NEPOTISM: A BANE TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Nigeria,the world's most populous black nation has been ravaged by a lot of factors that have undermined and impeded her development over the years. In-arguably, the most significant of these factors is definitely corruption.The impact of corruption in Africa's present state of rot and under development can not be overemphasized,wide spread corruption, bad leadership,mis management of resources amongst other societal ills have left behind detrimental effects that have plunged Africa and her people deeper into abject poverty,conflicts,political instability and severe economic challenges. Although corruption is now recognized as a global phenomenon,the little efforts that have been sidelined by the Nigerian government to tackle this acute problem have proved futile and ineffectual over the years.

                                                               
  Lurking in the shadows of corruption however is a bigger disease called Nepotism which has not only polluted our business and social environment,but is also gradually becoming a norm amongst Nigerians and Africans as a whole. Bolatito,an accounting Graduate from one of the various private universities in Nigeria was growing increasingly frustrated because he was yet to get a reply from a job test he sat for months back at one of the new generation banks in Lagos, he had applied for an interview and passed gracefully,his eyes were always glued to his in-box, waiting eagerly for that mail that never came...However, my good friend,Olamide,a graduate of Yoruba language from the prestigious Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU who wrote the same interview just got a job offer from the same first generation bank ,''lamie'' as he is fondly called amongst his peers,cuts a stern looking figure when he got the letter because according to him,all he wrote on the test papers were his full names and address. Don't ask me how he got the job,but rumor has it that his uncle's side chick was a highly placed staff of the so called bank *lips sealed*

                                                                
Nepotism,according to www.Dictionary.com is defined as “patronage bestowed or favoritism shown on the basis of family relationship,as in business or politics”.Modern day Nigeria has been largely characterized by full scale cronyism which in one way or the other affects performances of individuals ,professional bodies and cooperate organization in their prospective fields and obviously influences end results which directly or indirectly affects the growth and development of the nation. Nepotism is not an African phenomenon as it is widely perceived,it is only rampant and popular in this part of the world because of several values and the mentalities we uphold as Africans. Family values,Ethnicity,Religion,Tribalism are all factors that instigate favoritism. We as Africans hold in high respect these norms and values sometimes too deeply it affects adversely our decision making process . Our society has been infiltrated rather obnoxiously with sentimental sympathy and biased thinking faculty which denies an equivocal decision making process.

                                                                     

The situation affects every aspect of our day to day activities. we live in a society where who you know comes before what you know .Before you get a job or an appointment you are qualified for,you need to know the right people or else u rely on a miracle to get you the job. Government parastatals are occupied by family members of Government officials,lots of qualified candidates are jobless while the less qualified ones get the jobs because they know the right people. The trend seem to be your connection over your work ethics because preferences are given to family members and associates before any random person can be considered,a CEO of an advert company would rather give his/her follower on twitter a job offer than a random qualified undergraduate..yes! Its that bad.

    Meanwhile,our society continue to suffer from this trend as its gradually becoming a part of our lives. We continue to put Tribe ,Religion,Ethnicity and Relationship before other important aspect which needs consideration,Nepotism can be traced to the smallest homes ,the smallest offices in your area,Government parastatals,cooperate bodies and other organizations.A Yoruba landlord will insist on a Yoruba tenant,a Christian managing director will insist on a Christian assistant,that operations manager wouldn't give you a job because his cousin who isn't as qualified as you are is interested,we continue to embrace cynicism and in the process undermine the development of our Nation. Preferential treatments are shown to friends and family while others are hardly noticed . These factors, on the long run have done a lot of harm to Nation building and development,it also aids unemployment and surely corruption.

Conclusion

Nepotism is becoming a breeding ground for corruption to thrive and if not tackled properly will make the fight against corruption a useless effort.Nepotism is an offshoot of corruption which is obviously one of the major challenges we face in Nigeria,this is  because they are interwoven and fighting one and leaving the other to flourish will be at the detriment of development and political stability. For we to flush out Nepotism in our society,Nepotistic views should be ignored while we embrace neutrality,moral decadency,sincerity,fear of God,unbiased judgment and equality must be embraced while we put a stop to incompetency,insincerity,promoting mediocrity,Favoritism and Tribalism.These changes may not totally wipe out nepotism but will surely go a long way in taming it as its now a rampant trend among-st us all.That change however,starts from the eyes reading this post.