Corruption: Negotiate with looters – Bishop Kukah tells Nigerian govt

The Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah, has
advised the federal government of Nigeria to change its tactics in the
anti-corruption fight against looters.


Kukah said the government should negotiate with looters of the
nation's treasury in order to recover stolen funds.

The cleric made this known while speaking at the 29th and 30th
Convocation lecture of the University of Jos on Friday.


Bishop Kukah explained that some countries had negotiated with corrupt
officials to recover stolen funds and it worked for them, hence
calling on Nigerian government to adopt the same tactic.

According to him "Fighting corruption as a whole is beyond just
recovering stolen funds, although it is necessary to punish treasury
looters and corrupt officials, to solve the whole problem would
involve tackling it from the roots and that means the institutional
framework.

"Investigate what they have stolen, then call them and negotiate how
much of it can be recovered, while you put frameworks in place to
holistically solve the problem.


"Corruption is not only a Nigerian thing. Former presidents of nations
like America, France, Israel, South Africa, among others, have been
removed due to corruption charges. Yet, their countries are working."