Corruption and the Nigerian woman: Is everyone and everything for sale?

By Tabia Princewill

No one is more disenfranchised than the Nigerian woman. The worst part of this statement isn’t even the fact itself but the reality that the average woman in our society probably doesn’t realise she has allowed or even supervised and enabled her marginalisation, subjugation and virtual exclusion on all fronts.

Goodluck Jonathan has often been celebrated for appointing women to cabinet positions. However, opinions defer greatly as to the track record of said women. Attracting the best, enabling talented, creative individuals, particularly women, to access public office and perform, rather than the if-it-can’t-be-me-it-can’t-be-you mentality or the appointment of wives, girlfriends or simply well connected women to positions of responsibility, remains an issue. Indeed, from Patricia Etteh to Diezani Alison-Madueke or Stella Oduah, Nigerian women have had their names tainted by all sorts of allegations during their time in office.

Interestingly, studies show that globally, women are more ethical than men. Unfortunately, this might not have proven true in the Nigerian case, thus justifying the misogynistic mind-set that refuses to give women a chance given that other ill intentioned ladies have squandered said opportunity, thus barring those who do merit a break from getting advantageous prospects at all.

Advantageous prospects

I recently fell upon comments made by a certain Cynthia Ugbah, winner of the 2015 “Queen of Trust International” pageant, who resigned her position stating she refused to be part of a spectacle organised only to provide opportunities for “big men” to meet willing, knowing girls who avidly seek to live a fast life previously beyond their reach.

She even went on to allege that the pageant organisers attempted to force her to sleep with a PDP chieftain and this apparently is common practice as university students and their hostels are turned into dens of iniquity where the rich and powerful shop for entertainment.

Beyond being stunned or disgusted by such rumoured behaviour which amounts to turning young women in our society to prostitutes and normalising the process that ensures this, it seems that Nigerian women today, the same women who will go on to raise children and to pass on social norms, therefore guarantying their survival, no longer believe in their own self worth, in the value of being a woman beyond the ability to trade oneself for certain favours and advantages.

Social media is rife with jokes regarding the supposedly greedy, grasping nature of the Nigerian woman. In fact, some time ago, Basketmouth, a famous comedian, made a joke, which many didn’t appreciate. To sum it up, he asked why men wouldn’t rape Nigerian women if after doting on them and providing them with expensive shoes, bags, trips abroad etc. they then refused to fulfil their part of the bargain. Despite the crass nature of this comedian’s insinuation as to the apparently wayward, covetous nature of the Nigerian woman, one must examine the joke’s premise which is “something for something love” as they say in Uganda, where the government created public service announcements to warn university students in particular about the dangers of transactional relationships.

Tackling what might seem like a trivial, personal choice could go a long way towards understanding how corruption works in our society, why it exists and what social mechanisms support it. Indeed, corruption doesn’t start in government. It starts in our homes, in our children’s schools and when they grow up and decide to be local government chairman (or to date him) they simply perpetuate all that they have learnt along the way.

Today’s media is filled with vacuous, often female, interchangeable “on-air-personalities” who fly first class and boast of accessories worth ten times what any media house can afford to pay them. Who is footing the bill? What do their parents think? Some actually encourage their daughters to go out to find wealthy men who can fund their aspirations and those who don’t, are regarded as failures. Let us remember Basketmouth’s seemingly unacceptable joke which points to a custom and practice exacerbated by an oil rich economy, awash with free money that nobody needs to work for: girls willingly peddle themselves for money because our values in Nigeria no longer transcend material things. Who came first, the chicken or the egg? Did lecherous men make demands on ambitious women who succumbed to what became a cultural phenomenon or did ambitious women figure that in a broken society where merit counts for naught, it would be easier to trade on their assets rather than their mental attributes? It is difficult to say.

However, if one is to believe social media and the accounts of some foreign ladies coming to Nigeria for “jobs” with high-profile men (often rumoured to be governors, senators etc.) it seems that trading sex for influence is the bedrock of our society’s operations. Today, in Nigeria, it is embarrassing to love and accept yourself for who you are, without a private jet to reassure you about your social relevance or what is more, your existence as only the rich count in Nigeria.

So as Sai Baba fights the good fight against government corruption, let us assist, particularly Nigerian women, by refusing the demands and weights of a dehumanising society. Being human is about making choices, and the greatest humanity affirming option in our context, is the choice to avoid sleaze and exploitation, venality and fraud, which rather than completely destroy society will surely destroy our person, in the end.

David Mark

More of the same. The former Senate president’s election as senator, was nullified by a court of appeal. Having been in the Senate since 1999 and a former military governor to boot, one wonders what new vision (or illusion) he hopes to bring to his constituents, if not for the fantasist “continuity” Nigerian politicians have used to trick the masses into electing them ad eternam.

His campaign refrains allegedly include the assertion that he is one of the largest investors in Benue state (if not the largest). If this were America, the Internal Revenue Service, IRS would want to know not just the source of said funds but to also check if politicians’ taxes are in order.

Dimeji Bankole

It had been a while since we had heard of the former Speaker of the House of Representatives. It is incredible that even after being sacked under such murky circumstances, some politicians attempt (and are able) to stage a comeback.
Mr Bankole wants to revive the Ogun State PDP by floating an uninspiring group, the “Dimeji Bankole Movement”. Egotistical and self-regarding more like.

Missing budget

THE President’s “hands-off” approach with the two houses might not be paying off in a country where covetous, resentful and envious men hold sway. The Senate President, Bukola Saraki said there were two versions of the budget in the Senate, and that one is different from the copy presented by the President in December.

Speculating over what happened is pointless: attempts to derail this administration are not surprising given the on-going corruption or malfeasance cases. One thing should be clear to Nigerians, change, as represented by a budget that is pro-people, is not in everyone’s interest.

Buhari and #BBOG

Reports—which BringBackOurGirls convener, Oby Ezekwesili denied—that the President left a meeting with the Chibok girls’ parents, show Nigerians continue to misunderstand (through no fault of theirs as no one has ever bothered to explain how government works) the workings of any administration.

Even if Buhari did leave, the military chiefs as well as the Women Affairs Minister were present. They would therefore be representing the President as their portfolios are of direct relevance to the matter at hand. As for not allowing cameras into the meeting, why would government allow the parents’ grief to be used as entertainment to satiate our voyeurism? We are generally insensitive, as a people, to other people’s sorrows.  The communications watchdog in the UK, OFCOM, protects citizens from harmful material or privacy breeches. It’s once again unfortunate that only the rich seem deserving of such regard in Nigeria.