Political Corruption as Catalyst for Social Crises in Nigeria: A Re-reading of Emeka Nwabueze’s A Parliament of Vultures

Abstract

The contemporary Nigerian society is unfortunately enmeshed in an unprecedented socio-political and economic conundrum, particularly traceable to the political elites who brazenly engage in corrupt practices with impunity. The bane of Nigeria’s development, peace and social stability is the recurring emergence of terribly clueless and uninformed political leaders who collectively feast on the nation’s common wealth; who consciously enthrone and celebrate mediocrity at the expense of competence; who institutionalize unfair reward system for their own selfish interests, and manipulate the electoral process to perpetuate the statusquo. It is this systemic corruption that Emeka Nwabueze artistically brings to the forecourt of his audience in A Parliament of Vultures, with a view to enlightening the masses and provoking political consciousness in them to effect the desired change. A cursory look at the thematic preoccupation of this protest literature brings to the fore a myriad of debilitating issues to address: institutionalized robbery, colossal inefficiency, electoral malpractice, brazen ineptitude, money-politics and monumental corruption. Consequent upon the foregoing, this paper critically examines political corruption in Nigerian as portrayed in the text. Through content and thematic analysis, the present study examines how incidents in the society of the text quite glaringly depict the Nigerian situation, and how these catalyze social crises in the country. The paper concludes that political corruption being perpetrated by the political class is enormously responsible for the avalanche of social and security crises that bedevil the Nigerian society at present, and advocates for a paradigm shift in the manner political power is exercised and governance approached by the political elites if Nigeria must recover from her current sorry state.