Dele Cole, All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Rivers has urged the electorate to reject corrupt politicians seeking their mandate in the 2019 general elections.
Cole made the call while speaking at a symposium on anti-corruption organised by a Port Harcourt-based political advocacy group, the Rivers Unity House, in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.
The APC governorship candidate said that the nation would go nowhere if corruption was not tackled squarely.
He said that government at all levels must make life easier for the governed to make corruption less attractive.
He said: “Government has to also ease the process of doing business so that people will have fewer reasons to cut corners.
“We also want to see extant legislation against corrupt practices being implemented, this will make people know that corruption has consequences.’’
Also speaking, a professor of political science in University of Port Harcourt, Prof. Eme Ekekwe, said that corruption was on the rise in Nigeria because the governed had failed to ask the right questions.
Ekekwe said: “There is a conspiracy of silence among corrupt politicians to protect themselves; the followership also must conspire to protect themselves against this menace.”
Ekekwke said that the citizenry must muster the moral courage to question the activities of the few politicians whose interest was to oppress others.
He said: “The election is the best period to make a bold statement by rejecting corrupt persons who seek to govern us.
“Nigerians must stop being complacent in the face of this hydra-headed monster called corruption which is being perpetrated by a few.’’
The News Agency of Nigeria reports the theme of the symposium is. “Corruption as a Major Issue in Nigeria’s Development Crisis”.
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