THE Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal and former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, have called on government for proper funding of the Nigeria Police and the anti-graft agencies if the nation's twin problems of corruption and insecurity are to be surmounted.
They took this position at a two-day National Conference on Corruption and National Security in Nigeria, organised by the Institute for Anti-Corruption Studies of the University of Abuja.
While the Speaker called for adequate funding of anti-corruption agencies, Ribadu made case for the police.
According to Tambuwal, "there is no doubt our country is faced with insecurity challenges and corruption today just like so many years back."
He admitted that the fight against corruption and insecurity is seriously giving the country a lot of sleepless nights.
He stated the need to address corruption head on, starting from schools by reorienting the younger ones on the dangers and consequences of corrupt practices.
"It is a common knowledge that corruption is all over the place, ranging from institutions of higher learning themselves and virtually all sectors of our national life, so there is need for us to re-orientate ourselves and face a direction so that we can have a better society," he said.
"For me as I said we need to embark on serious re-orientation to address the challenges and there is a need for a diagnosis to properly fund the security agencies for them to have proper training to be able face terrorism especially which is a new phenomenon here.
"And also for the anti-corruption agencies not only to be independent on paper but also to have adequate funding and the requisite financial muscle to face the uphill tasks of the fight against corruption," Tambuwal said.
Ribadu in his speech called for proper funding of the Nigeria Police because of its strategic position in fighting crime. He noted that nations faced with the twin problems of insecurity and corruption hardly survive it.
"I pray this will not happen in this country", he said.
"I know the root cause of all these, because I happen to be a lawyer, a police prosecutor, and have participated actively in the justice sector of Nigeria so I know how it started and how it happened.
It all started when we decided not to follow the rule of law."
As a way out, he suggested massive investment in the Nigeria Police NPF.
"Ladies and gentlemen let's take these two matters very serious, corruption and insecurity, these two dangerous things are in vogue today and we are in trouble in this country and if we do not do much toward addressing them, we may lose our country and it is true, as we have seen it happen in so many countries and we should not allow it to happen," he said.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, who was represented by his Director of Planning and Statistics, Mr. David Tokuru said 62 per cent of EFCC's investigation is on public sector corruption and money laundering.
The Guardian
That is very nice i must say. Proper funding is the right thing to take place for the police force. I support that wholeheartedly