Mohammed Ali Ndume, the chairman, Senate Committee on Army, on Friday, November 5, 2021, said, for corruption to be nipped in the bud, the crusade against the monster should start from the politicians, top public servants down to the local government staff.
While speaking as the guest lecturer at the University of Ibadan’s 2021 Distinguished Leadership Lecture series, held at the Trenchard Hall of the institution, Ndume, equally, charged Nigerians to be unanimous in the fight against corruption in the country, which he described as a lifetime struggle.
Delivering a lecture titled: “Unexplained Wealth and the Fight Against Corruption in Nigeria, Senator Ndume observed that corruption has an impact on the economic well-being of the and tends to widen the gap between those who have and those who do now have.
Ndume stressed that the current security challenges confronting the country was a byproduct of corruption, adding that corruption and insecurity are closely bound with the funding of transnational organised crimes like terrorism, human trafficking, drug crimes, and illegal arms trade.
His words: “The fight against corruption is fight for the nation and must start from the top the bottom.
“One should not be mistaken on how good it is to have riches, but toxic riches should be abhorred because it pollutes the society. It changes our good culture.bit breeds injustice and impunity. Every citizen has a role to play.
While calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently issue and sign an Unexplained Wealth Order and prevail on the National Assembly bro pass the Proceeds of Crime Bill in time, Sen. Ndume posited that: “Our crusade against this monster should start from politicians, top public servants, civil servants down to the local governments staff.
“For the perpetrators, it is not difficult to identify the tendencies exhibited by the officers, acquiring landed property in and outside the country, having fat bank deposits, buying expensive cars, or marrying so many wives.
“Our whistleblower policy which had stillbirth before it became law must be revisited. The motivation should not just be the reward, but patriotism.
“Public policy should be guided and in this case, matters of unexplained wealth should be excluded for the application of this provision. The code of conduct bureau has a duty to require every public officer to make declaration of assets periodically.
“So, the fight against corruption is not a one-off fight that can be won at once but a continuous lifetime struggle that we must all join hands to kill the monster right from the cradle anytime it is identified,” Ndume submitted.
Earlier in his address of welcome, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Kayode Adebowale, noted that the institution is tackling the fight against corruption in an organic way, adding that nearly every undergraduate student in the university takes a course in ethics, either as a compulsory general studies course or as a regular department -based course.
He opined that it was the believe that exposure to these courses will go a long way in moulding the anticorruption disposition of the students, making them the corner pieces of corruption free Nigeria of everybody’s dream.
Source: Vanguard
