Jonathan paying lip service to anti-graft war – Obe, Melaye, Ubani, others
SEVEN days after Nigeria attained 15 years of unbroken democratic rule, some legal practitioners and rights activists, yesterday, said there was nothing to celebrate and fingered pervasive corruption for the country’s retarded growth and development, lamenting that President Goodluck Jonathan was not prosecuting the anti-graft war seriously.
Those who shared this view are Professor Akin Ibidapo-Obe, Head, Department of Public Law, UNILAG; Mr. Dino Melaye; Mr. Monday Ubani, former Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Ikeja Branch; Mr. Debo Adeniran, Executive Chairman, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders; and Mr. Emeka Ugwuonye of Harvard Law School.
They spoke at an anti-corruption symposium organised by the Gani Fawehinmi Students’ Chambers at UNILAG, Lagos.
They said President Jonathan’s lack of political will to fight corruption and his failure to prosecute some of his aides indicted of corruption would spell doom for the development of the country, adding that it behooves on the citizenry to vote out corrupt leaders in the next general elections.
Speaking on the theme Corruption, Mis-gover-nance and Official Impunity: The Bane of Nigeria’s Socio-economic Development and Prospects, Melaye said: “I make bold to say that the government of Goodluck Jonathan is the most corrupt in Nigerian history.
“Impunity is operating at its highest level in the history of this country. This government is not fighting corruption, rather it’s romancing, massaging and housing corruption.”
On his part, Ubani said: “Fifteen years after return to civil rule, it is unfortunate we have not even got to the point of practicing true democracy because if we are practicing real democracy, most of the things our present crop of leaders do or say against the people will not be in place.
“Our electoral system must be one that allows for the triumph of the people’s will to ascertain who their leaders are. Here, there are a lot of electoral malpractices, violence and blood-letting.”
To Ugwuonye, “there is no doubt that the Nigerian citizenry have the onerous responsibility to hold government accountable.
“Though we claim to be in a democratic dispensation, we hear all the time of government making efforts to stop people from protesting.
“Therefore, there is an urgent need for people to come out and protest, seek and demand changes.”
