Founder of the group, Ameh Ejeh, pointed that when elections are manipulated and the people’s mandate taken away, those that rigged their way into such public offices will likely appoint those who supported them into office not caring if they are fit for public service even if they lack the integrity thereby continuing the vicious circle of corruption.
He said “I don’t think we are going to see anything meaningful out of this. All you is that they make budgets allocating resources to themselves in a country that people are suffering but government is allocating billions of naira to frivolous projects and all of that when they are supposed to be tackling security, corruption and things like welfare for the citizenry, so of course you can’t fight corruption when you come in through corruption.
“When you manipulate elections and you win with the support of an equally corrupt judiciary, the people that emerge out of these process are the same ones appointing these individuals to serve in these capacities therefore we cannot expect any else from an already tainted process.
“So you manipulate elections and you win, that is corruption which you should be jailed for but when the cases are taken to the courts and they throw them away. The people who help you to perpetrate this corruption are going to expect some recompense and some of them will be given appointments where they are not supposed to.
Ejeh said that although the suspended NSIPA boss has not been convicted of the allegations as investigations are said to be underway, it is important for Nigeria to take a firm action against public office holders found wanting in this regard and “that is why the Africans in Diaspora for Good Legislation group has been advocating capital punishment as a deterrent.
Some of them lack the integrity but they are going to be there to enjoy the mandate of the people that was not actually given to them and because they came in through corruption, why then will they be scared of indulging in corruption?
“The Nigerian government currently has removed subsidy and the reason the removed subsidy is because subsidy is fraud, it means that they government is saying ‘we cannot fight corruption so we are giving they burden to the people’ who are already struggling surviving but the burden is given to them so that they can have enough resources to play around with.”
While calling on Nigerians to patiently await outcome of ongoing investigations before casting aspersion, Executive Director, Center for Gender, Women and Children in Sustainable Development, Professor Olabisi Aina, is of the view that the perpetration of corruption usually goes beyond one individual.
She said that “when people are found in corrupt practices, we must address these issues be it a man or a women but the circumstance of government is not the same for the man and the woman.
“The system of stealing, of bastardizing public offices goes beyond the individual and we need to take recourse into the type of system we operate. If everybody that goes into a particular system comes back with a bad name, then we need to look into that system and not the individual so maybe Nigeria needs to into the system to ensure that men and women of honour are able to serve.
She lamented the poor representation of women in public office noting that most of the time when you look at these women in such circumstances, you will find out that the engineers of these corruptions are actually the men and not women because the women in these positions are trying to find their footing and understand what is going on but before they even find out what is going on, they are being tainted by the system.
Recall the suspended National Cordinator and Chief Executive Officer of the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), Halima Shehu, has been reportedly arrested and detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on fraud allegations.
