Why corruption has persisted in Nigeria, says Amaechi

ONYEDI GABRIEL, PORT HARCOURT

Transport Minister, Chibuike Amaechi, has attributed persistence corruption to the inability of the country to jail and severely punish thieves.

He said the only way to stop corruption  in the country was to muster courage  to jail persons indicted of graft.

The minister and former governor of Rivers State spoke while delivering the 2021 Founders’  lecture, at  the University of Port Harcourt, on Monday.

Amaechi appealed to members of the public to stop celebrating persons, who fraudulently enriched themselves by stealing public funds saying such acts encouraged corruption. 
He insisted that the administration of President Muhammed Buhari was determined  to fighting the malaise.

The minister, who spoke on the Role of Transportation in Nation Building  said the absence of transportation  would cripple  the nation’s economy adding that government was giving priority attention to the sector because of its importance.

He said no nation could have an efficient transport system without good sea ports, disclosing that , the federal government was targeting the construction of  three new seaports across the country.

He said rhe sea ports  would be located in  Onne, Rivers State, Lekki in Lagos and  Warri in Delta State.

Amaechi said: “This administration wants to do fresh seaports, because the existing ones, even if you dredge it 100 times, give it one month, it will be filled again, so that’s why we want to do fresh ones.

“With the three new sea ports, we will move from three percent of the country’s GDP to six percent”.

He also disclosed that by September this year, a University of Transportation would be constructed at Ubima in Ikwere Local Government Area of Rivers State to further enhance learning and specialization in  the transport sector.

He said that the nation was borrowing to ensure that the necessary infrastructures werw put in place for the masses, adding: “The nation doesn’t have enough money at the moment to be doing all that are needed to be done”.

The Chairman of the occasion and former Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof.S.J Cookey, lamented that the Bonny seaport was in moribund and unutilized, urging the relevant authorities to pay serious attention by revitalizing the nation’s seaports to grow the economy.

Other stakeholders at the meeting lamented that the South-South region produced the wealth of the country yet lacked important infrastructures. 

They called on government to pay attention to coastal railways, land transportation, and internal transport systems.

The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof Stephen  Okodudu, said the University at 46 had come of age, adding that the choice of the Amaechi as the speaker was to showcase to the world of the depth of intellectual resources deposited in the institution