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SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN, CHIEF OLU FALAE (M) DISPLAYING THE PARTY SYMBOL WHILE THE NATIONAL SECRETARY, DR. SADIQ ABUBAKAR (2ND RIGHT); THIRD REPUBLIC SENATOR, EBENEZER IKEYINA (2-R); PARTY LEADER, CHIEF SUPO SONIBARE (L) AND THE NATIONAL WOMEN LEADER, MAGGIE BATUBO WATCHING DURING THE PUBLIC PRESENTATION OF THE SDP PARTY SYMBOL, MANIFESTO, CONSTITUTION AND FLAG AT THE PARTY HEADQUARTERS, DURUMI, ABUJA. PHOTO BY ABAYOMI ADESHIDA.
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and presidential candidate in the 1999 presidential elections, Chief Olu Falae, yesterday said that the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), cannot fight corruption.
Falae accused the ruling party of benefiting from what he described as “massive misappropriation of our common wealth”.
The elder statesman, who is the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), made this known at the official launch of the party’s manifesto, constitution and logo in Abuja.
He said if Nigeria must move forward, grow and develop into a modern and prosperous country, corruption must die.
The cardinal objective of the SDP, he said, is the welfare of the individual citizen from cradle to grave.
Falae, who was also a Finance Minister during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, decried the high rate of unemployment in the country and the killings in the northern part of the country, asking the government to urgently put an end to the Boko Haram insurgency.
His words: “In our own country today, we face intimidating challenges: mass poverty, hunger, insecurity and fears, mindless corruption and looting of the treasury at all levels of government.
“It is my considered view that corruption has become the single most devastating evil facing this generation, because virtually all other problems are traceable to corruption.
“Examples from the communications and transport sectors will make the point abundantly clear. When mobile telephony was introduced into Nigeria some 12 years ago, it brought great relief to the people who had been waiting for years for telephone services. The huge pent-up demand enabled the system providers, within a few years, to make unusually high profits which then led to the influx of more mobile companies.
“In next to no time, the ensuing competition resulted in their selling to the public telephone lines far in excess of the capacity of their installed equipments. The consequences are the unsatisfactory services they are offering the public today. These days you are told that ‘the network is busy’ or ‘please call later!’
“It is clear that the so-called ruling party cannot do much about corruption because it is the beneficiary of the massive misappropriation of our common wealth. The SDP now offers itself to Nigeria as the platform of hope and integrity with zero tolerance for corruption.
“While all Nigerians are welcome to our party, however, if there are individuals whose purpose in politics is to steal public funds, we say to them, please don’t come to the SDP; go elsewhere or, better still, give up your ambition of getting rich at the expense of the poor people of Nigeria.
“While corruption is dishonesty in the economic or financial sphere, election rigging, imposition of candidates represents corruption in the political domain. Such political somersaulting and looting of the treasury are two sides of the same coin of political and moral bankruptcy in both the leadership and followership.
“The diversion of public funds into private pockets, which is going on daily at all levels of government, prevents the use of such resources for the production of food for the masses, provision of employment for graduates and non-graduate unemployed youths and the generation and distribution of stable, adequate and affordable electric power supply for domestic and industrial use”.
Falae urged Nigerian youths to seize the future in their hands, by forming SDP cells across the country even to the hinterlands.
“To the youths, we say you are no longer powerless. Get together and form SDP clubs everywhere; in your polytechnics, colleges of education, universities, factories, markets, farms and villages. Take your future into your own hands and register yourselves and your SDP clubs with our interactive website, www.sdp.org.ng”.