NIGERIA MUST BATTLE CORRUPTION

Peter Eigen
Nigeria Urged to

Battle Corruption

By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: August 7, 2005
LAGOS, Nigeria, Aug. 6 (Agence France-Presse.)

The chairman of Transparency International, Peter Eigen, on Saturday urged Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, to intensify his campaign against corruption in Africa's most populous country.

"If Nigeria does not succeed, who else can succeed?" said Mr. Eigen, speaking in Abuja at a public forum on corruption, organized by Nigeria's own anticorruption agency. Transparency International recently named Nigeria one of the three most corrupt nations in the world.

"We have to address individual acts of corruption," Mr. Eigen said. "This is a necessary approach. Go after these individuals."
Mr. Eigen also criticized foreign firms and contractors who "import corruption" into Nigeria through their business dealings.

He commended President Obasanjo for recently beginning a serious crackdown on corruption by firing or prosecuting public officers suspected of corruption.
The public officials being prosecuted include the former Senate president, Adolphus Wabara; the education minister, Fabian Osuji; and Police Inspector General Tafa Balogun.

Mr. Eigen, 67, a German lawyer and former World Bank official, said Nigeria, the current chairman of the African Union, had the world's attention in its fight against corruption.

"Everybody is watching you," he said at the conference in an address broadcast live on national television.

The former Tanzanian prime minister, Joseph Warioba, a renowned anticorruption crusader, said there was a "need for a total political commitment" for the fight against corruption to succeed.

"In order to fight corruption, there must be a clear and total political commitment," he said. "If there is no political commitment, we will not be able to eliminate corruption."

"It is not easy to fight corruption if the fight is led by people who got into office through corruption," he said. "What Nigeria is doing now will have an impact on the whole of Africa, if it can be sustained."

The president of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Mohammed Lawal Uwais, told the meeting that there was a need for a constitutional amendment of Nigerian law for the fight against corruption to succeed.