EU Wants Corruption Gone From Nigeria The European Union is worried about the increasing level of corruption in the Nigerian society and has called for stricter measures to halt the epidemic rise.

This was revealed by outgoing Head of
European Union Delegation in Nigeria Dr.
David Macrea. He spoke to reporters in a
valedictory session. MacRae said: "Nigeria has
to deal seriously with what is known as the
immunity clause
It seems just few offenders are being
punished while the real people who commit
the offences get away. "It is regrettable that
corruption in Nigeria is not going down and it
is affecting the entire country. I am not saying
that Nigeria is the worst country; you still find
so many good things in Nigeria
"I am also happy that the government is taking
very serious steps to deal with the issue of
corruption". The outgoing envoy said he
expected better funding for states and local
governments "Simply because I want to see
that money should be better spent.
To make it to be better, it requires other
things to be in place and I think we need to
make a special effort to ensure that the
judiciary is functioning correctly so that court
cases can be done speedily and effectively."
He said too much time is spent on appeals in
the courts adding. MacRea said it would be
wrong for anyone to think that all will be
perfect with democracy within the short
period of 14 years when civil rule returned.
"If we expect to find in Nigeria, everything in a
good state as far as governance is concerned,
we are not obviously facing the reality." He
spoke about the diversity and beauty of
Nigeria as some of the memories he would be
taking away with him. "I am saying that
because there are diversities of people; they
say 250 different ethnic groups, languages are
quite different, customs are different.
You get off the plane in Anambra and you see
one situation, it is nothing like when you go to
Kano or Jigawa and when you go to Lagos you
will see this incredible city. And if you look at
the construction taking place around Abuja, it
is such an incredible range in Nigeria and it is
tremendous in rich culture and it is such
dynamism in the business community and
these are things that I treasure and will take
away with me from Nigeria.
I think it is a tremendous country and I know
what it takes to be a Nigerian and I can
understand why Nigerians are proud to be
Nigerians because of all these things. "The
good thing about Nigeria is that despite all
these things I have talked about earlier about
how people can be very mean-minded, there
is also pride in being a Nigerian and that is a
good thing and that is what we should build
on.
"When I go round the country, some of the
states are progressing very well and are very
mindful of their responsibility for safe delivery
at state level." MacRae criticised the early kick
off of the 2015 campaign which he decribed as
"regrettable." "I think it is regrettable that
already in 2012, we are talking about the next
election which is to be done in 2015.
I think may be in the last six or eight months
we can start talking about who we want to run
but to do it at this time is a little bit of
distraction because now is the time when the
effort should go into making things happen
like delivery services, putting in place
infrastructure. We are good people and are
making good efforts. He also decried the lack
of internal democracy in the political parties in
the country.
MacRae also expressed concern over delay in
the execution of EU projects in the country.
He said "many projects take too long to
execute, because this does not go down well
with some of these villagers whom these
projects are being targeted for end up waiting
for too long.