20 August 2018
1. Good morning Africa! Read with patience until the end.
2. Let me compare two young lecturers, one an American lecturer and the second a Nigerian lecturer.
3. Come with me: A young man in the US graduated top of his class, he gets a job as a lecturer in a university, his starting salary is about four thousand dollars which is about 1.5 Million Niara. He needs to pay for an apartment, all he needs is to sign a 12 month lease. Now, in most cases First month is free.
4. Next, He needs a car, he goes to an auto dealer, all they will ask him to bring is proof that he has a job and he can afford a minimum payment for the car, something around 280 dollars a month, they give him a brand new tear rubber car, this he drives to school.
5. Let’s say he decides to marry, he gets a girl, nothing like traditional Marraige, he goes to court, pays 40 Dollars equivalent which is twenty thousand Naira, if he has his ring the judge weds them in a private room, he takes pictures with friends and they all drive down to a restaurant eat with friends and maybe spends just about 60 dollars.
6. Apart from the ring, Everything this young lecturer needs to marry is about 100 dollars or an equivalent of 35 thousand Naira.
7. Don’t get me wrong, nothing stops you from doing a flamboyant wedding, but the truth is no one expects you to. Now, I want you to understand one thing. From the time this new lecturer graduates from school, rents an apartment where in most cases first month is free, buys a brand new car maybe without a Down payment and marries a wife, he can afford all of that with less than half of his first month salary.
8. Now give me one reason why this young lecturer will resort to selling handouts to survive?
9. Am not done, still follow me along. Let’s say this lecturer starts teaching and he needs to improve himself by attending conferences to present papers, the university will buy his return plane tickets and pay his hotels.
10. As the young lecturer starts teaching, complete set of books are provided to every student, it is paid for by financial aid. So there’s nothing like buying handouts.
11. Now the teacher closes for the day, enters his brand new car home, enters his brand new apartment, meets his brand new wife and enjoys home movies in his furnished apartment from a system where even his complete furnishings in his apartment from chairs to bed to mattress to washer and dryer, he can get it from the stores on credit without paying a dime.
12. Let us assume this man does not want to rent an apartment he prefers to buy a house, he does not need any savings, he picks up his phone and calls his bank, they will find a beautiful house for him, the bank will pay for the house, then the bank will spread out his monthly payment for the house to cover the next 30 years. This makes the monthly mortgage of this lecturer so minimal that he can afford to pay for house monthly, pay his car note monthly, buy food, dress and go on vacation with his young wife, all this can be covered within his salary.
13. Let us assume 5 years later, this lecturer is now a senior lecturer, let us assume he has three children. His salary is sufficient for him to leave a stable life. If he is sick or his children are sick the university where he works provides health insurance and he is treated free.
14. The young lecturer can also afford to buy a life insurance to cover his family in case anything happens to him. He has no reason to steal, sell handouts to students or collect money for improved grades, he does not need that because the system makes it easy for him to afford everything he needs without stress. This is what we mean by the system is working. Our problem in Nigeria is that the system is not organized to make life easy for man, rather man has to struggle to break through the system.
Part two. Let’s come to Nigeria and I will show you that Nigerians are good people, but it is the system that feeds them into corruption. You cannot stop corruption by jailing people, rather you stop corruption by blocking the system that feeds corruption. If we develop a system where you can buy a car without paying upfront as it is done overseas, you can buy a house in your name without paying, if you retire there’s a workable pension scheme and health support scheme, corruption will disappear on it own, you don’t need to jail anyone for deterrence.
15. So a young man gets a teaching job in Nigeria. First initial salary is around 300k a month if not less. He needs an apartment, the landlord needs 2 years upfront, tell me where will he get two years rent from month one. Tell me why he will not compromise himself and collect money from students or sell handouts.
16. He starts teaching, sometimes three months down his salary has not started because the accounting office are slow, now because this lecturer is under undue societal stress it starts affecting his output.
17. He has to fight and leak boots just to be allowed to attend any conference, for him to marry it has to be a big ceremony. Our society expects a celebrity wedding, so he has to borrow to marry. His salary cannot afford what society expects from him. He cannot readily Access credit, so he is forced to savings, but how much can he save from his meager salary.
18. His colleagues who cut corners start buying cars and building houses, he is then forced to compromise to meet societal expectations. Let’s assume his community call on him to vie for political office, the party tells him the cost of form is 3 Million Naira, tell me, if he doesn’t cut corners how can he meet societal expectations?
I can go on and on to make this narrative, but it points to one thing, it is the system that forces Nigerians to corruptions. If we do not create a new system there’s no hope for nigeria. The current government is so focused on sending corrupt people to jail, but of a truth, that’s not the problem, the problem is that the system encourages corruption. The system feeds
The system gives reward for corruption. And failure to join the system to promote corruption meets stiff resistance, because you will be the odd one in the pack. So tell me, a young lecturer attempting to do things right, his salary is so small that he cannot afford to pay medical bills of his sick mom and he is presented with cash for grades, tell me, if he compromises, who do we blame?
19. When Buhari came into office, we had thought he had understanding of the problems feeding corruption, but he focused on jailing past looters while the system that led us to this situation remains unchecked. From the bureaucracy to the police to the military to social Services the rate at which the faulty system is feeding and encouraging corruption outperforms the number of looters jailed.
20. A few weeks ago, I read a piece on Facebook where a young man complained that a certain 50 year old man is still walking the streets a free man more than one week when he defiled and raped a nine year old girl in Ishibori. That is what a failed system had brought on us. The local police will pretend not to know about crimes where they will not make money, and pursue cases where he will make money.
21. In our villages, gangs will matchet and kill people, they are never arrested, in the event they are arrested, some big politician pays, get them bail and closes the case. Lives are lost, women are raped, children sleep hungry, while our politicians are vacationing overseas. Was this our dream of Nigeria?
We can fix this system, we can make it work, we can set up a credit system whose value is behavior based reward system, believe me, with the right hands who understand how systems work, we can fix this country. Why reinvent the wheel when we can just copy and still get it right.
Princewill Odidi is a social Commentator writing from Atlanta
