Popular human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has revealed how the anti-corruption war of the present administration can achieve success.
He disclosed this as a guest speaker at the 19th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture held at Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos on Wednesday.
The vocal Falana said that no anti-corruption campaign would succeed in the country without tackling widespread poverty.
He said the poor standard of living of the general populace will continue to be the bane of the anti-corruption fight.
The senior lawyer said, “If the government genuinely want to fight corruption, it has to review the wages of workers , ensure prompt payment of salaries and pensions, revitalise the federal mortgage bank to provide soft loans for citizens for building houses , re – organise and expand the national health insurance scheme to cover all citizens.
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“Furthermore, the government should implement other welfare laws, enforce anti – graft laws , institutionalise the rule of law and respect for human rights of citizens. In particular , the Federal Government should comply with the court orders for the establishment of education bank , revival of the Peoples Bank and the provision of basic education for every Nigerian child.”
In the same vein, Falana, who spoke on the theme, “Nigeria’s Unity: Matters Arising”, supported the calls for restructuring of the country.
However, he said restructuring the country would achieve nothing without democratisation of powers.
Similarly, he said that only equitable distribution of national wealth would place the nation in the right path of peace, unity and national cohesion.
Falana slammed the colonial masters for creating the imbalance that has continued to plague the nation’s existence and bashed the present political elite for perpetrating the imbalance.
He said, “Nigeria is not a united country. You know why ? You can ’ t have unity of oppressors and the oppressed. If I enjoy oppressing you , you can ’ t talk about unity and they want to retain the status quo.
“ Lagos in 1992 had 20 local governments; Kano , as a state , had 24, at least by 1996 when I was going to detention . Abacha detained me for eight months , and by the time I came out , Jigawa had been created out of Kano with 27 local governments; Lagos retained its 20. So , the whole of Kano has 71 local governments; Lagos has 20 local governments and all of you will take money from the Federation Account . And that was why the Bola Tinubu administration created local governments in Lagos . ”