The raging insecurity, kidnapping and armed banditry across the country are consequences of corruption, poverty, unemployment and injustice against individuals in the country, a professor of sociology, Prof. Hauwau Yusuf has said.
Nigeria has recently been held in vice grip by insecurity with armed bandits and kidnappers ruling over some major highways in the country forcing both the elites and the poor to abandon particularly the Kaduna – Abuja highway for the intracity train.
This had in turn made the train, which runs four daily return trips, to become always congested forcing many passengers to stand for the two-hour duration of the trip.
Addressing a town hall meeting organised by Wadata Communication on ‘Anti Corruption and Promotion of Good Governance Across the Six Geopolitical Zones in Nigeria’ on Saturday in Kaduna with support of McArthur Foundation, Prof. Hauwau of the Kaduna State University (KASU), said for Nigeria to fully address the challenges of insecurity in the country, the causative agents must also be effectively addressed.
Speaking in the same vein, a lecturer with Nigeria Defence Academy (NDA), Dr Yahaya Onipe, decried the magnitude of corruption and its effect on high rate of unemployment and poverty in the country, noting that these indices led to rising cases of insecurity, kidnapping and armed banditry in the country.
According to Professor Hauwau Yusuf, “corruption can be defined as misuse of entrusted power for personal gain. We are all corrupt, none of us is free from corruption. It is only when we agree with this that we can take ownership of the fight and move it. There are loopholes in corruption laws; laws are made blindly, unrealistic implementation process, macro approach to fight corruption etc.
“Corruption leads to poverty, loss of national wealth, increase in rate of crime, insecurity and terrorism. Corruption is what is making the Nigeria nation poor and insecure. There is need for all of us to be involved in the fight against corruption not for government alone,” the university don said.
For Dr Yahaya Onipe, “poverty and unemployment caused by corruption gave birth to kidnapping and banditry. Northern leaders must wake up, there is no society that abandons its poor people and would not be in problem”.
The Programme Manager, Wadata Communication, Alhaji Zubair Abdurrauf Idris said the town hall meeting aimed at tackling “the menace of corruption that thrives within our society and chain of governance in public and private enterprises they has risen to unmeasurable level.”
