Widespread and systemic corruption in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), especially in the education, health and water sectors is deepening poverty among millions of Nigerians.
This is the finding of a new report by the t by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).
The 61-page report, launched on Thursday at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, is titled: “The Ignored Pandemic: How Corruption in the Health, Education and Water Sectors is Plunging Nigerians further into Poverty“.
According to the report, “Budget fraud, procurement fraud, embezzlement of funds among other illegal actions, lead to failure in the delivery of services including education, water and health.
“People living in poor neighbourhoods have suffered so much that they consider poor service delivery as being good enough”.
The report presented to the media by Dr. Elijah Okebukola, discloses that “61% of people living in poor neighbourhoods ranged between having no formal education and senior secondary education”.
It urged President Muhammadu Buhari to “promptly propose an executive bill to amend the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended), to recognise Nigerians’ socio-economic rights, including the rights to an adequate standard of living, education, quality healthcare, and clean water as legally enforceable human rights”.
The report also urged the Buhari administration to “ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which allows individuals and groups whose socio-economic rights are violated to access international accountability mechanism in the form of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights”.
All the participants expressed commitment to ensure the full implementation of the recommendations contained in the report.
