Anti-graft war: Change your approach, Saraki, Dogara tell Buhari

Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on Monday, advised the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to review its anti-corruption agenda by focusing attention more on prevention rather than emphasis on deterrence.

In the same vein, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, emphasised the need for strong institutions capable of discouraging the acts of corruption in the country.

Saraki said the war against corruption by the Buhari’s government would not produce result without building the system that will make it difficult for acts of corruption to be easily perpetrated.

“We must review our approaches in favour of building systems that make it a lot more difficult to carry out corrupt acts or to find a safe haven for corruption proceeds within our borders”.

The Senate President and House of Representatives Speaker said these while delivering speeches at the public presentation and Book-Signing ceremony of Senator Dino Melaye’s book titled: “Antidotes for Corruption: The Nigerian Story”, held in Abuja on Monday.

On why deterrence is a better approach to fighting the corruption scourge, Saraki said: “I am convinced that we must return to that very basic medical axiom that prevention is better than cure.

“Perhaps, the reason our fight against corruption has met with rather limited success is that we appeared to have favoured punishment over deterrence.

“In doing this, we must continue to strengthen accountability, significantly limit discretion in public spending, and promote greater openness”.

Besides, on what the 8th National Assembly is doing to fight corruption, the Senate President said: “We in the National Assembly last week took the first major step in this direction towards greater openness.

“For the first time in our political history, the budget of the National Assembly changed from a one-line item to a 34-page document that shows details of how we plan to utilise the public funds that we appropriate to ourselves.”

Saraki also said that the Senate will pass the Whistle Blower Protection Bill in July, 2017.

He said that when backed by legislation, whistle-blowing would have greater value “and it is hoped that we can pass it before July this year”.

According to him, other anti-corruption legislation being considered by the Senate, include the Proceeds of Crime Bill, the Special Anti-Corruption Court, which will be done through constitutional amendment and the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill.

Dogara, on his own, said for the war against corruption to succeed, there must be institutional reforms that will help put in place measures which will make it near impossible for people to engage in corrupt acts.

To him, corruption as a disease must be treated from its roots and not just the symptoms, and he argued that it is the moral responsibility of all men and women of goodwill to fight corruption because every individual pays the price of corruption in the society.

“As a country, we ran into a situation where corruption was becoming the norm, there was this moral cult that we had created that celebrated corruption,” the speaker stated.

According to him, “the motivation was always there for corruption, but now what is important is not just fighting the old corrupt system. Really, if we must make progress, our focus should be to replace the old order that was
corrupt with a new order that makes corruption near impossible to take place.”

To drive home his point, the Speaker said: “Corruption, for those who are farmers, is like a tree that grows vigorously. If you end up pruning the trees and not attacking the roots, there is no way you will deal with that thing.”

“So, when those who celebrate the successes of the fight against corruption in terms of the high profile investigation, high profile prosecution and even detention, they are missing the point because that is dealing with the symptoms of corruption. That is punishing corruption. But how are we developing remedies that we can apply to ensure that the tree dies?”

“Recently, in the labour community, we went for May Day and some of us were nearly held hostage. You can’t blame the workers. While they were agitating for their rights, agitating for minimum wage, some of us are talking about living wage.

“You see, the workers control, perhaps, about 96 percent of the budget. In the National Assembly, we have about 92 percent, judiciary and the rest. So, if you don’t make the environment conducive for those who administer this money not to want to be corrupt, you will end up jailing people.”

Talking about Senator Melaye, Dogara said he won’t be surprised by the avalanche of criticism that may follow this because “Dino himself is a combination of so many things. He is highly opinionated, often poignatious, and sometimes fraudulent. So, obviously, he will be a magnet for opinionated and fraudulent criticism as well, he will not escape that.”

Reported by Amobi Victor, Abuja