Corruption is the big issue in the Nigerian system. As a matter of fact,its seeming non-ending presence seems to have tired out all Nigerians. Like all others before him, President Goodluck Jonathan, in 2011, promised to engage corruption in a single combat.After a year down the line, the dialectics on the president's performance sheet, on his battle against corruption, still swings like a pendulum. Nigerians who desire immediate and marked effects of the president's efforts, think there is rather a let up in the fight, while some others who judge from the pervasive and deep-rootedness of corruption in the system say the president is systematically hitting the right buttons.All Nigerians, without exaggerating, would wish that corruption be zapped, so that the development of the nation can start in full swing. It is, however, delusionary to think that the battle against it would not be herculean and powerfully resisted by the very many intricate web of its beneficiaries, since it obviously runs in the nation's private and public sectors. The perception that the government's anti-corruption efforts are not measuring up to the people's demand, calls for understanding, as the responsible factor for this, lie more with the magnitude and the seeming never-changing face of corruption in the system, than with government's measures and the response time. The paradox of this issue is that, while the voice of just about every Nigerian is lamenting the corrupt system, and the government in its power is fighting it, an average Nigerian in the same breath is resolving on making wealth by any means possible. It also applies in many instances, that the man, who may be shouting hardest against the government for not fighting corruption, may just be doing so to throw everyone off the scent of corruption that oozes from everything he has ever done for a living.It is trite to state that the keenness in Nigerians to grab opportunities corruption presents, rather makes us find convenience in passing the blame for the persisting corruption on what is believed to be the government's lack of strong will to tackle it. What we lack the balls to buy is that the problem of corruption was partly made pandemic and intractable by the collective lowness of our values.Irrespective of all the criticisms, it is mischievous to deny the Jonathan-led government's will power and tactics currently deploying to ride out the challenge of corruption in the system. In terms of repositioning the anti-corruption agencies, it is easily observable that EFCC and ICPC have never been given free hands to operate by any government that preceded that of Jonathan. Rather than orchestrate their operations, the present government gives them all the things they require to function at optimum. This comes in terms of adequate funding and strengthening of their leadership cadres. For instance, it was for the latter reason that Ibrahim Lamorde was brought in to take over from Farida Waziri. Nigerians still remain united in their opinion that the change was right and well thought out.Same with the ICPC. It was all too evident that the appointment of Ekpo Unaowo Nta, as the acting chairman of the commission followed a rigorous and painstaking search for the right man to put the Commission in the groove.To cleanse the oil industry as regards the House of Representatives' report on fuel subsidy, the government, despite all the controversies that have trailed the findings of the committee, readily pushed the report to the EFCC for action.Thus assuring that no one, nor organisation indicted in the report would by no means escape prosecution. The hunger to ensure this cleansing equally drove the Jonathan government to instituting a private subsidy administration probe committee, via the Ministry of Finance, headed by Aigboje Imoukhuede, managing director and chief executive officer of Access Bank. Though the report of the Imoukhuede committee is still very fresh with the government, but, there has been an assurance that the heads of the guilty would roll, following the findings.Before the Imoukhuede committee which was put in place in May, the government had in February, strongly charged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to beam its searchlight on the Petroleum Products Price Regulating Agency (PPPRA), which oversees the administration of the fraud-infested subsidy regime. Going by the directive of the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke in this regard, the EFCC is 'to immediately review all payments made in respect of subsidies on PMS and kerosene, and to take all necessary steps to prosecuting any incidence of malfeasance, fraud, over-invoicing, and related illegalities in an open and transparent manner'.Late July, the president, following the activities of the Dotun Sulaiman-led task force and in line with the recommendations of the House subsidy probe report, sacked the management and board of the NNPC in one fell. The Sulaiman-led task force, constituted in February by the Federal Government was among other things, charged with reviewing all management controls within the NNPC and its subsidiaries. It was also charged with the designing of a new corporate governance code that would ensure full transparency, good governance and global best practices within the corporation. It will design a blueprint for separating policy from operations in the corporation and its subsidiaries; set key performance indices for the corporation and its subsidiaries, and design a blueprint for eliminating all rent-seeking opportunities and arbitrage in the NNPC operations. The special task force was also tasked and asked to come up with a blueprint for professionalizsng managements and staff personnels in the NNPC and its subsidiaries. It is a complete probe of the NNPC and its operations.Despite the decades of ruling by Nigerians over the cesspool the NNPC is, this probe instituted by the present government is the first of such since the corporation was established 34 years ago.A Nuhu Ribadu-led 16-member Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force is also presently at work; doing all within its terms of reference to cripple corruption in both the upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry, and ensuring that those who polluted the system are brought to book.Egbulefu wrote in from Kaduna
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