JOURNALS

ABSTRACT

The Nigerian socio-political and religious clime and indeed the global community is faced with cases of bribery and corruption which has contributed less to socio-economic, infrastructural and human capital development. Bribery and corruption as a cankerworm has now become a common language in almost every sphere in the Nigerian polity in that without bribery services are denied, justices, rights and privileges perverted and ignominy overtly celebrated. Due to the enormous effect of bribery and corruption to humanity and the society at large, nations of the world have put up measures to stern the activities of bribery and corruption. However, the more measures are put in place to put an end to bribery and corruption, the more bribery and corruption heightens. Against this backdrop, this paper examines the religious response to bribery and corruption in the Nigeria society from the Christian and African religious perspective. The paper examines what constitute bribery and corruption and the implication of indulging in bribery and corruption in the Nigerian society. Moreover, the paper considers the biblical position on the issue of bribery and corruption and how the African indigenous religion perceives bribery and corruption. Employing the phenomenological and descriptive methods, the paper shows how bribery and corruption can be stern for socio-economic, spiritual and human capital development of the Nigerian society. The paper recommends four measures that could be employed to stern bribery and corruption which includes advocacy, teaching and maintaining the right ethical principles in the religion of the devotees, oath taking, counselling and rehabilitation.