The Labour Party presidential candidate, Dr Chibuzor Okereke, has called for an integrated approach to fighting corruption in the country.
Okereke made the call while featuring on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Personality Interview Series on Sunday in Abuja.
He said that an anti-corruption mechanism should be put in place for early identification and uprooting of the menace if the country must move forward.
Okereke said while the laws should be activated to take its course on those found culpable of corrupt acts, measures must also be put in place at family and community levels to checkmate corrupt tendencies as well.
“First of all, you must address the root cause from family values before it gets to national values, ethical principles and reorientation of the people.
“So far, the anti-corruption agencies have done a lot but they need better political will and better condition of service to scale up.
“As a student union president in my university days, I was part of those who established the anti-corruption vanguard in our university. The basis was not to make people afraid, it was to make them do what they are supposed to do right.
“So, you cannot get it wrong in our primary school, in our secondary school, or in our universities, and you think you can get it right in our society.
“It is the output of those units that are the inputs expressed in the larger society. So it will be an integrated programme to fight corruption when we are voted into office,” he said.
The presidential candidate also stressed the need for transparent handling of recovered looted funds, saying such funds should be used to execute monumental projects.
He stated that project implementation and supervision would be decentralized for effective monitoring and evaluation to curb corruption.
“I know people expected me to say, oh, we are going to jail corrupt people; while the law will take its course, my approach will be totally different; let us address the root causes before dealing with the effect,” he said.
Okereke noted with regret that Nigeria is currently at the realm of “state exit,” a situation where the people appear to be detached from the government’s activities, while the government’s projects are seen as nobody’s projects.
“We must reconnect with the people to see them as partners in progress with government and to hold government accountable at their levels.
“We are going to be big on issues of social security, promoting a merit-based society, promoting social justice, and people will believe again that the government of Nigeria cares for the citizens,” he said.
