Segun Showunmi, spokesman to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in 2019 election, Atiku Abubakar, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to fight corruption decisively in 2022.
Showunmi noted that the best place to begin anti-corruption fight is with the governors, many of whom, he accused of stealing states’ resources with nothing to show for it.
He said this in his New Year message, which was made available to our correspondent in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Friday.
The PDP Chieftain and former House of Representatives candidate for Abeokuta South constituency, submitted that the ongoing anti corruption fight is “too selective and damn too lackadaisical.”
Showunmi said, “We must be decisive in our fight against corruption and I believe the best place to start is with the managers of our subnational economies aka The Governors.
“I cringe watching these set of people stride across our country in boastfulness and undue arrogance, many of who are just stealing their states blind with little or nothing to show for the huge resources that accrue to the state.
“All around you observe that the present effort at fighting corruption is way too selective and damn too lackadaisical making one to wonder if we are serious at all.
“A good place to start is to begin to profile and go after governors in the penultimate years as a way to slow down the graft we all are witnesses to, that way we will hold them to better account of their stewardship. We cannot continue to stumble on the same stone.”
He noted that the year 2022 would be demanding “on us as its a year leading to the election year 2023, and as it is expected the national space will be more politically energized with its attendant consequences.”
He urged Politicians to conform to the dignity of democracy “which in my opinion is a contest of ideas aimed at service to humanity.”
Showunmi added, “On the economy, greater effort must be put into things that can grow the Nigerian economy and a sure place to start will be a reworked process by which small scale enterprises will be helped to grow and contribute more, for that is the surest way to stem the unemployment bulge which is very high right now.
“We must soberly accept that our present arrangement is inappropriate for the security challenges we are confronted with which has not abated for so long. Only fools will refuse to change when change is all the needed effort to stem the orgy of violence and criminality that has characterized our nation.
“We cannot refuse to embrace multilayered policing if we mean to confront this ugly situation. States are matured enough to be allowed to have their police, the fear of abuse pans away in the face of our security challenges.
“It is brainless and lazy to think we cannot fathom how to do this even with the present governance structure that we presently have.”