Acting Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Barr. Ekpo Nta, has said the rising insecurity in the country can be blamed on menace of corruption that has bedeviled the country.
He also said the commission had consolidated its preventive strategy against corruption through the introduction of ethics as a core subject on corruption in the nation’s primary and secondary schools curricula.
Speaking in Lafia, the Nassarawa State capital, at a public sensitisation lecture, organised by the commission’s National Anti-Corruption Volunteers Vanguard Corps (NAVC) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Nassarawa State, Nta said Nigeria must invest on its youth as the future of the country depends on them.
The ICPC boss, who was represented by the National Coordinator of NAVC and Resident Consultant, Media and Event of ICPC, Mr. Folu Olamiti, explained that introduction of ethics as a core subject on corruption into the school curriculum was to enlighten the children on reasons they must fight the menace, which had eaten deep into Nigerian system, from their tender age.
He said one monster standing between the youth and a good future is corruption, while also urging the youths to shun examination malpractice, bullying and cultism.
He said: “The future of any country is determined by the past and present antecedents of what you invest in. Our youth is our future, and one monster that stands between them and a good future is corruption.
“Today’s programme is meant to help you identify the monster and teach you how to wage war against it, if you are desirous of reaping and enjoying what is rightly yours in a country richly blessed by God. If we do not sustain a zero tolerance of corruption, we can safely aver that sustainable economic and social development is unattainable, because security and stability in the society is threatened,” he added.
In his lecture titled; “Corruption: The Genesis of Nigeria’s Socio-Economic and Security Challenges; The Way Forward”, Mr. Olajide Itiafa Ayodele, a public speaker, said Nigeria has no business being poor and so corruption has to be fought in all ramifications.
“At the root of the corruption quagmire in Nigeria is the failure and virtual collapse of governance, the contamination of democratic values, the erosion of accountability procedures, and the looting of the money meant for the socio-economic development of the country, thereby creating poverty and security challenges,” he said.