President Muhammadu Buhari has been charged to review his administration’s style by listening more to the yearnings of Nigerians rather than using the instrument of the state to suppress the voice of the people.
Making this call on Thursday, in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, was a Lagos-based human rights lawyer, Inihehe Efiong.
Efiong, who gave the charge while delivering a keynote address at a two-day stakeholders’ dialogue organised by ActionAid Nigeria in collaboration with Policy Alert under the SCRAP-C Project, lamented that the leadership had put the country and its people into abject poverty.
In attendance on the occasion were traditional rulers in the state, the state Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Reverend Ndueso Ekwere; the state Commissioner for the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr Shola Shodipo; members of the civil society organisations, youth groups, physically challenged persons, students and the media.
The activist said: “We are unhappy that despite the fact that our president used taxpayers money to treat his ear infection at a hospital abroad, he is not listening to the cries of the citizens. When the former governor of Akwa Ibom State also had an accident, he quickly ran abroad for medical attention despite his earlier claim that the Ibom Specialist Hospital had the capacity to handle medical cases for which Nigerians run abroad.”
Efiong lamented that billions of taxpayers money had gone down the drain in executing the hospital project in Akwa Ibom State without much to show for it.
“As one who has resolved to confront corruption as a vice in our country, I am currently in and out of court asking that past administrations in the state should be called to question over its stewardship. Sadly, the current administration in the state is pretending to be at loggerheads with the former governor. He is doing nothing but merely using the instrument of the state to shield the past administration.
“I reject the proposition that I am a leader of tomorrow. If our leaders have failed us, must we also fail our children? If you have a local government chairman who is corrupt why should you refuse to hold him accountable?”
He howeverurged participants at the forum to have a change of attitude by rising up to challenge the status quo. According to him, the tragedy is that the people were indifferent to matters that affect their collective destiny.
In her address of welcome, the Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Mrs Ene Obi, said it was high time the common people in the country actively engaged in the fight against corruption in the country.
This, Obi said, was important because the consequences of corruption on Nigeria were severe but killing.
While stressing that corruption weakens the efficiency, effectiveness and probity in the public sector, she noted that corruption has far-reaching effects than HIV/AIDs and malaria in the country as the future of Nigeria children, both born and unborn, were being ruined.
Continued, she said, “We would need to enhance the effective participation of the individuals that occupy the office of the citizen in the fight against this scourge called corruption that has eaten deep into the fabric of our nation and that is the essence of this meeting.
“Why is it important to empower the Nigerian citizens to effectively fight corruption? The answer is in the social cost of corruption and how it has fuelled unemployment and poverty and undermined the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). All of us must acknowledge the fact that corruption is our common enemy. You don’t have to be silent when and where you need to speak.”
“I reject the proposition that I am a leader of tomorrow. If our leaders have failed us, must we also fail our children? If you have a local government chairman who is corrupt why should you refuse to hold him accountable?”
“Why is it important to empower the Nigerian citizens to effectively fight corruption? The answer is in the social cost of corruption and how it has fuelled unemployment and poverty and undermined the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). All of us must acknowledge the fact that corruption is our common enemy. You don’t have to be silent when and where you need to speak. ” she said.