Buhari urged to sign unexplained wealth order into law to strengthen his fight against corruption

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to prevail on the National Assembly to pass the Proceeds of Crime Bill that will include an unexplained wealth order forcing the well off to account for where they got their money from.

Speaking yesterday while delivering the 2021 Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series, organised by the University of Ibadan, Senator Ali Ndume, the lawmaker representing Borno South Senatorial District, said it was needed in the fight against corruption. He added that the president needs to urgently get such a bill enacted into law or issue an Unexplained Wealth Order to strengthen the fight against corruption.

In the lecture titled The Unexplained Wealth and the Fight Against Corruption in Nigeria, Senator Ndume, who is also the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on the Army, said there was need to look at the incidence of corruption, most especially, those occasioned by public officers who are in trust of public wealth. He added that the fight against corruption was a fight for the nation and must start from the top to the bottom.

Senator Ndume added: “Our crusade against this monster corruption should start from politicians, top public servants, civil servants down to local governments’ staff. For the perpetrators, it is not difficult to identify the tendencies exhibited by these officers, acquiring landed property in and outside the country, having fat bank deposits, buying expensive cars, or marrying so many wives.

“He added that the government must also go a step further to protect whistleblowers. According to Senator Ndume, the whistleblower policy must be revisited, adding that the whistleblowers must be active at all levels inclusive of local areas and they must not be scared but be protected by law at whatever cost.

He added, however, that any whistleblower found to have lied should be taken to court. He said that the Code of Conduct Bureau owed it a duty to request every public officer to make a declaration of asset periodically and should verify the claims periodically or when complaints are lodged.

In addition, the lawmaker also charged the National Orientation Agency and other relevant agencies of government to embark on a vigorous sensitisation against corruption. Earlier in his welcome remarks, Professor Kayode Adebowale, the vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, said the institution was tackling corruption in an organic way.

He added that nearly every undergraduate student in the university takes a course in ethics, either as a compulsory general studies course or as a regular department-based course. According to Professor Adebowale,  the institution believed that exposure to the courses would go a long way in imbibing in the students the anti-corruption disposition.