Regular pension antidote to corruption – Ex-Milad Ochulor

A former Military Administrator of Delta State, Air Commodore Luke C. Ochulor has said that the un-rewarding system Nigeria operates in her public sector contributes a large extent to the high rate of corruption among public office holders.

In an interview with Daily Trust, Ochulor said apart from greed and insatiability of some Nigerians, another reason some public officers embezzle funds running into millions and billions of naira is the fear of uncertainty.

“Once you are in a country where you are sure that the moment you leave service, you will get your pension as due, and you are sure that those who are holding your common wealth will distribute it equitably, you have no reason to amass wealth. What are you amassing wealth for? So it is the system that breeds that type of activity, or behavior exhibited by public office holders. In civilized countries, the system takes care of everybody and you have no reason to amass wealth,” he emphasized, adding, “Those who steal public funds do so because of uncertainty and because of what happened to people in the past.”

On the call for restructuring Ochulor said, “As it is now, the only way this country can survive is to agree to this restructuring which everybody is talking about because is now a general opinion. If they go with restructuring and it fails, nobody will be blamed. But when you stick to your own policy, if Nigeria collapses in your hand, one may not be alive to recount the history. Naturally, in the civilized world, if a system does not work, you jettison it and try another one. That’s the way I look at it.”