The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Anti-graft

  • Anti-graft war: Reps seek 20-year jail term for looters

    Anti-graft war: Reps seek 20-year jail term for looters

    Despite Senate’s  insistent rejection of the nomination of Ibrahim Magu as the substantive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) last week, the House of Representatives is seeking to make the agency financially and operationally independent of the executive and legislative arms of government.

    The bill seeking to further empower the anti-graft scaled second reading with unanimous support despite a few dissenting voices to a proposal for a special court devoted to the trial of financial and other related crimes. According to two of the four sponsors of the consolidated  bill, Kayode Oladele (APC, Ogun) and  Bassey Ewa (PDP, Cross River), if passed into law, neither the Executive nor the Legislature can turn the anti-graft agency into its tool. Oladele said: “The bill is seeking to expand the scope of those that can head the agency. The extant law restricted it to only former or serving security personnel but we want a situation whereby people of character can be sourced from non-security sector; we don’t want the door to be shut on the rest of brilliant Nigerians with impeccable character. The independence of the agency can only be guaranteed if it is placed on first line charge. If that is done, the agency will no longer have to make do with whatever it was given to it by the Budget office, which may not be enough for its financial activities”. Oladele added that the creation of Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) domiciled in EFCC but independent would go a long way in tackling corruption in the country. “It would enable Nigeria access the international data of the Egmont Group in tackling complex corruption cases with international dimension,” he said.

    On his part, Ewa said the bill is seeking a 20-year minimum jail term for public servants, who corruptly enriched themselves while in office as well as the creation of EFCC court, designed to try corrupt officials to avoid undue delays.

    In his comparative analysis of other countries that have passed through similar circumstances, Ewa said Ghana prescribes 15 years with hard labour, Republic of Cameroun had 20 years imprisonment, and India has 20 years imprisonment while Egypt has 20 years imprisonment.

    On funding of the agency, Ewa said the bill seeks to delete Section 35 of the Act to be replaced with 0.1percent of the total value of contracts awarded by the Federal Government shall be credited to the commission’s account; 0.1percent of the Internally Generated Revenue of the Federal Government shall be credited to the commission’s account; and 0.1percent of the sums of money recovered from the looted funds shall be retained by the commission.

    “The EFCC Act is further amended to establish an Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Court to handle all cases emanating from investigations carried out by the EFCC bothering on financial crimes. The court, so established, shall have divisions in the six geo-political zones of the country. The court shall within 180 days dispense with any matter that is properly brought before it as appeals emanating from it shall only lie to the Court of Appeal and the Court of Appeal shall within 90 days dispense with any matter brought before it from the judgment of EFCC Court,” he added.

    While Oladele cautioned his colleagues on the establishment of the EFCC court, a number of his colleagues vehemently opposed it. Oladele opined that the scope of the EFCC court would be too limited which was why he was proposing an all – encompassing Special Court Bill that would take care of variety of financial, terrorism and other related crimes. “There is need for us to bring all the special crimes such as cybercrime, terrorism, financial crimes together into one so that the special court can be fully operational”.

    While he supported operational autonomy for the agency, Oladele however called for caution over funding of the agency, saying if passed into law as proposed; the funding sources might turn out to be over-pampering of the agency. Tajudeen Yusuf (PDP, Kogi) who also supported the EFCC court, said it has become necessary to free the agency from its dependence on the Executive. He however faulted the proposed funding of the agency saying it was too huge.

    However, antagonists of the EFCC got a boost when Speaker Yakubu Dogara pointed out that the position of the constitution should be considered on the feasibility of the EFCC against High courts. While Nicholas Ossai (PDP, Delta) aligned with the Speaker, saying there was a need to examine the position of the constitution, Igariwey  Enwo (PDP, Ebonyi) said, “Mine is only a voice of caution because it is easy to give out powers but very difficult to take it back as this special court may have to serve as subordinate court to the state high courts”. Mohammed Soba (APC, Kaduna) and a number of others said the EFCC court is unnecessary. According to them, the constitution has already empowered the High Court to carry out the proposed duties for the EFCC court. They opined that being a constitutional issue, an amendment of the constitution must be carried out. They said if passed into law, the powers of the High Court would be usurped. They also felt that the creation of the court would also give too much power to the anti-corruption agency.

    But when the bill was put to voice vote, it got the support of the majority of the lawmakers.

  • Whistle-blowing: Lacuna that may hamper anti-graft fight

    SIR: Whistle blowing as an adjunct to the current anti-corruption war should have been a great boost but for the lacuna in the law. In countries with well-developed anti-graft regimes, whistle-blowing has played a pivotal role which is not likely to be so in Nigeria unless there is a major amendment to the EFCC Act.

    The procedure for prosecuting the corruption war under the present regime has assumed a straight-jacket format of; receiving complaints or petitions; investigation of the petitions by scrutinising public documents to fish out illegal deals; arrest of suspects; tracing of proceeds of the illegal deals either to the bank or elsewhere for the purpose of attachment; and prosecution of suspects and if successful, forfeiture of illegal proceeds to the government.

    It is the application of this formal procedure engendered by our adversarial criminal justice system that is the bane of the anti-corruption war, particularly the onus on the prosecution to establish that the proceeds in question are derived from illegal act(s). This is even when international instruments, for example, the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988, (Art 5 para. 7) enjoins signatory nations to consider reversing the onus of proving the legitimate origin of such proceeds and placing same on the accused because of the covert nature of the transactions giving birth to the illegal proceeds.

    Consciously or unconsciously, the Nigerian Constitution has provided for the reversal of the onus of proof of the legitimate origin of proceeds of illegal acts in the proviso to Section 36(5) which reads thus:

    “Provided that nothing in this section shall invalidate any law by reason only that the law imposes upon any such person the burden of proving particular facts”.

    With the above constitutional provision, all that is required to accomplish the task is to insert a provision in the EFCC Act to that effect otherwise, the Andrew Yakubu’s dollars cannot be legally forfeited to the government without proof by the prosecution that the dollars are proceeds of illegal acts. In other words, even though whistle-blowing has led to the physical recovery of the dollars, conviction under the current law and procedure is still illusive. Without conviction any attempt to forcibly take the dollars will be illegal.

    However, if Andrew Yakubu is to prove that the dollars are proceeds of lawful acts, failing which the dollars will be forfeited in addition to his conviction and sentence, then the whistle would have sounded a distinct call. This marks the difference between the acquittal of the former Governor of Delta State in Nigeria and his conviction in London.

    Apart from the limitation of whistle-blowing under the current anti-corruption regime, it is expedient to sound a note of warning to potential whistle-blowers. This has become necessary because of the prevailing public opinions as to whether whistle-blowing should be a permanent feature of the anti-corruption war and how it can be sustained. The writer’s concern here is the range of the protection that avails a potential whistle-blower. Much as the writer knows that as soon as the whistle is blown, the blower runs under the protection of the state as provided by the law, the level of insecurity in the country may allow mysterious deaths of potential whistle-blowers before they would have had the opportunity to put their mouths on the whistle. This is because; desperate corrupt officials are going to embark on elimination spree of all who played a part in hiding the loot or illegally gotten wealth. Nonetheless, the writer’s position is that whistle-blowing can only be a boost to the anti-corruption war if the necessary amendment to the EFCC Act is carried out.

     

    • Dr. Moses Ediru

    Lafia, Nasarawa State.

  • Anti-graft campaign for schools

    Anti-graft campaign for schools

    Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, yesterday urged students to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti – corruption fight.

    The minister made the appeal when he met with students/pupils drawn from different schools in Abuja and Nasarawa State.

    The students, along with Prof. Anwukah embarked on an anti-corruption awareness walk under the Value Project.

    He said the project, which is aimed at inculcating the right morals on students, needed to be supported to usher in a better future.

    Prof. Anwukah commended the efforts of the children to join the project.

    “We support you in this anti-corruption campaign.  We want to encourage and congratulate you for this worthy cause. We are with you to make sure you rid our society of corruption,” he said.

    In her remarks, National Coordinator, Youth Health and Social Reforms (YOHESOR), Dr. Ijeomah Arodiogbu, said the project would use picture code, curriculum enrichment and peer education to drive home  the anti-corruption message among students.

    “Though the picture mode may not cover all facets of corrupt practices and habits but it would try to capture the very relevant ones that are quite common among students and adults in the school environment and public offices respectively were captured,”  Dr. Arodiogbu said.

    The students who carried various banners and placards on anti-corruption as they marched through the Federal Secretariat Complex, Abuja, appealed to parents to shun any act of corruption as such behaviour will endanger their future.

  • Why anti-graft war is weak

    SIR: The Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, is worried and anxious over the unstable and diminishing impact of the President Buhari-led anti-corruption fight.  We advise the President to formulate a clear, coherent anti-corruption template for Nigeria to be rid of corruption.

    Given the controversy generated by the refusal of the Senate to confirm Ibrahim Magu as substantive chairman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over allegations of corruption proffered against him, we call for the disclosure of the DSS report which led to the inability for the Senate to confirm Mr. Magu.

    It is also important for President Buhari to take responsibility for some of the allegations surrounding key members of his administration, including the Secretary to government of the federation and the Chief of Staff’.

    We are also alarmed at the warm reception given to the Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu by the ruling APC despite the case against him by the EFCC. The implication of this is that politicians who are facing prosecution for one form of corruption or the other, now try to evade prosecution by joining the ruling party. What has been lacking in the anti-corruption war in Nigeria is the absence of a roadmap indicating as clear as possible the direction, scope and focus.

    The president needs to be decisive and come out clear on these issues so as not to trivialise his anti-corruption effort. President Muhammadu Buhari won the popular vote because he expressed strong interest to rid Nigeria of corruption. Therefore, his inability to prosecute key organs/personalities of his administration allegedly embroiled in one incident of corruption or the other sends a dangerous signal and deals a crucial blow to his commitment to successfully fight corruption.

    Since Nigeria is a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) Treaty, ANEEJ recommends that the Buhari administration align itself with the ratification and implementation of all UNCAC tools especially the Institutional Integrity Initiative of UNCAC, to effectively tackle and prevent corruption in the public and private sector in the coming year 2017.

     

    • Rev. David Ugolor,

    ANEEJ, Benin City

  • Still on DSS, judges and the anti-graft war

    SIR: It is now fashionable for all manners of people to denounce the Federal Government’s ongoing war on corruption. Lawyers, laymen and even street hawkers seem to have something to say on the way the war against corruption and how its beneficiaries are being prosecuted.

    But none of the frontiers of the battle has generated as much frenzy as the arrest of judges by the DSS. The ‘leader’ of the campaign against the DSS action is no other than Rivers State Governor, Barr Ezenwo Nyesom Wike.

    Lawyers have been killed in the most bestial and gruesome manners – some like Ken Atsuwaete, when handling sensitive cases, including election petitions – yet lawyers, including Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) maintained a disturbing silence. But the arrest of judges for alleged corruption, which we all must abhor, has brought out all manners of condemnations. How do you posit this hypocrisy of the NBA and other interest groups!

    No doubt, Nigeria cannot continue to live like this! We must accept that change is the only constant in life and we must swallow this bitter pill.

    In each era in all societies, some persons are thrown up as agents of change. President Buhari and All Progressive Congress in Nigeria personify this today. From the sickening, baleful and topsy-turvy state of the nation before President Buhari came on board, only heaven knows what would have been the fate of our dear country today.  God graciously brought Buhari to rescue us from the debris of corruption, lawlessness, hopelessness, insecurity, poverty and the brotherhood of vultures riddling and hovering over our country and collective patrimony.

    It is indeed an irony that agents of these saboteurs and their cronies who brought us to this awful and shameful state now indulge in exasperating polemics, tirade and pedestrian claims of political intolerance, persecution, witch-hunting and all sorts of balderdash.

    Those who stole a nation’s commonwealth with impunity, impoverished and oppressed the people, subjected them to unending sorrow and even sent many to untimely graves through wicked actions and inactions, think they will go in peace? Nay, they and their collaborators, be they judges, lawyers or whatever, must face the music for their actions.

    Rather than go on sober reflection and restitution, the evil vultures are regrouping in numbers using all manners of barmy and untoward tricks to bamboozle the people; selling them dummies to portray the government in bad light in other to thwart the good effort of Buhari and his god-sent team.

    With the mind-boggling level of revelations in corruption cases, from the amount stolen to the high calibre of persons involved, there is no better time than now to deal decisively with this cancerous corruption and its agents, before it kills our country. This evil must be tamed.

    Those entrusted with the position of trust that betray the trust must be told that it is time for account rendering.  All the whining and unsubstantiated claims of witch-hunting are peripheral as far as the good people of this country are concerned.

    For those running from court to court in search of reprieve, you must know that no amount spent to procure court injunctions, smear campaign lies, denial or shenanigans against Buhari’s person and this government can save you. It is better to stop chasing shadows and running from pillar to post and accept the reality of judgement day that is upon you – you cannot fight change.

    More than ever before, government should be encouraged to continue to wield the sledgehammer on the camaraderie of vultures feasting on our collective patrimony.

     

    • Lanre Atere,

    United Kingdom.

  • How to win anti-graft war, by Sagay

    How to win anti-graft war, by Sagay

    Forner university don and legal luminary Prof. Itsey Sagay spoke with reporters in Lagos on the anti-graft war and how the judiciary can join President Muhammadu Buhari to win. Political Editor emmanuel oladesu was there.

    What is your position on the DSS raid on the homes of some judges and justices?

    I can respond to this as Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee on Corruption because we have an official position, and that position is: There is nobody that is above the law in this country. The only people who are enjoying immunity against criminal prosecution are president, vice president, governors, and deputy governors. Anybody outside this group is totally subject to the full weight of the law for any crime he/she commits.

    Why we look at the judiciary, with all respect, is that we expect them to conduct themselves in such a manner that they are totally above suspicion. I personally have done a study of the judiciary in the past. The judiciary I refer to is the golden era of the Supreme Court – Supreme Court of Oputa, Nnamani, Obaseki and Bello among others. I studied their supreme courts and the image and aura that accompanied their conduct and the air around them were carried on from the colonial era.

    These are people no anti-corruption agency in Nigeria will dare accuse of corruption because they have such high moral of authority. These are the people, who when President Muhammadu Buhari was the military head of state, held, on many occasions, that actions of that government were illegal in one way or the other and the government obeyed immediately because of the authority these people had. So, any judicial authority that wants to maintain that aura and authority must be credible. You cannot be corrupt and expect to be respected.

    You cannot reduce yourself to a level where you are purchasable, where what I will call irresponsible and low type of lawyers will carry money to you and buy your soul and you sell your judgement. The highest bidder will now hand over money to the judge.

    So, when you bring us down to that level where nobody can determine the outcome of a judgement based on arguments, the law and facts, then, you have destroyed the judiciary. Those judges, who are corrupt have destroyed the judiciary and nothing is too much for their punishment.

    Who are the corrupt persons? They are the politicians and lawyers who share part of the proceeds of crimes. These politicians and lawyers are stabbing Nigeria one after the other and our blood is flowing. Judiciary has stabbed Nigeria. If they want to destroy Nigeria, we have to uproot those people for our country to survive.

    In your view, do you think the anti-corruption war of the Federal Government is sustainable?

    It is sustainable, if Nigeria wants it to be sustainable. After all it is a democracy. If you are taking legitimate steps to root out corruption in the judiciary, that is the first place. We must root it out from the judiciary, otherwise we are going nowhere. After you have cleared out the political class and the lawyers we are left with nothing. You will go there and you will find justice. Judiciary is the first point of call. We must purge the judiciary of corruption. That is where we have to start.

    The said punishment must be after judgement. There has to be a mindset for those who are looking for corrupt persons. There will be investigation of suspicious behaviours, secretly acquired of illegitimate funds, leading to investigation, arrest and prosecution.

    It is the judge, who will hear the case. He is the one who has to be to cleared and seen to be neutral. He is the one who will assume innocence before conviction. Although, the case by angry Nigerians is that the process of innocence should be removed and that those charged should prove their own innocence. The prosecutor cannot have the mindset that we are talking about. Otherwise, there will be no investigation and there will be no prosecution.

    The Legal Adviser of the APC, Dr Muiz Banire has stepped down from his position following allegations that he induced a judge, how is Amaechi’s case different from that?

    That one is different. N500,000 was found in an account of a judge, which was paid by Muiz Banire. There is no such link. No such was found against Amaechi. It is just the mere words of the judges. There is a lot of difference.

    His take on the role of the NJC in the fight against corruption

    I will blame them totally for the ineffectiveness of the fight against corruption to certain extent. NJC is established for a routine misconduct. There are no volumes of corruption that have not been found in our judiciary. People who have taken a whole lot of money from politicians will pay salaries of thousands of Nigerians for many years. When it gets to that stage, then you are dealing with a serious disease. The NJC is not meant to do that. Their job is geared towards routine misconduct in normal situations. What we have is not normal. It is an epidemic. It is just too much.

    Do you think the NJC is overburdened?

    My personal view is that none of those operating at the level of NJC should be serving justices. They should be retired justices with clean records because we had a situation in which one of those accused of corruption and misconduct was a sitting Chief Justice of Nigeria and he influenced the whole process to the extent that an innocent President of the Court of Appeal was suspended and not allowed to return to his seat until he retired because the corruption and misconduct of that CJN was in consonance with the President and the party in power.

    It is better to have a group of people who have nothing at stake, nothing to lose and no objection. Too many people are currently holding positions who are themselves living on huge sums of corrupt money, sitting and considering people who have been brought to court. How would you feel? You know you have committed the same thing. You know the money is somewhere and can be found in future. You don’t caution yourselves by dealing with a fellow traveller in that area. That is the problem.

    Some are worried that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC acting chairman, Magu has not been confirmed. Are you worried?

    I am not bothered and neither am I surprised because some of those who are to confirm him are under investigation. And to a typical Nigerian, there is no sense of duty, no sense of respect and no embarrassment. They are ready to fight dirty and expose themselves. People are in positions they forced themselves on in this country. Otherwise there should be no reason why they should not confirm him because they think they are saving themselves against the crimes they have committed.

    The embattled justices are being accused of having huge sums of money in their possession. As a senior lawyer, is there a provision of the law that stipulates the amount of money a Nigerian should have in his possession?

    There is a provision in the ICPC Act and similar provision is in the EFCC Act. The ICPC and EFCC are entitled to investigate any person who is living above his income, in order to determine where he is getting his extra income for his style of living. There is also a provision in the ICPC Act that entitles the government to bring an application to freeze an asset owned by somebody who cannot account for how he got it. In that case, he is obliged to provide evidence on how he acquired the money. If he cannot account, he loses that asset and presently before the National Assembly, there is a bill, which is very clear, that at any point in time that the security agency and anti-corruption agencies can ask you to account for any asset you have and how you acquired the asset, what you are doing to acquire it and if you cannot, they will give it to the state. That is how it is all over the world. We are among the few exception of countries that have not been practising this.

    I am optimistic that we will get some convicted or acquitted. We are interested in seeing cases come to conclusion. You are either convicted or acquitted. We don’t want to see suspended cases again starting from 2003, which have not been resolved. But with the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, we are bound to see a major improvement because that act has blocked all the loopholes.

    Senior Advocates of Nigeria, SANs, who are the colleagues of politicians they are exploiting and sharing the proceeds, feel totally committed to looking for loopholes. Rather than defending their clients, they look for loopholes to deny that the court has jurisdiction and drag that issue to the Court of Appeal and to the Supreme Court for a period of 10 years or more. By the time, he comes back 10 years later, the court has the jurisdiction to try the case, witnesses and prosecutors are no longer there. There are new prosecutors not familiar with the case. All sorts of complications would have arisen to make the case almost impossible to resolve.

    This new act has provided four major things that are very helpful. If you make an application that the court has no jurisdiction, or any other preliminary objection, the court is empowered to hear your objection. After he hears it, he says, ‘fine, let us go to the main case.’ He hears the main case and gives ruling for the objection and judgement at the same time. So from there you move to the Court of Appeal.

    Secondly, the court is now committed to give day-to-day hearing. No adjournment. You must hear the case every day until it is completed.

    Thirdly, if a judge is promoted, no matter how far he has gone with the case, the case has to be given to another judge. The judge is at the verge of giving the judgement when he was promoted. That has ended.

    Finally, an appeal does not constitute stay of consideration. So you can appeal 20 times. These are the tricks lawyers are using. They just appeal. The appeal has been eliminated; a case goes on at the same time. If they are firmly implemented and that is what my committee urged to be implemented. Cases will go on with little or no interruption till the end. If that is done, we will see numerous cases decided this year.

  • UN praises public service reforms, anti-graft fight

    The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Nigeria has praised the Federal Government for its efforts at reforming the public service through its anti-corruption drive.

    UNDP Country Director Mr. Lamin Beyai gave the commendation at the Training of Trainers on Corruption Risk Assessments (CRA) at the Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN).

    ACAN is the training wing of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), located in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

    Speaking through the UNDP Deputy Country Director-Programme, Mandisa Mashologu, Beyai said the government being aware of the rating of Nigeria by Transparency International (TI) as the 136th most corrupt country out of 168 countries.

    He said the rating was lower than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa and that government has put in tremendous efforts through institutional reforms, enforcements, prosecution, entrenching the culture of integrity and capacity building of staff of anti-corruption agencies to tackle the menace.

    ‘Tackling corruption remains a top priority of the government as one of the means to facilitate efficient delivery of public services and enhance national development opportunities.

    ‘The process has resulted in on-going institutional reforms, which are already yielding positive results. We believe that an efficient and effective public service can positively contribute to the ease of doing business in Nigeria and act as stimulant to curb corrupt practices,” Beyal said.

  • ‘Anti-graft bodies should probe constituency projects’

    ANTI-corruption agencies and civil society groups must investigate the Constituency projects of state and federal legislature, a non-governmental organisation, Media Support Centre (MSC), has said.

    The group, in a statement by its Executive Director, Wale Fatade, said statements by key figures in the ‘budget padding’ controversy showed that despite statements to the contrary, the lawmakers knew that allocating billions of naira to themselves every year for constituency projects is wrong.

    The MSC had released a survey, which showed that many Nigerians were unaware of the execution of these ‘projects’.

    “The group has consistently advocated the abrogation of the annual allocations by the lawmakers, describing them as an avenue for graft and a distraction from the primary responsibilities of the lawmakers, which is to make laws and put the executive in check,” says Fatade.

    “It becomes a problem when lawmakers line themselves up to execute projects as well. Our studies have shown that Nigerians don’t get value for the billions of naira allocated for this every year by the National Assembly.”

    Abdulmumin Jibrin, former chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, had submitted documents to anti-corruption agencies demanding that four leaders of the House of Representatives be investigated.

    Jibrin alleged that the 2016 budget was jacked up by N284 billion using 10 of the 96 Standing Committees in the House. He accused the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara and his deputy, Lasun Yusuf, of appropriating to themselves N40 billion each of the N100 billion allocated to constituency projects by the House in the 2016 budget.

    He further alleged that the padding was done at a secret location, with the backing of the Speaker and three principal officers, including Deputy Speaker Yusuff Lasun, House Whip Alhassan Ado Doguwa and Minority leader Leo Ogor.

     

  • Buhari: anti-graft battle’s enemies’ll face penalties

    Buhari: anti-graft battle’s enemies’ll face penalties

    President fetes less-privileged

    President Muhammadu Buhari last night warned that those planning to deter his administration from fighting corruption will face the consequences. He did not name such people.

    The President spoke at the Presidential Villa during the breaking of fast with some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), taxi drivers, hair dressers, motorcycle riders, barbers, butchers, tailors, and junior workers of the campaign office of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    He said: “Whoever deters us from fighting corruption will suffer the consequences.”

    The President said that it was unfortunate that some members of the elite were self-centred and only cared for themselves as there was very little to show for the huge income got from sales of oil in the 16 years the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ruled.

    Noting that they mismanaged what accrued to the country, he said that the past administrations could not fix power, rail, and provide drinking water for the populace, among other problems.

    He told the group that his administration was conscious of their needs and desire but that the government met very poor conditions.

    The prices of oil in the international market, he noted, fell from above $100 to $30 per barrel, which has adversely affected the economy.

    “I assure you that the leadership of this country is conscious of you. I’m being told that more has to be done.

    “Our intentions are good and honourable but I have to remind you of what we inherited from the previous administration.

    “Be mindful that we care about you on daily basis. We will try to improve health services so you will spend less time looking for medical care.

    “Tell your family that this government is concerned about your welfare and will work very hard to improve it.”

    The President took time to personally serve some of the physically-challanged Nigerians the type of food they wanted to eat during the dinner.

    Delivering the vote of thanks, a disabled, Musbahu Lawal Didi, praised the President for having the interest of disabled persons at heart.

    He also urged the President to set up a Commission for the disabled so that their interest can be further taken care of.

    Muslim and Christian prayers were offered by two IDPs  —Musa Abdullahi from Gwoza, Borno State and Joseph Jauro from Adamawa State.

    At the dinner were the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir David Lawal.

    The Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate represented Senate President Bukola Saraki.

     

  • Anti-graft war can’t be won without elite, says Osinbajo

    The fight against corruption will not be won unless the elite buy into it, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) has said.

    According to him, no society will succeed where the elite have no consensus on the fact that corruption is a bad thing.

    “If we, as the elite, accept certain forms of conduct because it comes from people who we know or are our friends – unethical conduct, corrupt conduct and all of that – then our society is not going to go anywhere,” he said.

    The Vice President spoke at the opening ceremony/dinner of the Annual Business Law conference of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Business Law (NBA-SBL), themed: Law reform and economic development.

    He said: “I think a major problem is that we’re yet to forge a consensus as the elite in this country. There is no consensus on most of the critical issues. There is no consensus even on ethics, on integrity. There’s even no consensus on corruption.

    “To what extent do we accept corruption? To what extent do we think it’s okay? To what extent do we think that this is so completely unacceptable that it will destroy our society? That consensus is important.

    “I’ve heard comments such as: ‘leave that business alone’, ‘leave that corruption thing alone, that’s just the way things are, let’s look forward.’ We accommodate something that is completely wrong. How do we forge that consensus?

    “There is no society that has been able to make progress where its elite have no consensus on questions of integrity, questions of morals. We don’t have to be saints; we don’t even have to belong to the same religion.

    “But we must accept that there are certain fundamental minimums that must be acceptable in a society that wants to grow.”

    Osinbajo recalled that while prosecuting a case, a group of “Southwest” lawyers urged him to drop it because the lawyer was from the “Southwest” like him. To him, corruption does not recognise ethnic leanings.

    “If you look at the list of those who have been accused of any offence in Nigeria, especially offences in the Federal Government, you will never find three Igbo men, three Hausa men or three Yoruba men. You will find one Igbo, one Yoruba, one Hausa, one man from Southsouth or woman as the case may be. There is complete unity when it comes to corruption.”

    Osinbajo regretted that Nigeria is rated very low by the World Bank among countries where business can be done easily.

    As a way of correcting the situation, he said the Federal Government has set up the Ease of Doing Business Council, which will bring together the public and private sector to explore ways of easing the business process.

    Osinbajo said there are already enough laws; the problem was about enforcement.

    “We have the laws, but we need to enforce those laws and show a bit more commitment to them,” he said.

    He identified areas that need urgent reforms, such as land titling, pre-investment approvals, litigation and the appeal process.

    To the Vice President, there is a huge problem in land titling, which he thinks can be largely solved by deploying technology to reduce the time-line for title processing.