The Minister of
Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has rallied Nigerian youths to be
in the vanguard of the fight against corruption, saying unbridled corruption is
robbing the youths of their future, reports ITRealms.
Speaking at the launch
of the Creative Youth Initiative Against Corruption (CYIAC) in Lagos on
Saturday, the Minister was quoted by the Special Assistant (SA) Segun Adeyemi,
as saying, there is no better way to tackle the menace of corruption than to
involve the youth, who are the leaders of tomorrow.
He said the fight
against corruption would be more effective if the youths are involved,
especially because they constitute the largest chunk of the country's
population, ''which means that they represent a critical mass that can be
effectively leveraged to fight corruption''.
''If we can enlist the
support of the Nigerian youth in the fight against corruption, our dream of a
corruption-free Nigeria can become a reality. If the youth can be adequately
sensitized to the dangers posed to their future by corruption, they will need
little or no prodding to take on the corrupt in our society,'' Alhaji Mohammed said.
The Minister said no
group of Nigerians suffer more from the consequences of corruption than the
youth.
''The resources that
would have been invested to develop our youths have been stolen over the years.
Thousands of youths who graduate from the University and other institutions of
higher learning are roaming the streets due to lack of jobs that would have
been created, had the resources not been stolen. The infrastructure needed by
youths to give vent to their creativity, either in the creative industry or in
other areas of human endeavour, are not there, because funds allocated to build
such infrastructure have been stolen by fat cats,'' he said.
Alhaji Mohammed said
the Buhari Administration is vigorously fighting corruption and it is winning,
giving as instances the 25 billion Naira being saved monthly by cutting
unnecessary allowances of officials, the stoppage in the payment of phantom
subsidy of between 800 billion and 1.3 trillion Naira annually, the recovery at
least 43 million dollars and 56 houses from just one former government
official, the recovery of 2.9 billion dollars from looters so far, the recovery
of 151 million dollars and N8 billion in looted funds from just three sources
through the Whistle-Blower policy and the elimination of thousands of ghost
workers, we has saved 120 billion Naira.
He lauded the Creative
Youth Initiative Against Corruption and pledged to support its
corruption-busting campaign through adequate publicity.
The event was attended
by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who gave the keynote address, and
Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, among other dignitaries.
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