Centre Expresses Concern over Rising Corruption in Nigeria

Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano

The Mambayya House Anti-corruption Project, Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Studies at the Bayero University Kano has expressed great concern over the rising cases of corruption in Nigeria.

The Project Director of the centre, Professor Ismaila Muhammad Zango, made the complaint while addressing a maiden press conference on the activities of the project in Kano yesterday.

He said following a survey conducted by the project, it had come to understand that corruption had become endemic in Nigeria, as the menace had cut across all sectors of the country.

According to the director, “The ingrained status of corruption in Nigeria is making our work very difficult because oftentimes, even the people you want to work with in implementing this project are facilitating corruption rather than antagonising corruption.

“So, to change attitudes will take a long time because the people have been raised and trained in it. So to change them overnight would be very difficult.

“Somehow, corruption has become part of the blood that flows in Nigerians, which is not an easy task to combat.”

Zango said the project had within the past three years able to equip and empowered a number of both Muslim and Christian clerics with requisite information on the dangers of corruption and how to speak against it using divine injunctions and the influence they have on their congregants.

He further said the project had also been able to facilitate 12 state-wide anti-corruption coalitions of CSOs across the seven states of the North-West zone where they conducted a number of activities.

The activities, he said included workshops, media sensitisation, town hall meetings and advocacy visits towards establishing a robust working synergy among non-state actors to support government anti-corruption efforts.

The director disclosed that in line with the project’s ‘Catch Them Young’ strategy, thousands of primary school pupils and students in secondary schools and tertiary institutions were trained in leadership skills.

“This has resulted in the establishment of anti-corruption clubs in 40 secondary schools and 27 tertiary institutions across the three geopolitical zones in the North as part of efforts to inculcate good moral values in the minds of the students and prepare them for leadership responsibilities in their post-school lives,” he said.