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Curbing Nigeria’s growing trust deficits 23 Aug 2023

Nigeria is a country of paradoxes. For instance, the country presents a puzzling contrast between the high intelligence, hardworking nature, and ingenuity of a considerable number of the individual citizens on the one hand, and the incompetent state, lazy government officials, and the under-development of the country on the other. The paradox of kindness, where acts of goodwill and competence are often met with suspicion and hostility, is very conspicuous on the country’s social landscape. And the Nigerian genius is unleashed when Nigerians are competing or functioning in international or global competitions or institutions. While Nigerians are world-beaters as individuals, we have continued to fail woefully as a team engaged in our nation-building.
    
When as Nigerians we find ourselves in other cultures that place demands on us, we typically respond quite positively, especially when there are clear rewards for technical-cum-moral competence. This is in contradistinction from the deepening moral decadence in our society and our relegation of technical competence.

Technical, moral, or emotional competence is scarcely rewarded in Nigeria of today. The dominant traits of the most popular figures in our society, and those we accord social capital, attest to this growing malady. We now receive basic moral kindness with anti-social behaviours that range from scepticism to outright distrust. Many people think it is wisdom to be suspicious of those who appear to be kind or helpful. As a result, acts of compassion are not always received with gratitude or trust.

In fact, many fellow citizens have become accustomed to exploiting the kindness of others instead of expressing appreciation and encouragement. We often ask, “What does he want?” when we see someone who is public-spirited. This creates a vicious cycle of low citizens’ expectation and poor performance of public officials.

We are seeing the daily erosion of social competence and trust in Nigeria. As an illustration, a startling incident was recently shared on the social media platform Twitter. An ice cream vendor on the campus of a Nigerian university had not made a sale that day. Later on, he was approached by some law students who asked him to distribute ice cream packs to their classmates. He was specifically asked to distribute 50 ice cream packs worth N100 each, with the budget invariably capped at N5,000.00. But when the students wanted to make the payment, the vendor informed them that “some people had taken ice creams worth N200 and N300” and that the total bill was now N10,100.00. As would be expected, this sparked a disagreement. The row was eventually resolved when the students had paid N6,000.00, thereby outrunning their budget, and after the cursing by the vendor.

The incident drew my ire but not surprise as some people sided with the vendor. They didn’t think that he should have been scrupulous in dispensing the ice cream packs according to the instructions of those who would pick the bill. This disposition highlights the tendency towards opportunism and exploitation.

The paradox of kindness emanates from a societal view of kindness as a trait associated with weakness or naivety. Rather than appreciating acts of kindness as a sign of strength of character, too many Nigerians see it as a sign of vulnerability. Consequently, individuals who attempt to be kind and compassionate may face undue backlash and become discouraged. The breakdown in trust diminishes cooperation, leading to predatory tendencies we are witnessing in the public spheres while turning many Nigerian entrepreneurs into lone rangers who cannot pool ideas and capital together to create large enterprises.

Opportunistic behaviours among Nigerians have long surpasses the level where they would be considered as a social aberration in our society. It is now a quite dominant character trait that is daily expressed by the generality of Nigerians, unmistakably so by motorists in Lagos and several other urban and suburban parts of the country. The chaos has become normalised as part of our way of life. The aberration is to be orderly and observant of traffic regulations.

Thus, there is no real outcry when students in tertiary institutions are recorded beating up classmates for not helping them to cheat in exams. And when recently a 19-year-old Mmesoma Ejikeme forged her UTME result, claiming to be the country's highest-scoring candidate in order to dupe a corporate organisation into giving her a financial aid package worth millions of naira, far fewer people were interested in knowing the actual highest scorer when the impostor was busted. We are somewhat outraged by cheating but far less interested in the excellency of good behaviour.

Pervasive opportunism has transformed Nigeria into a low-trust society with political, economic, and social repercussions. The economy lies prostrate from unconscionably high level of corruption. In politics, low trust continues to diminish participation in voting and legitimacy of the government. Social bonds are also fracturing, leading to isolation, loneliness, and inevitably mental health crisis.

No aspect of the Nigerian life is spared the harmful impacts of opportunism and distrust. In romantic relationships, kind individuals may struggle with mistrust and caution, fearing exploitation. The lack of trust could be mutual, making it difficult for two good individuals to develop a good relationship. When people are negatively affected by predatory behaviours, whether or not they personally experienced it, a low-trust culture developments and could envelope a sizeable proportion of the population.

We need to start having conversations on this subject to reawaken moral and social conscience in the country. Not enough people seem to see the more dangers ahead, despite the present perils, if deliberate efforts are not made to begin to rebuild trust in Nigeria’s institutions and amongst us as citizens. Many people insist that the judicial challenge of the outcome of the 25 February 2023 presidential election is a golden opportunity for the judiciary to begin to build trust in the institution. Nigerians have lost hope in a judiciary that has developed an uncanny predilection for delivering judgements on the technicality of political cases brought before it and not on their substance. Without a doubt, trust needs to be restored in the judiciary as the third arm of government, one that is the last hope of the masses.

The lack of trust and pervasive suspicion has continued to impede the development of a unified long-term vision of progress for the country and the people. We should begin to change this pattern. A shift towards positive values and a culture of trust and cooperation is required to steer Nigeria towards a brighter future.

We all must do our parts. The prevailing belief in the country that outcomes are dependent on faith and hope rather than value-based practical inputs is illusory and should not continue.

Cheta Nwanze is Lead Partner at SBM Intelligence.