World Rights Day: NBA tasks FG on situation in North-east

By Vivian Okejeme

Abuja

President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, has called on the federal government to pay more attention to the human rights situation in the North-east.
Mahmoud made the call yesterday in Abuja while speaking at a programme organised by the NBA Human Rights Institute to mark this year’s World Human Right Day, urging the government to step up its effort to bring back normalcy to the North-east.
“Government should continue to pay more attention to human rights situation in the North-east. The government should also step up its efforts to bring normalcy to the region,” he said.
Also, at the weekend, a Senior Advocate and federal government prosecutor, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, said corruption “will continue to thrive until Nigerians are ready to tackle it.”
He also said corruption “can grow in a variety of political and economic environments but it thrives when bad government makes it impossible to control.”
Speaking at this year’s International Anti-corruption Day in Abuja, Jacobs commended the present administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari for its efforts in the fight against corruption.
He, at the event organised by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Anti-corruption Committee, called on Nigerians to support the administration.
“It thrive when there is a low and irregular salaries for officials with large dependants, availability of multiple opportunities for personal enrichment, (such as mineral and oil rich environment), the size and growth of public spending will help to defined the possibilities of corruption and extensive discretion over the allocation of economic cost and benefits,” he said.
He, however, noted that the major reason corruption “thrives in our country is that there are inadequate and ineffective controls, policing, detection and prosecution of corruption cases.”
“In a society where you can easily escape from justice corruption will go to high heavens. This is major factors that greatly encourage corruption in our society.
“Thus, the incidence of corruption is a result of the strength of incentives of opportunities, the availability of means and the risk of punishments. So, corruption thrives in bad governance, where controls are weak, where one can avoid the consequences of his act, where one can compromise the system, where one can engage high-profile senior lawyers to set him free and where one can bribe himself out of criminal investigation and prosecution.”

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