By Jennifer Y Omiloli
Acting executive of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, has accused mass destitution and instability in Nigeria on corruption.
Magu talked at the acceptance program hosted by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat for the returning and recently elected governors in Abuja on the topic.
“Imperative of Fighting Corruption/Terrorism Financing in Nigeria”.
The EFCC boss said Nigeria’s anti-government forces were utilizing on mass poverty to work against the nation.
He said, “Mass poverty in the region due in part to corruption by the ruling elite is largely to blame for the ease with which the Islamists are able to recruit fighters to sustain their aggression against the Nigerian state.”
Magu’s statement was not off the truth of Nigeria. Nigeria positions 144th out of 180 nations on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Additionally, in December 2018, World Poverty Clock named Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world after it surpassed India.
In February 2019, more than 90 million of around 190 million Nigerians were accounted for living desperately poor.
Be that as it may, President Muhammadu Buhari government had in December 2018 rejected the report, demanding that his administration had made occupations particularly in the territory of agriculture and reduced poverty.
Magu, in any case, expressed that the nation would be perilous if public office holders keep on botching public assets and make the general population live in destitution.
“Whether we like it or not, corruption and terrorism have become the twin evils, undermining our collective efforts to make Nigeria a truly great country,” Magu said.
While citing instances of insecurity being used as a channel for corruption, he said, “insecurity has also offered the required oxygen for corruption to thrive as evident in the $2.1bn arms procurement scandal involving top military commanders both serving and retired.”
He expressed that Nigeria’s inability to exploit its natural assets could likewise be credited to corruption as public office holders are in the habit of always syphoning public assets.
Magu additionally ascribed exercises of aggressors in the Niger Delta and insurgency in the Northeast to acts of corruption.
“As an investigator, I am shocked by the quantum of resources stolen from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by those who run the intervention agency. It is so bad that even a mere personal assistant to a former Managing Director was charged for stealing over N3 billion,” the EFCC Chairman said.
Magu deplored that Nigeria has lost trillions of Naira to corruption by public office holders and asked the governors to desist from the pattern.
