Why corruption thrive in Nigeria’s institutions -Ganduje

The National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Dr Abdullahi Umaru Ganduje has said corruption strive because of the weakness of the institutions in the political sphere in the country.

Ganduje said this on Tuesday in Abuja at a ‘High-Level Meeting with National Executives of Political Parties and other stakeholders’ organised by The Kukah Centre and European Union (EU).

The former Kano State Governor said Nigeria need strong institutions that will function according to the primary function of the political parties and which will assist democracy in the country.

“The major problem we have in Nigeria is the weak institutions because we are just moving in a circle until we break that circle and make our institutions strong, we are just blaming the politicians, corruption strive because of the weakness of the institutions.

“Don’t blame the politicians, look at the security who fails to secure the votes at the polling units, look at the INEC with hitches during elections amongst others,” Ganduje said.

Earlier, the Founder of The Kukah Centre, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah emphasized the need to develop the mechanism for ensuring that things don’t continue to repeat themselves in the political sphere ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Kukah said the most important thing is for Nigerians to learn the mistakes of the past, and then build on it for correction to make progress.

“Whether it’s the judiciary, whether it’s the bureaucracy, it’s a work in progress, and the most important thing is for us to learn the mistakes of the past. The challenge to us now is how do we ensure that those who come into politics have the required mental frame of mind?

“And as I say, we decided to focus on the leadership. But if the leadership becomes sufficiently convinced, then it will take a long time. This conversation is to have stakeholders with the requite knowledge to help Nigeria come to terms with the fact that democracy is such an important vocation that it is a source for the nobility of the people and the nation,” he said.

The Executive Director, Development Space Academy, Prof Okechukwu Ibeanu, speaking on local government autonomy, said now that the autonomy has been stamped by the Supreme Court will mark a stage where the real development at the grassroots can start because what has been happening is that the governors put the local government funds in their back pockets.

Ibeanu, said the autonomy now means that everybody will know they have to hold the local government chairmen and councilors to account and they know how much money is coming into the local government and they have to tell what is being done with it.

A consultant at the Centre, Mr Manji Wilson in a paper presentation on the Political Party Management Toolkit (PPMT) recommended that political party should promote accountability and adopt a corporate governance approach to managing their affairs specifically, parties could adopt the modus operandi of NGOs concerning accountability.

Also, the National Chairman of Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Alhaji Yusuf Mamman Dantalle said the local government financial autonomy is a welcome development, but that it has exposed some things that many don’t really look at as Nigeria and as politician.

He said, “So, what I think we should look at is the foundation, in solving any problem we have to address the root of the problem. Why is money central to the politics? Why are we scared of the people taking our money? Why is the political offices so lucrative in Nigeria?

“So, we have to look at these and it’s because of this creativity that keep us running helter-skelter trying to look at enabling laws, what we need to do ensure that if this person is there, money is not taken.

“Yes, we have the financial autonomy granted by local government, but we need to look at other things like the process of electing the people, who are the people? Why is money central to our politics?”