News:
Professor Sadiq Isah Radda
November 28, 2022
The Executive Secretary of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) in Nigeria, professor Sadiq Isah Radda has said fighting corruption requires the collaboration between the three arms of government; Executive, Judiciary and the Legislature in every country.
According to him countries within the African continent need to collaborate, cooperate and coordinate and speak with one voice on the fight against corruption.
“That is why we in Nigeria feel if our brothers and sisters in Ghana should be contacted so that we work together to fight corruption in Africa. We are the only people who can do it ourselves and nobody can do it for us well”, he said in an interview.
They are currently on a working visit in Ghana visiting anti-corruption institutions and can call on the Judiciary Committee in Ghana’s Parliament, he stated.
As to what can be done to address issue of Nigerians arrested in Ghana and same with Ghanaians arrested in Nigeria, he noted that, “you see not every Nigerian in Ghana that is bad so those of them that are committing one offence or the other can be subjected to the due process of the law. What we do not want is a situation where some of them are victimized.
But, anyone found of committing an offense in Ghana, Chad, Rwandan and Nigeria should be arrested and subject to the due process of the law but that does not mean every Nigerian in Ghana is an offender and every Ghanaian in Nigeria is an offender”, he emphasised.
On the issue of drug trafficking at the various airports within the sub-region and Africa, he noted that citizens need to cooperate with anti corruption agencies with good information and timely information; sea-ports and borders should be encouraged to work very well and we should also deploy technology.
Again, our religious and political leaders and opinion leaders should be good models; if we do this jointly we can achieve success.
As to what some of the challenges they face are, he noted that the kind of laws we have are different, despite there are similarity, but not exactly the same; the laws are different and poses challenges, he added.
More so, there are culture differences, and thirdly there are political differences. There are problems to do with the attitudes of the people; the people in the continent exhibit different attitudes so all these jointly pose a challenge but if we keep talking and collaborating, we can break all these barriers, he said.
Touching on whether the laws being used in fighting corruption are enough, he noted that laws improve if they are implemented fully, as one can only tell whether a law is good or bad it is implemented fully.
“So, let us get to a position where countries in Africa can implement all their laws, rules and regulations; along the line we will be able to know which part of the rules has problem but for now many of the laws are not implemented fully”.
He expressed hope that if we show commitment and implement the laws fully and with sincerity, it is only then that we can change and reform them.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com