Corruption in a Closed System and Combating Strategies

Abstract

Corruption has infiltrated various sectors in Nigeria,
particularly government institutions, thereby hindering its full
potential and global standing. This paper examined the state of
corruption in Nigeria and proposed solutions by conceptualising
the second law of thermodynamics and using secondary data
sources. According to the second law of thermodynamics, entropy
increases over time in a closed system. This reduces the energy
available to do useful work. Entropy stands for corruption in this
work, leading to the modification of the law as “Alice’s law of
corruption”. Corruption causes extreme deprivation, restricting
access to modern information technology, internet connectivity,
global digital economies, e-commerce, and quality education.
Poverty, opacity, weak accountability mechanisms, the
normalisation of corruption, and the ineffective adoption of
proven strategies from other countries frequently render
Nigeria's governance environment a closed system. In
thermodynamics, for a closed system to become open, the
boundary preventing the exchange of matter must be removed so
that the system can expel disordered particles, or waste, into the
environment, effectively ‘exporting’ its entropy and absorbing
useful particles from an outside source which can be used to
build structure and repair disorder. This implies that corruption
in Nigeria can be eradicated by addressing root causes and
repairing damaged infrastructure, public trust, and the
economy. We recommended political, psychological,
philosophical, educational, social work and legal strategies to
combat corruption in Nigeria.