Corruption As a Virus to Economic Growth

The term above is as pandemic as it is endemic to national economy. Why? This is owing to the fact that virus as an organism behaves like a timing bomb and reproduces every millisecond of its young. Corruption has been described as a virus because it reproduces as it permits the fabric of the society. The words of wisdom say that “charity begins at home” and here and now Nigeria will be the focal point of my discourse.

The national reserves have seriously depleted, a lot of businessmen are moving their business to Ghana while internal borrowing is on the increase. All these are a pointer that the nation is infected with a virus diagnosed as corruption. More over, this has continued despite the instituted and the assumed anti-corruption crusade programme. The list of organizations fighting corruption includes Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) etc. Let me remind you that corruption is a virus which myriads of all these organizations cannot cure or eliminate.

I think and suggest once more that before our nation can tackle the venom; we need to cure People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Nigeria. This stems from the fact that the masses have learned and seriously visualized the modus operandi of the party mentioned. I can state categorically that every other ministry that makes up the polity buys corruption formula and implement same in their own sector. They do this to be able to suit the structural and organizational bottlenecks that exist in every sector and as well encourage the spread of the virus. The party in question has injected more power to the virus that it does have. How? They assume themselves as the only party that have the key and can steer the ship of the nation to their own advantage.

In addition to this, at the end of the day every other political office holders are all hankering for the national cake. At the same time adding more succour to the strength of advance fee fraud, organized crime is the order of the day. The economic development of the nation is nothing to write home about. Why is this situation lingering up till date? It is only because of a pathogen termed corruption virus ravaging all sectors of our economy. Then, in some months to come the nation will enter another election period to usher in new sets of leaders to continue the advance fee fraud or to steer the ship of the nation to the right harbor. Allow me to say this let the man who has the solution be in the position: you can find a reference point of this on the article entitled “civil society unrest and Guinea election”