CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA IS A “BORN AGAIN” CHRISTIAN

This week’s intervention in public discourse will immediately commence with a series of caveats which have become necessary given this government’s disingenuous and absurdist attempt at stifling free speech in the guise of “fighting hate speech “, especially those expressed in the virtual precincts of social media. A tangential necessity for this ‘ear pulling’ rests within the penchant for doctrinaire which many adherents of the faith exhibit particularly when a rational interrogation of dogma is undertaken.

First, no deliberate, innocuous, subconscious or nuanced attempt is made to be derisive of the Christly mandate of renewal if any followers of the faith are desirous of being salvaged from sin and its consequences. I am a firm believer in that biblical injunction and committed to being reborn in “water and spirit” as the only criteria to being considered for the kingdom.

Still staying with the caveats, most Nigerians will agree that the phrasal moniker “Born Again”, as used in Nigeria describes self-confessed charismatic believers within the Pentecostal movement.

The “born again” in this piece is not about the original belief system of practical Christianity and salvation ensconced in the early Pentecostal paradigm but a metaphor for the neo-Pentecostal paradigm that harps on human economic resourcefulness and consequent reward; a paradigm that has gained popularity in Nigeria.

Finally, this piece is an intellectual application-devoid of the strict scholarly discipline expected of academic papers since this is presented to an informal blog audience-to the Nigerian condition, the ethnographic and empirical works of scholars that have attempted to study the historical trajectory of corruption and its resilience. Not disposed to being tagged a heretic, even with my high threshold for criticism, if this piece ruffles feathers, I plead guilty to the charge of escapism by anchoring my defence on my caveats. Being the first of a three-part series on corruption that I will be engaging with, it is only pertinent and logical to begin from the individual level, before extending the analysis to governmental or institutional realms.

So, here we go!

There may yet be more superlatives to describe the extent and magnitude of corruption in Nigeria. David Cameron may have felt that his “fantastically” bemusing description of the phenomenon was at best charitable, even with the barrage of demurring voices from our country folks. He would feel that way due to the unarguable logic that we seem to have accepted that the stigma of corruption is part and parcel of our national character given its depth, ubiquity and invasive presence in both the private and public spheres. By spotlighting the etymology of the word for corruption in the three main languages in Nigeria, I argue that corruption is an adopted legacy that polluted or fouled the pristine innocence of our cultural ethics that was domiciled within what Peter Ekeh calls the “primordial public” of our development. I next argue that contrary to historical theories on the sources of corruption among nations, the rise of non-conservative Christian movements in Nigeria rather than reducing the menace has indeed abetted it and remains a major impediment to a renaissance of traditional values needed to curb corruption.

Jean Francois Médard and some other scholars have defined corruption as the “misuse of public office for private gain”, a definition which brings into focus the interplay between the private and public spheres. Adopting this definition, therefore, Peter Ekeh’s two public thesis will come in handy in analyzing how a practice that is alien to ethnic nationalities became pervasive. In his groundbreaking thesis, Ekeh insists that the colonial invasion of the traditional Nigerian private sphere, which he called the “primordial public” was to blame for the many challenges which beset the nation.

To him, this was possible as a result of the pull of a “civic public” that cut off the ‘umbilical cord’ which restrained individuals from acting within acceptable behavioural norms prescribed by the primordial public.Within this context, corruption at the primordial public was an unknown quantity.

This position is given breadth once “corruption” as a word is translated in the three main languages in Nigeria (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba).

The realization that is unearthed is that there is no single indigenous word for corruption in any of the three languages. The best translation in these languages is mainly phrasal descriptions. In the Hausa language, to the best of my knowledge and using prominent Hausa dictionaries as a guide, corruption is translated as “cin hanci da rashawa” which is obviously not a single word like its English synonym. Interestingly, the etymology of the “rashawa” component of the translation has its root in Arabic which means bribe. For the Igbo, corruption is known as “nruru aka” or literally, “soiling of hands”, while the Yoruba would refer to corruption as “iwa ibaje “or “iwa ajebanu” both describing something that is spoiled.

It is within this premise that we can contextualize Ekeh’s assertion that the colonial construct of the civic public, foisted on the primordial public is to blame for any socio-political maladies that pummel Nigeria and indeed African nations. Little wonder then that the civil servant who steals voraciously from the government office where he works is perhaps, the Treasurer of his Town Union saddled with the task of providing community development infrastructures and not a single dime disappears in his or her care. This is so because, to the primordial public, corruption was alien to us as a people. How then did the act become endemic in our society, such that those who colonized us are largely corruption free while we remain “fantastically” corrupt if the corruption indicators of rating agencies are to be relied upon?

Attempts have been made at tracing the source of corruption among nations. I will not go into the various theories that have been propounded. However, the historical theories of corruption provide a unique insight or anomaly into the Nigerian situation. Scholars like La Porta et al. and University of California’s Professor of Political Science, Daniel Treisman, have provided historical theories accounting for the origins, proliferation and decline of corruption among nations. For Treisman, through a cross-national study on the sources of corruption, he identifies the rise of non-conservative Christian religious movements as an antithesis to corrupt practices and insists that in countries where there is a predominance of Protestantism, corruption is bound to be low or on the decline. Treisman argues that due to the anti-establishment history of Protestantism, it is easier to see church officials from this tradition questioning official behaviors of agents of the state and her institutions than where the more “hierarchical” religious organizations such as Catholicism and Islam hold sway. He argues that in societies where the more hierarchical religions were predominant, they are usually intertwined with the state particularly when there is no clear delineation between the state and religion, making it difficult for these groups to question official misbehaviour such as corruption.

The population of Catholics in Nigeria is about 18 million or 14.38% of the entire population according to statistics by the Catholic church contained in its global Catholic hierarchy magazine.

Extrapolating figures for the Protestant faith will give us about 37% of the entire population if a 50-50 assumption of population division between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria is adopted. Applying Treisman’s analysis to Nigeria, the Protestant tradition, whose adherents are referred to as “born again” Christians, being the dominant Christian group in Nigeria would necessarily mean that corruption should be on the decline, especially in the predominantly Southern parts. However, this is not the case. Nigeria’s history with corruption is anomalous to Treisman’s theory.

The “born again” tradition, rather than provide a solution to corruption in the nation, has become an enabler.

The anti-establishment tendency of the Protestant movement which made it question official misbehaviour has been eroded as many Heads (popularly known as General Overseers-GOs) of these organizations now struggle to curry recognition and patronage from politicians . General Overseers have yielded to the political class the sanctums of their pulpits from where they ought to ‘spit fire’ and demand accountability from them. It is no longer uncommon to see politically exposed persons mounting the ‘holy’ rostrums and speaking the “word” to the laity.

Politicians who should be chastised for stealing elections and bribing their way through the judicial process now go to the pastors for blessings and “Thanksgiving services”. Politicians fall over themselves to get the endorsement of leaders of the Pentecostal movements during elections while these are in turn expected to attend church programs to make hefty donations. The off-camera contributions are even more outrageous.

The sermons have suffered the same fate. Congregants are regaled with motivational words that titillates the desires of the laity for the acquisition of material appurtenances of life with little attention paid to the sources of the massive tithes and donations from members without any known sources of income. The once ‘violent’ condemnation of debauchery and the moral erosion of society has been replaced with a complacent permissibility of individuals displaying filthy lucre in the church who are dressed up as role models and friends of the pastors.

The arrogant display of wealth by these church leaders play out in the flagrant display and acquisition of cars, jets and construction of ultra-modern worship centres, an attitude that glorifies the material rather than the spiritual. Contributions towards these purchases are usually made possible by the affluent segments of the laity, and of course the political class.

The 2015 election revealed the unwholesome collusion between corrupt agents of the state and leaders of the Pentecostal movement with huge sums allegedly exchanging hands while many of the “men of God” openly became campaign officials for the political parties.

The stories can go on and on! How we got here is not the subject of today’s essay, but perhaps, Wale Adebanwi’s research on the rise of the “New Men of Power” will give insights into the emergence of a highly influential Pentecostal power bloc in sub-Saharan African politics.

The point of this essay is the missed opportunities that the refusal of the Pentecostal movement to live up to its true callings is costing the country regarding its exposure to corruption. Perhaps, one of the reasons (the next article in the series will discuss the causes of the failure of anti-corruption strategies) why every anti-corruption strategy put in place by successive governments is failing is due to the lack of support of the Pentecostal movement.

The Pentecostal movement as one of the bastions of dissent and consciences of a nation has been properly harnessed by other countries that rank well in the global anti-corruption barometer as one of a series of tools to combat corruption. This was the point of Treisman’s research. Of course, the actual contribution of this factor in fighting and reducing corruption has been questioned by more empirical studies, but, when an element that is supposed to reduce corruption becomes an enabler, you can only witness an atmosphere that provides a conducive environment for corruption.

Why should church leaders care? Well, there is a growing movement that is calling for a return to the primordial public, and resort to the use of traditional deities to swear in public officials. According to former president Jerry Rawlings, the use of religious books of the conservative religions does not inspire fear as the use of traditional deities would. In his opinion, this would curb corruption, for individuals still have a morbid fear for the efficiency of relics of the primordial public. If this school of thought gains traction, an avoidable collision between the church and elements within society that are despondent with the perversion of corruption and the church’s role in it would not be too far-fetched.

Apparently, the Pentecostal movement alone cannot rid Nigeria of corruption, but it must not shirk its historical responsibilities and must immediately begin a soul searching for its continued relevance to society. We can only imagine what could have been if the predominance of the “born again” culture had challenged agents and institutions of state with regards to accountability and transparency in the management of the public trust. However, the buck still stops within the precincts of the government to develop the political will to tackle the gangrenous sore of corruption. Since 1999, various governments have tried their hands on “fighting corruption”, why have they failed? I will attempt to answer this question in my next intervention on corruption

Cerebral Addendum

As earlier announced, readers stand the chance of winning a copy of the ten books on display on the blog, all you need to do is just leave a comment as per the rules already established.

Also, Cerebral Uppercuts will be yielding this space to Dr Omolara Plang next week for her intervention on a critical issue of policy. Dr Plang is presently a Chevening Scholar at the University of Edinburgh and is emerging as one of the strongest and freshest voices out of Africa on gender issues. This scholar has some original ideas that would ruffle gender orthodoxy, and that is what this blog sets out to achieve. I do not doubt that readers will enjoy her perspectives.