The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has asked President Goodluck Jonathan, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) and other presidential aspirants in the oncoming February elections to implement a seven-point anti-corruption and human rights programmes if elected in February.
In a letter to the presidential aspirants dated January 16, 2015, SERAP said it was important that the aspirants clearly commit themselves to concrete human rights reforms to end the increasing level of corruption in the country.
The group said national problems such as bad roads, poor electricity supply, contaminated and undrinkable water, and collapsed educational system could be attributed to corruption.
SERAP argued that the lack of accountable leadership and the deficit of transparency in the management of public finances and public spending had worsened the country’s growing poverty.
Executive Director of SERAP, Adetokunbo Mumuni, in a statement, said, “Evasive commitments by politicians undermine transparency and accountability of elected public officials and contribute to bad governance.
According to the group, by making a clear and unequivocal commitment to implement the proposed 7-point program, Nigerians would be able to make an informed and unbiased decision to vote for issues and not personalities.
“They will also be able to compare what you are promising to do and what you actually do while in the office. We believe that the president after the election must come to term with the reality of massive high-level official corruption, and the devastation and suffering it has caused millions of innocent Nigerians,” SERAP added.
SERAP asked the next president to resolve all outstanding cases of corruption in the aviation sector, oil subsidy scandal, alleged mismanagement of trillions of naira by the Security and Exchange Commission, missing N300bn in the Ministry of Petroleum since 2011.
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