On November 12, 2018, the acting Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, reviewed the nation’s fight against corruption and also presented his scorecard.
There is no doubt that the fight against corruption has been a daunting one, for as the Chairman rightly noted, the fight against corruption, especially in Nigeria, has never been, is not and can never be easy.
This is because since independence in 1960, a major decimal in the nation’s life cycle has been the issue of corruption with the attendant challenges and hiccups it had brought on the national psyche and growth.
It is noteworthy that this cancerous virus was a major plank on which the nation witnessed her first military coups and the same malignant tumour never escaped mention in subsequent coups and counter coups.
Unfortunately, in some instances, those who came to the scene on the platform of fighting corruption later became the epitome of corruption.
Over the years, the commission has not fared too badly, despite the plethora of allegations of witch-hunting, one-sided fight, unwillingness to wage an all-out war against corruption, among other such ballads. However, over the years, the commission had rarely been accused of deviating from her core statutory mandates.
Despite her creation and her modest achievements, one thing stands undisputed. And that is the fact that despite the fight, the monster seems to be growing stronger and more widespread while the perpetrators were becoming not only more daring, but even more callous!
With corruption deeply rooted at the base of the nation’s problems, all other national challenges, be it social dislocation, leadership educational, health, infrastructural and human capital deficiencies; seem to be a direct result of the impact of corruption. They are all symptoms of the one and same ailment, corruption.
While enumerating the accomplishments of the commission within this period, the Acting Chairman stated that these recoveries, mostly through the Whistle Blower Policy: included over N794 billion, $261 million, £1,115,000 and €8 million.
Noteworthy also is the numerous property and other assets the Commission were able to recover for the nation within this time frame.
As the commission expands the fight against corruption with the expansion of her Directorates and recruitment and training of personnel, the commission, and by extension, the current administration must not relent but continue the onslaught.
The war cannot only be waged by the commission. The citizens ought to own it, if it has to be won. However, for the citizen’s buy-in and support, the war must be seen to be total, non-partial and non-selective while assets so recovered and declared must be transparently accounted for.
By Tijani Mohammed
Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Abuja
Where is our N-Power allowance?
It is of no doubt Mr. President, your hard work and strategies to reduce unemployment rate in the country is being jeopardised by some few individuals. Surely, you tried all you could to get relief to the poor citizens but it seems either the drivers of this emergency ambulance or the mechanics who repair every damage engine had failed to deliver.
Mr. President, I urge you to seriously look into Npower program especially with respect to batch B 2017 beneficiaries.
Most of us have finally given up hope as our endurance, patience, and continuing day and night struggle seems to have no hope and no shoulder to lean on. We applied for N-Power program in June 2017; it took us more than six months before the shortlisted names were released. Lucky ones among us get to the NEXT LEVEL which was described by N-Power as verification stage.
We got verified and qualified into the program which took us six months again by December 2017. Imagine a graduate celebrating one complete year waiting for just a 2year program of N30,000 monthly earning. As we were jubilating, we had no idea the journey has just started.
From December 2017 to August 2018, we waited for eight months again just awaiting deployment.
We still continue to exercise patience we inherit right from stage one as we always have good faith for this administration. We were instructed by Npower to report to our place of primary assignments with immediate effect and upload our assumption of duty on or before August 8th as failure to do that, will automatically get you disqualified or get delayed for payment as we were promised our first stipend on August 30.
That is not where the story ended; we abide by all the rules as we all know how long we had waited for this golden opportunity. August 31st passed, no one received a penny and the story completely changed from stipend to another prolonging method from on boarding stage to enrolling stage, to say that everyone must have gotten enrolment status before he received his stipend.
Mr. President, this is where our sinking ship keeps drowning for almost five months, some were lucky to be enrolled and got fully paid, some enrolled and received two months, while others received only one month allowance. It’s now five months from our engagement, yet, not a single penny was received as N-Power stipend. The question that begs for answer is why is it that we are yet to be enrolled and get paid as our colleagues? You are the only shoulder we could lean on. Mr. President! We hope our plight will be looked into with immediate effect.
Umar Abdullahi Musa Huguma,
Kano
Standing up for a new Nigeria
The system is broken. And we are fed up. It simply cannot be that in a country so rich in resources that so many of us suffer. It cannot be; Nigeria has a tiny number of multi-millionaires, while the masses suffer.
It cannot be that we have thousands of corrupt bureaucrats in a system which benefits members of the ‘right’ family, or the ‘right’ tribe, in a country which is supposed to be united in pride and purpose.
How many times have you seen a bribe taken or given? How many times have you been asked yourself to act in ways you know your family would be ashamed of you, just because “This is Nigeria”.
We must all wake up. With the president vetoing bills to promote transparency and accountability, with big money swamping our political system but skipping over the people, with joblessness at an all-time high, we must find our voices and demand change.
It is time to speak to the truth. We must stop being passive to the state of our nation, from the mass poverty to the widespread violence. Every day we see death and destruction on the news, from herdsmen attacks overlooked by the authorities to seemingly insurmountable deadly Islamist terror in the form of Boko Haram.
The news doesn’t even show the millions of our countrymen dying from poverty and curable diseases. Police brutality and corruption, a real ongoing problem, is a mere footnote to these supposedly greater macro threats we face. But how can we expect true rule of law, when public trust in the police is at an all-time low?
Yet the response from the disenfranchised youth is far too quiet. We have been sold false hopes by the government. And we were betrayed by false promises of stability and security.
Well, not any more. This generation is an educated and inspirational generation. We believe in transparency and we believe in accountability. And we will have our say on our future. We will hold our leaders accountable in February. Enough is enough, our time is now.
The youth of Nigeria are angry and fed up, and we will be voting for change.
Victoria Abuto,
vic.abuto@gmail.com