The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari will not relent in his war against corruption until the scourge is destroyed in the country.
He also called on Nigerians to join the battle against corruption in the country.
“This is not Buhari’s war; this is not the All Progressives Congress’ war. This is a war for all Nigerians and we must all join hands in waging the war,’’ Mohammed said while delivering a lecture on Friday at the Faculty of Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.
He claimed that once the people were determined to fight corruption, they were assured of victory.
The minister said, ‘’No power has ever been great enough to defeat a people who are determined to win. Let us all form what I call citizens’ coalition against corruption by speaking up against the crime, refusing to glorify or support looters, irrespective of how much dirty cash they dangle before us, and refusing to be divided along religious or ethnic lines.”
While listing the effects of corruption in the nation, the minister said Nigeria lost $400bn in the oil sector alone, adding that so much money was stolen by corrupt leaders from the health, education, security and other sectors.
According to him, atrocities committed by the Boko Haram insurgents continued for many years because the funds allocated to buy weapons for the military were shared by some corrupt persons.
Apart from massive loss of lives and property, Mohammed stated that corruption in public office had caused endemic poverty, poor infrastructure and lack of qualitative health care, among other effects.
The minister, however, claimed that corruption had started fighting back, saying some of the corrupt persons had started hiring hack writers, pseudo analysts to attack the President’s war against corruption in the media.
He said, “On the part of government, let me reiterate what I said earlier that there is no stopping this fight. Those who doubt the resolve of this administration to successfully wage this battle will learn a tough lesson, a lesson of their lives.
“Failure is not an option in this fight. In the days ahead, we plan a road show of sorts on corruption sensitisation efforts.”
Mohammed decried the use of ethno-religious sentiment to weaken the anti-corruption war, but asked Nigerians to ignore the trick “because poverty and other effects of corruption did not discriminate between people according to ethnicity or religious beliefs.”
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