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Senate panel chief seeks emergency over graft
- By Olufemi Adeosun, Abuja - posted on Tuesday 10th November 2009 AGAINST the backdrop of endemic corruption in virtually all the facets of the Nigerian society, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics, Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes, Sola Akinyede, has canvassed for the declaration of a state of emergency to tackle the cankerworm.
Speaking yesterday at a two-day summit on anti-corruption and financial crimes in Abuja, the Senator who was represented by Mr. Sesan Fabamise, averred that contrary to the widely held views, the country did not lack the needed policies and framework to fight corruption.
In the contrary, Akinyede explained that corruption had gone on unabated as a result of lack of the needed political will to fight the scourge by every successive government in the country
He said: "Nigeria has the needed policies to fight corruption. Even before 1999, there have been numerous policies on ground to prevent corruption. However, these measures have recorded little success due to lack of political will to tackle the scourge.
"Despite the commitment of the current administration to curb corruption, it is still endemic. The cumulative effect is apparent in every facet of our lives".
Akinyede said that since all the strategies aimed at eradicating the scourge seemed to have yielded little result, what government needed to do is to declare a state of emergency in the ant-corruption drive in the country.
He was, however, quick to add that such course of action must be done within the ambit of the law.
In his own contributions, the Country Director, ActionAid, Mr. Hussaini Abdu, said that creating the needed institutional framework would not be adequate in the fight against corruption, insisting that as long as the people in the country were not carried along, the fight would not be successful.
Abdu, who lamented the level of havoc of corruption on the country's infrastructure development, further explained that Nigeria would find it difficult to achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) if it failed to take decisive action against the cankerworm.
News Source: Guardian
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