Ending Nigerian Corruption

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31017, 24 March 1966, Page 2

Ending Nigerian Corruption

The new military Government in Nigeria was attempting to rid the country of corruption and there were already definite signs of improvement, said Mrs F. N. Wylde at the Y.W.C.A.’s World Fellowship luncheon yesterday.

Mrs Wylde, who was in Ibadan at the time of the West Nigerian State elections in 1964 and for the Federal elections last October, said it was then quite common for ballot boxes to disappear. “We felt the corruption there at State election time must have been like what it was in the seventeenth and eighteenth century in Europe,” she said. “If a Government party candidate did not like his opponent he had him clamp ed into gaol. If a candidate wanted to be nominated for an anti-Government party he

could never find an electoral officer to get himself registered.” Walk-over The Government party acquired 18 seats unopposed because opposition candidates could not find electoral officers.

All types of little dodges were manipulated to keep out opposition party members and

I these were intensified in the ■ federal elections last year, she said. Mrs Wylde, who was in • West Nigeria while her hus- ■ band was advising the De- > partment of Education in ■ Ibadan on teaching secondary school science and on teacher ; training, said she found the : Nigerians a very likeable ! people.

This country, made up of three regions, had a very wide range of people, land and climate. And every other country seemed to be trying to help Nigeria. “There is more aid going into Nigeria at the present time than into any other African nation,” she said.

Paying tribute to the women, Mrs Wylde said they worked hard and did their best for their children. She told of an incident of a woman walking many miles to a clinic with a two-year-old child to have it injected against measles. On her back she carried a baby which had been born only a matter of hours earlier. Missionaries’ Effort

Mrs Wylde said she was often asked if it was worthwhile sending money to missionaries in such places as Nigeria.

“Missionaries have done a tremendous job in Nigeria. If it had not been for them many of today’s leaders would not have received the early education which enabled them to go on to university,” she said.