Acting Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences commission (ICPC), Musa Abubakar, says corrupt politicians cannot successfully carry out their corrupt practices if civil servants refuse to cooperate with them.
Abubakar said this on Thursday at an event organized to celebrate the 2018 Africa Public Service Day hosted by the ICPC in Abuja.
Represented by Nathan Bako, ICPC head of administration, Abubakar pointed that contrary to popular perception, civil servants are also to blame for the menace.
“There is trading of blame between the civil service and the political class as to who is more responsible for corruption,” he said.
Explaining that every single act of corruption will involve one civil servant or the other either by facilitating or by keeping quiet, the ICPC boss said: “There is trading of blame between the civil service and the political class as to who is more responsible for corruption. The fact is that if the politicians are strangers to the service, they won’t succeed if we don’t cooperate with them.”
Abubakar also noted that the fight against corruption will fail if Nigerians refuse to participate in the corruption war.
The ICPC boss urged all civil and public servants to live above board in their dealings, and to adhere to the ethics of integrity and join the fight against corruption.
Pointing out that majority of Nigerians look the other way when corruption is perpetrated in their presence only to turn around and accuse anti-graft agencies of doing nothing, Abubakar explained that it is the constitutional responsibility of every citizen to not only report crime but also to arrest and hand over criminals to law enforcement agents.
Calling on all Nigerians to join the fight against corruption, he said: “It is very important everybody plays a role, otherwise when we measure the fight against corruption, its failure is going to be mainly because of public apathy.”
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