Organised Corruption & Stealing

Corruption is judicially noticed in Nigeria, meaning I do not have to prove its existence, we agree it is endemic in our society. We heard about the billions that have been stolen by officials in charge of pencom, we learnt about the discovery of the senate that ministries and other federal government agencies falsified their budgets to the tune of 1 billion naira and we have seen many government officials who are being charged to court by the EFCC monthly.

Fact is corruption is systematic and organised in this country, like the italian mafia, corrupt organisations
In Nigeria are manned by intelligent and unscrupulous agents who would go to any extent to keep their machinery running, they would kill to protect their illegal industry and protect themselves from prosecution. Our very own anti- corruption Czar. Mallam Nuhu Ribadu had two attempts on his life,one by poisoning and the other by bullets.

Prof. Wole Soyinka stated that corruption is the one reason why Nigeria is still under developed. Monies meant for development have been diverted into swiss bank accounts and storage tanks buried under huge mansions and palaces. While of course the masses keep leaving in poverty, recently the Nigerian Bureau of statistics stated that 112 million people in Nigeria are living in poverty, this figure doubled from 65 million in the 1960s. Remember that we are just about 150 million people in Nigeria.

Truth is there have been many lectures and symposiums on the evil of corruption,however this hasn't been of any help. The EFCC and ICPC are under staffed and cannot fight corruption adequately, for it exists in both the public and private sectors. What then can we do to make corruption go away?

I can begin to mention in bullet points a lot of things we can do, from a renewed vigour from the executive to tackle corruption and proper participation of the general public in anti corruption campaigns, however I want the federal and state governments to also create more anti - corruption agencies.

If each state had its own unique anti-corruption agency that is focused on eradicating corruption in that state,it would in no small way complement the efforts of the EFCC and ICPC, that way, we would have about 38 anti corruption agencies in Nigeria fighting to kill this 3 headed dragon called corruption, not to mention the employment opportunities it would generate.

What do you think?