Reassessing Corruption in Nigeria from the Perspective of Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics

Abstract

Nigeria has become synonymous with corruption. Transparency International ranked it among the most corrupt nations. Some Nigerians get involved in one form of corruption or the other and embezzlement of public fund and bribery has been identified as the dominant form of corruption in Nigeria. The large proportion of bribery and corruption in Nigeria is done to speed up administrative procedure that may be delayed for a long time or even stay there indefinitely thereby making bribery an effective means of facilitating administrative services. Considering all these, the question that comes to mind is, can bribery and corruption be taken as a universally accepted culture in Nigeria? However, Aristotle in his virtue ethics holds that an individual ought to exercise moral virtues so as to develop the ability to do the right thing, at the right time and in the right way. Taking inspiration from Aristotle’s virtue ethics, this paper argues that unethical practice of bribery and corruption destroys personal virtues, leads to perversion of justice, encourages mediocrity and dehumanizes both the giver and the taker. The paper submits that individual exercise of moral virtue will assist in reducing corruption in Nigeria. This paper adopted the textual analysis and critical method.