STRATEGIC PARLOUR

“We come from Africa, and this is something that I don’t think we speak a lot about. When you make money, it’s not your money. You have all these relatives, cousins, and others asking for money. “Then your sisters get married to some guy who just wants to get married into John Obi Mikel’s family because then “my life is sorted”. You send money to your sister; the money goes to him, and he does whatever he does with it. This is something nobody knows about.” “So you get your salary, and you put some aside for this person; put this aside for that person; put this aside for mom and dad. Before you know it, where is it? You get nothing.” Speaking further, he stated that African footballers oftentimes cater for people beyond their immediate family. He said, “They keep having so many kids, and you look at it and ask the question, “You have this many kids; who is going to look after them?” Then you realise it’s you. They look out for you to look after the kids, the husband, and the husban...

Several years ago, at a conference on Coastal Piracy in Nigeria’s Territorial Waters, I admonished a senior member of the Nigeria Customs and Immigrations Department that the Customs was the most corrupt sector of the Nigerian public service. As a result, the Customs receive by far the largest number of job-applicants in the entire service. The reason, I maintained, was because it is widely understood that Customs officials are Nigeria’s richest public-servants, given the fact that they are well-positioned to extort and receive bribes. Big-man lawlessness: The unfortunate Customs official at whom my reprimand was directed was not particularly offended. Rather, he observed solemnly that the Customs receive mixed signals from Nigerian officialdom. These indicate that laws are to be honoured more in the breach than in the observance. Therefore, Customs officials have few qualms about being corrupt when, daily, they observe first-hand the corrupt practices of the powers-that-be.He not...