Corruption
Abuja, May 5, 2018 (NAN) Prof. Femi Odekunle, Member of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) has called for stiffer punishment for corrupt government officials.
Odekunle said this at the `Say No Campaign’ on the state of the nation’s policy dialogue held on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said that corruption was Nigeria`s most deadly disease, adding that if it was fought it would solve 75 per cent of the country`s problem.
The professor noted that there were consequences of under development in Nigeria arising from corruption, pointing out that corruption was worse than the cases of terrorism being faced by the nation.
Odekunle said that corruption and under development in the country led to the birth of the recruitment of Boko Haram which had resulted to deaths of many Nigerians.
He also noted that corruption was the major cause of death through road accidents in the country, as money earmarked for road construction was diverted.
“Most accidents are due to bad roads that have remained in the same state as a result of corruption, importation of codeine and other harmful drugs are also from corruption,“ he said.
He charged Nigerians not to focus on financial corruption alone, but to also fight corruption from all angles.
“We have more corruption in other areas, political corruption by politicians, Electoral corruption, and Administrative and Bureaucratic corrupt practices by public and government officials.
“Professional corruption by doctors issuing medical certificates without carrying out any medical assessment or test, accountants issuing receipts and many other professionals.
“Artisans are also involved in corrupt practices, from mechanics to traders and business owners down to the market woman in the market,’’ Odekunle said.
Odekunle charged civil societies and groups not to relent in the fight against corruption.
The Convener of the Say No Campaign, Ezenwa Nwagwu, called for the reform of the Nigeria Police Force into a modern police force.
“We have a police force in 2018 that is still battling to introduce human right education into its conversation. This shows that we do not have a modern police.’’
Nwagwu said that conversations needed to be put into advocacy, and that the media needed to become more interested on issues that matters.
He called the National Assembly and other appropriate bodies to engage in discussions on how to reform the nation’s police force for better security.
“We need leaders who understand what they are doing, because if we have failure of leadership, there will be fights and strikes constantly,’’ he said.
Nwagwu said that the policy dialogue was not to get people depressed on current issues or to criticise the government, but that it was to source solutions to the problems.
He said that the dialogue would be held monthly to discuss four thematic Health, Anti-corruption, Security and Election.
NAN reports that the Say No Campaign is a platform of Nigerians committed to fighting corruption, impunity, poverty, violence and other governance challenges. (NAN)
DOM/JPE/MNA
Edited by Joseph Edeh/Maureen Atuonwu
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