‘Nigeria’s Recession Caused by Massive Corruption’
Okon Bassey in Uyo
The International President of National Association of Seadogs (NAS), Mr. Aurthur Boje has said the current economic recession facing the country should not be equated with others in any part of the world as Nigeria’s experience is a fall out of massive corruption over the past years. Mr. Boje spoke Saturday in Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State during the quarterly meeting of NAS asserting that the economic recession is not natural but manmade.
According to him, the recession was up springing of mismanagement of public funds and natural resources in the country which could therefore not be compared with recession in other part of th globe. His words: “I live outside the country, I have experienced recession in Europe and America but recession in Nigeria is different. If you stamp out corruption, there will be no recession.
“They have borrowed our money, they have stolen our money, they have hidden our money somewhere and the poor man in the street does not have job to do, hence the constant rise in social vices”.. As a panacea to address the problems the nation is facing, Boje maintained that the only way out of the present economic predicament is for the citizenry is to hold their leaders accountable to governance. “The way forward is that we have to come together and ask our leaders question. We should start calling our leaders out from the day one and ask them questions publicly”, he added.
Boje regretted that the country’s health care facilities were nothing to write home about because money meant for the sector was mismanage; hence the Association was embarking on free medical treatment to indigent people in the state as government cannot do it alone. He said, “We will not come to do free medical treatment if the health facility of the country is working. I want to believe that we are here to help the community from dying of health challenges which could have been avoided in the first place or at least diagnosed on time and properly manage”..
