Don’t Leave Politics In Hands Of Politicians Without Ideals-Falana

Human rights activist and lawyer, has Femi Falana, urged Nigerians not to leave the politics of the country in the hands of professional politicians who do not have ideals.
He stated this last Monday in Lagos while speaking during the public presentation of the third edition of ‘Compendium of High Profile Corruption Cases in Nigeria’, a publication of the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) Resource Centre, as part of activities marking the World Anti-Corruption Day.
He suggested that beyond the production of the book, Nigerians must begin to ask political questions.
“Do not leave the politics of your country to professional police ticians without ideals; if you leave the politics of your country to corrupt people, you are going to be governed by laws made by corrupt people and that is why they want to silence you from talking, so that you don’t ask question,” he said.
Falana stated that in an extremely poor country, a governor who stole in billions was no longer a case of ordinary corruption but madness, stating that if such money was put together, poverty could be banished from Nigeria.
“We are no longer saying if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill us, it is not going to kill us, there is something more fundamental that is going to kill us and that is poverty, we must begin to interrogate the basis of the crises we are going through,” he added. Project Manag- er, HEDA, in his welcome address, Sina Odugbemi, said “the compendium highlights some things we all should know, the delay in the judicial process.
“Some of the cases have stayed 12 years, and the irony of it is that, if you steal public money and you keep it for 10 years, even if you refund it, that money must have yielded interests.
“So, the idea of the compendium is to remind us, our citizens, that we need to engage the judicial system that makes it easy for the man that steals coconut to go to jail immediately and the one that steals million to stay that long.
Thus, the compendium is a reminder of our duty as citizens to put pressure at the appropriate place and ensure that justice is done and done on time,” he said.