AUDIENCE PERCEPTION OF PRINT MEDIA IN CURMBING CORRUPTION
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AUDIENCE PERCEPTION OF PRINT MEDIA IN CURMBING CORRUPTION
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study.
Corruption is the illegal use of official power or influence by a government official to enrich himself, advance his career, or benefit another person at the expense of the public.
Corruption is defined as paying a bribe in order to keep the facts hidden. It includes the misappropriation of public funds for personal gain, as well as any other act that is regarded a criminal act under the laws of a specific society.
Corrupt is a powerful cancer that has consumed Nigeria to the point of oblivion, professor.
Corruption continues to be a big problem in Nigerian society, and while it exists in all societies, attempts should not be made to condone it because it carries the threat of annihilating a corrupt country. Similarly, it has been observed that cultures plagued by corruption would neither survive or flourish in an orderly manner.
Corruption has grown entrenched in Nigerian politics. Its citizens regard it as an unavoidable component of the social order. Corruption is a cankerworm that has eaten into the fabric of Nigerian society; if the battle on corruption is not won, long-term technical growth and social-political stability would become impossible.
Agencies established to improve the quality of life for Nigerians, such as the Niger Delta Development Board (NDDB) and the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC), failed mostly due to corruption and incompetence.
Since 2001, the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (TICPI) has continuously ranked Nigeria as one of the world’s most corrupt nations.
A World Bank International Monetary Fund (IMF) report identified 35 countries, including Nigeria, as corrupt or politically unstable. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index, Nigeria is one of the world’s eight worst countries for corruption in government and public administration.
Corruption is one monster that has wreaked havoc on Nigeria’s socioeconomic fabric over time. It is become more than just a household name in Nigeria. All efforts to tame this beast appear to have failed, regardless of strategy or methods. “Every community, present and historical, has significant abhorrence for corrupt behaviours.
Even while corruption exists in all communities, no country wants to endure the shame of being known for pervasive corruption” (Amadife, 2007:18). Momoh (2009: 115) argues that the engine of corruption operates efficiently, uniformly, and smoothly throughout the country, despite its negative impact on people and societies.
The phenomena of corruption appears to be our official philosophy, lingua franca, and global language, spoken and understood throughout Nigeria.
The prevalence of widespread and, in most cases, large-scale corruption in Nigeria has deprived a sizable part of its population of the wisdom to understand the importance of patriotism, dignity of life, and respect for basic values, as well as other value-laden beliefs and practices.
As a result, the country has descended into abject poverty and moral decay. The inherent values associated with civilised behaviour, such as the recognition, adoption, and internalisation of appropriate attitudes, behaviours, values
and the disposition to do the right thing and be seen to be doing the right thing at all times, have been abandoned in favour of senseless worship and the mad rush for money and other forms of primitive wealth accumulation.
Unfortunately, Nigerians are shamelessly involved in the following forms of corruption: the ‘get rich quick’ at all costs syndrome, open display of poor attitude to public service and criminal neglect of public property
defrauding the citizenry through the policy of payments for fuel subsidy, stealing and mismanagement of pension funds, imbibing the culture of seeking gratification even when one is performing his or her official duties, kidnapping, political assassination.
The pioneer Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Nuhu Ribadu (2009), presented the following thorough and scary allegations when addressing the United States House Financial Service Committee: From 1960 to 1999, Nigerian officials stole or wasted more than $440 billion USD.
This is six times the Marshal plan, which was the entire amount required to rebuild a shattered Europe following World War II. Mr. Dariye managed 25 bank accounts in London alone in order to escape the law.
The London Metropolitan Police found that Dariye received £10 million in profits from criminal activity in London. Domestically, proceeds from crimes totalling $34 million were seized. D. S. P. Alamieseigha owned four houses in London for approximately £ 10 million, as well as another in Cape Town worth $1.2 million.
£1 million in cash was discovered in the bedroom of his London flat, while £2 million was held at the Royal Bank of Scotland in London and more than $240 million in Nigeria. This is in addition to bank accounts traceable to Cyprus, Denmark, the United States, and the Bahamas.
Corruption disproportionately affects poor people in emerging countries. It has a wide-ranging impact on their everyday lives and has the potential to make them even impoverished by denying them their fair share of economic resources or life-saving aid.
Corruption prevents individuals who cannot pay bribes from accessing essential public services. Corruption, by diverting precious development resources, makes it more difficult to provide basic needs such as food, health, and education.
It causes prejudice among different groups in society, perpetuates inequality and injustice, discourages foreign investment and help, and stifles prosperity. It is thus a significant impediment to political stability and good social and economic growth.
As a result of the preceding, it is clear that corruption, as well as its harmful nature and consequences, pose a significant threat to Nigeria’s survival as a free, independent, and united nation. Pandemics and widespread corruption are the result of the activities of persons in positions of power and leadership.
This has exacerbated poverty in the country and foreshadows a grim future for both current and future Nigerians. According to Achebe (1999: 25), “anybody who can say that corruption in Nigeria has not become alarming is either a fool, or a crook or else does not live in this country.”
This blunt remark and strong indictment from this well-respected scholar and others like him may be part of the reason why the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) stated in its (1995-2005) perceptions index that “In recent times, Nigeria has held the unenviable record of being considered as one of the most corrupt countries among those surveyed”.
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