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Showing posts from July, 2015

THE LOGIC AND SIGNIFICANCE OF EL RUFAI’S CALL: “KILL NNPC OR NNPC WILL KILL NIGERIA”

On Monday, 13 July 2015, at two separate events, two elected prominent, influential and powerful public officers, one a Governor, the other a national legislator, made similar policy advocacy on fundamental aspects of the economy, which could determine the direction of civil society-government relationship in the coming period. They are the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara.   Riding on the

CAN CIVIL SERVANTS EXPOSE CORRUPTION WITHOUT FEARING PERSECUTION?

Under the law, can civil servants (or more appropriately, public sector employees and staff, simply covered by the concept of ‘public officers’) expose corruption in public office without fearing victimization or persecution? The simple and direct answer to this question is “YES”. Any public officer can expose corruption in any public office, including institutions, schools, colleges, ministries, establishments, enterprises, departments, agencies, and so on, owned or financed by any arm of government, without the fear of being victimized. Even if an anti-corruption public officer had been made to suffer any form of punitive measure, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) could, if approached, not only set aside any punishment the anti-corruption public officer might have suffered, the whistle blower could also be entitled to monetary damages for the deprivation, harassment and/or humiliation s/he might have been made to go through.