Corruption in Church Its Consequences and Way Forward
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study are; to:-
- Evaluate the nature of moral corruption in the contemporary Kaduna State.
- Examine the concept of morality and its significance to the life of a contemporary Christians .
- Appraise the causes of corruption of the Christian in Kaduna state.
- Analyze the effects of moral Corruption in the lives of the contemporary Christian in Kaduna state.
- Proffer possible solutions to the problems and challenges of moral corruption.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
This chapter is bringing forward a comprehensive account of researches and works that are in relationship with this very one. It is explaining; in detail, how the topic has been viewed in a related research.
An Insight on Morality
A moral sense is inborn in man and through the ages, it has served as the common man‟s standard of moral behavior, approving certain qualities and condemning others. While this instinctive (natural) faculty may vary from person to person and community to community, human conscience has consistently declared certain moral qualities to be good and others to be bad.
Justice, courage and truthfulness have always found praise, and history does not record any period worth the name in which falsehood, injustice, dishonesty and breach of trust have been praised without condemning it. Sympathy, compassion, loyalty and generosity have always been valued, while selfishness, cruelty, meanness and bigotry have never been approved by any society. Man has always appreciated perseverance, determination and courage, but never impatience, fickleness, cowardice and stupidity. Dignity, restraint, politeness and friendliness have throughout the ages been counted virtues, whereas snobbery and rudeness have always been looked down upon. People with a sense of responsibility and devotion to duty have always won the highest regard, those who are incompetent, lazy and lacking in a sense of duty have never been looked upon with approval.(Ondigo, 2010)
In view of the pervasive extent of corruption and indiscipline in almost all facets of life in Nigeria and in honest recognition of their adverse economic, political, socio-cultural and moral costs to the nation, “it is agreed by almost all Nigerians (including even the most incessant perpetrators of corruption) that „something‟ fundamental needs to be done, and urgently too, about the problem. In other words, the enormity of the problem and its dire consequences for the Nigeria‟s survival as a viable economic, political, social and moral entity calls for serious and effective action, counter-action” (Odekunle 1991:13)
Moreover, Odekunle added that; to be considered serious and credible and to have any chance of success (i.e. effectiveness) any suggested counter-action/remedy must be scientifically anchored on the facts or characteristics of the problem rather than on interest-motivated beliefs. That is just as the medical doctor‟s prescription on any ailment must be based on a valid diagnosis of the ailment and its contexts to be effective, so must any suggested response to the problem of moral corruption in Nigeria derive from a correct understanding of the attributes of the problem and its economic and social context.
Concept of Morality
Morality is a term that is defined in accordance with the source of the definition. According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, morality is defined as “beliefs or ideas about what is right and wrong and about how people should behave”.
It generally means what is right or wrong according to a particular group of people who agree to abide by it. They come in a form of laws and regulations to guide the affairs of that particular people. What is considered morally right for certain group of individuals therefore, might be regarded as a sin to their counterpart.
More so, on the general view, especially of the Western world, moral philosophy does not pertain to God because the social affairs of the people is governed by the laws enacted by themselves, not God. It is like the popular saying –give unto the Caesar what is for Caesar and unto god what is for god. This resulted in people producing laws that are destructive rather than effective. An example of such laws is for instance; in Germany, “after the Second World War, there was a decrease in the population of men (because they were killed in the war) and a large number of women were left behind spouseless. So, their government decided to make prostitution legal so that the women can get sexual satisfaction from the few men left without being necessary married.” This led to the spread of evils as well as diseases. It is the perfect example of the destructive nature of man-made laws.
Concept of Corruption
The word corruption is an immense word in the sense that it touches almost all aspect of human life. It is so because it is embedded in all the fields of life such as religion, politics, economy, social, et cetera. It arises in both political and bureaucratic offices and can be petty or grand, organized or unorganized.
This term has been popularly used in and applied to various circumstances that almost every person believed that they know its meaning but this may not be true. This however, does not mean people do not have an idea of what it is.
According to the Chris Fox et al, (2005:352) the term corruption is defined as “dishonest, illegal or immoral behavior, especially from someone with power”
Corruption has been described by Ambali (2003:201) as “a departure from what is pure or correct from the original. It also connotes an impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle, especially, the impairment of a public official‟s duties by bribery”.
From the above, corruption can be seen as wrongdoing especially on the part of an authority or powerful party through means that are illegitimate, immoral, or incompatible with ethical standards. It is often results from patronage and is associated with bribery.
In legal parlance, the term „corruption‟ is not subject to a single universally accepted definition. However a working definition could be fashioned. Black‟s Law Dictionary defines it as “an act done with the intent to give some advantage inconsistent with official duty and the right of others. It is the act of an official or fiduciary person who unlawfully and wrongfully uses his station or character to procure some benefit for himself or for another person, contrary to duty and the rights of others.”
According to Lipset and Lenz (2000:112) corruption could be deemed to be effort to secure wealth or power through illegal means – private gain at public expense, or a misuse of public power for private benefit.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This refers to the structure of the study. It is the plan and the strategy of investigation which guide the collection and analysis of data in any research. It therefore explains the methodology that will be used to obtain data in the study. It is the overall scheme of program of the research.
This chapter focuses on the research design, the population of the study, sample and the sampling techniques, the instrument for data collection, result of pilot study, the statistical tools employed for data analysis and the summary.
Research Design
Kerlinger as cited in Bello and Ajayi (2000:16) describes research design as “plan, structure and strategy” of investigation conceive so as to obtain answers to research question and control variance. The plan is the overall scheme of the research objectives which will be reached and how the problems encountered will be tackled.
Gall (1987), as cited in Bello and Ajayi (2000:16) believes that search design is the type of situation that the researcher is investigating such as correlational, experimental, historical, survey, etc. Answers have to be provided to research question and the variance has to be controlled. The type of research design to be used in a particular design will depend on the nature of the researchable problem or question.
Tukur (199:191) mentioned that it includes the outline of what the researcher intends to do from the beginning to the end of the research, so as to archive the stated objective of the research. In other words, a research design can be likened to a building-plan which guides the builder at every stage of the construction such that the type of building constructed id exactly the same as that drawn by the architect.
Sambo (2005:108) describe a survey research as a type of research in which information is obtained from a sample of respondents for the purpose of testing hypothesis concerning the state of a given problem.
The Population
The population is the main concern of every survey research. Population statistically refers to the entire members of the universe being studied (Ekeh 2003:79). It may be human populations, or population of animals, places, things, events, or circumferences. Population refers to virtually all the subjects of the research. Sambo (2005:88) defines population as the set of all elements, objects or events that are of interest for a particular study.
Population is of two types; the Parent and the Target population.
- The Parent population– This is the population from which a sample of population to be studied is drawn.
- The Target population– Is the one that possesses the characteristics in which the researcher is interested in. Target population is usually selected from the parent population.
In this study therefore, our parent is the three Senatorial zones in Kaduna State. While the target populations are one-third of the total local governments from each senatorial zone. These local governments are carefully selected because they represent the characteristics and the element that the research is interested in. These characteristics are in form of the religion, economic status and educational background of the entire population. The local governments selected are a total of eight.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Introduction
This study is to investigate the effects of corruption the lives in the church . A total of 800 respondents from the three senatorial zones of Kaduna state were used as respondents. Out of the 800 questionnaires distributed to them, 730 were fit for analysis. This is because the remaining 70 were unreturned, ruined or incompletely-filled.
The Statistical package of the SPSS IBM 20 was used to analyze the data. The first section presents the bio data variables distribution of the respondents. This consists of; gender, geographical location, age, education and occupation of respondents. The second section answers the research questions using item frequencies, mean and standard deviations while the third section test the three null research hypotheses using the Analysis of variance (ANOVA). All hypotheses are tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The summary of findings concluded the chapter.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion
Modern societies are faced with existential socioeconomic and political pressure, which push off the precinct of their normal fabric and effectiveness of their value system. Christian moral philosophy seeks to spiritually perfect the social fabric of every organized church society. Thus, any corruption or deviation in the christian‟ commitment to religious moral guidance would realistically amount to a dangerous precursor of God’s anger, The study aimed to find out and analyze the effects of corruption in the church and way forward. A total of 800 respondents within the state were used as respondents.
The high points of the analysis include:
- The main causes of corruption are lack of respect and obedience to the elders by the youth contributes to further deterioration in moral attitude and misappropriation of public funds on the part of the government contributes to the moral decadence in society.
- The main effects of corruption are that moral corruption weakened and destroyed the faith of a Muslim and immoral behaviors affect christian religious devotional exercise.
- The best possible solutions to the problem include people should be vigilant and vanguard of moral values and government should ensure the good welfare of the citizens.
Recommendation
The following recommendations are suggested as a result of the analysis of the study;
- The parents and church leaders should do more in propagating the tenets of faith as this will greatly reduce incidences of moral corruption in the society.
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