‘Corrupt civil servants must face jail term’

By Grace Obike, Abuja

Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) pushing for transparency in governance and accountability are advocating for corrupt civil servants to be jailed.

The organisations believe civil servants who engage in corruption must face the rule of law and be used as an example for others.

Founder Follow the Money International and Connected Development (CODE) Hamzat Lawal, who made the call, said CSO’s must work with champions in government to identify such bad eggs.

He said this in Abuja, at the one-day integrity plan launch under the ACCESS fair project organised by the Rule of Law and Empowerment Initiative also known as PWAN.

He said: “I believe that we must continue to build the capacity of civil servants and most importantly, there must be consequences for every action, our civil service is meant to ensure they serve the people and if they don’t and engage in corruption, then we must have them face the rule of law.

“I believe that there is a better role to play from the political elites to administrators who are the civil servants.

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“Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) must work closely with champions in government to identify civil servants that are undermining the rule of law and democratic principles while propagating corruption to ensure they are prosecuted and put behind bars so others can learn.”

Programme Manager Partners West Africa Nigeria (PWAN) Tolu Ojeshina, said the idea of the programme is to work with local governments on areas that promote corruption in their processes and work with them to change it.

She said: “The idea of the program was to pull out and identify processes in different area councils and we started with the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) that might lead to corruption as we all know, processes like procurement etc and work with them on how we can provide solutions to change them.”

Chairman AMAC, Adamu Candido said: “It is glaring that the ugly trend of corruption is aided and facilitated by civil servants as well because as the head of my Area Council, if I wish to siphon funds from the public treasury and I am not supported by civil servants, it will never happen and the other way around, so if we learn to operate transparently, most of these things will be curbed.”