BY UBON EKANEM, CALABAR – The Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Calabar Diocese has lauded Federal Government’s efforts at fighting corruption, but insists the war should be total and sweeping across the polity.
Bishop of the Diocese, Rt. Rev Tunde Adeleye said since corruption is an endemic problem that begins with non-observance of laws and norms of our society, the war to curb this societal ill must not be selective and should be fought within the ambit of the law.
In a message to celebrate Nigeria’s 57th independence anniversary in Calabar, Rev Adeleye listed the indices that promote corruption as dishonesty, illegitimate benefits, greed, deliberate covering or destroying of the truth, fraudulent practices and bribery, adding that the war must be fought with potency and patriotic zeal to uproot the cankerworm from our sub-consciousness if the nation is to win this important battle.
He however identified joblessness, over taxation, bureaucratic bottlenecks in governance and non-implementation of true federal character principles in political appointments as some of the issues that must urgently be addressed by government for the war to succeed.
The clergyman also said efforts should be geared toward promoting Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to create room for employment generation, while the cost of education and medicare should not be affordable but also available to the Nigerian masses.
Furthermore, he said that aside from adequate funding for Anti-corruption agencies, the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) particularly should be properly equipped to closely monitor the morality of all political office holders and even the civil servants.
The Diocese, currently holding its 2017 annual synod conference in Ikom Local Government Area of Cross River State, also frowned at the existing Revenue sharing formula adopted by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) to distribute monthly statutory allocation to all tiers of governments.
Rev Adeleye maintained that the formula’s oppressive and lopsided nature has added intensity to calls for restructuring so that states that produce the national wealth are favoured and not properly catered for.
He said though restructuring is imperative, it should be done in a manner that the country would not be dismembered with the federal government concentrating on overseeing the nation’s foreign policy, defence, internal affairs and air travels and telecommunications, broadcasting and trade, leaving the states to look after public transportation, prisons, hospitals, police, conservation and environmental issues.
According to him, restructuring should ensure devolution of power to states as a way of re-dressing existing challenges of governance through power sharing among the federal government, states and local governments.
