Rooting out high-level official corruption, ending impunity of perpetrators, and turning around the country as a whole will require more than mere promises and preaching of decency but strong leadership at the highest level of government, President Goodluck Jonathan has been told.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) gave the counsel on Sunday, after observing that the president’s New Year statement promising that his administration would move faster in 2013 to meet the basic needs of the citizens is rather routine and rhetorical.
“What is required now is for this government to act more and promise less,” SERAP observed in a statement made available to Huhuonline.com on Sunday and signed by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni.
“The President must show strong leadership and lead by example if he is to earn the trust of Nigerians and convince them that he is truly committed to the fight against corruption.
“Half-measures, which avoid public scrutiny of the president’s own asset declaration, and effective prosecution of corruption cases when they involve those connected with this government are utterly inadequate and tend to throw the government into disrepute.”
The organization also observed that lack of leadership accountability and transparency in the management of public finances and public spending have continued to exacerbate the country’s growing poverty and underdevelopment.
“Ultimately, the responsibility for sorting out Nigeria rests with President Jonathan. The buck stops with him. Nigerians will judge him not by the number of promises he has made but by the number of roads repaired, decent hospitals established, and how much difference he is able to make to ensure the enjoyment of other basic necessities of life for millions of impoverished Nigerians,” the statement added.
“Genuine fight against corruption can’t happen unless President Jonathan wants it and leads by example. We are concerned that this government has continued to deny the endemic nature of corruption at the highest level of government.
“This attitude is aptly illustrated when, in response to the courageous statement by Bishop of Bomadi Catholic Diocese, Vicarage Hyacinth Egbebor underscoring the systemic nature of corruption in the country, President Jonathan recently claimed that ‘most of these things we talk about as corruption are not even corruption. It is true that in most cases we talk about corruption as if corruption is the cause of most of our problems.’”
The group applauded Bishop Egbebor’s statement, saying he deserves a national award for standing up for millions of impoverished Nigerians and speaking truth to power.
“But we are concerned about the president’s response,” it added. “Despite its corrosive effects on the wellbeing of millions of Nigerians, this government has failed to understand that the biggest problem confronting Nigeria today is the monster of corruption and impunity of perpetrators. It is indeed the root cause of the country’s absolute poverty and underdevelopment and the consequent denial of citizens’ economic and social rights.”
SERAP advised the present government to be concerned about the 2012 Failed States Index published by the United States-based Foreign Policy Journal, which placed Nigeria in the 144th position of its annual ranking of 177 countries; and the 2012 United Nations’ Human Development Index, which rated Nigeria 159th out of the 172 countries polled.
It described the reports as evidencing low quality of life across the country, due to the systemic denial of access to safe water, health and educational infrastructure, among others.
“Therefore, doing better in 2013 and meeting the basic needs of the citizens will require President Jonathan to prioritise and demonstrate his expressed commitment to fight corruption by urgently ensuring the effective prosecution of those suspected of massive corruption in the fuel subsidy system and fully recover stolen public wealth and resources,” the statement further said.
SERAP also said that “leadership by example also means that President Jonathan should move swiftly to declare and publish his assets for Nigerians to see” and that “all outstanding corruption reports, including the House Committee report on the subsidy racket. must be fully implemented and perpetrators effectively punished.”
This, it argued, should be the road-map for the government in 2013.
