold out to the highest bidder. The irony here is that government “servants” who are supposed to facilitate economic growth in the NNPC,and corrupt free system in the Judiciary act like “masters” of Trade.
It is unfair to blame all the problems on the government. A not-too-trivial fraction of private citizens and business owners are equally responsible for the situation, and private sector corruption could be dwarfing government-led corruption, we may never know. Private entities transact on an allcash basis in order to avoid paying taxes. Some business owners exploit labour without paying fair wages or subjecting them to pollutants and harsh working conditions.
They inflate invoices for government subsidies or contracts. Some businesses receive thousands of acres of prime land at a fraction of the market value. A few businesses illegally tap into the electricity grid or tamper with electrical meters. A significant fraction of residential buildings do not conform to planning regulations. Businesses are set up without permits.
Innocent farmers are exploited and stripped of their farmland hampering farm produce at a rates that are much below the market with the help of the the government. The private sector flouts rules and regulations, corruption becomes free to air.
To prevent the exploitation by the corruption system the law makers and the law- enforcer who are also part of the corrupt system introduces greater regulations, inspections, and restrictions, without recognising that adding so-called “oversight” leads to even greater potential for corruption.
In most countries “it is very nearly as difficult to stay legal as it is to
become legal.”
Therefore, regulations are a double-edge sword. On the contrary, pursuing the perpetrators of corruption has been a comical exercise. Here in Nigeria, less than 10 per cent of the government officials caught red-handed accepting bribes has been prosecuted. Even the laws are changed to make it harder to prosecute the culprits, The culprits now runs to a protection house called the senate for immunity against arrest and trial
Maybe there is a need to think differently to put a lid on corruption and hopefully push it down incrementally but today Nigerians are facing Dwindling hope with corruption. It is high time the government fight corruption to a stand still.

by Michael Adeniyi
@9jaclicktivist