ABUJA —PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo’s fight against corruption came under a re-assessment, yesterday, from the House of Representatives which said government was not showing sufficient seriousness in the battle. It has, therefore, resolved to amend the law establishing the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to make it effective. The Reps said from all indications, the fight against corruption was currently restricted to Abuja “as if corruption is in Abuja alone.”
Making the position of the Reps known was the chairman of the House Committee on Anti-Corruption, Mr. Iduese Essien, at a meeting with the ICPC chairman, Justice Mustapha Akanbi. Mr. Essien said: “It appears that the government is yet to take the anti-corruption crusade as serious as it should. If the Federal Government is serious, it should fund the commission very well. The commission is supposed to be operating in all the 36 states of the federation and not just Abuja as it is doing now as if corruption is in Abuja alone. The crusade cannot be fought at the lower level alone. It has to be fought at the top level first."
The committee chairman advised the commission to strengthen the various anti-corruption units in the ministries and departments so that the units would not be sucked in by the corrupt practices of the officials. He stressed that officials of the anti-corruption units should be properly trained in such a way that they would block the discretionary practices of the officials in the ministries and departments.
He said in the coming weeks, the House would commence the process of amending the Act establishing the ICPC so that it could be made more functional and effective in its set goals. One aspect of the ICPC Act that the committee might amend is that on the protection of those exposing curruption.
Said Mr. Essien: “The committee is determined to ensure that the anti-corruption crusade really gets meaning in this country because the present level of underdevelopment can be attributed largely to the squandering of the riches of this country through corrupt practices. Although corruption has been endemic in the system, a more determined government should be able to reduce it gradually to the barest minimum
“We in the House of Representatives are going to review the law establishing the ICPC and try to block those loopholes which have made the commission less effective. We are aware that Nigerians are afraid of giving information, we would not take that excuse but we would encourage the promulgation of the access to information bill so that some protection can be given to Nigerians
“But we still detest a situation where people indulge in writing petitions with fictitious names. We have had quite a good number of such cases since this committee came into being that people in most cases, insiders in the system, write petitions with the facts very authentic but when it comes to presenting themselves, we cannot trace them. We are no longer going to accept or in fact look into such petitions,” he explained.
