Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Yakubu Dogara, says the issue of corruption
is not something that can be eliminated
completely out of any community, just like
prostitution and other vices. Dogara said
this when he spoke with some Editors in
Abuja recently. The speaker says he lacks
the English word to describe anyone who
thinks he can eliminate corruption totally.
“I know we have promised to open
the books and we will definitely open
the books, certainly. I however don’t
know in what form the corruption is
said to be. Let me first say that the
parliament is not something that
exists outside of Nigeria, and the
issue of corruption itself is not
something that can be eliminated
completely out of any community,
just like prostitution and other vices.
What you can do is to reduce it to
the barest minimum, to a level that it
is almost seen as non-existent. The
advanced countries that we try so
much to copy or speak so glowingly
about do have issues with corruption
too in spite of what they have been
able to achieve. It is not that
corruption has been eliminated 100
per cent. We have seen this hydra-
headed monster called corruption
rearing its head even in elections of
certain jurisdictions. Clearly the signs
are there, but our collective effort is
that we reduce it to the barest
minimum. I lack the English word to
describe anyone who thinks he can
eliminate corruption totally.
To eliminate it totally will amount to
eliminating the totality of the human
race, because no human being is
clothed in perfection. All we can do is
to reduce it to the barest minimum.
You can imagine a situation where
we have the death penalty against
vices like armed robbery, but as you
are shooting them, somebody is busy
robbing somewhere. So sometimes
you can’t phantom the nature of the
human mind, because you think that
by the time you apply the maximum
punishment, people will run away,
screaming if they catch you, they are
going to kill you, I won’t do it. But as
they are executing armed robbers,
some people continue without care.
Even when they are executing drug
traffickers in some countries, more
people are still doing it. So you see it
is a battle that we will continue to
fight.
There won’t come a day when
Nigeria will sit and say we have
eliminated corruption, this is a
perfect society, let’s work on. That is
one notion we must discard. If we are
ever going to achieve that, then there
won’t be need for institutions like the
EFCC, ICPC or even the Police. They
have been fighting crime since the
age of Nigeria, but there are still
crimes. So the National Assembly is
not an institution that exists on its
own. It is part of the society and I
cannot say you cannot trace any iota
of corruption to the affairs of the
National Assembly.
Honestly speaking, there could be
cases, but the point is when we
discover them, they should be
properly apportioned punishments.
Not just to express dissent but
apportion punishment that is
appropriate; punishment that is
capable of deterring others” he said.
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