Falae blames govt’s failure to tackle insurgency on corruption

AFENIFERE Chieftain and former Secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Olu Falae, yesterday blamed the failure of government in tackling the Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern part of the country on high corruption that is ravaging the Nigerian polity.

  Falae, who addressed reporters in his Akure home on the state of the nation, said corruption has eaten so deep into the Nigerian fabric that institutions of state that were initially immuned from the menace have now been affected.

  According to the elder statesman: “Before, we thought corruption was limited to the Customs and other departments with similar brief but now, every sector has been compromised. Even the simple system of recruitment into the civil service is now so corrupted that people pay to get employed.

  “The thing is now affecting the fighting force and our soldiers, because of corruption, cannot face the insurgents squarely even though we all know that terrorism is a global phenomenon that the whole world is battling with. That corruption has crept into the military is a fact because it is hampering our operations in the battle against insurgency.”

  Falae, who is also the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which has endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan in the coming presidential election, said the expectations that government was going to tackle corruption headlong was one of the reasons why the party backed the President.

  He said: “When we were approached by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for support, we gave them six demands that must be addressed to get our nod and the issue of corruption is one of them.

  “The President assured us that he was going to fight corruption squarely in his second term of office and that efforts would be made to clear the country of the cankerworm. Apart from that, we got commitment from the President that he was going to implement the reports of the national conference.”

  Falae, who said that the issue of insecurity in the country was one of the demands presented before the President who has also given assurance that no effort would be spared in bringing lasting peace to the embattled region, hinged the postponement of the February elections on the preparations of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a seamless exercise, saying: “If we can be assured that Nigerians would not be disenfranchised by the non-availability of the Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and that the insecurity would be curtailed, then we can go ahead with the timetable.”