Lawyer calls for stiffer laws against corruption

A legal practitioner and anti-corruption activist, Mr Roland Emem, on Monday said that Nigeria needed stricter laws to ensure effective war against corruption.

Emen said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola, that Nigerians must also imbibe the right attitude to dissuade corrupt tendencies at all levels.

I am of the strong view that with the right anti-corruption laws and a properly empowered Will to fight corruption, even the devil will not like to be corrupt in Nigeria.

Corruption thrives and flourishes in Nigeria not necessarily because efforts are not being made to fight it, but because our laws have not brought transparency in government business to the level that will discourage corruption.”

Emem described President Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria’s “biggest asset in the fight against corruption, because of his personal integrity and will power.”

He said Nigerians must, however, develop such attitude as exhibited by the President, so that by the time he leaves office, the war on corruption would be institutionalised and sustained.

NAN reports that Emem had recently drafted a Bill on anti-corruption, which he forwarded to the Presidency for transmission to the National Assembly as an executive bill.

Tagged “The Government Business Bill”, the legislation is meant to sanitise government business, encourage implementation of budgets and protect public funds including loans from diversion.

Part of the bill seeks to compel all signatories to contracts at federal, state and local government levels, to deposit copies of the signed contract documents with public libraries and those of Ministries of Justice.

He said that the aim was to make it easier for the general public to access information and track implementation of government contracts.

The legal practitioner believed that such approach would help to bring down the level of corruption in the country by 80 per cent