Abuja, 26 May (ENI)--Nigeria's Anglican and Roman Catholic churches have expressed dire concern about the endemic nature of corruption which has led to Nigeria being rated the third most corrupt country in the world by German-based Transparency International (TI). 

While backing efforts by the government to fight graft in Africa's most populous nation, the bishops from the two denominations said firm action was needed to eliminate the scourge. 

Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo has admitted that corruption in the country is at an alarming level. "Corruption is a cankerworm that must be substantially uprooted from our economic and political system if there is to be any meaningful progress in this country," he said on Tuesday. 

Archbishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon of Kaduna, from northern Nigeria, told Ecumenical News International: "Politicians see politics as a business enterprise and not service to the people, that is why there is massive stealing of the nation's wealth." 

The president said a report by US intelligence experts that he had released to Nigerian legislators said the west African country could collapse into anarchy and drag the whole region into bloodshed and chaos. 

The Nigerian leader said he decided to make public the report from the US National Intelligence Council on Africa's medium-term prospects in order to encourage Nigerians to work together for stability and in the hope they could prove the Americans wrong. 

The Nigerian government says the country lost over US$400 billion in 40 years due to corruption. In addition, more than $6 billion is lost yearly due to corrupt practices in the oil sector of the nation's economy, and the banking sector has also lost of about $82 billion.     

Anglican Bishop Ezekiel Awosoga of Ijebu said, "The Nigerian government's current war against corruption is an answer to the prayers of Christians in the country."  

Two Catholic bishops told ENI on Thursday that the Nigerian government had to eradicate corruption because it had become endemic.  

"There is the need for President Obasanjo to carry out reforms that will introduce policies that would change the people's value system so as to sustain the anti-corruption war," Bishop Olatunji Fagun of the Ekiti diocese said.  

Bishop Leke Abegunrin said, "The crusade against corruption is in the right direction. President Olusegun Obasanjo's effort to arrest the scourge of corruption, which is the fatal enemy of this country, is commendable."