“What got me thinking was the chicken and egg puzzle which the statement immediately raises. Do countries become more corrupt because the people are poor or are the people poor because their country is corrupt? We may never be able to answer this question to everybody’s satisfaction.”
The Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki posed this question today, Monday, at the launching of Senator Dino Melaye’s anti-corruption book titled: ‘Antidote of Corruption,” in Abuja.
Dr. Bukola Saraki, who spoke extensively about how to fight corruption in Nigeria said: “if the purpose of government is to improve the quality of lives of its people, then any conversation about corruption must focus primarily on how it affects human development, whether it is health, wealth or education.”
He identified one area where he believed the President Buhari-led administration had made remarkable progress in the past two years, saying that it is that corruption has been forced back to the top of the national political agenda.
“Every single day, you read the newspapers, you listen to the radio, you go on the internet, you watch the television, the people are talking about it. The people are demanding more openness, more accountability and more convictions. Those of us in government are also responding, joining the conversation and accepting that the basis of our legitimacy as government is our manifest accountability to the people.”
He stressed the need for governments across All Levels to join the fight against corruption, adding: “we acknowledge that if we want Nigerians to trust their government again, then government at all levels must demonstrate that we are not in office for the pursuit of private gains, but to make our people happier by helping them to meet their legitimate aspirations and achieve a higher quality of life…Nigeria and Nigerians have not accepted corruption as normal; we recognize it as a problem; that we are determined to make a break with our past and live by different rules.”
The Senate President insisted that deterrence is a better approach to fighting corruption and that he is convinced that we must return to that very basic medical axiom that prevention is better than cure.
According to him, the reason why the fight against corruption has met with rather limited success is that we appeared to have favoured punishment over deterrence.
“We must review our approaches in favour of building systems that make it a lot more difficult to carry out corrupt acts or to find a safe haven for corruption proceeds within our borders. In doing this, we must continue to strengthen accountability, significantly limit discretion in public spending, and promote greater openness.”
Dr. Saraki said that the National Assembly, last week, took the first major step in the fight against corruption with a direction towards greater openness.
He said that for the first time in our political history, the budget of the National Assembly changed from a one-line item to a 34-page document that shows details of how we plan to utilize the public funds that we appropriate to ourselves.
Speaking on the anti-corruption legislation being considered by the Senate, the Senate President said serious attention is now being paid to the passage into law the following bills:
“The Whistleblower Protection bill, which I am confident will be passed not later than July 2017.
“The Proceeds of Crime bill
“The Special Anti-Corruption Court, which would be done through constitutional amendment and;
“The Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill.”
He said that the National Assembly, driven by the saying that “whoever comes to equity must come with clean hands” had demonstrated itss commitment to transparency and a more open legislature, adding: “we will be operating on a higher moral ground in carrying out our oversight duties as prescribed by the constitution.
“We need to simplify our bureaucracy and administrative procedures. Because it is in the complexity and red-tapes that corrupt officials profit. However, I also strongly suspect, while not justifying anything, that majority of these low level corruption are largely powered more by need even more than greed.
“If we are able to build a quality public education system, especially at the basic and secondary level, which would not require parent to pay through their nose for their children’s education; if we are able to build an efficient public health system that provide insurance covers to ordinary citizens so that when they fall sick, they can access quality healthcare without running from pillar to post looking for money; if we are able to build a system that guarantees food and shelter to everyone; if we are able to do all these, we would have gone a long way in removing much of the driving force for corruption at this level.”
The Senate President berate Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index on Nigeria, saying that the year-on-year report does not fully reflect or account for the progress being made in the fight against corruption.
It was his belief that the key challenge is ‘perception’ which he said, is largely subjective, adding that it is important for the Transparency International and other such organizations to improve on their methodology by developing more robust parameters that reflect the progress that some countries are making in respect to corruption. [myad]
