What are we to make of the Prime Minister's gaffe?

The Prime Minister's gaffe (or was it deliberate?) had some unexpected consequences. He said that Nigeria was a "fantastically corrupt nation" - not the most diplomatic way of preparing for a conference on combating corruption that he himself was to chair!

The Prime Minister of Nigeria was already in London for the conference but he wisely rejected calls for an apology.

Acknowledging that there is widespread corruption in his country, he said that he would prefer the return of assets in London bought through the proceeds of money-laundering.

First, Remove the Plank...

Millions of dollars and pounds have been stolen from government funds in Nigeria by corrupt officials and politicians and squirrelled away into foreign assets, including mega London property deals. This has been going on for decades with the full knowledge of the Nigerian Government and financial authorities in London.

It is surely an embarrassment to David Cameron to be faced with these facts when hosting a conference seeking to combat corruption: especially following the recent revelations in the 'Panama Papers' which showed that his own family had used the services of offshore banking provided in British colonies.

Nigeria's President would surely be justified in quoting the little parable that Jesus used of the man who wanted to remove the speck of dust in someone else's eye when he had a plank in his own eye (Matt 7:3)! Britain's role as the oldest democracy in the Commonwealth should be that of assisting the newly democratised nations struggling to establish stability and righteous government.

London's complicity in Nigeria's corruption is an embarrassment – Buhari would be justified in asking Britain to remove the plank from their own eye before accusing Nigeria.

Cameron and Buhari at this week's anti-corruption conference, London. See Photo CreditsNigeria's History of Corruption

Nigeria has a history of political instability and corruption. In its short life since independence in 1960 there have been 10 military presidents – six of whom were either assassinated or deposed in a military coup. The first democratically elected president was in 1999 when Olusegun Obasanjo came to power. A devout Christian, his stated aim was to alleviate poverty, reduce government corruption and establish a democratic system that would bring stability to the nation.

Sadly, his efforts to stamp out corruption in government were met with fierce opposition from MPs, including members of his own Government who expected to benefit from government contracts and a wide range of backhanders and personal benefits. The politicians even attempted to impeach the President as they did not like his authoritarian style of imposing reforms upon Parliament.

On my first visit to Nigeria back in the 1980s I was shocked to be stopped by police at a roadblock as we were driving out of Lagos only to be told by my driver that if I did not include some money inside my passport when I handed it over for inspection, we could be sitting in the roadblock for hours. I refused to do so and we were eventually allowed to leave. My driver went on to explain that every civil servant and minor official expected a reward for any transaction - such as applying for a passport, which could be delayed for months unless the clerical officer was rewarded.

Nigeria has a history of political instability and corruption that affects the country today at all levels.

Obasanjo also attempted to deal with religious and ethnic strife, which increased considerably during his presidency when the Muslim-dominated Northern states introduced sharia law. During the presidency of his successor, Goodluck Johnson, radicalism increased and led to the atrocities of Boko Haram and the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls who have never been found.

The current president Muhammadu Buhari said that David Cameron was right in describing Nigeria as "fantastically corrupt".¹ The scale of corruption is astonishing. Last week Nigerian Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said that an estimated $15 billion (£10 billion) of government money had been stolen through corrupt arms contracts under the previous Government - and in March this year, an official audit found that Nigeria's state-owned oil company had failed to pay the Government $25 billion which had fraudulently disappeared.²

Corruption Endemic Globally

Unmasking corruption is becoming a worldwide movement as whistleblowers and justice campaigners seek to promote transparency in business and politics and social relationships.

According to Transparency International, more than 6 billion people live in countries that are seriously affected by corruption – which is most of the world's population!³ They say that 68% of countries worldwide have a serious corruption problem which includes about half of the members of the G20, and not a single nation in the world is entirely free of corruption.⁴

A campaign group Unmask the Corrupt says that corruption is "the abuse of high-level power that benefits the few at the expense of the many and causes serious and widespread harm to individuals and society."⁵

According to Transparency International, more than 6 billion people live in countries that are seriously affected by corruption – that's most of the world's population!

What the Bible Says

The Bible is full of condemnation of those who misuse their power and oppress the poor and the powerless. The Prophet Isaiah slams those who turn the moral law upside down, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness...Woe to those who acquit the guilty for a bribe but deny justice to the innocent" (Isa 5:20-23).

Some of the harshest words Jesus spoke are directed against those who carefully fulfil religious ritual requirements but neglect what he described as "the more important matters" of God's teaching – "justice, mercy and faithfulness". He condemned their actions as those of hypocrites: "You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence" (Matt 23:23-25).

The prophets and Jesus all speak of a time coming when God will deal with the greed and injustice of humanity by shaking everything that we count as important – all the things we have established, such as our democracy, our banks and great finance houses, our pension funds, our National Health Service, our justice system, our armies with their nuclear warheads poised to spread destruction across the earth – all the things in which we put our trust!

Some of the harshest words Jesus spoke were directed against those who act religiously but neglect justice and mercy.

God revealed to the Prophet Isaiah that there would come a day when he would deal with all the pride and arrogance of human beings (Isa 2:12-22) and that this would actually be a demonstration of God's justice. He says "So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled. But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the Holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness" (Isa 5:15-16).

Isaiah's Apocalyptic Vision

In Isaiah 24 the Prophet describes what will happen when God rises to deal with the wickedness of human beings. It does not make pleasant reading. Earlier generations of biblical scholars used to say that this was 'apocalyptic language' – it was 'visionary imagination' which could never become a reality. But today we know that the arsenal of nuclear weapons possessed by the nations could in fact fulfil the description in Isaiah 24:19: "the earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken..."

We do not know whether this prophetic vision is given as a warning to humanity or whether it will actually happen at some time. The one thing we do know is that human beings are capable of violent and irrational behaviour and that the nations are armed with incredible weapons of mass destruction. If the North Koreans join the nuclear club the prospects of world peace become increasingly problematic.

Perhaps the London Conference seeking to find ways of combating corruption has greater significance for the future of humanity on this earth than most of us realise. This is surely food for thought – and prayer!

References

1 Nigerian President Buhari 'not demanding' Cameron apology. BBC News, 12 May 2016.

2 Ibid.

3 Corruption Perceptions Index, 2015. Transparency International.

4 Ibid.

5 UnmasktheCorrupt.org.