By Sonny Iroche
Introduction
For decades, Nigeria has struggled under the crushing weight of corruption, profligacy, and waste, both in the public and private sectors. Despite immense natural resources and a youthful population brimming with potential, the country’s progress remains hobbled by an entrenched culture of greed, inefficiency, and poor governance. Yet, while Nigerians lament the failures of leadership, a disturbing reflex persists: blaming colonialism, the West, and foreign interests for the nation’s woes. This blame narrative, though not entirely baseless, increasingly serves as a convenient excuse that deflects attention from the more urgent and painful truth: our house is on fire, and the flames are self-inflicted.
The Depth of Corruption and Waste
Few nations on earth have squandered as much promise as Nigeria. Since independence, corruption has metastasized across every tier of governance. Transparency International consistently ranks Nigeria among the world’s most corrupt countries. But beyond statistics are the jaw-dropping scandals that define the country’s modern political history.
At the top of the hall of infamy sits General Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from 1993 to 1998. His regime looted an estimated $3 billion from public coffers, hidden in foreign accounts across Switzerland, the U.K., and the United States. Over two decades later, Nigeria is still recovering stolen funds, the so-called Abacha loot, from Western banks that turned a blind eye to suspicious transfers. This remains the world’s largest state-level asset recovery effort.
The Malabu Oil / OPL 245 scandal further exemplifies Nigeria’s tragic marriage of wealth and waste. In 2011, oil block OPL 245 was sold for $1.1 billion, but much of that money was allegedly diverted to private pockets instead of entering national treasury accounts. The ensuing litigation spanned Italy, the U.K., and Nigeria, casting a long shadow over the oil sector and revealing how multinationals and local elites collude to rob citizens blind.
In recent years, the rot has spread to new frontiers. The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, established to help Nigeria’s poorest, became the epicenter of a 2024 scandal where the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) uncovered ₦32.7 billion and $445,000 in diverted funds. That even a ministry created to fight hunger could become a feeding trough for political gluttony speaks volumes about the moral decay of public office.
The private sector is hardly blameless. Many so-called “contractors” are fronts for political cronies who inflate costs, deliver substandard work, or never complete projects. Banks facilitate illicit transfers, corporations evade taxes, and oil traders under-declare exports. Nigeria loses billions of dollars yearly through illicit financial flows, according to Global Financial Integrity. The theft is systemic, not incidental, and has become a perverse norm in governance and business alike.
The Cost of Profligacy
Corruption’s most insidious impact lies in the colossal waste of public resources. Nigeria’s annual budget remains dominated by recurrent expenditure, salaries, allowances, and overheads, leaving little for infrastructure, education, or healthcare. In 2023, for instance, the federal government allocated nearly 80% of its budget to servicing debt and recurrent spending. The result is a country perpetually broke despite enormous revenues.
A clear example of institutional profligacy is Nigeria’s bloated cabinet. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration currently boasts 52 ministers and cabinet-level appointees, one of the largest in the world. Add dozens of special advisers, senior assistants, and duplicated ministries, and the figure swells to nearly 70. Each of these officials comes with convoys of SUV vehicles, security details, aides, travel budgets, and housing perks, costing taxpayers billions of naira monthly.
Contrast this with the United States, whose 2025 cabinet under President Donald Trump comprises 25 cabinet members, even though the U.S. population (about 341 million) is almost 100 million larger than Nigeria’s 237 million. The implication is stark: a bigger and wealthier country operates more efficiently with less than half the number of ministers Nigeria maintains. The Nigerian cabinet has become a political balancing act, based on the Constitutional provisions that each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, must have a ministerial position, rather than an instrument of governance, designed to appease regions, reward loyalty, and share spoils, not to deliver results.
This wastefulness extends down the federal structure to the 36 states and the 774 Local Government Councils. Many state governments maintain dozens of commissioners, advisers, and special assistants, mirroring the federal waste, cronyism, and gluttony. Governors often travel abroad with large entourages, while public schools decay, hospitals collapse, and public servants salaries remain unpaid, for months. The symbolism is devastating: leadership that flaunts unearned and sudden luxury amid poverty.
The Futility of Blaming the West
Whenever corruption or underdevelopment is discussed, some Nigerians instinctively point to colonialism, Western interference, or neo-imperialism, after 65 years of independence. While there is truth to some extent in this narrative, as the colonial powers built extractive economies; the IMF and World Bank’s structural adjustment policies of the 1980s inflicted deep social scars; and global corporations continue to exploit Africa’s weak governance and regulatory loopholes.
But these explanations, however valid, do not absolve Nigerian leaders of responsibility. Over six decades after independence, the chains of colonialism are no longer physical, they are mental and moral. The most crippling form of neocolonialism today is self-inflicted: the worship of stolen money, greed, ethnic politics, and mediocrity that perpetuates incompetence and theft.
The same Western countries we blame for underdevelopment are the destinations where corrupt Nigerian officials stash stolen wealth, buy luxury real estate, and educate their children. Switzerland, Dubai, and London, have become vaults for Africa’s stolen future. Yet, the act of stealing begins in Abuja, Lagos, or Port Harcourt, and cascades to the state capitals, not in Washington or London. No Western country forces Nigerian ministers to divert funds meant for hospitals
into personal accounts.
Indeed, some of the world’s fastest-developing nations, such as India, Singapore, South Korea, and Malaysia, also endured colonialism. The difference lies in leadership, discipline, and institution-building. They turned adversity into innovation, while Nigeria turned oil wealth into resource curse and dependency.
To constantly blame the West and others for our failings is therefore a moral profanity, a deflection that excuses irresponsibility and entrenches victimhood. The West may have designed the stage, but it is Nigerians who continue to perform the tragic play.
A Call for Moral Reawakening
Nigeria’s salvation does not lie in foreign aid, debt forgiveness, or IMF reforms. It lies in national introspection, the process of choosing our political leaders, a moral awakening that redefines public service as sacrifice, not self-enrichment. To achieve this, three shifts are essential:
1. Leadership Integrity: Governance must prioritize merit, transparency, and ethics over ethnicity and political patronage. The culture of “sharing national cake” must die.
2. Institutional Reform: Strengthen anti-corruption agencies with autonomy and accountability, adoption of artificial intelligence to digitize public finance, and ensure that every naira is traceable.
3. Civic Pressure and Values Re-education: Citizens must stop idolizing wealth without questioning its source. Until Nigerians start to treat thieves, especially those in government with the same disdain as armed robbers and criminals, the cycle will persist.
The era of blaming the West must end. The real battle is internal, against greed, impunity, and the decay of conscience that allows leaders to loot hospitals and schools without remorse.
Nigeria’s tragedy is not lack of intelligence, hardwork, resilience, potential, or divine favor. It is the triumph of selfishness over service, of corruption, and kleptomania, over conscience. While external forces have shaped our past, our present failures are self-inflicted. As long as we continue to maintain over-sized governments, tolerate corruption, in high and low places, and waste national wealth on luxury while the majority languish in poverty, no amount of Western aid or apologies can save us.
It is time for Nigerians to stop blaming others and start rebuilding the moral foundation of our nation. Accountability begins at home, and so must redemption.
NB: Sonny Iroche is the CEO of GenAI Learning Concepts Ltd; a Member of the Nigeria National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee; a Member of UNESCO’s Technical Working Group on AI Readiness; and holds a Postgraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence for Business from the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.
