‘Corruption fighting back with tremendous resources’ Says stolen funds must be accounted for
By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja
Despite challenges in virtually all sectors of the nation’s economy, the present administration has achieved a lot to justify the confidence reposed in it by Nigerians, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has said.
He said this yesterday in a nationwide broadcast to mark this year’s Democracy Day and the second year anniversary of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
The Acting President said the governing All Progressives Congress campaigned on the basis of security, corruption and economy, stressing that the last two years had been spent on fixing the damage done by the immediate past administration.
He said government’s achievements in the area of security, especially in the North-east where the Boko Haram sect openly challenged the nation’s sovereignty, were clear enough for all to see.
Osinbajo declared: “The positive results are clear for all to see. In the last two years, close to one million displaced persons have returned home. 106 of our daughters from Chibok have regained their freedom, after more than two years in captivity, in addition to the thousands of other captives who have since tasted freedom.
“Schools, hospitals and businesses are springing back to life across the North-east, especially in Borno state, the epicentre of the crisis. Farmers are returning to the farms from which they fled in the wake of Boko Haram. Finally, our people are getting a chance to begin the urgent task of rebuilding their lives.
“Across the country, in the Niger Delta, and in parts of the North-central region, we are engaging with local communities, to understand their grievances, and to create solutions that respond to these grievances adequately and enduringly.”
On the administration’s development agenda for the oil-producing Niger Delta region, he said: “President Buhari’s New Vision for the Niger Delta is a comprehensive peace, security and development plan that will ensure that the people benefit fully from the wealth of the region, and we have seen to it that it is the product of deep and extensive consultations, and that it has now moved from idea to execution. Included in that New Vision, is the long- overdue environmental clean-up of the Niger Delta, beginning with Ogoni-land, which we launched last year.”
In the area of security, Osinbajo noted that “more recent threats to security such as the herdsmen clashes with farmers in many parts of the country, sometimes leading to fatalities and loss of livelihoods and property, have also preoccupied our security structures.
“We are working with state governments, and tasking our security agencies with designing effective strategies and interventions that will bring this menace to an end.
“We are determined to ensure that anyone who uses violence, or carries arms without legal authority is apprehended and sanctioned.”
While admitting that the fight against corruption has been slow because of the nation’s justice system, the Acting President said all hands were on deck to ensure all stolen funds were recovered and culprits brought to justice.
“Funds appropriated to build roads, railway lines, and power plants, and to equip the military, that had been stolen or diverted into private pockets, must be retrieved and the culprits brought to justice.
“Many have said that the process is slow, and that is true, corruption has fought back with tremendous resources and our system of administration of justice has been quite slow.
“But the good news for justice is that our law does not recognise a time bar for the prosecution of corruption and other crimes, and we will not relent in our efforts to apprehend and bring corruption suspects to justice.
“We are also re-equipping our prosecution teams, and part of the expected judicial reforms is to dedicate some specific courts to the trial of corruption cases.”
He further said the federal government had introduced more efficient accounting and budgeting systems across the country, and launched a successful Whistle-blower Policy.
Similarly, the Acting President stated that the Efficiency Unit of the Ministry of Finance had succeeded in plugging leakages amounting to billions of naira in the last two years, adding that government had ended the expensive and much-abused fertiliser and petrol subsidies.
Osinbajo said government had taken seriously its promise to save and invest for the future despite revenue challenges, stressing that the present administration had in the last two years added $500 million to the Sovereign Wealth Fund and $87 million to the Excess Crude Account.
“Admittedly, the economy has proven to be the biggest challenge of all. Let me first express just how concerned we have been, since this administration took office, about the impact of the economic difficulties on our citizens.
“Through no fault of theirs, some companies shut down their operations, others downsized; people lost jobs, had to endure rising food prices. In some states, civil servants worked months on end without the guarantee of a salary, even as rents and school fees and other expenses continued to shore up like clockwork.
“We have been extremely mindful of the many sacrifices that you have had to make over the last few years. And for this reason this administration’s work on the economic front has been targeted at a combination of short-term interventions to cushion the pain, as well as medium to long term efforts aimed at rebuilding an economy that is no longer helplessly dependent on the price of crude oil.”
He said government’s short-term interventions included putting together a series of bailout packages for state governments to enable them bridge their salary shortfalls.
The Acting President also disclosed that the federal government had also begun the hard work of laying out a framework for its Social Intervention Programme (SIP) “which is the most ambitious in the history of the country.”
Osinbajo said the early months of 2017 had seen the flowering of early fruit of all the hard work of the administration’s first 18 months in office.
He called on Nigerians to live in peace and harmony with one another, and seek peaceful and constitutional means of expressing their wishes and desires.
He also appealed to all to resist those who seek to sow confusion and hatred for their own selfish interests, and keep praying for the restoration of full health and strength as well as the safe President Buhari.
