No Longer At Ease Principles Quotes Page 2
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
| Quote #4 "What department he de work?" |
Bribery and corruption are so integral to the operations of Nigerian government that Joseph's co-workers find it incredible that a young man like Obi doesn't take bribes.
| Quote #5 "Let joking pass," said the old man who had earlier on greeted Umuofia in a warlike salute. "Joshua is now without a job. We have given him ten pounds. But ten pounds does not talk. If you stand a hundred pounds here where I stand now, it will not talk. That is why we say that he who has people is richer than he who has money. Everyone of us here should look out for openings in his department and put in a word for Joshua. This was greeted with approval. (8.24) |
Though Joshua needs money for a bribe in order to get a job, he also needs connections. The old man speaking here demonstrates one of the principles operating throughout Africa: kinship ties. Kinship ties dictate your obligations to people from your clan or village. In this case, kinship ties will allow Joshua to find a job. Though in the west, we might not regard kinship ties in a positive light, it is one of the operating principles in modern Nigerian politics and business.
| Quote #6 "Let joking pass," said the old man who had earlier on greeted Umuofia in a warlike salute. "Joshua is now without a job. We have given him ten pounds. But ten pounds does not talk. If you stand a hundred pounds here where I stand now, it will not talk. That is why we say that he who has people is richer than he who has money. Everyone of us here should look out for openings in his department and put in a word for Joshua. This was greeted with approval. |
Obi wonders if the Igbo operating principle of helping kin will interfere with his own principles against nepotism and taking bribes, values that he absorbed through his Western education.
