Stakeholders have met to discuss the roles Religious and traditional leaders in Nigeria can play in the fight against corruption and cybercrime ravaging the youths in the country.
These discussions led to the first annual quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council NIREC held in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation George Akume while declaring the event open said that the Tinubu’s administration, since inception, has remained focused on saving Nigeria’s economy through the implementation of programs under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
“Difficult decisions have been taken to prevent a total collapse of the system and the government has never relented in expressing its deepest sympathy with the people over the resultant hardships Nigerians are passing through. At the same time, the government has left no stone unturned to positively change the trajectory of our economy and to take sustainability measures,” he said.
He added that all hands must remain on deck to fight corruption, cybercrime, and associated criminal tendencies, to restore the nation’s values and national integrity.
The SGF lamented about the meteoric but infamous rise in Cybercrime among youths on various technology platforms which he said is fast spreading globally with devastating consequences.
“The institutional battle to fight cybercrime has been through the EFCC, ICPC, the Police, associated technology-based efforts, and the judiciary. Moderate successes have been recorded, especially in the areas of apprehension, prosecution, and convictions, as this remains a work in progress.
He assured that the Tinubu administration will leave no stone unturned in exterminating the scourge.
Also Read: Stakeholder calls for legislation to address cybercrime
The Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Alhaji Saad Abubakar, said it is unpatriotic for political leaders to come into office to amass wealth, while other people they are supposed to be representing cannot afford a meal.
“When you leave office, you will become a multi-millionaire with private jets and whatever. And nobody bothers to find out how he made that money. He becomes a big man and decides what happens. And this will continue as long as we keep on having office holders that come in and become lords and do what they want to do, give whom they want to give, deny whom they want to deny and things continue like that,” Sultan said.
His Eminence, Archbishop Daniel C. Okoh, President of, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said that the challenge and the task before them is to give a strong and clear moral leadership to bring down the altar of materialism and champion the movement to change the orientation that worships so that systemic corruption can be reduced to the lowest levels.
“To give moral leadership, one must have moral authority and to have moral authority is to do what is right. With strong moral authority, we can speak up and push back the obsession to acquire material wealth by imparting the national values to our followers using every platform available to us,” said the Archbishop.
The theme of the 2024 first quarterly meeting is: “The Role of Religious Leaders in Combating Corruption and Cybercrime”.
