We Need New Re-orientation, Attitudinal Change in Fighting Corruption – Osinbajo
- Struggle against corruption is one for the soul and substance of the Nation.
- If corruption is reduced, the country’s high revenue could translate to development.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has called for more collaboration among the anti-graft agencies and other stakeholders in the fight to curb corruption in the country.
Osinbajo, who made the call on Tuesday at an anti-corruption summit organised by the Office of the Vice President and the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), in Abuja also advocated for a new national re-orientation and attitudinal change for the country to prevail in the corruption fight.
While noting that the struggle against corruption is one for the soul and substance of the Nation, the vice president said the battle must be a collective one, as corruption fights back with venom, guile and force, and it is relentless and unashamed.
We who fight it must meet it with greater resolve and force. We can only win by working together with a common vision,”
The vice president, who noted that corruption has been Nigeria’s foremost enemy also stressed the negative impact corruption has had on the country’s development.
The vice president who made reference to a recent Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ study, which concluded that Nigeria’s 2030 GDP could be up to $534 billion or more if it reduces corruption, pointed that the country’s high revenue could not translate to development if corruption is not checked.
“It doesn’t matter how much revenue a country makes or how transformative its plans are corruption will ensure that the majority of the people do not benefit from it or simply truncate the plan.
“Which is why despite the highest oil revenues in our history debt doubled and poverty figures rose.
“It is for these reasons that President Muhammadu Buhari famously warned that if we don’t kill Corruption Corruption will kill us, which is why a major pillar of our government’s socio-economic agenda is the fight against corruption,” he stressed.
Osinbajo, therefore, explained that it was for the purpose of tackling corruption headlong that the administration set up PACAC in 2015.
He, however, admitted that there is still a long way to go to stem corruption in the country.
