Lai Mohammed: Corruption War is Everybody’s War

Minister of Information, Mr. Lai Mohammad has said that anticorruption war is everybody’s war and that unless there is a collaboration that involves the government, the media, CSOs and others, the fight will be tougher than it should be.

Speaking at the launch of the anti-corruption situation room in Abuja, the minister said, “we have been saying that the fight against corruption is not Buhari’s fight, neither is it APC’s fight. It is Nigeria’s fight.

This means all Nigerians must take possession of this war if we are to win it. The courageous and patriotic minds behind the Anti-Corruption Situation Room have take the first critical step to ensure that Nigerians buy into this war. Permit me, therefore, to thank the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource

Centre) and its partners for coming up with the ACSR.

“May I also use this occasion to appeal to more Civil Society Organizations to join this initiative. Unless there is a collaboration that involves the government, the media, CSOs and others, this fight will be tougher than it should be.

Mr. Olanrewju Suraju, Chairman of HEDA Resource Centre, puts it most succinctly when he said, and I quote: “The central thrust is to build synergy between anti-corruption CSOs, the labor movement and law enforcement agencies, the Parliament and the Judiciary as a means of improving and broadening the anti-corruption agenda as well as creating an accountability loop and feedback mechanism between anti-corruption agencies, the civil society organizations and the citizens”.

“Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, the ACSR could not have come

at a better time. The Buhari Administration’s fight against corruption is gaining momentum, and the government is winning the war. But there is a challenge: There seems to be a feeling of numbness among the citizens about the conduct of those whose actions brought us here,

those who looted the national treasury dry. Suddenly, these same people are engaging in revisionist history and blaming everyone but

themselves for the mess their actions put the country into.