{"id":8735,"date":"2013-08-21T04:45:11","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T04:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-news\/lets-immortalise-yaradua\/"},"modified":"2013-08-21T04:45:11","modified_gmt":"2013-08-21T04:45:11","slug":"lets-immortalise-yaradua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/lets-immortalise-yaradua\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Immortalise Yar\u2019Adua"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Odunayo Joseph<\/em><\/p>\n

Many readers would wonder what the topic of this write up is all about and what to achieve from it but for better understanding, there is need for all Nigerians both at home and in the diaspora, irrespective of political leaning to rekindle and revisit, as a mark of remembrance, to reminisce on preference of President Umaru Yar\u2019Adua of blessed for the removal of the immunity clause from the 1999 Constitution.\u00a0 The issue of the removal of the immunity clause has no doubt remained one of the contentious issues considered during the just concluded proposals on the amendment of the constitution and which fate is now to be decided at a joint session of the National Assembly following the hard stance of the Senate and the House of Representatives that are in support and against its removal respectively.<\/p>\n

During a dinner hosted by the Partnership Against Corruption Initiative on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 in Davos, Switzerland, the late President while launching a tirade against corruption in Nigeria, backed the removal of immunity clause conferred by the 1999 Constitution on the President, Vice-President, state governors and deputy governors, as reported on page 7 in The Punch newspaper edition of Friday, January 25, 2008.\u00a0 While expressing confidence on the occasion that the next constitutional amendment exercise at the National Assembly would expunge the immunity clause from the country\u2019s constitution, he added that the public officials would soon be stripped of their current immunity from prosecution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have confidence that the next constitutional amendment will strip these public officials of this immunity and I am personally in support of that.\u00a0 The expected removal of the immunity clause from the constitution would facilitate the work of Nigeria\u2019s anti-corruption agencies,\u201d he said, adding that the agencies had been granted complete independence of action by his administration.\u00a0 Further, he bemoaned a situation in which people awarded contracts in a frivolous manner in violation and disregard for due process that is punishable by law.\u00a0 He also frowned at the rampant abandonment of projects running into billions of naira through which the disregard for established regulations and procedures ended up feeding corruption in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur decision to fight corruption properly and have respect for law, order and due process will now make such acts of omission or commission punishable by law, and that will clean the system and make sure that whatever business dealings government enters into, we have the ability to abide by the covenant we signed,\u201d he said and added that \u201cthat is the path of honour, not only for any government but also for companies that are operating in Nigeria.\u201d\u00a0 Lastly he said that his administration would also implement other measures \u201cto ensure that opportunities to commit corruption are reduced to the barest minimum, so that anybody, any public official who commits an act of corruption will know he has done it as a deliberate attempt, not because he has an opportunity to commit corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering the fact that the present administration of president Goodluck Jonathan is a continuation of the Umaru Yar\u2019Adua administration, it behoves on this administration to give what can aptly be referred to as a legacy statement a serious consideration in checking corruption in the country.\u00a0 If well-meaning Nigerians should cast their minds back to the wishes of the late president, the likelihood of the emergence of a toss-up situation over what the aftermath of the fuel subsidy scam, the police pension fraud, the handling of the Lagos\/Ibadan Expressway, just to mention a few, would have been might provide room for a national discourse<\/p>\n

It is therefore hoped that the Jonathan administration will continue with the fight against corruption from where the Yar\u2019Adua administration stopped, especially from the stance of the late president for the removal of the immunity clause as entrenched in Section 308 in the 1999 Constitution.\u00a0 The same appeal goes to the Senate which presently is opposed to the removal of the immunity clause.\u00a0 There is no doubt that the late president will be happy in his grave over the House of Representatives for its unflinching and total support for the removal of the immunity clause and also with the majority of the people who, from contributions to the controversy of the issue both in the print and electronic media fully support its removal as the panacea for effective checking of corruption in our country.\u00a0 There is no doubt that the question\u00a0 which all Nigerians would ask is: If Umaru\u2019 Yar\u2019Adua were to be alive today as the president of Nigeria, would the disagreement over whether the immunity clause should be removed or not be an issue despite the active support of an incumbent president for its removal?\u00a0 Definitely with the active support of a sitting president, the House of Representatives, the people and all anti-corruption bodies in Nigeria, there is no way the Senate would not have bowed to the wishes of the majority of the people if Umaru Yar\u2019Adua were to be alive today, as it did on the recent issue of child marriage which received its support but which attracted unprecedented nationwide protest.<\/p>\n

There is need for the Senate to consider the views of the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes, Mrs. Farida Waziri, who, as reported on page 2 in The Nation newspaper of Tuesday, September 29, 2009 under the title \u201cEFCC seeks psychiatric tests for public officers\u201d called for psychiatric tests for would-be leaders and public office holders and that to her \u201cthis is a way of curbing corruption in public office\u201d. Before she gave this suggestion, she had earlier bemoaned the crazy manner by which Nigerians accumulate wealth while holding public office.<\/p>\n

Bearing in mind the image of our country as one of the most corrupt nations in the world, it is hoped that during the joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the lawmakers would take a stand on the immunity clause imbroglio. The Senate should reconsider its position and give serious consideration to the views on the fight against the corruption cankerworm in our country\u00a0expressed by the former Chairman of EFCC and the late President Umaru Yar\u2019Adua (may his gentle and God-fearing soul continue to respect in perfect peace. Amen).<\/p>\n

\u2022Joseph, Publicity Secretary, South West Zone of Okun Development Association wrote from Lagos. Email: odunayo_joseph2006@yahoo.com<\/em><\/p>\n

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