Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture has said the 2016 budget will not work if the issue of corruption is not taken care of.
Speaking on Monday, January 18, during a visitation to two Hausa-language newspapers based in Abuja in continuation of his ongoing consultation with key stakeholders in his ministry to support the campaign against corruption, Mohammed said there will be enough money for everyone if the war against corruption is won.
Daily Post reports that the information minister insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari was fighting against corruption to restore Nigeria to the path of economic growth and not witch-hunting the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He added that corruption was the reason the country was in pain.
“If only we fight corruption successfully, there will be more money for everybody. If the leakages can be blocked successfully, I can assure you it won’t matter whether oil sells for $10 or $5, we will be able to run this country efficiently.
“If we don’t really take care of corruption, even the 2016 budget, we will not be able to operate because what we have found out is that it is these leakages (corruption) that are making the country to bleed. It is not by accident that between 1999 and today, the budget has been increasing every year yet poverty has also been increasing. Why? Because of corruption,” he said.
According to him, corruption must be fought with the same vigor used in fighting Boko Haram insurgency for the country to achieve meaningful development.
Mohammed explained that corruption in governance was the cause of decay in infrastructure, grinding poverty, stunted economic growth, widespread inequality, maternal mortality and other maladies afflicting the nation.
During a courtesy call on the management of Media Trust, publishers of Trust titles and Aminiya, a Hausa language weekly newspaper yesterday, Mohammed disclosed that the War Against Indiscipline(WAI) will soon be rebranded into Change Begins with Me (CBWM).
Source: Naij
