Take a Stand on Corruption Fight, Coalition Tells Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has been urged to take a stand and live by example on the fight against corruption in the country.

The President was also enjoined “to stop romancing corruption which is the bane of our development or else Nigerians will hold him as the first enemy of the Nigerian Project.”
The calls were contained in a communiqué jointly issued in Abuja by the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) in collaboration with Zero Corruption Coalition (ZCC) as the world marked the International Anti-Corruption Day recently.

The communiqué, with a theme ‘Zero Corruption – 100 per cent Development’ also called on the federal and states governments to make special efforts to detect corruption in their businesses in order to achieve meaningful development. 

International Anti-Corruption Day is a time for political leaders, governments, legal bodies and lobby groups to work together against corruption by promoting the day and the issues that surround this event. On this day anti-corruption advocates organise events to engage the general public to effectively fight against corruption and fraud in communities.

According to the Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), who signed the communiqué, “Corruption is an issue that affects all countries around the world. It undermines democracy, creates unstable governments, and sets countries back economically. It comes in various forms such as bribery, law-breaking without dealing with the consequences in a fair manner, unfairly amending election processes and results, and covering mistakes or silencing whistleblowers (those who expose corruption in hope that justice would be served).

“The solution to Preventing and combating corruption requires a comprehensive approach, but only in a climate of transparency, accountability and participation by all members of society. Such as; governments, the private sector, the media, civil society organisations and the general public need to work together to curb this crime.

According to Global Integrity Group, a Washington - based corruption monitoring organisation, $129 billion was “fraudulently transferred out of Nigeria in 10 years.” Converted into naira, this figure stands at N20.6 trillion stolen from Nigeria by public office holders in 10 years.”

To Rafsanjani, “Anti-corruption measures need to be integrated into development planning processes. The development partner’s work on governance around the country aims to strengthen the national institutions and processes needed to build trust, improve responsiveness and accountability, and mobilise resources for development.

“Taking back what was lost to corrupt practices is everyone's responsibility - governments and civil society organisations, the private sector and the media, the general public, and youth who will play a pivotal role in seeing this agenda through so that their future is built on solid and honest foundations”, the communiqué added.

“However, corruption afflicts all levels of governments, undermining social progress and breeding inequality and injustice. When desperately needed development funds are stolen by corrupt individuals and institutions, poor and vulnerable people are robbed of the education, health care and other essential services”, the coalition lamented.

It also called on government to take strong measures to prevent political corruption in the country, and insisted that government must cut down waste and duplication of resources as contained in the budget as a measure of detecting corruption risks in governance.

“ZCC/CISLAC is calling on the government of President Jonathan to carefully study recently released Transparency International’s global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) as a reality check, confirming that the country’s fight against corruption has lost track.

“We are calling on the government of President Jonathan to see to meeting the basic needs of Nigerians by prioritising and demonstrating its expressed commitment to fight corruption. That as a matter of seriousness urgently ensuring the effective prosecution of those suspected of massive corruption in the fuel subsidy reports”, the coalition added.

It also demanded that all outstanding corruption reports, including the House Committee report on the subsidy racket, must be fully implemented and perpetrators effectively punished.

It called for an independent investigation to be conducted into the numerous cases and corruption charges lying pending against public office holders. Notable in case are the ones involving the Aviation Minister, and the most recent case of SURE-P, which warranted the resignation of the Chairman.

THISDAY