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.