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Don�t abuse TI, reform your government �Oshiomhole tells Obasanjo
Festus Owete, Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress has advised the federal government to look inward and reform itself rather than castigating Transparency International for its determination of corruption index.
The Berlin based corruption watchdog had on Wednesday in London, released its 2004 corruption index, placing Nigeria as the third most corrupt nation in the world behind Bangladesh and Haiti.
But the federal government in a swift reaction, faulted the indices used for the rating by the organization, saying that it failed to take full cognizance of the various efforts made by the Obasanjo government since its inception to curb corruption.
However, the NLC president, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, dismissed government�s reaction asking it �to be transparent and demonstrate by example,� rather than criticising the assessment.
Speaking through the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Owei Lakemfa, Oshiomhole said corruption is pervasive and must be addressed. �The fact that government has set up structures, namely ICPC, Due Process etc, does not change anything. The important thing is - what happens behind the structures.�
He added: �There is a saying that �good deeds are better than good creeds�. It is for government to change things.�
According to him, �If government says it doesn�t like the method used by TI, even if you conduct a similar one in Nigeria, among Nigerians, they are still going to tell you that this government is one of the most corrupt governments we have ever had.
�You come across a civil servant who wants to get his basic entitlement after putting in 35 years, he bribes to collect his gratuity; he bribes to collect his pension, If there are houses for allocation, the worker pays bribe to get the allocation; he pays bribe to get promotion. These are realities that we see. The facts are there. Government cannot deceive the people by this protestation. The fact is that the government is a highly corrupt one. What are you going to tell the commercial drivers? There have been reports about Policemen shooting and killing people just because of N20 bribe. It is a common thing. So, rather than protesting, government should do something practical.�
Commenting on the rating, the Labour leader added:� At a time, we were even number one in the world but now we are number three. We have not really improved because Cameroon used to be number one but we have overtaken Cameroon. If the government looks at the mirror and it doesn�t like its image, which is what TI is presenting to it, it can decide that it doesn�t like it and it can protest against it but that does not change its character.
He added: �If you have a government that implements 20 per cent of the budget, if you have a government that spends money outside what has been appropriated by the National Assembly, that government cannot be corrupt-free. Former Defence Minister, Theophilus Danjuma, was asked why he was not coming back after four years, he said for the four years that he was there, the capital vote for Defence never came. So, where did the money go? This government has openly accepted that it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars, about $200 million repairing refineries that never worked. Who did they give the money to? Who are the culprits? What have they done about it? Has anybody been charged?�
Saturday PUNCH, October 23, 2004.
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