Victor Ahiuma-Young
16 December 2008
A GROUP of anti-corruption crusaders under the aegis of Zero Corruption Coalition (ZCC), has taken a critical assessment of the anti-corruption drive of government since the emergence of President Yar'Adua's government and lamented that the nomination of some former governors and others facing corruption charges in the law court as ministerial nominees, had further confirmed the increasing outcry that government's anti-graft crusade is fast collapsing.
Speaking in Lagos on behalf of the group, its Chairman, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, decried the ongoing travails of the former Chairman of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and called on the Nigerian Police Force, the EFCC and the government to leave Ribadu alone, saying those who continue to hunt Ribadu have achieved no more than expose the government's anti- corruption campaign in Nigeria for the ruse that it is beginning to appear.
According to ZCC, while a number of persons may have disagreed with Mallam Ribadu over his style of leadership and prosecution of the war against corruption as the Chairman of EFCC, the current trend of embarrassing and ridiculing his person at every given opportunity is not only unacceptable, but criminal and appears deliberately calculated at discouraging other Nigerians from committing themselves to the fight against corruption and graft in the country.
"While we join the call by President Yar"Adua for the removal of the immunity clause from our statute books as a major plank in the war against corruption, we also call for the tempo of the crusade against corruption which has consistently been slowing down since the emergence of the Yar'Adua administration to be re-energised and the provisions of the transparency laws including the Fiscal Responsibility and the Public Procurement acts be implemented to latter," he said.
According to him, "We condemn the appointment of tired and recycled politicians as well as political jobbers, tainted and corrupt politicians who are known to have or are in any way suspected to have been connected to or connived with the looting of public treasury at all levels of government in the country as ministers.
With the avowed commitment of the present administration to the rule of law and commitment to the battle against corruption, a commitment which has been called to question by the actions of the government on a good number of occasion, the President had a good chance of practically demonstrating this avowed commitment by ensuring the nomination of credible, transparent Nigerians with a track record of unblemished record of public service to the nation.
This opportunity we however note was squandered by the presidency by the quality of some of his ministerial nominees. The developmental challenges confronting the nation at this stage of its national development is such that the nation cannot allow its future to be any longer ravaged by corrupt men and women who since independence have held the nation by the jugular.
It is also important for government to deliberately show that it does not tolerate corruption. There is no better way to weaken the agencies than to show them that government is indeed in bed with individuals who are perceived to be corrupt, the appointment of certain ex governors with pending allegations of corruption as ministers in the government gives a clear signal of government's tolerance for corruption. It is in this wise that we call on the President to reconsider some of his ministerial nominees."
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