Chairman, Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde has stressed the need for women to be
agents of change by being actively involved in the war against corruption, with
a view to building Nigeria of our dream.
He made the call at the EFCC Zonal
Anti-Corruption Sensitisation Workshop for Women Civil Society and Community-Based
Groups on Monday, September 21, 2015 at G-Tower Hotels and Tourism Limited,
Owerri, Imo State.
The sensitisation workshop with the
theme, ’’how women’s organisations can aid the fight against corruption,
economic and financial crimes’ seek to articulate a structured national
response to gender and corruption.
‘We are convinced that the power to
change the destiny of our nation as one blighted by deep-rooted corruption, lies
in our hands. Therefore this sensitisation workshop...is but one little step in
a long journey to making each and every one of us take ownership of the war
against corruption’, Lamorde said.
According to him, ‘women are more
vulnerable to the impact of corruption than men as they form a larger
proportion of the poor and take primary responsibility for child care’.
The anti-graft Czar expressed belief
that, the programme will cause participants to form the core of a platform, Women
Anti-Corruption Network, WAN, through which the Commission and stakeholders
can interface with the general public on the issue of gender and corruption.
In his welcome remarks, Chido
Onumah, Coordinator, African Centre for Media & Information Literacy,
AFRICMIL, expressed gratitude to the EFCC not just for its appreciation of
gender dimension of the anti-corruption campaign, but also for seeing the need
to rally women and their organisations to lend their voice and play a role in
the anti-corruption campaign.
He urged participants to take
advantage of the intervention to advance the cause of the war against all
shades of graft.
In her presentation titled, ‘The
Role of Women in the Anti-Economic and Financial Crimes Crusade’, Nma Olebara
described corruption as a cankerworm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of
the Nigerians’ system.
She decried corruption in all
ramifications using Bible quotations to buttress her points adding that,
corruption is as old as mankind.
‘In Nigeria, we started hearing of
corruption and ten percent kick back in government transactions and contract
awards in the first Republic…Our present 16years of uninterrupted Democracy has
put Nigeria in the front row of the most corrupt nations of the
world...Corruption momentarily extols the fraudulent and unpatriotic,
emasculating the honest , transparent patriotic and noble’, Olebara lamented.
However, she expressed optimism
that, Nigerian women have the capacity and potentials to liberate this country
from the shackles of corruption.
Speaking on the topic, ‘Advocacy as
A Tool for Preventing Economic and Financial Crimes’, Angela Nkwo-Akpolu of the
Authority Newspaper, Owerri, called for a re-orientation of our value system,
to restore good values.
According to her, there must be a
deliberate collaboration among stakeholders such as media, civil society,
anti-corruption agencies, public office holders, schools, parents and youths
among others for the fight against corruption to be won.
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