The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says Federal Government’s fight against corruption is in line with the rule of law.
Mohammed said this in a lecture entitled: “The Fight Against Corruption and Rule of Law’’, at Gani Fawehinmi Symposium in Lagos on Friday.
The symposium was organised by the Gani Fawehinmi Students’ Chambers of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos.
The minister said the entire idea of fighting corruption was a constitutional imperative.
“Section 15 (5) of the Constitution gives a cardinal reason for statehood: “The State shall abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of office.”
“So, President Buhari is only giving life to this very important provision, with all his targeted actions against corruption.
“And his rallying cry to all Nigerian patriots in the forefront of the war: Nigeria must kill corruption before corruption kills her.”
Mohammed urged Nigerians to join the Federal Government in its war against corruption as “the battle is not Buhari’s war; it is not APC’s war. It is Nigeria’s war of survival.’’
According to him, not unexpectedly, corruption has started fighting back, and the fight has been fast and furious.
“One of the platforms corrupt elements have tried to manipulate is the media. Their paid agents are everywhere, everyday; in virtually all media, talking and writing about the Rule of Law.
“But I am glad to say that the media have availed itself creditably and refused to be manipulated.’’
The minister said the other platform they were trying to manipulate was the judiciary, the bastion of the principle itself.
“When cases of corruption with overwhelming evidences are taken to court, the expectation in saner climes is that the accused persons very quickly own up, save time, the victims get restitution and the society embarks on a healing process.
“If the accused persons fail to own up, they are expected to mount a vigorous defence aimed at quickly exonerating them, not to prolong the case by employing legal technicalities.
“But that is not the case in Nigeria. Here, once someone is accused of grand corruption, it is taken like a badge of honour.’’
He said rather than hide their faces in shame, they became even more emboldened.
“They hire the costliest senior lawyers to exploit or manufacture legal loopholes. That, to my mind, is the Ruse of Law.
“In the name of ‘Rule of Law’, corrupt persons continue to hold on to and vigorously defend their ‘entitlement’ to the proceeds of crime.
“Happily, we can say all that is receding into the past. We are beginning to see a groundswell of people’s anger against corruption.
“There is now more genuine public participation in government’s anti-corruption initiatives.”
The minister defined the rule of law as the subjugation of every person and every conduct within a given area to the laws of the time that are generally accepted as a guide of the conduct of the people within that given area.
“In the context of the fight against corruption, rule of law implies that every person or agency involved would act within the dictates and confines of the law.
“It implies further that there is one law for everyone and that no one is above the law. In other words, Rule of Law is the antithesis of impunity”, he said.
Human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana, urged the Federal Government to run the country with the nation’s funds owed it by the oil companies and banks instead of taking loan to fund the 2016 budget.
Falana said he wrote a letter to the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), requesting it to explain the number of oil companies that failed to remit certain amount to the federation account since 1999.
He said he wrote a letter to the Federal Executive Council (FEC), that the Federal Government was owed 20.2 billion dollars and the money had not been collected.
“In 2006, the then Governor of Central Bank, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, on his own without going through parliament, took seven billion dollar from our foreign reserve.
“He distributed it to the 14 banks at 500 million dollar per bank. Up till now, the loan has not been collected.
“Two years later, his fellow, the Emir in Kano now, Lamido Sanusi also took four billion dollar (N600 billion) and gave it to the same banks by way of bailout. That is 11 billion dollars.
“I don’t want to talk about interest. That money has to be collected because if you owe Nigerian banks today and don’t pay, your collateral will be threatened.”
Falana, who said he got the information by way of exercising Freedom of Information Act, said about 220 Nigerians were owing N5.4 trillion (N25 billion dollar) Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON).
“All together, they owe the government 66.5 billion dollars. Collect that money apart from the one you are collecting from other looters.
“Put the money in the federation account, you will have enough to run this government. You will have enough to provide infrastructural facilities for our country.”
He urged the Federal Government to assemble a team of lawyers and professors of law to assist in its move to recover the nation’s looted funds.
Mr Akinrinde Omotayo, the Head of Gani Fawehinmi Students’ Chambers of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos said the symposium marks seventh in a series to honour Fawehinmi who fought relentlessly for the enthronement of democratic rule in Nigeria. (NAN)
