Date: 2015-07-22

Against the backdrop of reducing corruption to the barest in government MDAs, EZREL TABIOWO writes on the spirit behind the passionate commitment by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to align forces with President Muhammadu Buhari in the fight against corruption.

Following President Muhammadu Buhari’s sweeping crusade aimed at ridding corruption at all levels of governance in the country, the 8th Senate under the leadership of Bukola Saraki, two weeks ago aligned forces with the President when the upper chamber openly declared that it will not tolerate corruption just as he stated that there will be no more hiding place for corrupt people in Nigeria.

Recall that Senator Saraki, who served in the 7th Senate as Chairman, Committee on Environment and Ecology, had stated that the Senate under the leadership of Senator David Mark, failed in its bid to move forcefully against corruption owing to the number of inconclusive probes undertaken by the upper chamber between 2011 and 2015.
inconclusive probes by the 7th senate under Senator David Mark were investigations into pension administration in the country, kerosene subsidy scam, police pension fund fraud, the Stella Oduah probe, $20 billion missing oil money, $15million private jet/arms scandal, Immigration job scandal, Malabu oil deal scandal, and Ekitigate scandal.

In a statement issued on June 5, 2015, four days before Saraki contested the Senate Presidency, he had faulted the 7th Senate for not acting on the report of the probe instituted on the Immigration recruitment tragedy of March last year, which resulted in the death of several young Nigerians.

In the last four years, Saraki said the Senate had far-reaching oversight investigations to secure the constitutional directives of government, protection of rights and freedoms, reduce corruption, and engender accountability in public office.

of the watershed moments of the last Senate, he added, included the investigation into the fuel subsidy management regime, which led to the exposure of monumental corruption in the running of the regime which may have caused Nigeria, over N1tr due to over invoicing and criminal collusion.

The Senator said: “Looking back, we can pat ourselves at the back in the way we had handled some of the thorny moments but we must also look back and agree that in certain respects we need the incoming Senate to make amends.

“Why Nigerians all over the country and beyond still question the effectiveness and efficiency of the National Assembly as a legislative body that can help deliver democratic dividends and rule of law in Nigeria today is because in their assessment, the activities of the National Assembly have not fully converged to their expectations.

Nigerians are unanimous in pointing to the fact that the level of accountability, transparency, certainty, competitiveness, continuous improvement, efficiency, innovation, integration, evidence-based decision-making at the National Assembly still leaves much to be desired.”

Determined to ensure a turnaround under his watch, the Senate President recently expressed the upper chamber’s zero tolerance to Corruption when the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta paid a courtesy visit to his office at the National Assembly, Abuja.

Senator Saraki noted that most of the problems confronting the country stemmed directly from monumental acts of corruption which according to him, has almost reached a crisis point, hence the need for better collaboration by all national institutions to reduce it to the barest minimum.

Said he, “It is important for us to meet with you, to let you appreciate where we stand  on the issue of corruption and to also listen to you for us to know some of the issues that are challenging to you because the ICPC, EFCC and Code of Conduct Bureau remain the most vital institutions in the fight that we are waging against corruption today.

“We want to make the anti-graft war a priority for the Senate because we believe that it has got to a stage where it is truly endangering the entire system and some of the symptoms that we are seeing in the areas where it is affecting our national development is becoming more and more clearer to all of us.

“The message we want you to take away today is that the 8th Senate is ready to work with you. The 8th Senate is not going to provide any safe haven for anybody.

“The 8th Senate wants to work very closely with Mr. President on this very issue and I am sure with the political will, both on the part of the executive and the legislative and the agencies, we might not be able to eradicate it completely, but we can bring corruption to a level that as a country, we can be proud of

“I am very committed on this and so are a lot of my colleagues here. The party is over. Everybody needs to know that we need to sing a new song because without it, we have all seen that we are getting into a crisis and we need to admit it,” Saraki said.

He noted that the cost of corruption in the life of Nigeria goes beyond financial cost, stating that corruption has manifested in the inability of state governments States to pay monthly salaries, education and health sectors not being well funded and other social services collapsing.

He said: “We are seeing it in the state of our schools, the impact on our education.

We are seeing it in the state of our health institutions and the impact on maternal and child mortality. We are seeing it in the ever increasing cost of governance, failure of public institutions and infrastructures.

“I am sure that when we all went round to campaign, one of the promises we made to Nigerians was that we have to fight corruption and as people elected by Nigerians, we must keep fulfill that promise and we have taken it upon ourselves that one  of the deliverables of the new dispensation is to bring an end to corruption.

“For the 8th Senate, making corruption a priority is a must and we are committed to that and our goal is to work with you, the EFCC and the Code of Conduct Tribunal to reduce significantly the level of corruption in our system.”

According to him, when a government gets to a stage that it cannot meet its obligations, “Then we know we are getting into a crisis and that crisis also requires drastic actions. If we are pussy footing before, it is now time for us to be serious.”

Earlier, the ICPC Chairman, Nta, said tackling corruption requires that the substructures that support corruption in the system be addressed before going after the “symptoms of corruption.”

He said: “Public officers have been put through a lot of destabilization during the changes. They have not pensions paid and all these had accumulated to the point where they have to resort to self-help.

“We discovered that if the civil service is working optimally and the shortcomings are addressed, the issue of corruption would be made unattractive”