The Coalition of Civil Society Organizations operating in Nigeria accused Political Office Holders on Thursday of crippling the fight against corruption by appointing their cronies into judicial offices.
The CSOs, led by Senior Fellow Professor Jibrin Ibrahim of the Centre for Democracy and Development and Executive Director Auwal Musa Rafisanjani of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), made this observation during a press briefing held in Abuja.
Frowning at the endemic corruption draining the nation’s resources, Professor Ibrahim said: “we are alarmed about corruption in Nigeria. The question is why are we alarmed? We know very well that there has always been corruption in this country, so it’s not a new phenomenon.
“Our alarm is based on the new dimension that corruption has reached in our country when it’s making it virtually impossible for the government to do its work. The work of the government is to provide for the welfare of Nigerians and increasingly government is not able to do that. I think it was Nuhu Ribadu when he was the anti-corruption chair in EFCC who made the point that you must fight and defeat corruption or corruption will fight back and defeat you.
“The alarm we have is that, corruption is defeating the Nigerians State at this point in time. The first element of that defeat is that the Judiciary should buy into the response to checkmate corruption. What corrupt enablers have done is two things to the Judiciary. Introduced their friends and relations into positions in the Judiciary.
“And secondly, increased considerably the level of corruption through the bribing of Judges. So, increasingly Judiciary is no longer able to be a space that provides justice.
“The second element in terms of this defeat of the Nigerian State has to do with anti-corruption agencies themselves. There has been a converted war by corrupt people in public office in Nigeria to make sure anti-corruption agencies are unable or prevented from prosecuting corrupt individuals. This means they are turning all those institutions into institutions that are incapable of carrying out their mandates.
“The third issue and in a sense the most important is, that they are making it impossible for government institutions to do their work. We just mentioned the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs where the last two Ministers, everybody knows were pocketing 80 per cent of the budget of this Agency and made it impossible for thr last 5, or 6 years for this Ministry to do any of its work.
“And when you set up a government, it has become a competition among Ministers to see who will steal more or who will steal faster, so that’s the game and that’s the tragedy in the government circle!
“We feel that if we allow re-destruction of Nigerian State and institutions to continue, we will have no country, we will have no state and the risk is that the present tragedy of anarchy and self-help which means more and more Nigerians who have guns are using those guns against their neighbours, against the road users, against farmers, against everybody on the street, is the path to anarchy and destruction. We must stop this level of corruption from continuing to grow if we are to survive as a country,” Professor Ibrahim stressed.
In his remarks, the Convener of the press briefing, CISLAC helmsman, Comrade Rafisanjani underscored the need for Nigerians to be united in the fight against corruption, and “not to allow our country to be hijacked by those corrupt individuals who did not constitute any significant number but keeping Nigerians in vast majority, in perpetual poverty, insecurity and inequality.”
While noting that Nigeria “must move from a state of distress to one of action”, he lamented that the country has witnessed “lack of significant and sustainable progress in our nascent democracy over the past twenty-four years.”
While speaking on the ‘State of corruption and the struggle against it’, Comrade Rafisanjani noted that democracy has “persistently functioned under a veil of secrecy and lawlessness.
ALSO READ: UniAbuja lecturers oppose ASUU’s call for strike
“The management of the country’s resources has consistently disregarded the fundamental principles of democracy. Over the past few weeks, we have observed with great concern, the malicious attacks and deliberate efforts to blackmail anti-corruption agencies through sponsorship influencers, incentivised opinion publications in some national dailies, online and electronic platforms, all targeted at discouraging anti-corruption efforts and shielding the kleptocrats from thorough investigation.
“The pattern is clear, there is an unfolding plot of surreptitious moves to backpedal on the progress made by anti-corruption progress that we outline below: Judicial corruption constitutes a major challenge to anti-corruption work in Nigeria. The looters have repeatedly used their influence to manipulate the judicial process and system, to block and/or delay the arrest or prosecution of suspects.
“This blatant disregard for the rule of law has eroded public trust and reinforced the perception that Nigeria’s democracy is nothing more than a facade. Clearly, the judiciary is not living up to its responsibility of ensuring that the rule of law and provisions of the constitution are upheld.
“There have been several allegations of judicial officers receiving bribes from politicians and politically exposed persons in-order to circumvent the law. This has watered down the respect, trust and confidence of citizens in the judiciary and negatively impacted the fight against corruption. Nigerians have witnessed too many situations where courts have granted injunctions which deterred anti-corruption agencies from inviting and prosecuting corrupt government officials and politically exposed persons.”
Worried by the antics of corruption enablers in the country, the CISLAC helmsman lamented that: “Nigerians have witnessed with alarm numerous cases featuring a high number of foreign enablers from Switzerland, Monaco, Panama, British Virgin Islands and the United Kingdom (UK) facilitating corruption. Enablers from the UK are particularly strongly linked to Nigerian cases.”
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Source: