Senate President, Bukola Saraki has said that the reason why the current fight against corruption has not yielded much success was due to fact of its being sensationalized.
He said that unless there is sincerity of purpose the bid to end corruption it will end in futility.
On his part, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, opined that until strong institutions were built and strengthened, Nigeria might end up punishing corruption but not fighting it.
Both legislative leaders spoke at the launch of the book, ‘Antidotes for Corruption: The Nigerian Story’, written by Dino Melaye, the Senator representing Kogi West.
Speaking further, Saraki advised that the fight against corruption be focused on deterrence and not punishment pointing out the action of government was forcing back the menace.
He said, “I am convinced that why our fight against corruption has not yielded much success is that we have favoured punishment over deterrence.
“We must review our approaches by building our institutions to make it difficult for people to carry out corrupt practices.
“It is my view that the key area of prevention, we must work on, is to make it difficult for stolen money to find a home.
“We must fight corruption with sincerity, and not fight symptoms. Unlike the five-minute sensationalism we have now. It must not be based on individuals but on institutions.
“Let us fight corruption with sincerity. If we fight corruption in a corrupt way, we will not make any headway.
Speaker Yakubu Dogara hinged success of the fight on corruption on building strong institutions insisting that until this is done, “Nigeria might end up punishing corruption and not fighting it.”
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