President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua yesterday told the private sector leaders a bitter truth: Corruption in your midst is worse than the much maligned public offices.
He also pledged to effectively tackle the long-drawn unrest in the Niger Delta region.
The President, at the opening of the yearly conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), said: “Most instruments to measure corruption focus on the private sector’s perception of corruption in the public sector, neglecting to recognise that the private sector plays a significant role both on the supply side of corruption (i.e. paying gratifications) and the demand side (receiving gratifications).”
Recalling the various efforts in the last few years against corruption, the President who was represented by the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola, wondered why the menace had remained intractable in the country.
“Part of the reasons is that the prevention systems are not functioning effectively, due largely to inadequate institutional capacity and the inability of our people to report corrupt cases. The lack of accurate information on occurrences of corruption is also a challenge”, he said.
The President vowed not to be carried away by Nigeria’s recent improved showing on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by Transparency International, saying: “nothing will alter our resolve to win the war, no matter what it takes.” He continued: “We need to create an ethically competitive private sector for businesses to thrive. It is impossible to fight this battle alone. We need to collaborate and work together to fight corruption from all fronts.
Earlier in his keynote address, ICAN President Chief Richard Uchechukwu called for the probe of N3 trillion allocation to local councils between 1999 and 2007 “without anything to show for it” as a good way to jumpstart renewed impetus to tackle corruption.
“Indeed, considering the pervasive level of poverty and dearth of basic infrastructural facilities like health care delivery centres, educational institutions, feeder roads, pipe-borne water, etc, in various LGAs across the land, the revelation is scandalous and should be investigated by the appropriate agencies of government such that proven cases of injudicious use of public funds will be met with sanctions”, he declared.
The President yesterday received the report of the Vanguard newspaper-organized South South Legislative Retreat on the Review of the 1999 Constitution pledging to resolve the crises in the Niger Delta.
The retreats’ chairman, retired Justice Adolphus Karibi Whyte declared that the recommendations contained in their statement would go a long way in tackling the crises in the region.