Magu Urges The Youth To Be Standard Bearers of Corruption War

The acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu, has urged Nigerian youths to be standard bearers of the ongoing war against corruption in the country.
Magu also stated that the Commission would not compromise on its resolve to secure the future of Nigerian youths as well as unborn generations by ridding the country of corruption.
Speaking yesterday at The African Youth Leadership Roundtable Initiative at the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, the EFCC Chair lamented the fact that Nigerian youths today were at the receiving end of the negative effects of corruption.
In his keynote address entitled “Youth Action For Change”, Magu expressed the hope that the youth would “self-mobilise” to join hands in the fight against corruption and economic crimes.
Magu, who spoke through Garuba Dugum, Head of Operations, EFCC, Lagos, said: “But sadly, that is not the case from where I stand, surveying the Nigerian corruption landscape.
“At the EFCC, we have done a rough analysis of the corruption complaints that we receive and found out that over 60 percent of them are against people in the 17 to 50 age bracket, which I understand, is the ‘youth bracket.’”
According to him, the alleged offences being committed by youths cut across all permutations of crimes from advance fee fraud through corruption to money laundering.
He also lamented what he described as the “breadth of criminal imagination” that the youth deploy in scamming, looting and hiding the proceeds of crimes.
He, therefore, stated that “If only half of the energy and ingenuity were deployed in legitimate enterprises, Nigeria would have long been lifted out of the doldrums typical of a failing society. So, I see the inherent power of the youth. The question is, do they see themselves as possessing and being able to harness that power to turn things around? Rather than see and admire and want to be the next big thief, the owners of shiny cars and outlandish houses and jewelry, do the youth see for themselves a future devoid of corruption, a future where patriotism, hard work and diligence are the only valuable currencies of citizenship?