Our Major Challenge In Nigeria Is Corruption – Senator Ndume
By Abdullahi Yusuf
Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume(APC Borno State) , has decried the level of corruption in Nigeria, saying the trend is the major challenge facing the nation.
Senator Ndume made the lamentation during an interactive session with newsmen in Kano on Sunday.
“Our major challenge in this country is corruption. Uptill now, we have no law that can proactively or even reactively address the issue of corruption in the country.
“If you see somebody in our system, especially in politics or government, and he is not corrupt, then he is lucky that he is God-fearing.
“Otherwise, it is only in Nigeria that you steal money and you walk freely, and then you are celebrated.
“If you come into an area like this, people would start lobbying you and do “Dobale” for you and he knows that the money was stolen.
“It is only in this country that somebody had no money yesterday or last week,but the following week he buys ten cars; buy jets and his brothers would fly with him; his mother would fly with him; his uncle would fly with him, and they would say Allah has blessed our son,” he said.
The lawmaker stated that in other developed countries people would ask a person how, when and where he made his money, but that in Nigeria, the reverse is the case.
He said he had made several efforts to pass a law on Unexplained Wealth in Nigeria, but that such endeavours “never saw the light of the day.”
He said he even went to one of the nation’s former Heads of States and asked him wether he could sign an Executive Bill on such issues, but to no avail.
“Up till now, there is no law on Unexplained Wealth Act in Nigeria and there is no Executive Order on Unexplained Wealth in Nigeria,” Ndume further lamented.
He then bemoaned the current hunger situation in the country and called for an increased cultivation of food crops to address the problem.
“There is hunger in the land and up till now we have not cultivated up to five per cent of our land, blessed land in Nigeria.
According to him, Nigeria is blessed with cultivable land everywhere such that could be used to grow food crops and feed the nation.
