Corruption in Nigeria that led to an angry protest by the youths
Nigeria is a country located in West Africa, which is one of the top oil producing countries in the world. Despite its abundance in natural resources, more than 70% of its citizens still live in poverty due to mismanagement and lack of good governance due to corruption.
Nigeria is a country located in West Africa bordering Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin Republic in the west. Nigeria is known as ‘giant of Africa’ and is rich with many natural resources, including being one of the top oil producing countries in the world ranking 11th in the world and 1st in Africa. With all its natural resources, more than 70% of its citizens still live in abject poverty due to mismanagement and lack of good governance due to corruption.
Corruption one of the main causes of poverty in Nigeria
Looking into what this corruption is, it is an unethical behaviour, abuse of public office for selfish interest, and it encompasses embezzlement, threatens good governance, sustainable development and democratic process. Corruption in Nigeria has been the hindrance to its development, today corruption no longer sound like a new thing in the ears of many people especially for Nigerian citizens as it has become the way of life to them, both the past and current leaders have all promised and failed the citizens as they are only concerned about themselves and their families, the leaders have all looted funds from the nation which they send to their international accounts while some was used in acquiring lots of properties within the nation and abroad, some have warehouses where they store money and some even bury money in the ground in order not to be found. Combating corruption in Nigeria requires a working participatory democracy, not by words but by action, as they claim to be democratic by words but not by doing.
Furthermore, the current political leadership in Nigeria cannot exonerate itself from the toils of socio-economic underdevelopment in the nation, it requires reformation of all its institutions. Making Nigeria more democratic will help in monitoring and scrutinising those in charge of the state and the treasury which will be for the benefit of Nigeria and her citizens. Many of the leaders have done unspeakable things to the people as they only pursue their self interest in the expense of the citizens. Below is a video of a hidden N850 million naira ($2,199,499.95 USD) spoilt money found in Nigeria by ENDSARS protesters which was hidden from one the leaders.
All leaders have vowed for changes, but the corruption keeps surging
The corruption in Nigeria has really given Nigeria bad name both home and abroad as many people know them with that name ‘corrupt country’. Every four years there is always a new political leader coming out to campaign for presidency, promising heaven and earth to the people and vows to change what has been damaged by the past leaders and when elected, it is as if the current leader came with a rebranded type of corruption that has many roots worst than the formal ones. Also, these corrupt practices do seem to bother the leaders to amend their ways as they have dragged the country’s name to the mud. The people are really in pain as they are not only suffering from corrupt leaders, but they also endure police brutality, bribery, and extortion. According recent global corruption index, Nigeria ranked 146th of 180 countries, they keep going up each year as corruption keep surging in the nation because it seems to have gotten a permanent site in the country.
Bringing in some examples of and the corruption in Nigeria points to how it was extended to the palliative meant for COVID-19 which was a way to help the poor masses as the nation declared curfew in order to limit the spread of the virus around April 2020, but it was hidden from the citizens by the leaders. In order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria as the pandemic was rising in the nation, the government of Nigeria declared a lockdown in the country especially from the state that has the most of the virus, which includes Lagos state, the Federal capital Territory in Abuja and Ogun state, from initial stage before including rest of the states as the virus soars. For the curfew to be effectively achieved, some reasonable amount of palliative was set out to help citizens stay at home, but the leaders turned around and shared to the citizens what will not be enough even for a new born baby, as they were sharing a loaf of bread, tin tomatoes, cassava flour (garri), beans, rice and noodles in a small quantity for the whole street, but the better and larger part of the items was stored in warehouses without the citizens realising it, and most family didn’t get even a grain of rice. The video below confirms what was shared to the citizens during this time.
Discovery of the COVID-19 palliative
A protest went on in Nigeria in October 2020, called END SARS protest, the END SARS protest was against police brutality to its citizens as the police job was to protect its citizens and not to harass or kill the innocent ones. As things were getting out of hand in Nigeria, due to the way citizens are been neglected by the leaders and the way youths of the country are been harassed, extorted and killed by the Nigerian police officers and Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which infuriated the anger of the citizens going to the street to protest against the evil acts. First, the protest started as an END SARS protest, before every other thing were included which includes bad governance and corruption. As the protest went on with people going from one district to the other, they discovered some of the palliatives hidden in warehouses which was filled-up to the brim which made the youths more angry and they broke the warehouses and cart away with the food items, and some of them has even expired. Bellow are some of the videos.