How to fight corruption in Nigeria

When I hear all that noise about fighting corruption I shudder because you cannot fight corruption without defining what has been corrupted and proving that it has indeed itself remained uncorrupted before now as to provide a basis for measurement of the rich values. If indeed the basis for measurement of corruption has been shifting or changed,then our definition of corruption hangs in the air and then the fight has no end and cannot achieve desired results that is if there exists at all a definition or measurement of the expected outcome.

The situation is comparable to the vehicle Inspection Officer that declares a not road worthy while the road itself is in disrepair. So in this sense, there is nothing for the car to be worthy of. If corruption is defined as the departure from ethical culture then such is not even in our present constitution but could be found only in the more consistent 1960 Nigerian Independence Constitution which was basis of our laws before the Military came and corrupted the system by ousting some vital sections if the constitution in 1966. So suppose the President Buhari corruption fight is to have meaning,then the basis of definition should be the ideal not the already corrupted constitution and national Anthem.

So when people swear to the oath of allegiance it should be to the true constitution and the laws emanating therefrom and then we can measure deviation therefrom as representing corruption. Unfortunately you cannot yet say that of the present "fight' based on what is defined by a corrupted platform or yardstick. The end product if such an effort can only bring us back to an already corrupted society and therefore may not endure. But if you must fight corruption,and bring us back to the old cherished values,the first thing you do is to remove the suspension placed on the only consistent constitution widely accepted by Nigerians and the world in 1960. Then go ahead to align the laws emanating there from by doing away with the so called no go areas that hide the military intervention in governance under the canopy of decrees illegally turned into Acts of the National Assembly in the incongruous 1999 constitution.

If you do that then you have a secure basis for measuring corruption and a portioning punishment.With that also the present method of using the EFCC will change because the police and courts will do their jobs presently hampered by an impossible to implement constitution and and the derived. The confusion you see in awaiting trials and long duration of cases with subsequent attempts to induce judges to obtain faster or skewed justice arises from the fact that the laws do not add up. Were the laws to add up you cannot have wide variations as well as conflicts that requires financial inducement to resolve. All laws should approximate to the natural law of God if they would add up.

So if you can make the changes then the fight will change from the charade you see today and you will begin to understand that indeed what you regard as corruption today are not indeed one but only the symptoms. Fighting the symptoms cannot get you anywhere became you end up fighting even yourself. If on the other hand you say that the basis of definition is in today's skewed constitution then you may end up employing corruption to fight corruption. With no end in sight because corruption is a systemic problem since we know that each leadership is thrown up by the system embodying its weaknesses but not the other way round.

To sustain Nigeria in its unsustainable state by the military and pseudo military regimes pretending to be democracies,corruption was legitimised to oil the wheels of the State so that at least it can keep moving even if in circles. So when you fight corruption without restructuring you are likely to remove that last binding thread of Nigeria woven by the military to help them rule a prostrate nation and keep it moving even if to no where. And what will be such an outcome you can decide for yourself.

The result will be that nothing is left to keep the the country moving in Union since the only natural mechanism was suspended in 1966 allowing an artificial mover known as the gun to get us to a point before corruption took over to oil the ship of state. So we would inevitably and unknowingly be moving Nigeria back to the hostile city states that the British met it. If this happens then you have the specter of disintegration and long drawn conflict as each part struggle to form and maintain a boundary with its neighbours . The irony is that it may not lead to disintegration but just conflict and anarchy until we wake up to agree that it was better the way we were. But we can avoid that by restructuring with the same zeal that we fight "corruption" today. We can stop fighting lest Nigeria go deeper into conflict as a natural consequence by bringing back the natural unifying balm contained in the 1960 constitution,national anthem and flag.