By Tonnie Iredia
Seventy-three (73) years ago, the Northern House of Chiefs made history when it passed a motion moved by the Emir of Gwandu mandating all native authorities to fight the disturbing trend of corruption among public officials in the colony. Other parts of what became Nigeria embraced the laudable motion.
From then till now, our successive political and military leaders have all taken several steps to continue with the fight, but the malaise has refused to go. To name just a few efforts, General Yakubu Gowon’s ‘Public Officer (Investigation of Assets) Decree’ of 1968, resulted in the forfeiture of corruptly acquired assets by culprits. The Murtala/Obasanjo military government sacked no less than 10, 000 public servants deemed to be corrupt. To invigorate our Code of Condict Bureau, President Ibrahim Babangida in 1989 added to it the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
