Anti-corruption: FCT Minister tasks religious leaders on sensitization

The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, has tasked religious leaders in the country to sensitize their followers on the evils of corruption.

Bello made the call during a symposium with the theme, “The role of religious preachers in the fight against Corruption,” on Friday in Abuja.

The symposium was convened by the FCT Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Abuja National Mosque Management Board at the African Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution.

Bello, who was represented by the FCT Permanent Secretary, Dr Babatope Ajakaiye, stressed that corruption has left negative consequences on the nation’s march to development.

The minister noted that corruption also negates the ethics of both Christianity and Islam, as such clerics must preach against it.

He said it was important for religious leaders to dissuade their members from looking up to corrupt individuals in the society as their role models.

“Doing this would send a clear message to corrupt people that they are not wanted in the society,’’ the minister said.

Bello described corruption as a social cancer that must be eliminated totally from the society; in order to chart brighter future for upcoming generations.

Also speaking, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, said that the gathering would afford both religions the opportunity to seek practical and effective solutions to the social malaise of corruption.

He enjoined Nigerians irrespective of class to take their religious life very seriously in order to bequeath a morally sound society for future generations.

The Executive Secretary of the Abuja National Mosque, Alhaji Ibrahim Jega, urged religious leaders to always discourage their followers from engaging in any corrupt tendency.