The word "kleptopathology" is a coined one. It is a combination of two words – kleptomania
and pathology. The first word refers to a person who has an uncontrollable
compulsion to steal. The second refers to the study of diseases, especially, contagious
ones. Thus, kleptopathology is a disease that affects the sufferer in such a
way that, not only is the person a compulsive thief; but, infects those who are
close to him or her with the thieving bug. Even those who can only see and hear
the sufferer are infected. This is how potent and contagious the stealing bug
is. The major carriers and spreaders of this contagion are the Nigerian governing
class – politicians, government officials, and, their families, cronies, and
sponsors.
Strangely, in traditional Nigerian
society, stealing is hated and forbidden. In all Nigerian nationalities,
stealing attracts serious punishments. These may include ostracism and, banishment. This is why it is strange that the looting and corruption in government
are tolerated. However, to understand this, the past has to be examined.
Modern governance in Nigeria started with
British colonial rule. It is a known fact that colonial policy was the open and
rapacious economic exploitation of the colonised territory. Thus, the Nigerian
colonial government was set up to exploit the Nigerian territory. The issue of
development in the colonised territory occurred when it facilitated
exploitation and, abetted the comfort of the colonising personnel. Furthermore,
although the structure of colonial government mimicked that of its imperial
creator, it was skewed to facilitate exploitation. The foreign colonial
officers all left the territory, rich. This was the norm in all colonised areas
of the world. This trend is almost universal. As it is normal in human nature,
the educated native elite watched their conquerors and learnt, wrongly, how to
run the government.
The second world war ended the ownership
of colonial territories for the imperial powers. In fact, the war ended Britain's status as a superpower and global arbiter. In Nigeria, as the British
carried out a gradual withdrawal of its personnel, they were replaced by the
educated Nigerian elite. Thus, it was a case of replacing white faces with
black ones but, the function of government remained the same – exploitation.
The black elite did not, or were reluctant to rearrange structures to benefit
their newly won country. Instead, they let the status quo remain out of
ignorance. This unfortunate state of affairs was to set the tone for future
pains. What most people don’t know is that official corruption had started
even then, but was undetected because of the low level of awareness in the
citizenry due to blanket illiteracy. Although, it must be said that the elite
then still had shame and, being called a thief was still very painful. This
made the level of thievery very low compared to now.
Fast forward to the independence period, tensions among the major competing nationalities in the state led to a
colossal human tragedy – ,the Nigerian civil war. After this totally avoidable
catastrophe ended in 1970, the Nigerian military took over the country’s
governance. In fact, the army was in charge.
Although the military held the reins of
power, it was the civil servants that ran the country. It was the top civil
servants that dictated policy. They were the people that kept the country on an
even keel during the years immediately after the civil war. There was corruption
in government but, it was done cautiously and covertly. However, during the
regime of General Murtala Mohamed in 1975, a massive purge of the management
level of the civil service was carried out. This action sent shock waves
through the civil service establishment. Most of those who were affected by the
purge had nothing to fall back on. Amongst them, the derogatory phrase – “from
Ikoyi to Ajegunle”, meaning, a person who used to live in Ikoyi, but now has to
live in Ajegunle because of a sudden reversal in fortunes; became a reality.
Their juniors who watched in horror as this drama unfolded, determined to
protect themselves against future penury. This was the beginning of officially
tolerated stealing and corruption.
Thus, the civil servants taught the
politicised soldiers how to steal and, the soldiers gave the civil servants the
thumbs up. All the while, the true professional politicians were beside
themselves to get back to power. Seeing now, that stealing from state coffers
was an open game. Since that time, and until the present, it has been open
season on the Nigerian treasury. The soldiers, having learnt the game, allowed
the pro-politicians a brief stay in power “to chop”; then seized power and,
holding on to it for two decades. At the end of this period, the clamour for the
return to democratic rule was so strident that, power had to be returned to the
civilians. The soldiers simply removed their uniforms, put on civilian garb,
and joined the horde of pro-politicians and top government officials to
continue the looting.
The issues of compulsive and infectious
stealing, corrosive corruption, and underdevelopment, have been studied and
analysed for some time in Nigeria. What most people agree on is that, given the
country’s antecedents, the problem has to be hydra-headed.
It has been said that the material
condition of a human being determines his other conditions. This means that,
for example, if a person is materially poor, he or she will also be mentally
and emotionally poor. Most of our leaders come from quite impoverished
backgrounds. They were seriously materially deprived in their youth. Thus, this
condition has warped their psyches so much that they cannot but think that they
are poor, even if they are physically in possession of billions. This form of
insanity which can be recognised through the rapacious and avaricious grabbing
of resources, continually feeds on itself, thus creating a thieving monster.
Strangely, those who are most afflicted by this ailment are the quickest to
call other people thieves.
As reasonable as the above arguments
seem, a lot of social analysts don’t agree with them. They insist that the fact
that a person was materially deprived during youth, doesn’t mean that the
person will become a compulsive thief in the future. They insist that another
head of the hydra has to be looked at if the problem is to be understood.
It has been established that there’s a
disconnection between the state and its component parts. The effective
instrument of the state is the government. Thus, there’s a disconnection
between the government and the people. In other words, right from inception
during the colonial era to the present, the government has always been alien to the
people of Nigeria. The government has always been seen as some kind of “foreign
land” that tribal champions go to, to bring the golden fleece to their
people.
Thus, the average Nigerian doesn’t see
him or herself as having any sense of ownership in government. There is no
sense of belonging. No matter the amount of lip service paid to citizens’ patriotism,
the average Nigerian’s thinking is that of a person living in a foreign land.
This is why when people steal government money they are applauded by their
tribesmen and seen as heroes, while derided by those of other tribes. In fact,
when an individual attains any position of power in government, his people will
tell him or her that “it is our turn”. In other words, it is our turn to steal
money through you. It never occurs to them that it is their commonwealth that
is being stolen, while they don’t even get a rat’s pittance. In their penury,
they are happy that it is their tribesman that is stealing the money. Even when it is obvious that the money being
stolen is for the development of their communities, they seem to care less. The
stupidity of logic and reasoning is baffling.
Nevertheless, another head of the hydra
has to be examined. It has been successfully argued that the reason the
stealing of state money has become a tradition is that nobody really gets
punished. In fact, the higher up the individual in the power structure, the
less the possibility that he will ever be brought to justice. This particular
head of the hydra is the pathetically weak correctional institution the state
has. These institutions are perennially under-funded, over-bloated, lack true
talent, and lack political neutrality. All these institutions are heavily
politicised. This makes them impotent as watchdogs of the state’s treasury.
The structures of these institutions have been damaged in such a way that they
have been made deliberately incompetent. Their ability to function has been
seriously compromised by political interference. Until these issues are
seriously addressed, the stealing will go on unabated.
However, another thing to look at is the
tolerance society has for any type of wealth. The source of people’s wealth is
never queried. This makes it easy for people of questionable character to enter
the political arena. Even the political parties don’t vet their members. The
only criteria needed to join a political party is money. The issue of
unchallenged wealth has made the asking of simple common sense questions moot.
It should not be considered a witch hunt to ask questions when an individual
is obviously living beyond his or her means. If this is done, association with
questionable characters and stealing will be reduced. The seriousness of this
issue is such that, at the family level, elders have lost their moral authority
because of aggrandizement with ill-gotten wealth. Everybody just wants the loot;
nobody wants to know how it came. What a shame!
Strangely, the issue of questionable
wealth is intricately tied to the issue of questionable leadership. Analysts
say that one of the most vicious heads of the hydra is the hijacking of the
institutions of the state by criminal gangs. These elements operate
clandestinely within the state’s institutions, forming stealing cliques along
primordial lines. Positions of authority to allocate economic resources are
hijacked and, staffed with anti-state criminal elements of the competing cliques.
This is to facilitate the seamless looting of the treasury. Useful policies
that would have benefitted the polity if properly executed, are strangled, as criminal
gangs in government battle each other for supremacy.
However, a majority of analysts believe
that the real problem is the feeling of entitlement that top-ranking elements in the government have. These people believe that they’re the custodians of state
wealth. They truly believe that they have the right to keep and, give, to whom
they please, money belonging to the state. This fact is clearly established by
the way they, their family members, and cronies; openly squander state funds
without fear of sanctions. This shameful state of affairs is manifest at all
levels of government. We have seen and, we are seeing situations in which
godfathers and godsons engage in open war, because of this issue. They don’t
even hide the reason why they are fighting. Socio-economic development can
never occur, as long as political leadership has a sense of entitlement to
state funds.
All-in-all, where do the citizens of Nigeria
stand? The obvious answer is, not well. So long as the country’s ruling and
governing classes remain hopelessly and terminally infected with the
kleptopathology bug; the possibility of socio-economic development will remain
a mirage. The good news is that; all viruses end up consuming their hosts. The
question is when and, what kind?
That change will occur is an
inevitability because natural law dictates it! However, while the terminally
ill anti-state criminal elements battle each other into oblivion over who has
the right to steal more; the dynamics of their struggle will lead to said
changes. What kind of changes?
The struggle amongst these anti-state
criminal elements could lead to a most unfortunate conflagration. This kind of
change is usually caused by the vociferous stirring of primordial sentiments in
each group’s base. The multiplier effect and fallout of such a change will be
the destabilisation of the continent for decades to come.
However, a more likely scenario will be
that the anti-state criminal elements will be consumed in internal and inter-group
struggles. Their mutually assured destruction will lead to the rise of
pro-development champions. This is how the rise of the pan-Nigeria and pan-Africa
renaissance will occur.
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