Is corruption responsible for Nigeria’s poverty or poverty responsible for our corruption?
If you have never left Nigeria to live or travel to stay in other developed nations of the world, you may think that Nigeria is poor because of corruption, you may not know that there is gross corruption in those advanced countries too.
Corruption is everywhere, from Uk to US, China, EU and other prosperous nations of the world. Corruption in Nigeria might look more biting and pronounced but the truth is that a Nigerian politician who stole N6bn is not different from an Amerian/British/Chinese/Russian Oligarch who stole $10M, just that it is more biting on the economy of Nigeria because we are poorer but in real sense, they both stole the same amount of money.
The real reasons for our poverty are:
- Bad governance, bad leadership
- Overdependent on foreign aids
- Very limited market sizes
- Foreign exploitation
- Geographical topography that may make construction more difficult and expensive
- Limited energy resources
- Limited infrastructure
This is not to say that corruption is not having its effect on the poverty level of Nigeria but if those factors listed above are taken care of, Nigeria’s economy will also compete with those developed nations of the world.
Note: This write-up is not in any way supporting corruption.
