- Some civil society leaders and activists on Wednesday blamed years of grand corruption for the rising insecurity in the country.
Some civil society leaders and activists on Wednesday blamed years of grand corruption for the rising insecurity in the country.
They said failure to bring the perpetrators of grand corruption to justice has not helped.
They expressed this view in Abuja at a meeting convened by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project in collaboration with UKaid.
A statement quoted, the President, Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Prof Yemi Akinseye-George (SAN), as submitting that “corruption is the greatest obstacle to security, development and equality in the Nigerian society.”
Akinseye-George, in a paper titled, “Practical strategies to mobilise citizens to participate in the fight against corruption,” said Nigeria’s existence was being threatened by grand corruption.
He observed that corruption had succeeded in weakening public institutions, rendering the rule of law obsolete, undermining good governance and impoverishing the citizenry through a diminishing economy.
He said, “The most visible impact of corruption in the Nigerian society today can be viewed through the lens of the myriad of security challenges the country has to face, which extends from the activities of bandits on almost all major road networks to insurgency in the North.
“Despite millions allocated to the defence sector, the average Nigerian can hardly travel inter-state without fear for one’s safety.
“One wonders what the various governors do with the security votes allocated to them every month. The fact that security votes are generally not accounted for should be no excuse to divert such funds for purposes unrelated to security.”
The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, who was represented by Hassan Mohammed, said “the official oath of secrecy could no longer be used as a pretext by public officials not to disclose information on corruption matters within their ministries, departments and agencies.”
The representative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Saminu Amadin, said, “The fight against corruption cannot be left to the government alone as the citizens have a critical role to play in preventing and combating corruption in Nigeria.”
In his remarks, SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oludare, said federal and state governments should focus their attention on the human rights dimension of insecurity in the country.
“While corruption brings out the worst in people, fighting corruption can bring out the best. Citizens don’t fight corruption in abstract. They do so to overcome poor and unaccountable governance, poverty, displacement, organized crime and other forms of oppression and injustice,” Oludare added.
