With the death
of the great African freedom fighter icon Nelson Mandela, world leaders have
been reflecting on the unmatchable impact he has made in his lifetime. Nations leaders
including Nigerian leaders has being showered praises on Mandela’s achievement;
but what has these leaders done to emulate this icon to better the lots of
their people? What we experience in the present government it complete inaction
on issues bothering on corruption; which has been the bedrock of the dwindling
of Nigeria economy and making many to attribute the country as a failed state.
Presently, Transparency
International ranked Nigeria as the 144th most corrupt among the 177 countries
studied in the world. In 2012, Nigeria was ranked as the 124th most corrupt
nation among the less than 170 countries studied. The survey gave Nigeria as an
example of countries where oil resources were only available to very small
elite.
A civil society
group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has described
Nigeria’s sliding in the Transparency International’s global Corruption
Perception Index (CPI) as “a reality check, confirming that the country’s fight
against corruption has lost track, and showing why it is now critical for the
government of President Goodluck Jonathan to fight corruption more by its
action than words.”
Formerly, we
have experience government fighting corruption through Economic Financial Crime
Commission (EFCC) even though it was believed the effort was directed to perceived
political enemies. The fact still remain that there was an effort; whether it
had political undertone or not is not in our domain to establish but clearly, high
profile politicians and civil servants were prosecuted and sent to jail.
Since the
present government came to power, it seems the ‘fire’ that was used to fight
corruption was put off or maybe corruption in the country automatically
disappeared even when there are glaring evidence of corrupt practices by
politicians and civil servants. Are we going to talk of the police pension scam,
oil subsidy corruption in the senate, aviation boss car purchase etc. the list
is endless. The issue is why can’t present government successfully jail some of
these corrupt officers? If the present government is sincere about its fight
against corruption, it should stop blaming the lapses in our constitution or
judiciary because all these were present when the former government made impact
on fight against corruption.
As the world
celebrate Anti-corruption Day, it is pertinent that President Goodluck Jonathan
kick start his campaign against corruption with more of actions than words. This
will not only put him in the world good book of those that fault corruption,
but more importantly to him, it will serve as strong campaign ground for his
return to power come 2015.
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