Corruption and Nigeria Developmental Challenges: Insights from Exodus 23:8

Abstract

Corruption is an age-old phenomenon that has greatly challenged the moral, social, economic and cultural facets of the Nigerian nation. It is a bane that confronts national development and stability. It is no news that the scourge of corruption has done untold damage to Nigeria and its national aspirations. The annual corruption perception index (CPI) by the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International has consistently ranked Nigeria in the league of the most corrupt nations of the world. One can also point to the pervasive poverty in the land, dysfunctional public utilities, failure of government intervention programmes across multiple sectors as clear consequences of corruption in policy initiation, implementation, monitoring and feedback channels. Nigeria’s failure to live to her immense potentials partly on account of corruption as espoused by several scholars relates directly to the bible admonition found in the book of Exodus 23:8 wherein the practice of giving and accepting bribes were outrightly condemned thus: you will accept no bribes, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and is the ruin of the cause of the upright. Will the country’s woes be reversed if the Bible injunction which cautions against receiving and taking of bribes is heeded? This work adopts narrative-textual case study and concludes that the menace of corruption could be tackled if Nigerians could consciously and conscientiously practice the lessons enshrined in the periscope of the study.