Daily Independent Online.
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Wednesday, July 07, 2004.
Corruption: NANS threatens to
publish allocations to FG, states
By Chukwudi Achife,
Bureau
Chief, Enugu
Apparently frustrated by the inability of
the Federal Government to stem the tide of corruption among public officials,
the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has said it would publish
the statutory allocations to the federal ministries and the various state
governments since the exit of the military from office in May 1999.
Its National President, Mr. Tony Nwoye,
told journalists in Enugu that the body would also embark on an inspection tour
of the states to see what each of them had done with their allocations.
This, he said, would enable the association
fish out those both at the federal ministries and in the states that have
mismanaged or embezzled funds meant for improving the lives of the people and
consequently ensured the society continued to decay and stagnate.
He disclosed that the association had
already obtained documents detailing the allocations from the Ministry of
Finance and would publish it on August 15.
Said he, “We have collected all
documents from the Ministry of Finance on allocations to all ministries and to
the states and on August 15, we shall publish them state by state. After that
we will embark on an inspection tour of the states to see what has been done
with the funds.”
He also warned that the association would
confront the Presidency if it failed to take any action against any ministry or
state official found to have been involved in any illegal dealings with the
funds.
The students also decried the high level of
unemployment in the country warning that the situation could lead to anarchy if
urgent steps were not taken to arrest it.
Noting that over 98 per cent of Nigerian
youths were unemployed, Nwoye accused government of paying lip service to job
creation, adding that NANS had no confidence in the ability of the government
to bring about any meaningful change in the situation through the recently
launched National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS).
