To reduce cases of corruption in Nigeria to the barest minimum, a former lawmaker in Enugu State State House of Assembly, Hon. Nwabueze Ugwu, has said only the people can put a stop to it.
Ugwu, who represented Nkanu West state constituency between 1999 and 2003, spoke at a stakeholder dialogue organized by the ActionAID in conjunction with Divine Era Developmental And Social Rights Initiative, Enugu.
According to him, “It was the people by their encouragements in the society, that raised corruption to the status of a deity by institutionalizing the thought that the end justifies the means, no matter how reprehensible the mean is.
“So, it is only the same people who have the potency to curtail the arrogance of abuse, discourage corruption, expose it, insist on punishment of offenders, and generally stamp it out from the body politic.”
He added that “corruption has been with us right from the first democratic republic through the second, the military era, the still-norm third republic, to the present fourth republic.
“In Enugu, corruption has been common place in the civil service. The wage bill of the state civil service underwent continuous padding by civil servants at the top echelon, who in turn collect the padded figures at the end of the month, while the padded names are commonly referred to as ghost workers.
“Even the direct payment of salaries to workers carried out intermittently could not permanently solve the problem.
“He said it was in a bid to permanently solve these problem that the state government established the integrated personnel payroll and information system (IPPIS).”
Referring to a tripartite article written by Messrs Okafor Nneka Ifeoma, Ifeanyichukwu Michael Abada and Omeh Paul Hezekiah, Ugwu revealed that “the introduction of IPPIS and computerization exercise has ethically exposed and blocked the holes through which the state treasuries were siphoned and it has also enhanced quality planning and budgeting in Enugu state.”
Speaking earlier while welcoming participants to the programme, ActionAID Nigeria’s country director, Ene Obi, said corruption has caused more death than HIV/AIDs and malaria.
To her, corruption distorts competition and trade, reduces investments and slows development.
“For is at ActionAid Nigeria,” she said, “we believe that a government that can manage its resources effectively can eradicate poverty or reduce it to the barest minimum. ActionAid Nigeria has implemented projects in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. We have seen the reality of poverty at the grassroots and are without any doubt that corruption being one of the major causes of these deprivations, when dealt with decisively, will liberate many Nigerians from the strongholds of poverty.”
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