EMEKA ANYAOKU AT RUN – SAYS CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA NEEDS SURGICAL OPERATION

The former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, has said that there was the need for surgical operation on corruption in Nigeria for the nation to witness development. He made this remark on Thursday November 26, 2009 while speaking at a lecture organized by Redeemer’s University Students Association (RUNSA) at the University Chapel. He noted that corruption was the major problem confronting the nation. As he put it: “corruption is the reason for our bad roads, lack of electricity, falling standard of education, etc.” Chief Anyaoku analyzed three challenges facing the world today thus:

(i)         political challenge – conflict in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America.
(ii)        challenge of economic globalization: the world having become an economic global village; and
(iii)       challenge of climate change.

He noted that if nothing is done about climate change in the next 20-35 years, we would need two planets to sustain our current life style. According to him, if the sea level rose by four meters in Nigeria, most parts of Lagos and the Riverine areas of Nigeria would be submerged.

On the issue of democracy in Nigeria, Chief Anyaoku said that until the people of Nigeria were allowed to elect their representatives, Nigeria would remain in the woods. He condemned the present money politic in Nigeria. He said as long as money politics continued, leaders who emerged through such process would not be responsible to the electorates.  

Asked whether the Nigerian naira could be at par with the dollar, Chief Anyaoku said that the present situation of one dollar to one hundred fifty naira was a function of the current economic situation in the country. He noted that as long as Nigeria depends on petroleum as the only source of income, the economy of the country would continue to dwindle. He went down memory lane when he disclosed that in 1983, the naira was stronger than the dollar and that it took the intervention of the Government to bring the naira at par with the dollar. He called on the present Government to encourage the development of other sources of income such as agriculture, small scale industries, etc.

On the fight against corruption in Nigeria, he said that he would not subscribe to the replication of Ghana’s Flt. J.J. Rawling’s execution of past leaders. He called on the media and the judiciary to support the war against corruption by the anti-corruption agencies in the country. He applauded the judgment on the former Inspector General of Police, Mr.Tafa Balogun, and Chief Olabode George.