Fighting Corruption in the midst of Corruption: A Nigerian situation

By Revd. Idowu Ibitoye

Corruption simply means dishonest or fraudulent conduct by people, typically involving bribery. Wikipedia define corruption as a form of dishonesty or criminal offense undertaken by a person or organizations entrusted with a position of authority; to acquire illicit benefit or abuse of power for one’s private gain. The prevalence of corruption is increasing on daily basis, corrupt cases are being reported among government officers, politicians, legislators, judicial officers, security agents and the most disheartening is that it is recorded  in ecclesiastical  circles.

The story reported on Wednesday 8th July, 2020 by the Tribune Newspaper with the caption “Magu’s probe creates uncertainty in EFCC,” serve as a dashboard for this write up. Mr Ibrahim Magu was Economic and Finance Crimes Commission (EFCC) boss, until his suspension. He was the acting chairman of the commission. The news of Magu’s suspension was based on corrupt cases leveled against him. The recent saga in Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is another reported case of corruption, giving serous minded Nigerians a serious concern on how the nation can best fight corruption in the midst of corruption.

Corruption and Christian Faith

Bible is explicit, detailed and comprehensive on teachings about corruption. The teachings of Jesus and apostles serve as daily guide for Christians in public office, in order to maintain the highest level of integrity.

1. God destroyed the first world because of corruption – The Bible says “God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways” Gen. 6:12. The corruption of man was so tense that God visited the earth with flood to destroy the entire human race except Noah and his family who were spared from the judgment. God will surely judge the corrupt person with great punishment. In the prophecy of Isaiah he declared “Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned  the Holy one of Israel and turned their back on Him”. Isaiah 1:4. God through the revelational prophecy through prophet Isaiah declared woe on the sinful nation because her corruption has reached God. Nigerians must rise and declare total war on corruption, before God’s judgment comes upon us. The Christian faith is tantamount to righteousness and truthfulness which does not give room for corruption, Christian must always standout in all their dealings.
2. John the Baptist’ teachings on corruption – John the Baptist was popularly known as the forerunner of Jesus Christ, and many from different walks of life came to be baptized by him. Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, “teacher, what should we do? He replied collect no more taxes than the government requires” Lk. 3:12-13. During the days of John the Baptist, tax collectors were known to be notorious for their dishonesty, and people hated the tax collectors, because they were fond of adding huge sums to the taxes government required. In our contemporary time many government revenue collectors have turned to be corrupt, either by adding their sum to what government required or not even remitting the collections to the government coffers. Some solders also asked “what should we do… John replied don’t extort money or make false accusations, and be content with your pay” Lk. 3:14. Police and other security agents are fond of collecting bribes at the various road blocks while some are known to make false accusations against innocent people who could not pay according to their biding. For our nation to be totally free from corruption our security sector must be totally sanitised and repositioned to do away with corrupt uniformed officers. The admonition of John to the security agents is also applicable to the men and women who carry arms in the name of security, they should stop collecting bribes and stop extortion.

Causes of Corruption

1. Greed – Greed is an intense and selfish desire for something, especially desire for wealth, power or food. Because of greed many people engage in corrupt practices. Greed is a spiritual disease of the heart, affecting all areas of a person’s life. Greed can lead to destruction of one’s life (Jude 11). Likewise, greed can ruins families, “the greedy bring ruins to their households, but the one who hates bribes will live” Prov. 15:27. Achan was a typical example of a greedy man who brought destruction upon his family through greed (Josh. 7). Greed corrupts leaders who are self-centered, Isaiah 56:10-11. Any leader who is greedy will surely be corrupt, this is evident in the lives of most of our modern day leaders.
2. Covetousness- Covetousness is simply to be wrongly desirous of wealth or possessions. It implies inordinate desire for another person’ possessions. The bible frowns at Christians exhibiting the trait of covetousness (cf Lk. 12:15, Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5). Christians who found themselves in positions of influence should never allow the virus of covetousness in their dealings. The bible places covetousness under a serious ban (Ex. 20 :17) and for Achan he was stoned for the crime of covetousness in Joshua 7:16-26.
3. Lack of the fear of God– Those who engage in corruption lacks the fear of God. For anyone to steal or embezzle public fund he/she must have lost the fear of God. The fear of the Lord means respect, reverence and awe for God’s power and authority; also when the Bible talks about the fear of God, it is referring to an attitude of reverence and respect, (Cf. Ps. 119:38; Prov. 2:5).
4. Up-bringing – The bible teaches that parents should “teach their children on to the right path and when they are older they will not leave it” Prov. 22:6. The way a child is brought up can affect the child when he grows up. Any child that is well brought up in the way, manner and fear of God will grow in it and when he/she occupies a position of influence, such will do it to the glory of God without any iota of corruption.

5. Partiality – Partiality means showing support or having strong feeling for someone in a way that is unfair to others, “my brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory” James 2:1. Likewise, Romans 2:11 affirmed that “for God shows no partiality”. Engaging in partiality is also corruption.