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Thursday 14 February 2013

ICPC boss: Nigeria lacks the will to fight Corruption

The ICPC boss says that while Nigeria has laws to fight corruption, the will for execution of such laws is lacking.

The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Ekpo Nta, has said that Nigeria is not short of relevant laws to combat corruption. Mr. Nta said the major challenge is the will to execute the laws.

The ICPC chairman said this while delivering a lecture at the flag-off ceremony for the 50th anniversary of the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan, identified the scourge as the fastest growing evil in the country.

"There had been corrupt practices decree, War Against Indiscipline, MAMSA, NOA, Foreign Exchange Decree, Money Laundry Decree, EFCC and ICPC Acts, Fiscal responsibility 2010, etc. We have more than enough laws that will stamp corruption out of our system but the problem is implementation. Implementing our laws is the problem," he said.

The ICPC boss defined corruption as abuse of trust and political power for private gains, insisting that except all Nigerians join hands together in the fight against corruption; it will continue to thrive in the country.

Delivering the lecture, entitled "Combating corruption in Nigeria: Prospect, Challenges and Strategies", he decried the art of plagiarism among lecturers, as well as falsification of records, sexual harassment, cultism, extortion, and false representation during accreditation in Nigerian universities.

Mr. Nta also disclosed that the commission depends majorly on information from petitions forwarded to it by members of the public for prosecution of suspects, adding that they have engaged in massive enlightenment campaign to sensitize the public on the evil of corruption to the society.

Head of Department of Political Science, Osisioma Nwolise, declared that corruption is wasting Nigeria's resources and sentencing a large number of the citizenry to the harsh side of life. He said corruption has reached the level that requires surgical operation. "It has adopted a dimension at which it should be declared as crime against humanity and treated as such," he relayed

"Some loot our money and still spit on our faces and attend ceremonies in pride and pomposity. People who should bury their faces in shame talk so loudly and with so much impunity that they deafen the ears of our collective conscience", Mr. Nwolise said.

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