Nigeria is situated in the West of Africa, and holds many natural resources which could flourish in the mining industry and agriculture.Still there is great poverty in that country. How can this be?
Sola Odunfa an African journalist has given us a reason: “Corruption”.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has recently audited 10 banks and only 5 of them were in order. Now there will be audits of other 14 banks. The question is: “How much of these 14 banks will be approved?” It will mean a disaster for the financial industry and the economy if half of these banks don’t appear to be in order and if they need the support of the Government. However the laws are strictly enough. By law, everything must be checked if someone wants a loan. So in fact there could be no bank crisis. But as Sola Odunfa said, corruption is an enormous problem.
If the people want a loan they have to pay bribes. How more the bankers receive money from the bribes, how greedier they become and how more they close their eyes to regulations. This all at the cost of the poor people.
The young managers of the bank drive in the most beautiful cars and live in the best neighborhoods. They are like superstars. They donate shameless openly money to ' charities' like churches and they receive special privileges. In the last audit, three managers have already been arrested but they plead not guilty. There will probably be even more arrested after the other 14 banks are audited. But the question still remains if that could tame the greed devouring the Nigerian elite.
Nigeria is a country with many opportunities, it could be a country that flourish. But it doesn’t happen and that’s a shame. The poor governance and corruption provides unrest amongst the population which constitutes a danger to the stability of the country.
It is regrettable to see that again and again throughout the world the rich people become richer and the poor poorer.
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