Corruption: There is no governance in Nigeria – Ezekwesili

Pioneer Director-General of Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (Due Process Unit), Dr Oby Ezekwesili, has called on Nigerian leaders to take seriously, the corruption charges levelled against Nigeria by economy monitoring organisations, both nationally and internationally.

She spoke at a forum on leadership organised by the Day Star Christian Centre in Lagos on Wednesday.

According to her, if the current administration claims to be fighting corruption and rating bodies still scores the country high in graft, it means no significant progress had been made in the fight against the menace.

Ezekwesili, a chartered accountant and a co-founder of Berlin-based Transparency International, said after 53 years of independence, Nigeria had no governance but merely “massive transaction of operations”.

She said: “There is no good governance in Nigeria. Good governance is about governance that gives the highest possible results and it is on the basis that most of the time, the best choices of policies are being made and that results are being clearly achieved.

“If you look at the misalignment of our resources and the results, it will tell you that we have less than the kind of effective governance that we should have.

According to her, “The government should review the rankings and tackle corruption as it should to ensure that obstacles hindering Nigeria from becoming great are removed.

Recall that the former Minister of Education, early in the year, alleged that the governments of presidents Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, squandered $67 billion in foreign reserve.

“In 2007, the incoming Administration was handed $45Billion in Foreign Reserve plus $22Billion,” she stated.

But the allegation was described as “outlandish and clearly fictitious” by the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku.

He also said the damning comment by the former Vice President (African Region) of the World Bank on education sector, was a self-indictment as she presided over the sector without making any positive impact on it.

The Minister added that her criticism only amounts to hypocrisy as she contributed to its sorry state because despite receiving N458.1billion between 2006 and 2007 for the sector, there is nothing to see in terms of achievements.

“If she says education has not worked, it means she is saying she did not work”, Maku.

In her response, Ezekwesili said: “I Challenge them to a public debate of facts regarding 2007 Excess Crude Account (ECA) and foreign reserve and last five and half years oil revenue.”

However, the Federal Government is yet to agree to the debate, despite boasting that it would publicly take on the former Minister, to present its case.