Causes Of Corruption In Nigeria (Social Studies)
1. Love Of Ostentatious Life
The desire for life of opulence and ostentation has made some people in power and position to be corrupt. Such people build mansions and estates, acquire choice and state of the art cars and exhibit wealth, beyond their means of livelihood. Such people would stop at nothing to make and accumulate wealth to sustain and maintain their bogus life style.
2. Society Adores Wealth
The cherished values and societal norms of respect and recognition for hard work and integrity have gone to the wind. Acts of impunity, opulence and ostentation are adored and worshipped by society. Nobody cares how one makes one’s wealth. Stealing, cheating and dishonest acts to make money are tolerated by society. All these encourage corruption.
3. Poverty
Poverty is widespread in society. Many people are jobless and unemployed. Those in government and exalted positions corners to make money to meet with societal demands, including to cater for numerous extended dependents and family members. This results to the inflation of contracts, over invoicing, poor standard execution of contracts and embezzlement of public funds.
4. Economic Insecurity
The national economy is hardly stable. It is not planned to cope with the future of our numerous school leavers and graduates. The unemployment record is on a steady growth. Illiteracy rate is high, Inflation is high and progressive, as cost of living, and provision of shelter are out of the reach of the common man. Those in positions of authority and employment are therefore desperate to accumulate wealth by all means to satisfy the needs of life.
5. Bad Governance
This has to do with bad leadership. Government is the highest spender in the economy. Those in government positions propagate corruption through misappropriation and mismanagement of public funds. They therefore show bad examples to the rest of the society as their conduct corrupts the society.
6. Inefficient Legal System
Our legal system is inefficient and defective. It has loopholes which make the trial of corrupt practices inconclusive and defective.
The judiciary and the police comprises and prevent the course of justice. Judges frustrates cases, turn blind eyes on sound evidences and rely on technicalities to dismiss good cases. The case of former Governor of Delta State, James Ibori is a classical example of how corrupt our judiciary can be. James Ibori was acquitted on all the 176 court charges of corruption and money laundering in Nigeria, but in far away London, he admitted and confessed to the charges, and got jail sentence.