Teach moral values to succeed in graft war, DIWA tells FG

Development Initiative of West Africa (DIWA), a non-governmental organisation, has called on government to entrench moral values in the nation’s educational system “through effective teachings in Islamic and Christians Religions Knowledge in order to succeed in the war against corruption.” Chief Executive Officer of the organisation, Dauda Kanneh, stated this yesterday in Minna during a walk out against corruption by student participants of a five-day leadership training.
He explained that that the high level of corruption in all sectors of the country “can only be eradicated by inculcating moral values in the students as future leaders through religious studies.” Kanneh said the rate of corruption in the education sector was alarming, adding that it was not restricted to financial fraud but also examination malpractice, cultism, truancy and paddling of lists of items required by students to parents.
He said: “Studies have shown that it is corruption through fraud and embezzlement that has deprived Nigeria children, especially from poor families, the opportunities to be educated and enjoy other social amenities. Therefore, we feel that we should support government in the struggle to fight corruption.
Our programme is also helping global communities to fight corruption.
“We are interested in educational system that has moral values.
We have advised that education system should have moral values and teachings from both Islamic and Christian religions.
It is believed that once you have religiously conscious people you are more likely to have less corrupt environment.” He said over 180 secondary school students drawn from 24 secondary schools across the state, participated in the leadership training workshop tagged “effective use of student leaders in fighting corruption and promoting integrity in Nigeria.” Kanneh said DIWA had in the past 10 years carried out various interventions in health sector, capacity building and peace building process during which Imams and pastors had been trained