President Olusegun
Obasanjo has disclosed his intention to seek constitutional amendment on the immunity clause for governors and other political office holders, saying the clause has been the only stumbling block to the success of the current anti-corruption crusade.
The president who announced this in a message to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), holding in Makurdi, Benue State, delivered by his special adviser on Ethics and Good Governance, Mr Kanu Agabi, said the amendment, if successful, would provide the leeway for the adminis-tration to prosecute corrupt public officers who hide under the cloak of immunity to divert public funds to foreign accounts.
“I acknowledge that the nation’s effort at self-reliance has been undermined by people’s perception of the government as corrupt. I wish to assure you that the measures which we have taken against corruption are succeeding even though slow,” he said.
He said government is taking measures against those Nigerians who continue to steal public funds and stash them abroad. “Our work in this area has been inhibited by those provisions of the constitution granting unqualified immunity to certain persons,” he lamented.
“We are taking measures to effect appropriate amendments,” said President Obasanjo, while appealing to the bishops for patience and cooperation interms of prayers against corruption.
President Obasanjo also said Nigerians are living at a time when the tenets of the country required “radical change” and charged Nigerians to purge themselves of such attitudes including corru-ption, which according to him, undermines development.
“We are a new nation and we cannot afford the old ways of corruption and ineffi-ciency,” he said, adding, “we are building a new nation, we must give up our former ways.”
The president also called for unity among the diverse people of the country, stressing that the government of the day was working towards removing obstacles against economic and social growth.
President Obasanjo also condemned ritual killings in the country and all those who are engaged in them, adding, “I have directed the police to investigate all the killings and take appropriate actions against all those involved, however highly placed.
“Those killings are criminal offences and cannot be justified as a customary or religious practices. I know that you (Bishops) have always condemned these practices and I trust that you will continue to do so particularly now,” he added.
Pope John Paul’s representative at the conference, the Most Rev Dr Tratini Renzo, said his impression of the country 25 years after he left it, was that of deterioration of all sectors of develo-pment.
The clergy also described as a pity that despite Nigeria’s potentials, the country still struggles to eradicate corruption in all fields and still finds difficulties in the political field to adjust to democratic rules.
The bishops through their president, Most Rev. John Onaiyekan, said as part of the conference, they will chart a course that will lead to a more genuine democracy..
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