Princewill Odidi|21 November 2017
Everyone expects you to pay even for services they receive salaries to provide. The transaction mentality is a higher form of corruption.
The office clerk expects to be transacted to type a clients memo, the Director expects to share in the pie, the payment accountant expects a cut, even the bank officer is not left out. By the time your transaction is over, what is left cannot complete the project.
What if you decide not to transact? The clerk will tell you to slow down, he has too many files ahead of you, the Director will find some technical flaws in your work making it hard to scale through next level, the accountant will tell you that there are other payments due with higher priorities, and you will be frustrated and regret why you did not transact. At a point transacting is not voluntary, it is a must, more like extortion.
Unfortunately, the transaction mentality has penetrated our entire society. Those who transact are made deacons in churches, those who transact are given priority admissions in universities, those who transact get better jobs, secure lucrative contracts, you transact to get the electorate vote for you, and those who transact are awarded titles of commendation by society.
The big question; Can we change a transaction social mentality by moral persuasion or through authoritative sanctions? That is an open question. Can we change a transaction based police, military, bureaucracy and political class through persuasion and orientation or through the use of force? That too is a discussion for another day.
Some call it bribery, others call it corruption, still some call it rob my back I rob your back, for political correctness, I call it the transaction mentality.
Princewill Odidi
Writes from Atlanta
