Former director of the Kenyan anti-corruption agency known as Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), Prof. Patrick Lumumba, on Tuesday said the reason why corruption still thrived in Nigeria was because the people were not yet tired of the practice.
Lumumba said, in a society such as Nigeria where people still celebrated those that fraudulently enriched themselves, corruption would continue to thrive.
Addressing the opening session of the 49th annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, he said the day Nigerians would become tired of corrupt practices, the actions that would follow would put an end to graft.
He said, “The task of nation building is a collective responsibility. If you are an accountant, you have to do your work by ensuring that the right records are kept and that the truth is told.
“Corruption is a crime against humanity. Experiences have demonstrated that if a people in a country are sufficiently fed up, they will rise up. In Romanian, we saw that the people themselves were dissatisfied with the conduct of their party officials and they changed the attitude of the leadership.
“Sometimes, I think Nigerians and many Africans are not fed up. Because the day we are fed up, things will begin to change.”
The Acting Chairman of the Economic and Finance Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, who also spoke at the event called on ICAN to introduce courses that would prepare accountants for the fight against corruption.
He said as managers of the treasury, the role of accountants and auditors in the fight against corruption was very vital.