Jailing Corrupt People A Waste Of Time, Says Prof. Itse Sagay

Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against
Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, has commended the All Progressives
Congress administration under President Muhammadu Buhari for
stepping up the fight against corruption in the country in a bid to
ensure good governance and development.

But he lamented that jailing corrupt people was a desperate and
wasteful effort given the weakness in the country’s judicial
process.

He spoke during a workshop organised by the PACAC in
collaboration with the National Orientation Agency which held in
Jos on Wednesday.

The programme with the theme, “Value re-orientation and the
fight against coruption “ was attended by top government officials,
including permanent secretaries, traditional rulers as well as
leading civil society organisations and political activists.

Sagay said, “Corruption has primarily been fought by the Federal
Government in the country. There is too much focus on financial
corruption but the truth is that nepotism is a more serious
problem.

“After our evaluation in the fight against corruption, we
discovered that jailing people is a desperate and wasteful effort.
It is going to be difficult to have convictions because of the
weakness in the judicial institution. And that is why we have
concentrated more on asset seizure of corrupt people as the way to
go.”

Sagay who was represented at the occasion by a member of the
PACAC, Prof. Etannibi Alemika, further maintained that for the
country to win the war against corruption, there must be value
re-orientation among its citizens.

According to him, a situation where promotion of values that
abhorred hard work, accountability, transparency and commitment to
common good had become the norm among Nigerians was not good for
the country.

He urged the citizens to expose corrupt individuals in their
midst irrespective of their political, social or religious
affiliations in the interest of the country’s development.

Governor Simon Lalong who declared the workshop open, said his
administration would not spare anyone found to be engaging in acts
of corruption.

He noted that corruption had done more harm than good to the
country’s socio-economic progress and urged Nigerians to join hands
with the APC administration in the anti-corruption fight.