In recognition of the fact that Nigeria as a nation has not provided any social security system, including unemployment benefit such as Medicare and Medicaid, as in the United States and other developed countries, Nigerians, therefore, live with the fear of "the rainy day" syndrome. Every Nigerian is caught up in an ambivalent web of a "scarcity mentality". It is under this situation that there exists a high degree of temptation to fall prey to the "evil force" of corruption that fosters selfish, personal and sometimes, immediate group agrandisement.In this respect, corruption has become not only overpowering, but irresistible. This provides the background that breeds rampant lawlessness; a nation where rules are contravened with impunity; procedural rules are shelved and regulations are applied subject, not to the rule of law, but to the rule of man under which rules and procedures are differentially and indiscriminately applied. Nigeria is where government directives are wilfully distorted; services rendered to fellow citizens are systematically commercialised, or sold as commodities. It is in Nigeria that government and its property are treated as belonging to no one and, therefore, there for any one to take!The average Nigerian citizen upholds the prevalence of the law in the Hobbesian state of nature where "what you gain, I lose, and what you lose, I gain"a vicious cycle, hence, there is an all out war against all. Thus, every citizen, whether in the private sector or in government, if given the chance, preys upon others or he is preyed upon. While the war on corruption rages on, we know that nothing is done to the trader at the Nigerian markets about their categorisation and sale of inferior goods as "original" in order to cheat; the petrol dealer who adjusts his meter against the law; the spare parts dealer who sells sub-standard items in the guise of" original goods; the mechanic who is in the habit of telling lies to his clients in order to extract more money; the block maker who mixes more sand than cement. Nigerian civil servants have been adjudged as the most corrupt in the countrymore corrupt than even the politicians, etc.Many a Nigerian is corrupt and conscious of his position and must therefore be smart or he is outsmarted. This is a country where virtually all social relationships are "resource-networks"to the extent that even relationships acquire the character of commodities as a system of clients and patrons. It is against this background that the Nigerian society has fallen victim to mindless accumulation and acquisition of wealth by means fair or foul.Many will do everything humanly possible to acquire and own four to 10 cars; others such as a former bank chief who owned more than 25 buildings in Nigeria and abroad, having extorted and appropriated such wealth from the bank she once ran the CEO. There are those whose houses are built on 10 or more standard plots of land.Primitive accumulation and acquisition of wealth, is a syndrome that has become a trait that manifests in almost all Nigerians, especially as they compete for available resources, opportunities, positions, and reward. This abnormality is manifested in Nigerians, psychologically and behaviourallyso, Nigerians have become addicts of the "scarcity mentality"and as such, they have developed the tendency of seeing available resources, services, goods, opportunities, power, and other relatively scarce values, in finite terms. To most Nigerians, what is available cannot go round; for the market woman and trader, the product being sold to their client is always the last stock; so opportunity comes but once, and must be grabbed at first sightthis is why Nigerians always fight for almost everything, no matter what that may be.Prof. Bernard-Thompson Ikegwuoha, University of Maryland University College Online, Adelphi, Maryland.
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