Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri, has said that Nigeria can only overcome the problem of corruption if there is a collective action against it.
?Waziri who spoke as the guest speaker at the 62nd anniversary lecture of the Lagos Country Club said though the commendable achievements of the EFCC in the last eight years, with a record of over 600 convictions and recovery of assets worth over $12 billion, had reduced the culture of impunity that characterized the past, the root of the menace could only be uprooted from Nigeria if the collective action approach was adopted.
Speaking on the topic, “The Fight Against Corruption As A Collective Action”, the EFCC boss said it was time that discussions on corruption move beyond finger-pointing and expectations that someone else should fix the problem, adding that the need to fight graft through collective efforts was borne out of the indisputable fact that one ‘cannot clap with one hand.’
“As a result of the commission’s efforts,” she said, “the impunity that characterised the days of yore has significantly declined. Those who only recently could not be touched or questioned are today being made to answer questions on accountability and transparency. Some of those who before now saw prisons as reserved for the low-level publics are today sharing facilities with inmates in those same prisons. That is how it should be and that is the whole essence of the rule of law.”
She therefore, charged members of the elite class to start work towards changing the notion that the ‘national cake’ was meant to be shared rather than baked by all Nigerians, the idea that leaders come to ‘chop’ rather than work provides a fertile ground for the kleptomaniac elite to steal from the public till.who are obsessed with siphoning public funds.”
While quoting from a statement made by former American President, R.F Kennedy charging citizens not to look the other way when their collective wealth is being looted and laws flouted, Waziri stressed the need for Nigerians to stand up for the defence of their freedom, commonwealth
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