By Henry Uche, Lagos
In its usual way and manner of alerting Nigerians on corruption cases that have been going on in the country, and in line with its mandate to enthrone transparent and accountable governance, the Human Environmental & Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has again poked Nigerians to wake from slumber or they face the risk of getting drown in the ocean of corrupt acts perpetuated by some elected and appointed public officials.
Worried by this cankerworm (corruption) which had devastated the socio-economic wellbeing of (presumably innocent Nigerians) over a very long time, HEDA Executive Secretary, Mr Arigbabu Sulaimon, made this charge recently in Lagos at the public presentation of a Compendium of 100 High Profile Corruption Cases in Nigeria.
Addressing newsmen, HEDA’s Executive Secretary maintained that every Nigerian citizen must show concern/ interest in the affairs of the country, especially those events and incidents involving political leaders and decisions and actions they take since the actions and inactions of political and economic leaders affect the general wellbeing of the common man. He said it’s expedient for everyone to be alert and responsible for germane issues that affect all and sundry.
Some of those issues he meant were, to be alive to governance issues across the three arms of government by getting involved, asking questions where and when necessary, and taking prompt actions to redress issues affecting their welfare.
According to him, days are gone when people would say, “whatever they like let them do. It doesn’t concern me. Nowadays, he said, “it concerns every one of us. It is important for everyone to be informed of what is happening in the country, beyond rhetoric. To know how the government is managing public resources is a right of citizens, remember the decisions they make affect all of us.
“There are enormous corruption cases in Nigeria, so much that we chose 100 to publish. This is the sixth edition and we intend to see that copies get to relevant hands including MDAs, the media, civil society organizations, NGOs, students and others for appropriate use.
“These corruption cases should provoke actions. When people realise that a greater degree of pain and anguish they are passing through was unnecessarily caused by the actions or inactions of their political leaders, they would sit up and do something in their respective areas of operations- no matter how meagre their actions may be. Yes, this fight is a collective one.
“And as an unapologetic and unrepentant permanent enemy of injustice, maladministration, mismanagement of public resources, bad governance, abuse of power and other corrupt practices, we are relentless in our pursuit to expose corruption in this country no matter who is involved,”
Sulaimon decried the level of impunity going on in the political system which is fast eating deeper into the fabric of Nigeria’s treasure. He challenged the Ninth (9th) National Assembly to ensure they round off the process of constitutional reforms before leaving the stage.
“This National Assembly must not leave the stage without completing constitutional reforms they started. We may possibly sue this Assembly even previous Assemblies who started the process and spent billions of Naira in the name of constitutional reforms and abandoned it. We are in dire need of constitutional reform because a lot of corrupt acts happen because there are lacunae in the constitution.
“These corrupt men and women took advantage of the lacuna in the system to commit more heinous crimes. ‘It is said that, when a problem is not solved, we don’t go to sleep’. If we all are weak or uninterested in this course, they rebrand themselves and come back in a different guise to continue more nefarious acts and they will keep raping the system.”
On why of the compendium, he said, “Corruption has continued to thrive because Nigerians are quick to forget. And because corrupt persons know Nigerians are quick to forget, they continue in their corrupt acts with impunity, so we decided that such would not continue. We want to help Nigerians to understand why some of these cases have lingered.
“Many [in the] political class who have corruption cases hanging on their necks have found themselves in higher positions, some have even become governors. These people approbate and reprobate. This compendium is just a step, we’re are pushing for legislative reforms and public interest litigations.
“Many government agencies like the code of conduct Bureau complain that they are hindered by one section of the constitution or the other while fighting corruption. Howbeit, there are still some provisions sufficient enough that can help to substantially reduce corruption to a minimum.
“Unfortunately, some public officials who are supposed to use authority to fight corruption, instead, use this power to aid corruption rather than abating it,” he bemoaned.
Meanwhile, participants at the presentation of the compendium affirmed that administration after administration was too weak to fight corruption because most of those who are supposed to fight the menace were/are either corrupt or had some questionable character.
According to them, the fight against corruption as touted by this administration is just mere lip service, hence the failure of the system is fueling corruption.
“We’re not fighting corruption at all, in fact, corruption is being normalised. Because we hardly see anyone, especially in the public sector who can be trusted – the very essence of public office – trust has been murdered. This is where we need more investigative journalists. The media must rise above fear or intimidation from the government in power. We must kill corruption now else it would kill us,” they maintained.