Dons Seek Life Jail For Corrupt Public Officers

Members of the academia on Tuesday urged the government to put in place stiffer measures to punish public officers found guilty of corruption.

Their call came on the heels of corruption allegation levelled against some highly placed and well-paid public office holders in recent times.

The dons told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that greed and “poverty of ethics of office” were responsible for highly-paid officials stealing public funds in their care.

A former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos, Prof. Lai Olurode, said that such attitudes were attributable to poverty of ethics.

Olurode noted that some public office holders were not interested in what they could offer the country but how they could quickly amass quantum of resources for themselves.

“What some of these politicians are exhibiting is a totality of the failure to respond satisfactorily to our quest for living.

“There is a moral vacuum among our politicians going by the way they handle public funds because in other countries, people live for a purpose.

“In our country people do not have proper socialisation as they do not connect with the past. Once they find themselves in power, they lose their moral guide,” he said.

The professor of Sociology said, however, that some of the politicians behaved the way they do because of their limited horizon.

According to Olurode, such politicians have no laid-down principle and philosophy of life.

According to him, Ghana was able to develop the way it did under the late President Kwame Nkrumah because of his selfless service and the kind of principle he adopted.

“Here was a man that even as a president had no building of his own, all he lived for was to ensure that his people got the best in life.

“This is a radical departure from what we get in our country from public office holders.

“They do not go for things that would give them ideas, that would create impact and leave a long lasting legacy for future generations,” the don said.

He urged the government to urgently reconsider a more appropriate measure to effectively check the activities such corrupt public officers and reduce corruption to the barest minimum.

On his part, Dr. Karo Ogbinaka of the Department of Philosophy, also of the University of Lagos, suggested life imprisonment with hard labour for corrupt government officials.

Ogbinaka argued that abuse of office, especially with regards to embezzlement of public fund was rife because of the very light punishment.

“Government is treating the matter of corruption in the country very lightly, that is why the first thing some politicians do on getting to office is to loot public treasury.

“They use part of the looted funds to quickly get a lawyer as soon as they were charged with corruption and in no time they wriggle out of it,” he said.

He said that for the country to move to the next level, it must strive to deal decisively with the issue of corruption.

According to him, the Asian tigers were able to get this far because they started by showing zero tolerance to any form of corruption.

Ogbinaka, who is Chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Lagos chapter, also blamed the judiciary for the high level of corruption.

“Our today’s lawyers are not doing what they are supposed to do because they also share from the loot.

“They keep defending corrupt politicians by delaying the processes of justice and bringing all forms of technicalities, after they have been properly taken care of by the politicians,” he added.

He called on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to rise up to the challenge of ensuring that the judicial system retained its deserved integrity.

Prof. Duro Ajeyalemi, former Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, called for a re-orientation of political office holders.

Ajeyalemi also advocated a continuous induction process for the politicians to serve as a guide to their actions.