The Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church Church, Bishop Mathew Kukah has expressed concern about the fight against corruption in the country urging the government to convince the people that the proceeds recovered from corrupt individuals would be channeled to direct impact on their lives.
Bishop Kukah, who described corruption as a symptom of the sickness the country was suffering from, said that corruption translated directly to the absence of government’s influence and impact on the lives of the people.
The cleric, who expressed worry in the way corruption was being treated by people in power, lamented that from the look of things, it was obvious that many people were behaving as if the fight against corruption was the fight of one single individual.
Reading from his book, titled, “Witness to Justice” at the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy Reading Club, Kukah urged the people not to be misled by the option of coup, adding that government must engage the people to give them a hope of a better future.
He said, “It is over one year, we have still not started the trial of people who misappropriated the $2.1billion. We still have over $198b to find since the president himself confirmed that about $200billion has gone through corruption.
“So, to me, it is a question of strategy, a question of thinking, a question of rethinking and a question of defining our objectives.
“Nigerians have to become convinced that the proceeds of corruption will be to the benefit of their own lives. If they don’t get that fact, it won’t earn their support. So far, we are behaving like fighting corruption is the business of one man.”
Kukah noted that there were people in power who believed that they were not accountable to people. He stressed that it was important for everyone to know that the solution to our problem did not lie in anybody threatening anybody with coup.
“Coup is always a summit of the frustration of ordinary people but I think what Nigerians must also learn is that, governance is a complicated and painful process. In a dysnfunctional society like ours, with such a high level of illiteracy, it doesn’t get to that point until after a lot of painful work has been done.
“There is nothing that they are going to solve by simply talking about fighting corruption and taking back money. It will be no use if we don’t commit resources to people’s benefit, especially in terms of educating them, because the more educated people become, the less vulnerable they will be to the manipulations of the corrupt
“That is why I said, if we see corruption as just arresting people who are purported to have stolen money, it won’t work,” he said.
