Razaq Bamidele
As the war against corruption and corrupt practices appears ineffective, the Executive Secretary of the Presidential Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Prof. Sadiq Isah Radda, has assured that there is hope that the cankerworm that has eaten deep into the society’s fabric could be defeated and reduced to a tolerable level.
The university don, in an exclusive chat with The Nigerian Xpress, in Lagos, recently raise the hope that the monster can still be defeated if all hands are on deck with everybody taking responsibility, positing that, the monster is man-made and can be defeated by the man that created it with appropriate conduct, correct attitude and good mind-set.
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His words, “Yes, there is hope for the anti-graft fight to succeed. I say that because corruption is a human problem. We are not born criminals.
“We were not born corrupt. It is a human problem created by human beings and can be tackled by human beings.”
But when asked whether corruption can be totally wiped out of the country, the university egg head said not really, reminding that even in some decent countries like Denmark, Sweden, Finland and all these Scandinavian countries, there is corruption but it is so negligible that it cannot impart the system.
According to him, even during the prophetic time, there was corruption but not the kind of corruption we have here whereby out of one thousand naira (N1000), people would steal nine hundred and fifty naira (N950), admitting that, “you cannot compare that with when you have corruption where out of N1000, people will steal just twenty naira (N20).”
He, however, expressed sadness that the country was so bad when he was being appointed into the committees to know that, an average Nigerian is wicked to his fellow Nigerians, agreeing that the attitude and conducts are not only about the government officials.
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“Even people at low level are simply mean, wicked, dishonest and insincere. And sadly that has percolated up to all levels of government. If you look at what we are doing at the Federal Government level, many things are okay, we have recorded a lot of success in the fight against corruption,” he wondered!
In spite of that, the university don expressed optimism that the war could still be won if the judiciary, National Assembly, Judges and lawyers are cooperating, feeling that, if they do the needful, the war would be as good as won.
“So, those lawyers that are good and decent, we like them. But those that are simply looking for money, they should go to the farm or go and do some ugly other things and not to stain the sector because they want to make money. It is not a commercial enterprise. Justice bothers on freedom, liberty and even lives of the people. And justice touches on the socio-economic wellbeing of the citizens. So, once you want to commercialise your legal profession, it is useless,” he concluded.