[Article Comment]Financial Integrity And Transparency Within Government And The Role Of The Nigerian People

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[emj]

Being the only Nigerian at the conference, it was very embarrassing to phantom that the only thing synonymous to Nigeria is corruption.

Eherm Fatima, dats the sort of embarrassment we face and experience daily everywia we go. That which u experienced at the conference is small compared to that which i as a Nigerian in diaspora face each time i introduce myself. This past few weeks have been very painful and harrowing for me to the extend that it got to a point that i almost denied my roots..i had to tell some people that am from Africa and that was it...i saw the face of someone i was trying to do some business with when i confirmed that am from Nigeria West Africa...i was then waiting for him to come out with his fears...but thank God i had very good personal references.

You made mentioned of the the anti corruption agency not being the only one to fight corruption and that Nigerians shld be involved...how? when we report blatant and obvious cases of corruption... is Farida the EFCC boss selective about them? Why has she not being able to prosecute corrupt politicians whose files wia handed over to her?
She is currently flexing ur muscles with the bank thingy...which if we are not careful will end up with the same ringaringaroses jerky end.

Financial Integrity and Transparency cannot be viewed and discussed in isolation...is the Efcc transparent in it's dealings?

Nigeria is a signatory to conventions we can tap into like the United Nation’s Convention Against Bribery and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. Anti corruption conventions are especially important in providing a framework for addressing cross – border issues. They facilitate international cooperation in law enforcement by requiring countries to make the same conduct illegal, harmonizing the legal and institutional frameworks for law enforcement and establishing cooperative mechanisms. Both the AU and UN Conventions take a comprehensive approach to preventing and combating corruption. They both include preventive and punitive measures, as well as provision for international cooperation. Both conventions both contain provisions on the freezing and forfeiture of assets obtained through committing offences covered under the two conventions. It is also very interesting to add that in countries like Spain and France, non governmental organizations have the standing to file corruption charges against individuals.

It will interest u to know that the AGF is not keeping with the terms of the convention...i very much doubt if he understands it...he seems to be either so retarded or just plain stupid.

BTW are u related to Farida?

[denker]

wat precisely is dis woman talking about...? i do not understand...i swear to allah..lol!

[Auspicious]

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I recently attended a two days conference organized by Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development, in Washington D.C, on 16^th -17^th September.

It will not surprise anyone to know that on both days Nigeria was used as a reference point by almost all the speakers when it came to financial integrity and corruption by past leaders and public office holders.

Being the only Nigerian at the conference, it was very embarrassing to phantom that the only thing synonymous to Nigeria is corruption.

Yup, that's the bitter truth.

Yet, whenever the need to defend (more like pay lip-service to defending) Nigeria's image or integrity, the likes of Ms. Dora Akunyili never find this sort of thing to campaign against.

No, you never find them standing up to go about the country to campaign against corruption or abuse of power.

No, you never find them going around the country to campaign against an endemic culture of electoral malfeasance.

No you never find them going around the country to enjoin citizens to demand accountability of their local and national leaders.

No, you never find them going around the country to exhort the people to defend their rights and their votes.

No, you never find them going around the country's university campuses to campaign against campus gangsterism.

No, you never find them going around the country to campaign against things as 419 and other social vices.

BUT you find them going about the country doing everything else:

Like going about lecturing the good people of Nigeria on how they need to stand-up for the country (government?) as currently constituted!.

Like going about complaining about how Sony is depicting one of our more corrupt leaders as the very epitome of corruption that he is.

Like telling a people cheated by their own insuffrably inefficient government how they need to "join hands" to make Nigeria great again!

Like blowing a gasket whenever another foreigner pokes fun at one of the many things that a laughable about Nigeria as currently constituted.

Like going to meet my palm-wine tapper relative deep in the farms of Ekiti to lecture him on the need to promote Nigeria's image (yeah, he will leave his meagre means to promote your thieving government!).

Like using Somalia as a yard-stick for comparison whenever Nigeria is ridiculed as a stunted nation despite an abundance of resources.

Nigerians will naturally support and defend their country if the good people (rather than the current elite criminals) are allowed to run things the right way.

Granted, every nation has its share of corruption - huge, bad corruption. Alas in our homeland, it stalks the land like a fearless beast, devoring everything in its path with almost unchallenged impunity.

The embarrassing realities will remain with us for sometime to come (despite the abundance of everything that some of our sister-nations lack) until the status-quo is dismantled.

In the meantime, the self-deception of the Akunyilis of Nigeria continues.

Auspicious.