The Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Professor Bolaji Owasanoye has stated that corruption fuels insecurity and slows development of a nation in multiple ways.
Professor Owasanoye disclosed this recently in Abuja while speaking as the Guest Lecturer to Course 30 Participants of National Defence College (NDC) Nigeria, on the topic: Whole of Society Approach in the Fight Against Corruption and Human Security in Nigeria.
He stated that corruption weakened the state and eroded its capacity to provide the requisite training and equipment for security and paramilitary agencies such as the police, military, immigration, customs civil defense and neighbourhood watches.
He said bad governance, corruption and the collapse of the rule of law lead to insecurity, according to a statement by ICPC’s spokesperson Mrs Azuka Ogugua on Thursday.
Speaking on how pervasive corruption in defense spending can impact a county’s peace and security, the ICPC boss warned of how a single transaction of diversion of huge sums could have immediate impact that may become irreversible or more difficulty and costly to reverse, while petty diversion of budget or misallocation of resources may not immediately make impact but will inevitably impact medium to long term.
Owasanoye also explained that corruption and failure to uphold the rule of law also led to monumental economic losses and threatened development and human security.
“Direct looting of treasury, Illicit Financial Flows, tax evasion, misapplication of funds, budget padding, ghost workers, deliberate elephant projects, project abandonment, contracts and procurement abuse have huge implications on development and human security,” he reiterated,” he said.
In his remark after the lecture, NDC Commandant, Rear Admiral O.B. Daji, also lent his voice to the fact that corruption was an existential threat to national security because of its ability to undermine the institutions of the state and erode public trust.
