Group calls for sustained support for fight against corruption

National Chairman of the group, Engineer Ahmed Zakari Nguroje, who stressed the need for Nigerians to support  the Federal Government, said Nigerians have been enslaved in their own country as a result of corruption.

The group made the call over the weekend in Gombe at the formal launch of its North-East campaign on peace, support for good governance and fight against corruption.

According to the National Chairman of the group, the Community for Peace and Corrupt-Free Society came into being in order to support government and add value to the country.

He said it became necessary to form the group out of the desire to sensitize Nigerians on the need to fight corruption.

“The fight against corruption is a collective one. We are grateful to have a courageous president who said enough is enough,” Engineer. Nguroje noted.

While appealing to Nigerians to rally round and support President Muhammadu Buhari’s fight against corruption, he decried the situation whereby only a few corrupt people want to run down the country.

“The wealth of the country belongs to all Nigerians, monies being recovered from few corrupt persons belong to Nigerians. We must support President Buhari in the fight against corruption,” he said.

Chairman of the occasion and former secretary to the Borno State Government, Alhaji Baba Ahmed Jidda, commended the initiators of the group, stressing that the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari has brought peace back to the North-East.

As part of activities to launch the campaign in the North-East, erudite scholars delivered papers in line with the theme of the event with members drawn from Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States.

Dr. Isaac Ogbogo Ediba, a historian at the Gombe State University, in a paper titled: “Effects of Corruption and Imperatives for Good Governance”, noted that the Nigerian political economy has been structurally damaged and deformed by systematic corruption.

“We now have a system in which more and more people have come to realize that hard work does not pay, wealth is to be acquired by being well connected to the state”, Dr. Ediba said.

He pointed out that except when Nigerians, particularly large-scale looters, are made to face the consequences of their actions through the application of the rule of law, “the future of this country is in jeopardy.”

In his paper, Dr. Muhammad Maikwato Lawal, president, Certified Institute of Management, enjoined Nigerians to join the fight against corruption.

He however urged President Buhari not to relent in his effort or to be discouraged because corruption is truly fighting back.

“Mr. President must be aware that the task is rather herculean, especially considering the fact that he is surrounded by these agents, even within his inner cabinet,” he said.