Intelligent Stealing

I have been wondering about Intelligence. Even though I disagree with the concept of "Intelligences", The Nigerian situation gives me the parameters to believe there must be another intelligence behind unhindered stealing from the public till. I will like to call it the intelligence of stealing. Yes, Intelligent stealing as perfected by Nigerian leaders lends itself to serious investigation and study by psychologists and evolutionary biologists.

George J. Stigler and Gary S. Becker in “De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum - There’s no accounting for tastes.” argued that economics should not be concerned with explaining preferences and values, but instead with how constraints affect choice. Money is fungible but what influences its accumulation? The models by these nobel price winners in economics explains how constraints affect choices but what are the factors influencing that choice? What influences what people want? Does values and upbringing play a role? What life preferences must be present to induce intelligent stealing? Is intelligent stealing infectious? What are the environmental factors involved in intelligent stealing and why the prevalence in Nigeria? The answer goes beyond corruption because the trait tend to lie dormant in its carriers in foreign environments. What thoughts have you had lately about Nigeria's "peculiar mess"?


Note: I wrote this as my status update in January 2013. That was long before the disappearing monies like the $20billion oil proceeds and the Jonathan dollar rain. The unconfirmed arson at the federal secretariat led me to exhume this note. Why are we like this?