In civilized countries, when things go terribly wrong as we are witnessing in Nigeria, heads will fall. The governor of the States where these nefarious actions are taking place, will step down, or be forced to do so. The President of such a country will be impeached and forced to step down. Not in Nigeria. The Boko Haram marauders know that Nigeria is governed by spineless bull dogs, who can bark, but cannot bite.

The marauders have for year dared the Nigerian government to touch them, to do something that will show that the government can actually stop them, but they have come to know also that the government is so corrupt that they can do nothing for fear of being exposed. They know that no one will dare touch them or do more than bark.

Why was the President reluctant about asking for outside help?  Because he and his well-chosen collaborators do not want outsiders to see how ugly things really are. These people are living in glass houses, oblivious of the outside world, partying and eating caviar… failing to see the cracking roof over their heads. This is what corruption does. It robs people of their morality, their good judgment, their spirituality, their dignity, their everything. Nigeria today is an amoral country.

Ask the clerk in a government office for your file, and be ready to grease, that is what they call it, to grease the palm, to bribe to get what is yours by right. Be stopped at a road block by a police officer, and be ready to wash, that is what they call it, to wash your car for them, meaning to bribe them for owning and driving a car. In Nigeria, you celebrate a new car, or wash a new car by blessing it, praying over it, and sometimes entertaining friends for attending the ceremony. So the Police man asks for his share of this satire if the car is new, or appears to be new.

Find yourself at the airport, whether traveling out or returning, and be ready to buy your way through.  It doesn’t matter whether you are carrying contraband or not. If you don’t want delays, you better pay. Bribery, the mother of corruption has eaten so deep into the fabrics of the society that I doubt if Nigeria will ever survive it. I started calling bribery service charge whenever I was confronted with it. My thinking being that if that is what it takes to get things done as at when due, then so be it. Does that make it right? Of course not, but it seems the whole nation have developed and live with that mindset. What hope for Nigeria?

So while the governing class live in their glass houses, leading the corruption band wagon, stealing billions and getting away with it, making corruption the norm, so normal that if one is in a position to demand and take bride and does not, that person is looked upon as a fool.