US Group Emphasises Economic Benefits of Anticorruption War

Anayo Okolie

The national president of Abia State Associations in North America (the United States and Canada), Dr. Chris Ike, has said that Nigeria would attract billions of dollars in investments from America if it effectively and successfully prosecutes the war on corruption. Ike, who spoke at the weekend in Umuahia, also said the federal government’s sincere commitment to the payment of the agreed percentage of recovered funds to whistleblowers would be a major boost to the fight against corruption.

The pharmacist on a medical mission to Abia State warned the Muhammadu Buhari administration against politicising the anticorruption war. “The government should not politicise this fight or use it as propaganda machinery for people in authority against their political opponent, but it should put the right people in the right position for the war to be meaningful,” he stated.

Ike said ASNANA had carried out many medical missions to Abia State since 2014 with over 40 medical personnel on each medical mission. According to him, apart from treating over 10,000 sick people and the aged, the medical missions had supplied medical equipment to hospitals and health centres in the state worth millions of naira.

According to him, “We ordered a container load of medical supplies, it arrived Abia State from Atlanta, Georgia, in December 2016 and it was distributed to Abia hospitals. As we speak, there’s also a container load of personal energy transport we brought into Umuahia for cripples.”

“All these are free. And our idea is that any area we can help the government to impact positively on the lives of the people, we don’t hesitate to move into it and we’ve been succeeding so far.”

He disclosed that ASNANA will hold a symposium and exhibition of Made in Nigeria products in Atlanta later this year, explaining that prominent Nigerians, including the Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, and other distinguished Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora, will deliver lectures on durability and viability of Nigerian made goods during the symposium.