Resist temptation of Corruption ; Gani Adams charges Nigerians at Ifa festival
The promoter of Olokun Festival, Otunba (Dr.) Gani Adams has charged Nigerians, especially those of Yoruba extraction to emulate Orunmila and resist the lure of corruption and all its trappings. He made this call at the grand finale of 2015 Ifa festival held at the Government Technical College, Ado Soba in Lagos on Tuesday, September 1st, 2015.
In his welcome address, Adams said one of the problems that continue to hinder Nigeria’s quest for growth and development is the issue of corruption. He noted that the trauma created by this problem has made it an issue that needed to be urgently tackled if the country’s quests for development are to be realized.
”In our country today, Corruption manifests in different forms. This range from petty, administrative, or bureaucratic corruption that include transactions by individual public officials who abuse their office by demanding bribes and kickbacks, diverting public funds, or awarding favors in return for personal considerations to grand corruption which accommodates theft or misuse of vast amounts of public resources by state officials.
“Corruption also manifests in form of patronage, paternalism and clientelism. This occurs when officials use their official position to provide assistance to clients or colleagues within the same geographic, ethnic, or cultural origin so that they receive preferential treatment in their dealings with the public sector, including public sector employment”, Adams noted.
Adams, who is also the National Coordinator of the socio-cultural organisation, Oodua People’s Congress, OPC as well as the Chief Convener of Oodua Progressive Union, OPU, added that corruption undermines democracy and the rule of law.
He said corruption is a canker worm which leads to violations of human rights and also erodes public trust in government.
His words, “corruption in judicial systems denies both victims and the accused the right to a fair trial. It stifles economic growth, stunts human development, divides communities, corrodes the protection of human rights, and undermines the ability of the international community to tackle transnational crime.
Corruption leads to misallocation of resources, fosters misguided and unresponsive policies and regulations, lowers investment levels, reduces competition and efficiency, lowers public revenue for essential goods and services, increases public spending, lowers productivity and discourages innovation, increases cost of doing business (serves as tax on business), lowers growth levels, lowers private sector employment levels, reduces the number of quality public sector jobs, exacerbates poverty and inequality ,and hinders market oriented reforms.
“It constitutes a big drawback to even the achievement of Millennium Development Goal (MDG). The crux of corruption and corrupt practices are monetary or financial benefits or gains. Economic corruption is particularly endemic in most African countries. In Africa, Nigeria inclusive, the World Bank and the United Nations paints a picture of the gory situation.”
Speaking on the loss of resources in the African Continent, he said over $1 trillion is paid every year in bribes and more than $400 billion has been looted from Africa alone and stashed away in foreign countries.
On the impediments caused by corruption he said the urgent antidotes to this scenario is Ifa. He added that Ifa prominently offers ways out by first cautioning the people to be wary of behaviours that encourages corruption.
”As espoused by Ifa , primitive acquisition of wealth as is widely discovered recently is futile and unprofitable. We are encouraged by the corpus to shun these vices, imbibe good character and embrace acquisition of knowledge that can aid Nigeria’s developmental desires. The message we can further tease out through the adoption of Ifa is that we must give support to the government’s efforts at stamping out corruption from our national lives”, Adams concluded.
