Proceedings of The 11th International Conference on Research in Behavioral and Social Sciences
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Lived Experiences of Nigerian Citizens on Corrupt Behaviour
Abubakar Oladeji, Adebukola Daramola,Emmanuel Onimisi
ABSTRACT:
The research set out to engage in structured conversations with Nigerian citizens, to obtain their stories on experiences with government officials where they felt that an act of dishonesty occurred, or where there was potential for abuse or coercion. In the stories shared by citizens, the Nigerian Police and Officials of the education sector featured the most. The narrators (2,560) described their experiences as a problem of abuse of function (37%), bribery (25%), and illegal accumulation of wealth (16%). The dominant emotive imprint of respondents‘ lived experiences was negative, namely sadness (32%) and anger (29%); disgust (16%), and fear (9%). Only a negligible proportion had experiences that inspired hope (2%) and happiness (2%). The most obvious impact of corrupt behaviour was the breach of citizens’ confidence in the government (41%), disruption of the rule of law (26%), and a weakened policy-making framework (13%). Respondents believe that corrupt behaviour is influenced by a sense of calculation i.e. balancing risks & rewards (41%), a sense of ethics (36%) and a sense of integrity (8%). Corrupt behaviour appears to lean toward game theory strategies, and is corroborated by respondents’ belief that dispositions to corrupt behaviour is driven by a sense of competition (78%). The stories showed that the decision to behave corruptly is more influenced by the individual (79%) than it is by tribal communities (7%) or by larger social groups (6%). The ability to contextualize corruption would influence the designed solution of choice for a greater impact on society.
keywords: behaviour, corruption, SenseMaker