POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA
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POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA
CHAPITRE ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Nigeria’s political difficulties sprang from the British’s casual approach to taking over, administering, and abandoning the government and people of Nigeria. British administration made little effort to bind the country together and bring disparate groupings of people together.
Despite the fact that many of the things we have now are the result of their enlightenment, they nonetheless left us hanging. According to Adewele Ademoyega’s book Why We Strike 1981, when the British arrived,
they forcibly rubber-stamped the political condition of Nigeria’s ethnic groups and maintained that status quo till the left. According to him, nearly a century after their departure, the people continued struggling for their political rights.
When the British arrived in Nigeria as an imperial nation to take over the country’s rulership in 1861 (with the cession of Lagos), they found the people of the south completely free,
just monitoring and controlling their own monarchs and institutions (Adewele Ademoyega: Why We Struck). Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, attempts to depict the lives of Africans prior to and during the arrival of Europeans in Nigeria.
Things Fall Apart depicts the tragic story of Okonkwo’s rise and fall, as well as the equally tragic story of Igbo culture disintegrating under the continuous encroachments of British Christian imperialism, as symbolised by the agrarian society of Umofia.
Mister Johnson, according to Achebe, exemplifies the worst form of European representation of Africans. To him, the image was all the more discouraging because John Cary worked hard to achieve an authentic portrayal,
in contrast to many British authors throughout the imperial colonial period who purposefully, and often cynically, exploited stereotypes of Africans and African society.
Because John Cary was a liberal-minded and friendly writer, as well as a colonial governor, Achebe believed the record needed to be corrected. Achebe’s goal is to write about and for his people. His first works span over a hundred years of Igbo history.
When Things Fall Apart begins, Europeans have not yet reached Umuofia, the setting of the first novel. By the end of the novel, colonial rule had been established. His other novels discuss the various transformations that occurred before and after independence.
Because the British administered Nigeria indirectly through their traditional rulers, the genuine leader of the masses was hobbled and held back. Because Africans were given the right to rule over their own people, they saw it as an opportunity to mistreat those who had wronged them,
extort from those who had more than them, and sell his/her own brother and sister in exchange for favours from the superior leaders – the British. (Adewele Ademoyega: Why Did We Strike).
These actions by local and foreign elites compelled the people to seek independence. Many of them were no longer thinking clearly. Many people perceived the need to shift their shortcomings onto others and use others as an excuse.
The current leader blames the colonial rulers and forerunners-for-independence for not accomplishing what was required of them well, as well as for embezzling and stealing public funds.
They allege that it was taught to them by their colonial masters. In order to grow wealthy and influential in society, the political elites steal and blame it on the economy and leaders. Nobody accepts responsibility for his own crime or flaws.
Between politicians and the military, they blame each other for terrible governance; no one believes the other is better than himself. People in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region do whatever to steal from petroleum firms because they believe it is their right, and bunkering, which is a regular industry there, is not stealing.
That is why Tanure Ojaide uses his novel The Activist to educate people about what is going on in the Niger Delta. He claims that individuals who pretend to be literate in society are the Chief Criminals who sabotage one another.
Everyone in the country is suffering in some manner from the consequences of political corruption; we are psychosocially dysfunctional.
Kole Omotoso’s fiction focuses on identifying and suggesting solutions to problems in Nigerian society. He spent his childhood and adolescence sharing nationalist dreams of peace, progress, and prosperity, but as an adult and a writer,
he was forced to witness the systematic deferment of these dreams after independence for decades. Nigeria was cursed by civil strife, including a civil war (1967 – 1970) and incessant military coups d’etat.
These events, combined with undemocratic leadership, political scheming, and bureaucratic cynicism, led in a continuous degradation in the quality of living in a country that, as the most populous black nation on the planet,
is generally regarded as representing the black race. Omotoso attempts to utilise fiction to discuss the degradation and turmoil in society, but he attempts to make it less genuine, like Armah did in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born.
1.1 Definition of Terms
Political corruption is defined as the use of legislative powers by government officials for illicit private gain. It also includes the use of government power for other objectives, such as suppression of political opponents and general police brutality.
Bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement are all examples of corruption. While corruption can help criminal enterprises like drug trafficking, money laundering, and trafficking,
it is not limited to these operations. Political corruption is an illegal abuse of authority, whereas psychosocial disease is the emotional reaction to it.
A psychosocial disorder is a mental condition that is caused or influenced by abnormal cognitive and behavioural processes.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Many individuals are suffering from problems created by the many ways they are handled and controlled as a result of the country’s political tyranny and high prevalence of famine and poverty.
Their mentality has been distorted by the notion that stealing or killing to survive is not a crime because their leaders are also thieves who loot national treasure and deposit it in foreign accounts.
Again, as a result of this, citizens are psychosocially dysfunctional and their minds are contaminated. The main issue is the government. Because of the society’s corruption, the government sells its dignity and prestige to foreign firms and enterprises.
These people now treat the natural residents of the places where the companies are located as if they are inhumane animals. The Niger Delta region of Nigeria, for example, is an oil-producing state.
The main issue is a schism between the people and her government. They are both psychologically and socially ill. The agony of poverty and starving in a world of plenty has ruined people’s minds to the point where they can no longer think or reason clearly.
1.3 Purpose and Goals
The following are the study’s objectives:
Identifying the issues caused by political corruption and
To make recommendations for the prevention of political corruption and mental disorders, as well as to find a way to entirely eliminate them from society in general.
1.4. The significance of the research
Political corruption and psychosocial disorder using Tanure Ojaide’s The Activist and Oke Ndibe’s Arrow of Rain will be useful materials for student researchers.
This study will demonstrate how the government, individuals, and foreign enterprises all contributed to the corruption of society and the environment, and how the act of corruption has thrown everything into disarray.
1.5 Research Purpose
This research is limited to the study of political corruption and psychosocial disorder through the use of Tanure Ojaide’s The Activist and Okey Ndibe’s Arrow of Rain, as well as other pertinent literary work by other Nigerian and African prose writers and commentaries on corruption.
The study is divided into five chapters, the first of which includes an introduction, definition of terms, statement of the problem, aims and objectives, significance of the study, scope of research, and research methodology.
The second chapter is a review of relevant works, the third is a textual study of Tanure Ojaide’s novel The Activist, the fourth is a textual analysis of Okey Ndibe’s novel Arrows of Rain, and the fifth is a summary and conclusion.
1.6 Research Methodology
The Activist by Tanue Ojaide and Arrow of Rain by Okey Ndibe are the primary sources for this research effort.
Secondary materials include books from the library, textbooks, magazines, and works on African prose writers.
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