The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission (ICPC) in Nigeria, Bolaji Owasanoye has said that corruption remains a huge obstacle to development and destroyer of ethical values in the country.

Mr. Owasanoye made this known on Monday, 2nd April 2022 while speaking as the Guest Speaker at the ‘Annual Making a Difference Leadership Seminar’ of the Harvest Fields International held in Lagos State.

The ICPC chairman, who opined that corruption undermines infrastructural development due to suspicious procurement processes, said, “Corruption is the greatest obstacle to development and an existential threat to unity. It affects everyone and everything negatively and gravely.

“In the minimum, corruption destroys ethical and moral values; compromises the security, justice and rule of law; deprives citizens of economic, social and constitutional rights; breeds distrust, mistrust, unemployment, violence;

“Breeds poverty as it diverts resources from poverty reduction projects; hinders effective resource allocation and deployment, and fuels ethnic distrust and conflicts due to unjust resource allocation.”

Speaking further on the occasion, Mr Owasanoye identified the recovery of assets from corrupt persons as a key measure of fighting against corruption.

“Asset recovery from corrupt persons has become necessary to deny them the use of whatever they had stolen from the public coffers. Our efforts are geared towards the recovery of identified stolen assets and resources that will be used for the development of the country.

“Millions of Nigerians suffering denial of basic social services and lack of infrastructures such as hospitals, schools, water and employment will receive succour when stolen assets are recovered from looters.”

The ICPC boss cited some scriptural passages in his recommendations to the seminar participants on how to make a difference in leadership while avoiding corrupt tendencies.

The recommendations, according to him, include: reducing expectations of reward or gratitude (Luke 17:10); having options and reminding oneself that he or she is not the only person who can do it (1 Kings 19:10); and focusing on basic needs not the vanities of life (1 Tim 6:8).

He also recommended ignoring praise singers who exaggerate someone’s importance to the system (John 6: 25-26), forgoing a privilege or entitlement when in doubt about it (1 Cor. 6:12), conceding benefits to others and focusing on the welfare concerns of subordinates (Matt. 5:40), shouldn’t be ambiguous about integrity issues (Proverbs 11:3), and be ready to speak truth to power and to walk your talk.

Earlier in his welcome remarks, the host and Senior Pastor of City Harvest Church, Abraham Akinola, stated that the 2022 Leadership Seminar was aimed at creating a better society and providing redemption for the country.

He therefore called on the general public on the need to emulate the life and attitude of Christ to preserve the nation.

Pastor Akinola said “It has been a long journey. This is the 16th Edition and is creating a better society. We shouldn’t be overwhelmed by our numerous challenges. We have Nigerians who have faced the challenges of our society and our guest speaker is one of them.

“We need to exert the influence of Christ more in our life and attitude to enable us to preserve our nation. We, particularly, need the character of Christ in our life, choice of words, dress code and attitude, in order to influence a change in our society.”

Corruption has unarguably eaten deep into our collective bone marrow in Nigeria as a people, that, it requires only severe and candid measures to ensure its holistic eradication within the shores of the country.

The concerned law enforcement agencies in the country, such as the ICPC and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), may have a genuine intention to tackle the societal menace and cankerworm, but the truth remains that corruption is really fighting back.

This is the reason these agencies must take the bull by the horn in ensuring the bad eggs in their midst militating their lawful efforts are thoroughly fished out and equally brought to book.

To truly end corruption in our land, we must at all times be wiser and smarter than the devil at all cost.

The Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, on 4th May 2022, formally declared his presidential ambition on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital territory.

Feyemi, who is currently the Chairman of the Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum (NGF), listed some challenges he intends to fix if he becomes the president of the country in 2023.

It’s noteworthy that, so far, 13 aspirants have joined the presidential race under the aegis of the APC. Some of them are Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo;  the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and Senator Rochas Okorocha.

Others are Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State; the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige; Minister of State for Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajuba; Governor David Umuahi of Ebonyi State; Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, and former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole.

The Ekiti State governor explained that he wants to be a president to ensure peace, and secure a future for Nigeria’s children, saying he had enough public service experience to pilot the affairs of the country.

He said, “Beyond my early forays into the public sphere as a student leader, my abiding faith in the oneness of our country has been further reinforced by all my subsequent engagements in national affairs as a scholar, civil society voice and institution-builder, community and political organiser with an unapologetic pan-Nigerian and pan-African outlook, tireless advocate for human rights and democratic governance, two-term governor, federal minister, a founding Coordinator of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, and two-term Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

“Here then is my motivating testament and confession: I am a patriot born in these climes in the course of the first decade of our country’s independence, and I stake a bold claim to say that I am a full-blooded child of Nigeria. I grew up as did many of my generation socialised into the ideals of a united and virile nation. In my lifetime, I have witnessed some heart-warming moments of nation- and state-building that would make any citizen anywhere immeasurably proud.

“But I have also seen some truly challenging days in our journey of nationhood which have tested our collective resolve and demanded the exercise of considerable political savvy by our leaders over the years. I have taken as a key lesson from the admixture of high and low points we have experienced as a country that when and where we are charitable to one another and allow our shared humanity, innate spirit of solidarity, hard work, perseverance and underlying patriotism to prevail, we always succeed in overcoming and thriving through adversity.

“Hope such as I offer with my candidature is premised on a shared vision on which we can all agree, and for which we collectively strive, of a nation that is more confidently and uncompromisingly at one with itself, serving as home for all of us regardless of ethnicity, class, gender, age, disability, region or religion.”

Fayemi, therefore, promised that he would in the course of his campaign adhere to the highest standards of decorum, decency, and respect that Nigerians expect of their leaders, pledging to bring to full fruition his promises to the pride of all Nigerians and the admiration of the world.

His promises were as follow:

– To give full effect to this, concrete programmes of action will be launched in priority areas that will allow for a revamping of the credibility of the Nigerian state, the promotion and fulfillment of an enhanced social contract, and the rebirth of the national identity.

– Programmatically, as the standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress, I will be leading the implementation of a holistic and integrated response to the multifaceted security crises confronting us. To this end, the retooling of our armed forces, intelligence agencies, and border guards will be pursued in tandem with an overhaul of our policing system and the phasing in of bold universal social policies that will enable us decisively tackle poverty and upgrade human capital and security.

– The adoption of broad socio-economic measures that enhance our capacity to fight insecurity must be done at the same time as investments in reinforcing the deterrent capacity of the state through its armed forces, security agencies, and policing authorities. Authority and legitimacy coupled with deterrence and rapid response go hand in hand, just as we must better design and interface economic policies with broad social objectives and goals of political inclusivity towards a well-defined outcome, namely, sustained peace, stability, and progress of our country.

– Let there be no doubt: For the economy to serve broader social and political purposes that enhance human and state security, stem poverty, and promote national prosperity, my agenda for Nigeria encompasses attention to questions of productivity, diversification, domestic value addition, investments in and incentives for research, development, and innovation, and the expansion of domestic revenue mobilisation, among others.

– Considerable work is already ongoing on the upgrading and expansion of our infrastructure and one of my prime objectives would be to accelerate this both through public investments and partnerships with the private sector whilst simultaneously ensuring that we enforce accountability and get much greater value for money.

– By the same token, a major rescue and investment programme for the education sector, the health system, the civil service, and the local government system will be launched to re-orient each of them for the task of overall national development, and progress and prosperity.

– I fully understand that we cannot secure our prosperity without ensuring that our agricultural sector is able to deliver self-sufficiency in critical food markets, feed our efforts at agro-allied industrialisation and thus meaningfully enable the transformation of the unemployed into gainful employment, reinvigorate the rural areas, foster the coordinated expansion of commodity exchanges, and boost the flow of foreign exchange into the economy.

– No vision of national prosperity however impeccable or programme of national transformation however comprehensive can deliver the outcomes desired without attention to the planning system of the government writ large. We must build on recent successes in restoring our national planning system and statistical capacity in order to open new, forward-looking approaches to development management that is research and data-driven.

– As part of this commitment, a holistic approach to decentralisation will be embraced and institutionalised so that government and its services are brought closer to the people. Our programme of decentralisation will also feed into the goals of a stronger, more united, and stable Nigeria, outcomes which are not only good for our domestic prospects but which will also benefit West Africa, the rest of the African continent, and a troubled international multilateral system.

Fayemi and his co-politicians should desist from overheating the polity. The polity is already heated by various politicos, hence doesn’t deserve further heat.

Someone he has served a certain state as Governor for two terms, and intends to emerge as the president of his country, ought to at least start his declaration speech or campaign movement with a holistic outline of his numerous verifiable accomplishments while serving as a governor.

Truth be told, if one goes to Ekiti State right now for verification or fact-finding, he or she must ascertain that most pensioners in the state are still owed a backlog of pension and gratuity arrears. This is happening in virtually all the 36 states across Nigeria. Payment of gratuities has abruptly become a ‘tale by moonlight’ to sitting Nigerian governors.

Fayemi, a presidential aspirant, cannot tell Nigerians that all the roads in Ekiti, both rural and urban, are duly tarred and presently wearing a new look.

Nigerian politicians have really deceived their followers so much that they all deserve retirement at the moment. What Nigeria needs right now, is, total cleansing with complete fresh bloods, if we truly seek progress. The citizens have heard enough of these insincere promises.