Nigeria: A Distructured Country
Religion, Nigeria’s top export, rakes in a staggering ₦2 trillion annually from offerings alone. And this doesn’t even include tithes and other donations, which could double the figure. Regrettably, education is not given the priority it deserves in Nigeria, leaving our institutions in disrepair. The quality of education in Nigeria has plummeted, with most middle- and upper-class families opting to send their children abroad.
Our defence budget, in comparison, is not as appealing. This is evident in the service offered by Nigeria’s security service. Meanwhile, the disparity in earnings is stark, with lawmakers enjoying almost 500% more than the average public servant or Nigerian. This explains their protruding bellies and pumped-up faces. Nigerians and the government lavished a whopping ₦725 billion on pilgrims (Hajj) alone. How can we justify this in a country that boasts the highest number of impoverished and homeless individuals globally, particularly when critical sectors such as defence, healthcare, and education receive such a meagre allocation?
Nigeria recorded a total of 87 million bribes in 2023. This staggering number serves as a stark reminder that corrupt practices permeate every sector of the country, and without addressing these, progress remains unattainable. Simply painting over a crack does not repair it. Never has Nigeria degraded so rapidly as under the APC government. The formation of Nigerian political structures has prevented Tinubu’s administration from even beginning to address the root causes of the problem. The lobbying and appeasement of the various factions that contributed to his presidency are hindering Nigeria’s fundamental and unprecedented transformation. No country can grow an inch when it harbours 87 million public sector bribes in a year. It would seem like every third public office transaction involves bribery—that is intolerable.
A country where 87 million bribes occur in its public sector within a year and not a handful of public servants are convicted of corruption is a tale best suited to the fairies. It is not entirely the president’s shortcoming because the Nigerian federal system grants powers to governors, senators, and many other branches over which the president has no control. The president’s hands are tight when the entire apparatus has existed under a culture of bribery, kickbacks, and mismanagement. Whilst productivity is crucial to maintaining a country’s independence, Nigeria is deeply dependent on other countries. For decades, we have undermined manufacturing, farming, research, education, and other areas where our needs could be internally dependent against an overburdening reliance on importation and a diminishing revenue-generated mechanism like natural resources to fuel sustenance. This has destroyed whatever remnant of productivity the country had. Without divorcing from our dependence on dollar-subjected import addiction, our currency and economy will continue to nosedive to worthless paper.
If a Nigerian who makes ₦100,000 a month is subject to PAYE and other tax deductions, a church with a mansion the size of one hundred Nigerian homes that generates revenue of billions of naira annually is exempt from taxation. Then, a review of the religious establishment should be imminent, as churches are rapidly occupying every fourth quarter of our townships, neighbourhoods, and cities. A review of lawmakers’ salaries and remuneration to reflect the greater Nigerian reality would equally benefit the country and discourage those who see the political position as a means to become rich. Polipreneurs and pastorpreneurs, as I call them, are the two highest earners in Nigeria. They make 500% more than your average Nigerian. Entrepreneurs and those in the STEM professions are the highest earners in every developed or industrialised country because they are growth drivers. Nigeria is the other way around, which is why we are not growing but instead producing more poverty and homelessness.
Is Nigeria redeemable? Where are we headed? How did we get here? When religion and religious leaders earn, on average, more than scientists, entrepreneurs, inventors, professors, IT professionals, and engineers combined, the country’s ability to innovate and grow dwindles. These are the questions we need to ask ourselves.
By Ikechukwu ORJI
