Working for a lead institution in the fight against corruption in an African country is extremely taxing emotionally more so, if you believe in the cause and are personally committed to it. I have served as a Corruption Prevention Officer in Kabwe, Central part of Zambia for the last 7 years and in my line of duty I came to realize that the fight against corruption much as it calls for concerted efforts is much more personalized. In the sense that the will to or not to engage in a corrupt act borders mainly on one’s personal integrity derived from the values and morals they uphold as an individual. Basically, I realized in my early years of employment that winning the fight against corruption calls for a mental revolution that each and every individual has to be completely sold out to. Months after this realization I had a strong drive towards promoting personal integrity using every fora made available to me. This was particularly an exciting and really fulfilling moment of my life knowing that I was giving my best in the fight against corruption.
However, with time I came to realize that institutions, people and the government itself were not as committed to the fight against corruption as I was made to believe. This vicious cycle of make belief sent me downhill as I lost the zeal to do my work and began to believe that winning the fight against corruption was far fetched if not impossible. For about a year I gave a mere minimum towards my work with zero commitment towards bringing about a change. In my mind I was convinced I could not change the world not even the person next to me so why would I even bother.
Ironically, on a particular day I was doing my usual routine talks at a revenue collection institution. I gave a talk on Integrity and sat down to take questions from the audience. The enthusiasm I saw in the kind of questions they were asking made me realize my work and commitment in the earlier years was not all in vain after all. I could feel the impact that my work had on the employees It could literally be cut with a knife. In that moment I realized I had been completely wrong in believing that I could not win the fight against corruption. On that day I also realised that nobody was asking me to change the whole world but, if only I could impact a single life, just one life positively my life on this earth would have been worth the while. Since that day I have been so committed to preaching Integrity and encouraging people to do the right thing every chance I get. For me the fight against corruption and being a corruption prevention officer is not just about earning an income and being able to put food on the table for my familly, it’s a personal call that I choose to answer everyday.