By Kolawole Ojebisi
A former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Attahiru Jega, has accused members of the National Assembly of encouraging corruption in the public sector.
Jega made the remarks on Wednesday while delivering his keynote address at an executive session with heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on normative approaches to corruption prevention.
The event was organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), through its Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN) with the support of the MacArthur Foundation.
He asserted that the lawmakers put chief executives of MDAs under difficult position through the tactics they adopt to recoup monies they spent to attain their positions.
“Leadership by example is important, but it is also difficult under our own circumstances because, you know, pressures keep coming and in our own context, the pressure comes from all angles, not only necessarily from your friends, from your families but even from other agencies within the service, within the public sector organisations.
“The extent to which anti-corruption agencies will work to deal with some of those bad eggs in some of those other sectors in public enterprises will go a long way.
“There are people and I am sorry, there may be legislators here. I want to say it categorically, they put people under very difficult position in order to do their job even with the right kind of mindset you have.
“First of all, you go for budget defence, they want to add something to the budget. You have to draw the line (that) you cannot do this.
“In addition, they would also follow you and begin to say that you have to give them contracts. You have to have a thick skin to be able to draw a line,” the former INEC chief said.
The former INEC Chairman stressed that Chief Executives of MDAs must be above board in their dealings with others before, during and after their years in office.
He noted that having clean antecedents would embolden them to call the bluff of the lawmakers, as there would be no dirty dossiers with which they would be held by the legislators.
“If they have something to hold you on, then obviously that is where the problem begins. But then they will start coming on oversight.
We have to tell ourselves the truth,” he said.
He also lamented that the judiciary is facing emerging challenges, stating that, “1 mentioned the National Assembly but what about the judiciary? Increasingly, a lot of challenges are also emerging from there.
Jega told the chief executives to always provide leadership while in position of responsibility and ensure that they are selfless with a view to bringing positive change to their respective organisations.
He added that the CEOs must also ensure that they do not give an inch of rope to anybody in their MDAs, advising them that, “once they have an inch of a rope, they will draw a mile, if not more.”
Jega asserted that governance is about trust, responsibility and utilizing public resources for public benefit rather than for self-benefit.
“We must stop this tendency of public officers acquiring traditional titles while they are in public service because that really puts pressure.
“You take a title, you are a permanent secretary or director and you go to your community and you have to be very, very subservient to the traditional ruler that gave you the title.
“They will come to you with demands, and because you are a willing servant or agent, you will almost always succumb to those pressures. And there is no limit; once it starts small, it will grow big.”
