THE nation's fight against corruption has failed due to lack of commitment of the generality of Nigerians to the campaign, according to the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Emmanuel Ayoola.


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Ayoola spoke in Akure, Ondo State yesterday just as the state governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, said that "the worst form of corruption is the one being practiced in this country where proceeds of graft are taken across the borders to deny the country of investible funds."

The two men spoke yesterday while opening the fourth session in the series of conferences organised by the anti-graft body for relevant committees of the Nigerian legislatures and Anti-Corruption, Transparency and Monitoring Units (ACTUs) of ministries, departments and agencies of the three tiers of government.

The three-day conference, which has participants from the South-West geo-political zone, according to Ayoola, "is aimed at providing the much-sought platform and collaboration between legislative committees on anti-corruption from the three tiers of government and the ICPC and between legislative committees and ACTUs on how best we can move the fight against corruption forward."

The ICPC boss said the theme of the conference, which is "Building and promoting transparency and accountability in public and private sectors: A collective responsibility of all Nigerians," was chosen "to emphasise our belief that fighting corruption is not the sole responsibility of the ICPC or government alone but the collective responsibility of every citizen of this great country."

While blaming the generality of Nigerians for the failure of the anti-corruption crusade, he said: "The fight against corruption can succeed only if Nigerians at all levels stop paying lip service to the fight, change their corrupt ways and embrace integrity and accountability as the only way forward to national honour and prosperity.

"Efforts by previous governments over the years at fighting corruption and indiscipline would have yielded positive results but for public apathy and widespread lack of integrity in society. This we must all join hands to change to empathy, transparency and accountability to achieve national transformation."

Mimiko, who opened the conference, said: "Although corruption is very bad for any system but at least the one that would keep the proceeds within our shores is better than the one that deprives our economy of funds. It is unfortunate that the bulk of these stolen funds get trapped abroad while only a trickle gets back here in form of donations."

According to him, "the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the seven-point agenda of the Federal Government and any transformational strategy at all tiers of government can only be attained in a corruption-free environment."

The governor, who disclosed that his administration had put in place an anti-corruption mechanism to prevent graft, however, told his audience, which included legislators and public officers drawn from the South-West Zone, that "the concept of re-branding Nigeria must start with the integrity of the ballot box."

http://odili.net/news/source/2009/jun/17/15.html