{"id":8497,"date":"2016-03-31T21:23:58","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T21:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=8497"},"modified":"2016-03-31T21:34:58","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T21:34:58","slug":"controversy-over-definition-of-corruption-divides-sagay-ezekwesili-aribisala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=8497","title":{"rendered":"Definition of what is corruption divides Sagay, Ezekwesili, Aribisala, Falana"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a><\/code>Legal scholars and experts hurled \u200everbal missiles around a round table convened\u200e\u00a0to brainstorm on winning the war against corruption at the University of Lagos\u00a0on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The round table, organised by the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law, tagged \u201cWinning the War Against Corruption\u201d was also an opportunity to launch the book \u2018Legal Perspectives to Corruption, Money Laundering, and Assets Recovery in Nigeria.\u2019<\/p>\n

The occasion began with the keynote speech \u2018Rule of Law and Treatment of Politically Exposed Persons in Corruption Cases\u2019 delivered by Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Mr. Falana, who was represented by Wahab Shittu, advocated the creation of special courts to handle corruption cases.<\/p>\n

The verbal battle began\u200e after controversial scholar, Femi Aribisala, took to the podium to discuss Mr. Falana\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no fight against corruption in Nigeria. And if there\u2019s no fight against corruption, you can\u2019t even talk about war,\u201d Mr. Aribisala began.<\/p>\n

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And then he launched into a 10 minute speech that attacked the global definition of corruption by Oby Ezekwesili, a former World Bank vice president who had earlier defined corruption as \u201cthe abuse of public space for private gains\u200e\u201d, the prescription of special courts by Mr. Falana; and current administration\u2019s effort against corruption.<\/p>\n

\"corruption\"<\/a>\u201cCorruption cannot be narrowly defined the way Dr. Ezekwesili defined it, only relating to public institutions. We are corrupt in Nigeria. The plumber, the tailor, the whole society is corrupt,\u201d said Mr. Aribisala.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we have not yet taken a decision, we have not yet gotten to a point where we are fed up. I mean, she (Mrs. Ezekwesili) had given an example of Hong Kong where people became fed up and said enough is enough. We have not reached that situation yet, I don\u2019t know why not, but we certainly have not.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2015 election was not an anti-corruption election. We did not have any political party that presented an anti-corruption mandate to us. The party that won the election was just a makeover of the PDP, I mean the PDP people moved from the PDP to the APC. If they were corrupt when they were in PDP, they became clean when they were in APC.<\/p>\n

Shoe week<\/strong>
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\u201cSo there is no mandate against corruption. If President Buhari was determined to fight against corruption, my feeling is that he gave up after losing election three times.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the fourth time, he formed an alliance with people who he despised before. And they were not necessarily people who had a track record of being (sic) anti-corruption. So today, I don\u2019t know who is anti-corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u200eMr. Aribisala said the current fight against corruption by the President Muhammadu Buhari government is merely a fight against the Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party (PDP).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to make up our minds if we really want to deal with the question of corruption. If we want to deal with the question of corruption, Nigerians themselves must insist on it and we have to deal with it at the institutional level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe institutional fight against corruption that has taken place to the extent that it has, took place under PDP. The institutional structures, even the ones that the present government is relying on, are PDP structures. Whether it is EFCC, ICPC, TSA, all these came under PDP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn ten months\u00a0of Buhari\u2019s\u200e government, there has been no institutional structure that has been laid against corruption. We have simple had media circuses accusing people of corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot fight corruption with corruption. And corruption is more than just the stealing of money. If you disobey the rule\u200e of law, you have corrupted the system. If you create an avenue where you have a big margin between the official foreign exchange rate and the parallel market rate, there\u2019s gonna be corruption. If you have children of the rich getting into the CBN on nepotistic grounds, the corruption is still with you.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a budget that is padded left right and centre, and after this was revealed you passed it and say only a small amount changed in it, and we do not know what is in the new budget, you can\u2019t say you are against corruption. There is no transparency in any of these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Aribisala further stated that the current anti-corruption effort\u200e lacks a clear focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the last 16 years was not just PDP government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legacy parties of the APC were also in power. In fact when the PDP was ostensibly dealing with corruption, it addressed people in its own party. We are not having that now.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s why I can\u2019t trust Falana\u2019s prescription that we are going to establish special courts. I don\u2019t trust this government to establish those courts. They will simply establish courts to decimate the opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like Orubebe will be arrested, and they will file cases against him and several months later they will drop the charges against him. And they will have pronounced him guilty in the newspapers on charges that will later on be dropped. That is not a fight against corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Aribisala\u2019s speech received a thunderous ovation from the guests, mostly students, a situation which irked\u200e Itse Sagay, a professor of Law and the chairman of the occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not here to make students clap,\u201d a visibly angry Mr. Sagay, who serves as the chairman of a Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-courruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here on a very serious business. And students, don\u2019t behave like American electorates who are ignorant. Donald Trump. The appreciation of unserious people shows ignorance. How can someone come here and say there\u2019s no war against corruption and there is clapping? \u200e\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Sagay said the APC had a manifesto that spelt out its strategies to combat corruption, and admonished Mr. Aribisala to stop making statements devoid of facts.\u200e<\/p>\n

\u201cObasanjo created ICPC, EFCC, they are doing well we don\u2019t need to create new institutions. You do not win a war by just creating multiplicity of institutions everywhere, that\u2019s irresponsible. We will work with the institutions that we have.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t dilute the meaning of corruption to a point that it is meaningless. This is a very serious discussion and I want us to be serious about it. If you are anti-government, please go and campaign against government and let your party win in 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a venue for PDP campaign. Most inappropriate comment. We are here on serious business. Let\u2019s maintain that seriousness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With Mr. Aribisala appearing unperturbed by Mr. Sagay\u2019s stern remarks, Mrs. Ezekwesili pleaded for another chance at the podium, ostensibly to further drive the case against Mr. Aribisala\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe systemic nature of corruption as a cancer against a system of governance is demonstrated in the fact that the activity of corruption begins to happen at their different levels,\u201d Mrs. Ezekwesili began.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for example, I wasn\u2019t surprised that some of you were clapping. The reason you were clapping is that you are a page in your own level of corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many whose exam malpractice is the basis upon which \u200ethey have come to school. So when you are talking about the need to wage a war against corruption, they are completely disconnected from it. There is a complete dissonance from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Ezekwesili urged the students to desist\u200e from applauding populist statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to be driven by the evidence of the damage and the destruction \u200ethat corruption is doing to you, at the unit level. If you think you are doing well now, you will do exceedingly better if corruption is effectively tackled in this society,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no comedy session going on here. We are talking about something that can be destructive. You should be holding the gun to fight against corruption. The gun has to be intellectual, so I need you to intelligently process everything that is said.\u201d<\/p>\n

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