CORRUPTION vs GEJ
Officially, corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. In Nigeria corruption has been the bane of our socio-economic existence with both private sectors and public offices alike competing and collaborating in the act. With the global acknowledged status as "Giant of Africa", due to our large population with approximately 174 million inhabitants, enormous deposit of natural resources and vast economy Nigeria has found itself grappling with the possibilities of living up to the expectations of her exalted status due to one single factor- corruption! Everything in Nigeria seems to be connected with the cord of corruption making it a desperate need for a leadership that will treat this infirmity. This has been a great responsibility on the shoulders of the leadership of the nation with all hopes hanging on, prayers rising and fingers pointing to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Hence, the imperative question here is “what has Mr President done to solve the problem of corruption in Nigeria or has he done anything at all to solve this problem or is he also like every government before him contributing to the boom of corruption?”
The answer to this lies reasonably in the 2014 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index released December 3rd 2014 which ranked Nigeria the 136th most corrupt country in the world and the 3rd most corrupt country in West Africa after Guinea and Guinea Bissau. The group said it ranked 174 countries it surveyed based on how corrupt their public sector is presumed to be.The measurement is based on a scale of 0 to 100 with a score of 0 perceived as “highly corrupt” and 100 “very clean”. Nigeria was ranked 136th with an index score of 27.
Incidentally, Nigeria was ranked 143rd in 2011, 139th in 2012, 144th in 2013, and 136th in 2014 showing a trend of fluctuation. Though, the present is an improvement over the previous two things are obvious here.
One: The president is making effort in curbing corruption.
Two: The president’s actions are being opposed by some betraying elements within the system.
Truth be told, the corruption in Nigeria is a very well organised and deeply rooted syndicate that requires more than good intentions to address. It is a growth that has taken almost half a decade to mature that cannot be terminated with a magic wand. To this end, it becomes very difficult for ordinary Nigerians to easily see any work done in the fight against corruption. Whereas, Goodluck Jonathan is not the police man on the roads or in the station or other officer in the military and para-military forces in various stations and posts, he is not the civil servants in government employs, he is not the directors and staff in banks and various private sectors, he is not the lecturer, teacher or students in public and private schools, he is not the petrol attendant in the filling station, he is not the one in every nook and cranny of the Nigerian socio-economic sector where corruption thrives. He is only the superintendent who demands that we should join him in doing the right thing to eradicate corruption. This therefore requires that we should be “Goodluck Ebele Jonathan” fighting corruption everywhere we go. Already the president has taken the lead with his anti-corruption actions and policies like :
1. Granting the EFCC independence from the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to prosecute suspects of corruption practices in the public sector without interference. No wonder Festus Keyamo even became a private prosecutor for EFCC in some cases.
2. With the employment of the enterprise and ingenuity of the youth generation he introduced the e-wallet smart policy for local farmers to obtain fertilizers and other facilities without the go between of middle men thus decimating almost 4 decades of fertilizer subsidy fraud, saving N50bn in a single year.
3. He revived the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) to eliminate a major avenue of corruption in the public sector. This has resulted in the elimination of 50,000 ghost workers and achieved N139bn in savings.
4. He implemented Project Aquila to track the movement of petroleum products around Nigeria with technology thereby helping to reduce up to 20 million litters a day in PMS subsidy fraud.
5. He allows the judiciary to operate without executive interference while ensuring that no judicial misconduct is condoned. e.g approved the sack of a judge that upheld the results of a fraudulent election in Osun State even though the Judge’s decision had benefitted his own party, PDP and equally approved the suspension of a judge that had sentenced a man, convicted of stealing pension funds, to a paltry fine instead of prison
In all of these it is therefore our duty to prevent those enemies of anti-corruption from sabotaging our winning strides by representing the chief anti-corruption warrior Goodluck Ebele Jonathan where ever we are even as we vote him as our val come 14 February, 2015. To this end I AM GEJ! WE ARE GEJ!
“JE SUIS GEJ”