CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA: A SOCIAL JUSTICE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Endemic corruption represents a major obstacle to economic development and social welfare in Africa and the 
rest of the developing world. Thus, there are a large number of analyses of the phenomenon, which tended to be 
social scientific in character. Few philosophers, beyond grappling with the analysis of the concept, have done 
any substantive work to shed some light on the nature and implication of official corruption.
With the immediately preceding observation as its point of departure, this paper seeks to examine the menace of 
corruption from a philosophical perspective. Specifically, it provides some philosophical insights on the 
question of the origin of corruption and deployed the concept of social justice in the analysis of the former. From 
this perspective, it demonstrates that in perpetuating a form of social injustice, which may have a debilitating 
effect on our aspiration to nationhood and the establishment of a just political order, official corruption is 
nothing but act of treason. Given the grave consequences of corruption, the paper recommends an integrated 
approach to tackling the menace, which includes character training, the abolition of plea bargaining and very 
stringent penalties for the corrupt public officials.