NGO Decries High Level Of Corruption In Nigeria

By Steve Oni, Ilorin

A Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), Cultural and Societal Value Development Initiative, has decried the high level of corruption in Nigeria, lamenting that it has become so endemic thereby destroying the nation’s socioeconomic fabric.

Addressing journalists on Thursday in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, the NGO’s spokesman, Prof. Samuel Adeniyi Ibiyemi, said there must be true and genuine nationhood restructuring to redress the sorry pass the country has found itself.

To Prof. Ibiyemi, the press should be more proactive and “establish its redemptive position as the spokesman to protect the voiceless and majority in democracy. We seek that you accept that this is your best time to complement the judiciary to establish the right atmosphere for what it takes to give to the nation sustainable political, economic, societal and value development.”

Prof. Ibiyemi, who was a former lecturer of chemistry at the University of Ilorin, said the goal of the NGO is good governance in Nigeria, adding that Nigerians have to embrace the spirit of love, without which corruption would continue to thrive and escalate.

He said: “If there is love, there will be less corruption. Let us tackle corruption through love. Let there be love against corruption. If our political leaders love the electorate and their followers, they will not be corrupt, rather they will use our resources for the good and benefit of all. It is sad that reverse is the case as leaders continue to embezzle our commonwealth.”

He identified three groups, viz religious leaders, politicians and the youth, that should be the main focus, if corruption is to be reduced to the barest minimum in the country. Religious leaders, he said, should themselves embrace love and then preach love to their congregations.

Prof. Ibiyemi condemned excessive demands by the electorate from politicians, saying that politicians would definitely want to recoup whatever they give out before and during elections to the electorate when they assume office, thereby jeopardising the resources that would have been used for the development of all.

He therefore counselled the electorate, particularly the youth to always demand for and hammer on good governance rather than the peanuts doled out during elections by politicians that won’t sustain them for a day, not to talk of four years that the political leaders would hold sway and behave as they like to the detriment of the citizenry.

Prof. Ibiyemi, who said ‘love crusade vanguard for good governance’ should be urgently launched and embraced by all and sundry, condemned the excessive activities of the herdsmen using their cattle to destroy farmlands with impunity across the country, urging urgent sincere and genuine measures to check their menace so that the country would not experience famine. He also called on government at all tiers to provide more tractors for use by farmers in the country.