A former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission Attahiru Jega, on Wednesday in Abuja asserted that members of the National Assembly encourage corruption in the public sector, even as he called for a stop to public officers acquiring traditional titles while still in service.
Jega made the remarks while delivering his keynote address at an executive session with heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on normative approaches to corruption prevention, organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), through its Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN) with the support of the MacArthur Foundation.
He stated that the lawmakers put chief executives of MDAs under difficult position through the tactics they adopt to recoup monies they spent to attain their positions.
“Leadership by example is important, but it is also difficult under our own circumstances because, you know, pressures keep coming and in our own context, the pressure comes from all angles, not only necessarily from your friends, from your families but even from other agencies within the service, within the public sector organisations.
“The extent to which anti-corruption agencies will work to deal with some of those bad eggs in some of those other sectors in public enterprises will go a long way.
“There are people and I am sorry, there may be legislators here. I want to say it categorically, they put people under very difficult position in order to do their job even with the right kind of mindset you have.
“First of all, you go for budget defence, they want to add something to the budget. You have to draw the line (that) you cannot do this.
“In addition, they would also follow you and begin to say that you have to give them contracts. You have to have a thick skin to be able to draw a line,” the former INEC chief said.
According to him, for any chief executives of MDAs to be able to call the bluff of the lawmakers, they have to ensure that they themselves have nothing with which they would be held by the lawmakers.
“If they have something to hold you on, then obviously that is where the problem begins. But then they will start coming on oversight.”
He also lamented that the judiciary is facing emerging challenges, stating that, “1 mentioned the National Assembly but what about the judiciary? Increasingly, a lot of challenges are also emerging from there.
Jega told the chief executives to always provide leadership while in position of responsibility and ensure that they are selfless with a view to bringing positive change to their respective organisations.
He added that the CEOs must also ensure that they do not give an inch of rope to anybody in their MDAs, advising them that, “once they have an inch of a rope, they will draw a mile, if not more.”
