A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, has advocated a system of reward and punishment in the current fight against corruption.
Gambari made the call when he delivered a lecture at the Government House in Lokoja on Saturday.
He said that the current one sided approach of punishment should be complemented with adequate reward for people found to be incorruptible.
“The fight against graft and other forms of corruption should not be restricted to punishment by hunting and jailing but also by rewarding those who are not corrupt in their various fields,” he said.
According to him, it is important to reward role models in the civil service and make deliberate efforts to bring up vibrant and disciplined civil and public servants.
Gambari, Chairman/Founder, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development (SCDDD), spoke on “The Role of Civil and Public Servants in advancing sustainable governance in democratic setting.
Gambari said that the national award should be reserved only for people with unblemished record of public service in the various areas of human endeavours.
He explained that the current practice of given national awards to people with questionable character and less deserving Nigerians had continued to make a mockery of the whole essence of the awards.
Gambari said that the practice had been discouraging upcoming future leaders from being committed to the moral ideals of transparency, probity and hardwork.
Gambari identified prolonged military rule as the major cause of the problems bedeviling the civil service in Nigeria today.
He suggested moral rejuvenation to reverse the trend so as to advance sustainable governance in the present democratic setting.
“The economic and political choices of any society are ultimately determined by their moral values.
“For the state to move forward after so many false steps in 25 years of its existence, the civil and public servants must recognise that it can never continue to be business as usual,“ he said .
The lecturer underscored the importance of peace as a prerequisite for development, adding that everybody must make effort to restore peace in the state.
He said that the state government must show strong commitment as it works with other key stakeholders to define and implement the strategic objectives of achieving sustainable governance in all its dimensions. ( NAN)