Three Nigerian leaders, yesterday, examined the problems facing the nation and concluded that corruption with impunity was the major challenge stifling the country’s socio-economic advancement and stability.
The trio of Muhammad Sa ‘ad Abubakar 111, the Sultan of Sokoto, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja and the Niger State Governor, Dr. Babangida Aliyu, spoke at the 2013 Annual Conference and Award of Leadership Newspaper in Abuja.
While the Sultan and the Cardinal presented a joint address on how to rebuild Nigeria, Governor Aliyu served as the guest speaker at the ceremony, which conferred awards on eminent Nigerians, among them, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State, who bagged the Leadership Governor of the Year.
The two clerics who frowned at the pervasive influence of corruption in the nation’s polity, asked the government to take urgent steps to halt the malevolent trend if the nation must make progress in the comity of nations.
The joint address, which was read on behalf of the two clerics by Onaiyekan, noted that the government has been rather too soft on corrupt persons and institutions thereby making it appear as if the monster was being celebrated.
They said, “This stealing must stop. Furthermore, stolen resources of the nation must be recovered and used for the common services for the poor because the stolen money from government treasury belongs to us and not the government.
‘’There is nothing wrong in granting pardon to those who have committed offences, but the government must first of all recover our stolen wealth from corrupt persons before pardoning them.
While acknowledging that there was a religious dimension to the Boko Haram saga, the two religious leaders pleaded with political forces to lend a hand towards finding a lasting solution to the problem.
Religion, an asset not instrument of destabilisation
They also admitted that the country’s Muslims and Christians share a lot in terms of common values and interest and urged that religion should be used as an asset in rebuilding the country rather than an instrument of division and destabilisation.
The Niger State Governor, who was the lead speaker at the event, noted that Nigeria’s political process had been characterised by deficient and largely unprepared leadership foisted on the nation.
Nigeria’s problem is inefficient leadership — Gov Aliyu
The governor said, “Our leadership recruitment process is disturbing. Often, we get leaders who are self-conceited, unwilling, unprepared or merely opportunistic and become desperate, choosing to amass wealth through corruption and becoming dictatorial to survive in power.
“Such leaders manipulate electoral voting along ethnic, religious or sectional sentiments, which have destroyed the linkages between politics and nation-building, creating room for mutual distrust, rivalry, violence and truncation of nation-building agenda.
The governor also condemned the growing graft in the oil sector, which he noted had ravaged the gains that the nation could have derived from the sector in the past five decades of oil exploration and production.
He said: “Instead of economic gains for the ordinary Nigerians, crude oil discovery in Nigeria appears to be more of a problem as it has killed agriculture, which was the mainstay of our economy”.
As a way out of the problems confronting the nation, the governor suggested the review of the country’s revenue allocation formula, the establishment of the right economic, social and economic perspective to put the county on a sound footing.
“While the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council is doing well, everybody must be genuinely involved in promoting ethno-religious harmony in this country,” he added.
Don’t blame present leadership for our woes — Gov Akpabio
Akwa Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, stressed the need for Muslims and Christians to work together to strengthen the bond of unity among Nigerians and facilitate development.
Akpabio cautioned Nigerians to desist from blaming the leadership of Nigeria, saying that the current problems plaguing the country did not start with the present administration.
According to him, Nigerians were merely suffering from the accumulation of the failures of the past, which the administration was battling to overcome.
“We cannot politicise insecurity in Nigeria. Corruption and violence can be eliminated if we as parents start the war from the home by restoring our moral values.
“My message for rebuilding Nigeria is that we should start from the spiritual realm, provide the needed infrastructure, rebuild the media to be more responsible in providing its services and refrain from churning out negative reports all the time”.
Let’s return to old National Anthem — Tinubu
Former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, called for the restoration of the former National Anthem, which he said, was more nationalistic and more appealing to most Nigerians.
“I believe that if that is done, we would have achieved some level of commitment from Nigerians to national ethos,” the Action Congress of Nigeria leader, said.
While Akpabio clinched the Governor of the Year, Onaiyekan and the Sultan, went home with the Leadership Persons of the Year.
Olusegun Adeniyi, Editorial Board Chairman of Thisday Newspaper, claimed the Author of the Year while the Spokesman for the ACN, Lai Mohammed was named the Politician of the Year.
Parliamentary system of govt
Meanwhile, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Alfa Belgore, yesterday, called for the adoption of a parliamentary system of government in Nigeria to solve the problem of corruption affecting the country.
Belgore, who spoke on ways to check corruption said a radical approach should be adopted towards tackling the problem, suggesting the reversion to a parliamentary system of government, which he noted would change the endemic corruption in Nigeria.
He spoke at the 2013 PUNUKA’s yearly lecture organised by PUNUKA Attorneys and Solicitors, in Lagos, on the topic Wealth Management and Succession Planning: Best Practices, Anti Corruption Compliances and Red Flags.
Justice Belgore said, “If people who are going to decide matters in this country are elected, you know today, your ministers, commissioners are not elected and it has created problems for us because they can be removed at anytime. Whereas in parliamentary system, if a minister or commissioner is a legislator, he will be there for the constitutional term of office.”
He observed that the inclusion of traditional institutions in Nigeria’s constitutional processes would also help in the fight against corruption, saying “ I believe sincerely that to kill corruption, we must go back to the system that we understand best. Culturally, we are different. We have a very established society. We call Nigeria Federal Republic of Nigeria but it is a different republic from other republics.
“We still have Obas, we still have emirs and they are still very useful but they are not involved in our constitution making. The respect for these tradition institutions is dying gradually,” he said.
On her part, Lagos State deputy governor, Mrs Adejoke Adefulire, noted that corruption was more of the issue of personality than system, as a corrupt person will always be corrupt no matter the kind of system of government that is in operation.
She argued that the current presidential system had already in it check and balance mechanism to check incidence of corruption, noting that no system of government can check corruption without attitudinal change of those in position of leadership.
Meantime, Managing Partner of the law firm, Chief Anthony Idigbe, SAN, described the topic as germane as life itself because it caused across social strata and creed but rarely discussed and called for for adequate planning to deal with succession issues both in the public and personal lives.
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