Corruption in contemporary Nigerian fiction: A study of Ikechukwu Asika’s Pimples on Wrinkles

Abstract

Political leadership is all about moving towards more stable,
accountable and open political system. In Africa, politics is
business where a certain political position makes one
advantageous over others. Political leaders are in charge, they
have absolute control over the distribution of power and
resources in their communities. Against this background, they
favour sycophants and loyal supporters and they are selectively
favoured beyond measures. This supports corruption and bad
governance. They are more concerned in accumulation of their
countries’ wealth instead of developing the nation’s economy and
other infrastructure considering the large and enormous human,
material and natural resources God endowed them with.
Corruption therefore becomes normal and even looks like
ordinary norm to Nigerian leaders as most of them are neck deep
into it. They succeed in exploiting the masses and wasting the
resources that are supposed to be used in alleviating poverty just
by ordinary provision of employment, good health system, good
schools and agricultural facilities. The study looks at how the
novelist reflect corruption, bad governance, oppression and
negligence of duty to our political leaders and is of the view that
African leaders are worshipped as ‘gods’ by their followers and
bootlickers who always rally around them for 'crumbs' from their
tables. Using content analysis approach of qualitative research
method, this paper examines the 'patrimonial' system of government and citizens’ ability to accommodate it. Marxist
theory is adopted for the analysis of the text, Pimples on Wrinkles
by Asika Ikechukwu. It is the theory that spurs and encourages
the masses to rise up and fight for their rights and freedom. This
paper observes that the major cause of corruption is emptiness of
the leaders. Some leaders come to power aimlessly, with no
agenda and empty manifesto. Their actual intention is to
intimidate the citizens by enriching themselves. This paper
concludes that for sustainable leadership and sanity to come back
to Africa, Nigeria in particular, the masses must rise up and
transform their society by fighting back their leaders secretly and
openly.