We are all potentially corrupt… -By Gimba Kakanda

When it comes to political leadership, I do not trust anybody absolutely, I do not believe in any politician unconditionally, even if I were one myself. This is the reason for my long-running crusade for a strong institution.

As a panelist at an event to discuss reasons supposedly credible people also fail in political office, I cited the compromising structure of our institutions, where you get away with your infractions.

I cited what I read from my big brother, Malam Hassan Mohammed’s note on corruption during one of his capacity-building workshops for our public servants, that criminologists outlined three factors that instigate corruption even among the honest. One is the will to do it, the second is the opportunity discovered or presented and the third exit – abbreviated as WOE. You steal because you have the will, or you see an opportunity or you realize you can escape with your crime.

At the same event, an attentive and visibly confused member of the audience asked whether I would accept an untraceable bribe of N20 million if occupying a political office.

Every sane person would’ve said no at once, as did a co-panelist, because we are all incorruptible in our own words. “It depends on the circumstance,” I said. “It depends on what I’m going through when the bribe comes in. If I’m dying of a kidney disease with no support from my employer or system, then…” An outburst of laughter.

And then I explained that the circumstance may actually be the structure of the institution that has engaged me, and whether it treats me fairly and has in place a mechanism for penalizing such infractions. This isn’t a confession to being vulnerable, it’s a practical assessment of the temptation as an average and frustrated Nigerian.

The compromising arrangement of our public institutions has consumed a lot of antecedently credible people. This is why I do not wish to work in government anytime soon. I prefer to operate from the outside, either as consultant or critic. I want to be in government only when I’ve developed and sustained a financial backup that may make occupying a political office seem like an underpaid job.

Recently the INEC Chairman begins to make a u-turn in the bid to recall Senator Dino Melaye but it’s not a coincidence that this came just when the Senate announced its plan to investigate his stewardship at TETFUND. Our public servants are measurably compromised and the ruling elite, knowing this, use the dirt to blackmail one another.

I was once in an argument with an outwardly religious public servant who rejected my theory that it’s not possible to crawl through a muddy tunnel that’s our corrupt system without a smear, and then I teased that if he’s held to account for his wealth, there must be connections to tampering with public resources. He laughed, but I meant it. He couldn’t have built three houses in Abuja and sponsored three children to universities overseas while the younger three attend elite schools in Abuja, where a session is almost two million Naira, on his salary as a public servant.

If Nigeria were an institutionally strong nation, President Buhari wouldn’t have fumbled this much in delivering on his electoral promises, unable to even check or stop backdoor recruitments at our federal agencies in spite of the government’s promise to end nepotism.

Without strong institutions, we are all an endangered good people, all of us potentially corrupt.