International Journal of Political Science and Development

Vol. 9(1), pp. 41-50, January, 2021. 

DOI: 10.14662/IJPSD2020.300

ISSN: 2360-784X

 

Full Length Research

 

POLITICS OR �POLITRICKS�: NIGERIAN POLITICS OF BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION IN IGBOLAND

 

Iheanyi M. Enwerem, PhD

 

Spiritan University Nneochi (SUN), Department of Political Science, Nneato-Isuochi Umunneochi LGA, Abia State, Nigeria. E-mail: ienwerem@gmail.com

 

Accepted 25 November 2020

ABSTRACT

 

Public trust and citizen engagement in politics are in short supply in today�s Nigeria. This is because of the prevalence of �politricks,� the practice of the politics of bribery and corruption by the average Nigerian politician, with its attendant negative socio-political and economic consequences. Igboland, the geographical context of this paper, is particularly not immune to this reality. This self-serving politics is pursued with total disregard of the common good and has grown largely in a political culture that fears neither the Bible nor the Koran. Igbo politicians and their Nigerian counterparts revel publicly that pledges made under these sacred writs can be flouted with impunity. The dread of supernatural retribution in traditional society meant that laws are always respected and norms strictly adhered to. Such is no longer the case in our present dispensation. My thesis argues that only a return to traditional Igbo cultural trust-building mechanisms that ensure respect for the rule of law in society will abate the growth of bribery and corruption in politics in Igboland. In this regard, Christianity and other foreign religions can borrow a leaf from traditional religion with respect to its repertoire of retributions for taboo flouters.

 

Keywords: Public trust, politics, politricks, bribery and corruption

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Cite this article as: Enwerem, I.M (2021). Politics or �Politricks�: Nigerian Politics of Bribery and Corruption in Igboland. Int. J. Polit. Sci. Develop. 9(1) 41-50