Group says corruption major challenge hindering growth, development in Nigeria

From: Femi  Oyelola, Kaduna

The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ) has  said corruption has remained a major challenge that is hindering the growth and development of Nigeria.

He  asserted  this during the National  Dialogue on Anti-Corruption held  yesterday.

The  Dialogue was organized Under the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) project, a USAID-funded project being implemented by Palladium in collaboration with Nigeria Resource Partners (RPs) and working in collaboration with 8 clusters working to enhance anti-corruption and social inclusive reform initiatives in Nigeria.

The   Anti Corruption  Crusader lamented that the underdevelopment is visible because Nigeria  and other Africa  Political leaders, multinational corporations, the business elite, and civil servants with the complicity of banking and property industries in Europe, North America, and elsewhere stolen around $148 billion annually according to  United  Nation (UN) and the  Africa  Union (AU).

Rev. Ugolor said the  2022 CPI report ranked Nigeria 150 out of 180 countries, saying even though the latest ranking was four places higher than the 2021 CPI ranking for the country, Nigeria still scored 24 out of 100 points which was not different from the 2021 CPI score falling back one point compared to the 2020 CPI.

The ANEEJ Executive Director informed the participants that the Federal Government of Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration while working with the international community showed commitment and determination to fight corruption.

He added that the regime also expressed a clear road map on how to trace, track and repatriate looted assets to the countries of origin to finance development.

Rev. Ugolor advised President Bola Tinubu to foster continuity and sustenance of the successes recorded during the previous administration, noting that there is a need to bring stakeholders together to articulate the key areas the new administration should focus on, so as not to lose the gains achieved in the past eight years. This is one of the reasons why this national dialogue was convened.

He stressed that continuity is key to the anti Corruption crusade because an ANEEJ assessment report on the implementation of anti-corruption commitments in Nigeria showed that actions need to be taken on several issues.