EMINENT scholars of international repute on Friday charted a new course to the development of Nigeria and indeed Africa, proffering suggestions on how to rid Nigeria and the continent of corruption.
Speaking at the 2012 Kuramo Conference held with the theme "The Global Commonwealth" at Eko Hotels and Towers, Lagos, Friday, the scholars, including Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka; a professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, Paul Collier; an international economist andmicroeconomic analyst, Dr. Dambisa Moyo and the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola SAN, decried the rate of corruption in Nigeria and the damage it has done to the economy.
Soyinka, who was also the chair of the session, said that corruption in Nigeria has become a metaphor. He stated that corruption among government officials was monumental, alleging that it manifests more in the award of contracts. "I honestly do not know how we can tackle corruption. We found the wives of local council officials driving around in government cars. We have parallel and unofficial offices that serve as appendages and contribute in plundering the economy. First ladies who are unelected running parallel governments and running pet projects which fizzle out as soon as possible contribute to the issue of corruption we are talking about.
"If you say in Nigeria that government officials should surrender their official cars, those cars would disappear through the borders before dawn or some of them would be buried under ground until the whole thing dies down," Soyinka said.
Governor Fashola in his speech said that people used to think that corruption is the cause of Nigeria's problems while corruption is rather the consequence of the problems we have a nation.
"Corruption is the consequence of the problems we have and not the cause of our problem as a nation. The causes of desperation and vulnerability lie in the very lack of infrastructure. To me, much more developmental oriented investment by both the government and the private sector to make life more meaningful and bearable for people is the better way to tackle corruption," he declared.
But Moyo was of the view that the worst culprits in the issue of corruption in Nigeria are government officials. He stated that the greatest injustice against the African continent borders on the attitude of government officials who have elevated corruption to an official status.
Her words: "Corruption starts from the top and there must be much more aggressive sanctions and punishments if we must get out of it. When I visited Rwanda last three years, I found out that the president had advised those in government to use their personal cars. In Rwanda also, no government official is allowed to travel with government fund abroad for a medical care. If the hospitals in Rwanda are good enough for the citizens, it should be good for the government officials."
The event featured speeches and reactions on education, economy and governance. It also featured the official flag off of the Lagos Court of Arbitration (LCA) by the former managing director of Habib Bank Nigeria Limited, Akin Kekere-Ekun.
LCA president, Babajide Ogundipe said the Court of Arbitration has come to serve as the international centre where commercial disputes would be resolved, adding that dispute resolution through arbitration is fast becoming the trend and the world's choice of business disputes settlement.
