Daily Independent Online.
*
Wednesday, July 21, 2004.
Revamping Nigeria’s battered image
To say that the nation’s image,
both at home and abroad, has, by all standards, been at its nadir for a very
long time now is simply an understatement. As at today, in spite of the spirited
effort of the President and Commander-in-Chief, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, to
re-launch the country into the comity of nations as a respected member, the
name of Nigeria nonetheless continues to evoke considerable resentment and
disdain almost everywhere. It is even more worrisome that under the new
democratic dispensation the nation’s image problems have not abated, no
thanks to the seeming inability of the administration to convince a sceptical
world that things have changed and that it is no “longer business as
usual”.
Weighing down the nation in the perception of others
is the malevolent combination of several factors that have come to characterise
our national make-up. Some of them are the prolonged dominance of corrupt and
incompetent military juntas in the nation’s political affairs; the
resulting anarchic collapse in the security of life and property; the great
moral abyss into which the nation has plummeted with the nefarious Advance Fee
Fraud (aka 419) and its associated vocations, the illicit drug and human
traffic as well as money laundering; the collapse of all the fundamental
spiritual and ethical values of our people; and the near failure of the
Nigerian State under the weight of corruption and general indiscipline; the
daily emigration of nationals to just any country abroad to escape the gloom
that has overcast the nation’s firmament, etcetera. Each of these malaise is, in any
dosage, enough to bring any nation down on her kneels and to know that Nigeria
has been seriously afflicted by all of them almost simultaneously, gives a very
sorry picture of a basket case.
Time was when Nigerians held their heads high with
pride and dignity wherever they went. That has since changed as people all over
the world have come to associate them with the most atrocious of fraudulent and
criminal activities. And to the chagrin of hard-working and decent citizens,
their individual righteousness has been undeservedly undermined by the
nefarious activities of a few crooks as it is proving almost impossible to now tell
the bad from the good Nigerians.
In the face of the dwindling capacity of the State to
perform its basic duties of securing the welfare of the citizens, Nigerians
took it upon themselves to find just any way out of their predicaments no
matter how crooked or demeaning. A sense of relative deprivation in the midst
of plenty coupled with the collapse in the values of hard work and personal
integrity drove many unto the get-rich-quick path. The fact that the ruling
elite were also deeply mired in the nefarious pastime did not help
matters. So, from armed robbery to
mind-boggling white-collar crimes, the nation was immersed in innumerable
crooked schemes which were often euphemistically called “business”.
The so-called economic deregulation that the Babangida regime unleashed on the
nation was indeed a strong incentive, especially for those who did not mind
joining the deregulated bandwagon of corruption of that era, to do evil.
Without much to show in terms of real productivity or value-added, there was inexplicable
affluence and ‘living big’ became the vogue.
So far, Nigerians of all hues have been arrested,
tried and jailed or executed in their hundreds for drug-related crimes all over
the world. When that line of “business” became too dangerous, they
then rushed in droves into the so-called 419 industry in which they obtained
through all manner of tricks and deceits, large sums of money from unsuspecting
people all over the world who were also dumb enough to believe the
out-of-this-world stories of instant wealth which were daily circulated,
en-mass, through millions of fax messages and emails originating from Nigeria.
If private individuals ruined the image of Nigeria,
the official contributions of the leadership have been most devastating. How do
we expect the rest of the world, for example, to trust us or accord us any
respect when even our national leaders are frequently cited in mind-boggling
scams and other uncivilised practices such as the routine disregard of judicial
pronouncements and public opinion? Can we honestly discountenance the negative
impact the kleptocratic exploits of Abacha and others before and after him have
had on our image abroad? What of the damning ratings by Transparency
International about the lingering corruption in the land? Also, how do we expect others to judge
us kindly when we cannot account for the gruesome murder of several of our
people, including the nation’s Justice Minister?
Until we start to habitually shame undue materialism
and make people to account for their mysterious affluence instead of the
present situation in which anyone with money, no matter the source, is regarded
as illustrious, there are bound to be more crooks around.
There is one
thing the government can also do: let everybody show how much tax he or she has
paid for every income and then insist that we all mandatorily show when and how
we earned our wealth. That way, the incentive to accumulate ill-gotten assets
without fear of societal disapproval would diminish, if not vanish. It is good
to promote the image of Nigeria but the project would only be realistic after
we have turned a new leaf.
