In this interview with Woman Editor, Joyce Remi- Babayeju, Chief Mrs Felicia Sanni , the Nnekanne 1, of Delta State and the President of Association of Market Women and Men in Nigeria gave an insight into why corruption has enveloped Nigeria in the mist of other sundry issues bedeviling the nation.
Nigeria is rated as one of the countries with the highest rate of corruption as a result evidences and incessant accusations of corruption levied against public officers, politicians , law enforcement agencies and down to the pedestal man on the street.
More recently Nigeria has being agog with reports and news of huge corruption practices in the Niger Delta Development Corporation, NDDC, involving huge amount of naira meant for developmental projects in the region. These corrupt practices also involves blotting of budgets in civil service and parastatals by public officers who are expected protect the interest of the nation, falsification of receipts, payment of ghost workers running into billions of naira. Payment of unexecuted government contracts, down to the policeman collecting ‘roger’ from motorists on highways down to the kidnappings of even self to make illicit money. There are also reports of public officers conniving with foreign companies to defraud the nation and the list is endless.
According to Transparency International, TI, corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development and exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and the environmental crisis.
In a Transparency International Report in 2012, Nigeria lost over $400 billion alone to corruption and in 2018 the nation was ranked 144 out of 180 countries listed in their survey of corrupt countries.
Also according to a report published Nigeria ranked the second most corrupt ECOWAS country according to Transparency Perception Index Nigeria now ranks 146 out of 180 countries considered.
In the light of this ugly trend, President of the Association of Market Women and Men of Nigeria, now known as Commodity Market Men and Women Association, Chief Mrs Felicia Sanni, the Nnekanni 1 of Delta State in an exclusive interview with Daybreak in Abuja said that the Nigerian nation degenerated into a corrupt when people lost the value of honesty and disunity.
Comparing Nigeria in the 1930s to Nigeria in contemporary times, Mama Market as she is fondly known said that in those days honesty was the bedrock of the society. It was a natural way of live and it was upheld as a value in communities across the nation.
“In those days, when anyone enters into a community, the indigenes cared and were eager to know who that person was. You don’t just enter into a community without people asking you questions on whom you are and where you are coming from. This was a standard tradition then. But these days the narrative has changed, because nobody cares to know you or even your source of livelihood especially if you bring money.
Then it was a taboo to crisscross to another community without first identifying yourself. Now people move without any inhibitions from one community to another so this makes it difficult to know one another. In my days when a new person enters our community, we get to know them and welcome them but you cannot compare 1939 to 2020. In those days people usually know themselves in their communities.
“Thesedays people carry money about and nobody cares to know the source of how they come about such money or even their means on livelihood and people were contented with what they have.”
Then subsisitent farming was a popular culture in communities, where families plant most of their food crops behind their backyards. “We rearly bought food items from the market because my family plant pepper, tomatoes, ugwu and other food items behind our backyard so we ate fresh foods but now families eat indomie, salad and all sorts, these are alien to us, we need to go back, she said.
In those days there usually was communal discipline for an erring child who does something wrong. Women in the community will gather to punish that child but this has fast been eroded. You see some parents even shielding their children when they do something wrong.
The problem now Chief Sanni further bemoaned is that corruption has crept into Nigeria and has became a culture when people at communities level started losing this principal of “ know your neighbor” and the aspect of honesty.
She said, “It pays to be honest. It is very good to be honest, but people don’t know that honesty pays, because people are watching.”
Mama Market recalled an encounter she had with the Late Michael Ibru in 1972 as a Cashier working then in a Bank on Ring Road in Benin. Ibru, she reminiscent had over paid with her by 3,000 pounds, ´I counted and recounted the money and confirmed that it was too much so I returned the exces money to his mother. As a reward to that act of honesty Michael Ibru appreciated me as long as he lived,
Another sore aspect is that of ethnicity over project Nigeria because people are now concerned with helping those of the same ethnic group. She said that ethnicity has turned Nigerians against themselves, adding that when she was growing up people saw Nigeria as a unifying entity. All that mattered then was “Are you a Nigerian but this was soon over taken when a Nigerian sees a fellow Nigerian and begins to ask “Are you Hausa, Ibo or Yoruba. “This led to the culture of nepotism and favourism, and the monster called corruption that is tearing Nigerians apart and eroding the fabrics of our national unity and societal development.”
One the prevailing social malaise like rape and domestic violence, she blamed the generality of the country for the daily cases of rape and domestic violence. Rape and domestic violence has become endemic which seems difficult to tame.
She said, “It is not the fault of women but rather that of our society. The excuse for rape is that women are not dressing properly, what happens to a baby that wears pampers? It is the fault of the society because when a man of over 50 years decides to rape a two months old baby, people will keep quiet and the rapist would get a lawyer will stand for him. Such a lawyer who is not ashamed will stand in for the rapist.
In my days, the punishment then was killing. An instance happened back then in Port Harcourt, the rapist was killed. A man stole a bag of cement and he was also killed. She however noted that although the society is changing people should not throw away their societal and moral values on the altar of corruption and civilization.
According to her spousal battering and killing was very strange but it has become an everyday occurrence as a result of losing the values of good living. I ask that man who beats his wife, are you a boxer?
She called for more women in politics urging them not to play money politics and give their votes to men all the time and also enjoined women to love themselves as this would bring ensure a stronger force for women in development.
Emphazing honesty as a core societal value Mama Market advised that there is a strong need for Nigerians to make a u-turn to salvage the country from the stronghold of corruption and social maleasie.
“”””””””“My message to women is that they should love themselves, I know it’s difficult but we must try. I want to see more women in politics.
The Octogenitarian said, “ I urge Nigerians to turn back to our values which is honesty. There is an adage that if you are swimming and you get to the bottom of the river and you realise that you will drown, all you need to do is to turn and swim back. So I advise that the nation has to turn back to our values. Be contented with what you have.”
“Nigeria is a beautiful country, before now Ghanaians used to come down here to learn from us but the reverse is the case now. Nigerians troop to Ghana, Cotounu to learn. In 1949, I saw people in Aba, people came from Togo to buy pants to their country, but now we go to Togo to buy things.”
Speaking on how she stated Market association across the country Mama Market said that she was moved by a fatal road accident involving many market women she saw while travelling from Port Hacourt to Benin for holiday as a young girl. The dead bodies of the women were not identified so they were given a mass burial by the road side.
She said, “I was going to Aba with my elder sister on holiday and there was a road accident in which many people mostly market women died. As a very young girl I came down from the vehicle and moved towards the dead bodies. I became curious to know about the women whose bodies were littered on the road, but of course my elder sister hushed me to keep quite.
“I told her that when I grow up I will ensure that all the traders have identity, I will give them tags to identify the markets they belong and my elder sister told me until then but that I was still a child.
They said they were going to market and on the way a trailer crushed them and they died but sadly they dug grave and buried them all in one place.
I promised to give traders tags so that whenever they need to travel they’ll wear those tags for identification in case anything happens they would be identified properly. This is how I developed interest in market issues. So when I retired in Jos I registered an all market association for women and men in Nigeria.
When I finally moved to Abuja, I mobilized market women to join the association, some did while others said they were not interested because they did not understand the aim of the association.
Mama Market was alo strongly encouraged by the Late Mama Tinubu, Alhaja Habibatu Mogaji of Lagos who came to Abuja personally to see things by herself.
”Mama Tinubu came and stayed with me for five days. She was happy with what I was doing and said we should annex the association. She was in Lagos while I am here in Abuja.”
Chief Mrs Felicia was born is the last born of Chief and Mrs Atuma of Delta State, she read Banking and Finance from the University of Benin and later founded the Market Men and Women Association.
Apart from holding forte for market men and women she is also a horticulturist of great repute. According to her, she learnt the art of horticulture from her principal and today she does it as service to God and humanity.
