The dangers of the rising wave of corruption in the country transcend the weight of the HIV/ AIDS scourge in the country, National Orientation Agency (NOA) has said. It described corruption as a great threat to Nigeria’s corporate existence.
Director-General of NOA, Mr. Mike Omeri stated this during the public presentation of a book entitled Corruption in Nigeria Exposed, written by a management consultant and CEO of Control & Surveillance Associates. He lamented that corruption is rising despite government’s relentless efforts to curb it.
The director-general, speaking through a member of the Federal House of Representatives, Mr. Garba Shehu at the event that was shunned by government’s anti-corruption agencies, urged Nigerians to fight corruption from all angles because it hinders development.
“So many roads are very bad that they need to be reconstructed. Annually, there is an allocation of money for it. We have buildings that are dilapidated but annually money is being budgeted for maintenance. We have schools without books and buildings,” he said.
“Certain amounts are appropriated. Corruption has weakened the corporate existence of Nigeria as a nation; corruption is now more contagious than HIV/AIDS. Corruption today is threatening the corporate coexistence of Nigeria because it is for the consequences of corruption that we suffer as a people and it has brought us to where we are today.”
Omeri warmed that except Nigerians do something to halt the menace, “we will face a lot of problems. The kind of situation we are facing is that the socio-economy of this country is being threatened when people cannot get jobs and when people cannot get good medical care.”
The author of the book, Chuks Nwaze, had observed in his remark that corruption in Nigeria will affect all manners of people.
“What we are facing today is so pathetic and the symptom is disaster. If Nigeria had surrendered to HIVAIDS virus in the early 80s and 90s, the population would have been reduced drastically.” he observed.
“So we are not ready to give up on corruption and we are not in support of it and it has been the way of life in the society. In fact, corruption is deadlier and more contagious than HIV/AIDS.”
