“Jesus!” Blessing Odaudu recalls exclaiming as she hurried out of a colleague’s office at the Federal High Court in Kogi State, North-Central Nigeria.
She says two of her colleagues, a Muslim and a Christian, had just asked her to participate in a bribery scheme, but she refused, citing her Christian convictions.
“They wanted me to help them issue affidavits at exorbitant prices and keep the funds rather than sending them to the designated bank account. That was wrong,” she says.
That pressure did not begin at that moment. It had been building. At first, it came as subtle suggestions: comments about how things were done, quiet nudges to “cooperate.” Over time, those hints hardened into expectations.
In another instance, Odaudu says, she declined to influence the handling of a case after learning that money had allegedly changed hands between parties and court insiders. She raised concerns informally, but nothing changed. Instead, conversations stopped when she entered shared spaces. Files that once passed through her desk were rerouted. Colleagues who had been cordial became distant.
“I became blacklisted because as a practising Christian, I abhorred cutting corners,” she says. “I started feeling alone in that office and they called me ‘Mrs. Jesus.’”
Mrs. Odaudu’s experience illustrates a contradiction that is familiar across Nigeria: public expressions of faith often coexist with workplace practices that violate the moral teachings believers profess. In a highly religious country, many workers attend church on Sunday or mosque on Friday, then return on Monday to offices where informal payments shape outcomes. The contradiction is not hidden. It is managed, rationalised, and, in many cases, normalised.
The cost of saying ‘no’
According to the 2023 Corruption in Nigeria Patterns and Trends survey by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), at least 87 million bribes were paid across the country that year. Each bribe payer paid an average of 5.1 bribes.
Although the estimated number of bribes fell from 117 million in 2019 to 87 million in 2023, bribery remains widespread in interactions with public officials, with particularly high prevalence recorded in encounters with prosecutors, registry officers, judges, customs officers, and embassy workers.
Mrs. Odaudu, who has worked in the judiciary as a non-litigant for 32 years, says files rarely advance on merit in her office. There are quieter but widely understood forces at play.
“They will not tell you to take a bribe directly,” she recounts. “When they say, ‘help this file move’ or ‘consider the person involved,’ you already know what they mean.”
The pressure Odaudu describes exists within a broader system in which citizens, too, can face consequences for resisting corruption. According to the 2023 Nigeria Corruption Survey, 38% of respondents who refused a public official’s request for a bribe reported suffering negative consequences.
For public sector employees resisting corruption from the other side of the transaction, Odaudu and Philip say the consequences can include isolation, unfavourable postings, and professional marginalisation.
“On one occasion, a superior officer asked me to do something I considered wrong, and I refused. My reward was an immediate transfer to a remote village here in Edo State, far from my family. There was no transfer allowance. No accommodation was provided. My salary remained the same, but the cost of living in this new posting is far higher. Basic needs have become difficult to meet,” says Sani Philip, a police sergeant serving under the Edo State Police Command. He said his refusal was based on his Christian belief.
“If a colleague takes money from a driver and you object, you become the problem. A suspect commits an offence. The officer is preparing to take the matter to court. Knowing that a conviction likely means prison, the suspect offers money to make the case disappear. The officer collects the bribe and lets the suspect go. That is how it often works. Unfortunately, the system rarely punishes the act of taking a bribe. Instead, it punishes the officer who refuses to participate.”
Philip says such victimisation is rarely formally reported but is widely known among police officers. For him, the message is clear: cooperate or be sidelined.
Corruption can also shape advancement within public institutions. The 2023 Nigeria Corruption Survey found that among public sector employees who had been promoted in the previous three years, 5% reported using bribery alone to facilitate their promotion, another 5% reported using nepotism alone, and 11% reported using both.
Economic hardship and poor remuneration can also create incentives for corruption among public sector workers.
Nigeria’s national minimum wage is N70,000 per month. According to a 2021 Central Bank of Nigeria study titled “Determinants of Public Sector Wages in Nigeria,” public sector wages in the country have often been inadequate for a decent standard of living. The study says poor wages significantly contribute to corruption.
“When policemen retire, they leave with nothing. No savings. No pension that can sustain a family. No house to call their own. Without finding ways to make extra money during service, retirement becomes a period of struggle as there are no means to educate children or support when illness strikes,” says Philip.
He also describes what he sees as weak accountability, which he says makes corrupt practices easier to sustain.
For Odaudu, resisting corruption ultimately comes down to religious conviction, even when participation could bring material rewards.
“I cannot trade justice for money. I think about the people who depend on fair judgment. That matters more to me,” she says.
Oduadu was later transferred to a lower court within the same jurisdiction, a move she believes was connected to her refusal to cooperate.
“I finally had some peace, but it felt like I had been pushed aside.”
Faith and integrity
While faith leaders consistently preach against bribery and dishonesty, some acknowledge that closing the gap between religious teachings and workplace behaviour requires more than moral instruction alone.
“Faith should produce integrity, but integrity without support can break a person,” says Pastor Segun Atolagbe, the founder of Fountain Life Gathering Church in Abuja.
Having counselled members who faced consequences for refusing to participate in corrupt practices, Pastor Atolagbe says he understands why people can be religious and still compromise at work.
“People come to me when they are already facing problems at work,” he says. “Some have been sidelined. Some have lost their jobs. These are people with families, with responsibilities. The decision to stand firm is not abstract for them. We preach against bribery. We tell people it is wrong. But we do not always tell them what to expect when they refuse, and that is where the difficulty begins.”
While faith may inspire integrity, integrity is difficult to sustain when workplaces reward corruption and believers are unprepared for the professional cost of resisting.
These days, Mrs. Odaudu prays a simple prayer before leaving home for work: “God, keep temptation away from me.”
And when she has to make a choice, she asks herself one question: “What would Jesus do here?”
Editor’s note: Blessing Odaudu and Sani Philip are pseudonyms. Their real names have been withheld to protect their identities because they discussed alleged misconduct in their workplaces.