KADUNA - An Executive member of the ICPC, Mrs Julie Onun-Nwariakwu, has blamed Nigerians for not demonstrating enough courage to fight corruption in the country.
She told newsmen yesterday in Kaduna that the people’s inability to check the excesses of their elected representatives was responsible for the increasing rate of corruption in the country.
“When they fail to report cases of corruption to the authorities, how can the cases be investigated and the culprits brought to book?” she asked.
Onun-Nwariakwu said the slow dispensation of justice in the country was also partly responsible for the high rate of corruption in the country.
She said: “When corrupt officers are not promptly punished by the courts, others get encouraged to commit the same offences.
“A judicial system that punishes offenders immediately discourages corruption.”
Onun-Nwariakwu said ICPC was stepping up its public awareness campaign to sensitise the people to the need to always report corrupt officers to the appropriate authorities.
She said the commission had enlisted the services of volunteers to serve in its National Volunteer Corps across the country.
The ICPC official said the commission was involving secondary schools in the crusade, by introducing a value-oriented system as part of the school curriculum.
She advised the people to show interest in the activities of their elected representatives by asking pertinent questions on expenditures and projects in their constituencies.
Onun-Nwariakwu said it was only by such expressed concern that the leaders would be made to buckle up and perform their legislative duties.
She was in Kaduna to attend a three-day ICPC workshop on operating functional anti-corruption units in government establishments for greater efficiency and effectiveness.
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