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Chairman's Opening Remarks at ICPC-ALGON Town Hall Meeting
- Released by Hon Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, ICPC Chairman on Tuesday 10th November 2009 It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this Town Hall Meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to enable us to interact and exchange ideas on the way forward in the fight against corruption and to enlighten leaders and citizens of this State of their respective responsibilities in this fight.
Corruption is a very destructive and dangerous vice. It destroys nations and individuals. It is a scourge worse than any disease than one can imagine. No nation can deliver health, welfare, education and good quality of life to the people unless corruption is dealt with first. That is why we must all determine to deal with corruption with all seriousness, commitment, wisdom and ruthlessness.
The fight against corruption involves three main strategies. These are: the enforcement strategy, by which those who indulge in corruption will be prosecuted and sent to jail; the education and public enlightenment strategy by which all and sundry are educated on the vice and the way to fight it; the public mobilisation strategy by which action is demanded from every citizen against corruption and the corrupt; and, finally the system review strategy to ensure that institutions of governance are not weakened and rendered ineffective and inefficient by corruption and corrupt practices.
The focus of the Town Hall Meeting is the Local Government and the citizens. The Local Government is the tier of government closest to the people. We believe that if the Local Governments perform efficiently and with integrity the citizen will have a better quality of life and democracy will bear the much desired dividend. From our observation, only a few of the 774 Local Governments in our nation are delivering the dividend of democracy. Local Government communities are still living in poverty and are deprived of the barest necessities. This state of affairs is attributable not only to corruption but also to lack of education and awareness by the local government leaders of their responsibilities and the inability of the citizens to demand of their leaders’ accountability of their stewardship. The Local Government Integrity Initiative is introduced by the ICPC to correct this state of affairs.
Through the Local Government Integrity Initiative leaders and citizens will be brought together, educated and challenged to fashion the way forward to make our Local Governments fulfill their main purpose of good and qualitative governance at the grassroots. For our nation to be transformed there must be transformation at all levels of society and of all tiers of government. The LGII is designed to be the engine of such transformation at the Local Government level.
In the actualisation of the Initiative, the ALGON has a very important role to play. In this regard I acknowledge the collaboration and enthusiasm of the Jigawa State chapter of ALGON and of the Chairman and leaders of the State Chapter. I believe that together we shall build a culture of governance at the Local Government level that will transform the lives of our citizens.
While we attribute much significance to investigation and prosecution of the corrupt, we also believe that for a durable and sustainable fight against corruption to materialise efforts to eradicate impunity for acts of corruption must be fully complemented by preventive strategies.
I express the profound gratitude of the ICPC to the Government of Jigawa State for requesting that this Town Hall meeting be held and for facilitating the meeting. In the fight against corruption State Governments have important roles to perform. This is why the ICPC values collaboration with the State Governments in programmes to fight corruption and demand from State Governments that they ensure that governance in their respective states are free from corruption and corrupt practices. It is heartening that the Government of Jigawa State has created an environment for a fruitful collaboration and partnership in the fight against corruption.
I salute the courage of HE the Governor of Jigawa State for indicating his willingness through this Town Hall meeting to fight corruption. I thank him and the Government of the State for making this meeting a reality. I thank all the officials of the State Government who have worked hard to make the meeting possible.
I thank all our special guests and participants for their presence. I look forward to a fruitful deliberation and full and frank discussion.
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Population - 140 Million
GDP - $54.7Billion
GDP per Capita - $400
GDP Growth - 3.8%
GNI – $42.8 Billion
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