The Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalong, has blamed the escalating cases of corruption in the country on the Nigerian youth.

The minister, who made this declaration on Tuesday accused the youth of submitting themselves to some persons who acquired their wealth through questionable means.

Speaking at the opening session of a two-day National Conference on Youths Against Corruption organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Dalong charged them to see corruption as their number one enemy.

The minister also called on the youth to emulate past leaders, who he said operated as the conscience of the society by speaking against bad policies of successive governments.

He recalled his days in the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, when students rejected a parcel of land in a choice area of Abuja to prove they could not be corrupted.

Also speaking, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali, told students to take possession of the fight against corruption as they had always been the victim of the vices of corruption at all times.

“The fight against corruption cannot be won until we adopt a different social, political, economic and religious path to living a life free of corruption.

“The failures of the older generation to instill the right morals and ethics must give way to a new perspective on doing things.

“Corruption must be regarded for the evil that it is and the short term benefits it provides, rejected as toxic to the stability of Nigeria,” he said.