Upright for Nigeria: Falana tasks Buhari on citizens’ welfare

Lagos base lawyer and human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana (SAN) on Monday called on the Federal Government to harness resources to promote national prosperity that would impact on the citizens’ welfare.

Falana made the call in Lagos at the launch of “Upright for Nigeria – Stand against Corruption’’.

According to him, the reality of integrity will be a mirage in a country where majority of the citizens were faced with poverty, low wage, poor healthcare and poor education system.

Falana said that the crisis of underdevelopment of the country had been worsened by what he called the anti-welfarist policies of successive governments.

He said though, the Federal Government had enacted some welfare laws for the actualisation of the socio-economic rights of the people, it had consistently breached the provision of its welfare law.

The lawyer listed some of the laws to include: the People’s Bank Act; Nigerian Education Bank Act; Compulsory Universal Basic Education Act; Child’s Right Act and National Health Insurance Act.

“Instead of providing fund for public schools, the government has continued to encourage the establishment of private schools for the education of children of the elites,” he said.

Falana said that majority of the state governments failed to contribute counterpart fund that would enable them to access the UBE fund.

This, he said, led to N68 billion lying idle in the UBE account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The rights activist said that the situation had led to increasing rate of out of school children in the country.

Falana urged government to increase funding of education, health and improved welfare of citizens to aid the success of its anti-corruption campaign.

In his remarks, Mr Newton Otsemaye, the Project Manager, Actionaid Nigeria, recalled that the programme was implemented by three Civil Society Organisations, including the ActionAid Nigeria, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) and Centre for Communication and Social Impact.

Otsemaye said that the consortium of CSOs manages an anti-corruption project called Strengthening Citizens Resistance against Prevalence of Corruption (SCRAP-C).

He said that the launch of “Upright for Nigeria-Stand against Corruption’’ campaign was an integral part of the SCRAP-C project conceived to change public attitude to increasingly disapprove of corrupt activities.

Also, Mrs Babafunke Fagbemi, the Executive Director, Centre for Communication and Social Impact, said that the campaign complements the ongoing efforts of government to fight corruption by examining the ‘demand’ side being society and social norms.

Fagbemi said that the campaign seeks to maintain public support for anti-corruption and promote a corruption averse mentality.

“Through this campaign, over time, we hope to counter the pessimistic feelings of helplessness associated with the status of corruption in Nigeria.

“The campaign will be the vehicle to influence social norms and attitude with a view to effect a social and sustainable change,” she said.

Fagbemi said that the campaign would have national and state specific engagements in Kaduna, Kano (extending activities to Jigawa), Lagos, Enugu, Borno and Akwa Ibom.

Commenting, Mr Kazeem Adeniji, the Lagos State Commissioner for Justice, said that there was need to implement innovative measures in the areas of prevention, criminalisation, international cooperation and asset recovery.

Adeniji said that public servants and elected officials must be guided by ethics, transparency and accountability to drive government’s efforts in fighting corruption and developing the country.

According to report, the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) had in 2017 launched Anti-Corruption in Nigeria (ACORN) programme.