Yenogoa
The former Governor of old Anambra State, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, has suggested that native oaths should be administered on elected and appointed political office holders to tame the tide of corruption in governance.
The politician, who said traditional oath should be legalised for all political office holders, claimed that it would help reduce corruption in the country.
Presently, elected office holders are subjected to oath of office and alliance using either the bible or Koran depending on the faith of the person concerned.
However, Chief Ezeife thinks political office holders don’t seem reckon with oaths taken based on these holy books, stressing the resort to native which impact is automatic and deadly would be more effective than waiting for divine judgement in the hereafter.
“The root cause of Nigeria’s problem is corruption and unless every Nigerian is ready to re-orientate his or her mind, change from this dreaded monster called corruption, the country will remain backward and stagnant.
“In fact, political office holders should be made to take traditional oath instead of pledging oath of office and alliance based on the bible and Koran. They don’t seem to be effective like the native oath which impact could be immediate once one violates it”, he said stressing that native should be legalised.
Chief Ezeife, who made the assertion at the Government House Banquet Hall in Yenagoa during a public lecture to mark the 6th year anniversary of restoration government, also urged the South-South and South/East not to rely on other regions for their agricultural needs.
Instead, he charged them to wake up from their slumber and recover their self reliance and self sufficiency in food production, stressing that apart from boosting their economies it hasten industrialisation and reduce unemployment.
Ezeife, who was the chairman of the occasion, said the ruling APC government at the central has moved Nigerians from frying pan to fire in the name of change which he said has launched the country into deep mess.
In his lecture, General Alani Akinrinade rtd, said in the past it used to be Resource Control or Fiscal Federalism but said there was hidden agenda: self-succession, army arrangement, sovereign national conference.
“In the seventies, we had romance with diarchy and its discontent. Now it’s the noise of restructuring rumbling across the country.
“No phrase or political terminology has been a source of pain and perplexity to Nigerians than the notion of restructuring or devolution of power”, he said noting restructuring does not lead to an automatic Eldorado.
“It’s not a panacea for good governance but a strategic ancillary. Restructuring is not a once and for all cure or talisman but a means to an end. Any restructuring with the current grinding poverty, feudal squalor, biblical misery and larceny, Nigeria will not achieved anything”
