Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described corruption as a fatal scourge and that it is a crime against humanity, given the fact that in many countries it is largely responsible for the abject poverty of the majority and the massive fatalities of the most vulnerable in the society.

Osinbajo, who delivered a lecture today, Tuesday, at the National Conference on the Role of the Legislature in the fight against corruption, lambasted those who have raised eyebrow on the way corrupt people are being arrested too answer for their crimes.

“I have been involved in anti-corruption advocacy and research, and action since1990. In all of that, I have never heard anyone say with any seriousness that they support corruption. Indeed everyone agrees that corruption is ultimately a fatal scourge.

“Let me even argue that it is a crime against humanity, given the fact that in many countries including ours, it is largely responsible for the abject poverty of the majority and the massive fatalities of the most vulnerable in our society.

“For the majority of our citizens, the greed and mindless selfishness that portends corruption is bewildering. How do you explain how anyone can embezzle funds meant to equip soldiers for a war that could consume thousands and eventually all of us?

“Or how in the midst of so much want, how can some seize the treasury for themselves, their families and friends? And how can anyone argue after all of that, that all that is required and all that we need to pay attention to is the technicality of how such people are possibly arrested?

“As the Senate President just pointed out, a few subsidy scams consumed almost N5 Trillion. When you consider that the budget is N6 Trillion, the size, the scale of the damage is clear. So I am sure that we all agree that there is no point bringing together this most distinguished, erudite and knowledgeable group for an intellectual exigencies on the consequences of corruption.

“Indeed, a conference on corruption in which the arms of government are invited can, in my view, have one objective, and one objective alone, which is: what is the way out of this existential evil?

“So, a gathering like this presents a unique opportunity to explore a consensus on how to free our nation and its most crucial institutions from the ravages of corruption or as the President said famously, how to kill it before it kills us.”

The full text of the Vice President speech is reproduced here:

The National Assembly, the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption and the UNODC deserve to be commended for this far-sighted initiative.

Despite the widespread cynicism about the capacity of the political class to fight corruption and graft, we have found the will to open up a public discourse on this all important subject.

Let me also thank Prof. P.L.O Lumumba,(keynote speaker from Kenya) for what, for me, was the most insightful and most eloquent extemporaneous speech I have ever heard on the subject.

I have been involved in anti-corruption advocacy and research, and action since1990. In all of that, I have never heard anyone say with any seriousness that they support corruption. Indeed everyone agrees that corruption is ultimately a fatal scourge.

Let me even argue that it is a crime against humanity, given the fact that in many countries including ours, it is largely responsible for the abject poverty of the majority and the massive fatalities of the most vulnerable in our society.

For the majority of our citizens, the greed and mindless selfishness that portends corruption is bewildering. How do you explain how anyone can embezzle funds meant to equip soldiers for a war that could consume thousands and eventually all of us?

Or how in the midst of so much want, how can some seize the treasury for themselves, their families and friends? And how can anyone argue after all of that, that all that is required and all that we need to pay attention to is the technicality of how such people are possibly arrested?

As the Senate President just pointed out, a few subsidy scams consumed almost N5 Trillion. When you consider that the budget is N6 Trillion, the size, the scale of the damage is clear. So I am sure that we all agree that there is no point bringing together this most distinguished, erudite and knowledgeable group for an intellectual exigencies on the consequences of corruption.

Indeed, a conference on corruption in which the arms of government are invited can, in my view, have one objective, and one objective alone, which is: what is the way out of this existential evil?

So, a gathering like this presents a unique opportunity to explore a consensus on how to free our nation and its most crucial institutions from the ravages of corruption or as the President said famously, how to kill it before it kills us.

Indeed we have a chance to develop a uniquely Nigerian approach to deal with this problem. I think it is important for us to be humble and clear headed enough to understand that the coalition that should emerge from such a consensus is not a coalition of saints, neither can it be a conclave of only righteous men and women bound by holier-than-thou creed and a crusading view. No, that will fail.

What we need is a coalition of reasonable men and women of the Nigerian bureaucratic, political, business and religious elite. Men and women who believe that the proposition that corruption does not pay is not merely a moral injunction, that it is an admission of a grave reality in commerce, in governance or whatever other field of human endeavor.

That a corrupt executive, for example, will destroy all plans of development, that a corrupt legislature will use its legislative and oversight functions to enrich itself and compromise its roles of checks and balances, and the corrupt judiciary will sell its powers over life and death to the highest bidder and will turn society to the anarchical notion that self-help is best. That corruption in the capital market or banking system means that we cannot be sure that our investments will ever be safe. We may wake up one day to find that the banks or stocks that we put our resources in have failed because of the dishonest acts of a few. It means that the corrupt law enforcement officer will settle personal scores with its exclusive rights to use the force of state power. So, the proposition that corruption does not pay is simply one that captures the self-destructive nature of corruption.

The reason why we elect men and women as leaders in the executive, judiciary and legislature, and why we appoint men and women in the judiciary is that we desire an orderly society where we entrust the power to make decisions about how to spend our collective resources for the common good to a few. This is because reasonable men and women discovered long ago that if we allow everyone to take care of themselves, we will remain in the state of nature fighting like savages for our own portion of the meat.

We give power to adjudicate on our lives and livelihood to the fairest and most honest amongst us who is called a judge, otherwise law and justice will serve only the strongest and the richest. So the reason why the elite in different countries of the world decide to fight corruption is quite straightforward, it is not necessarily altruistic, it is not necessarily a moral issue. But that first, it protects even the elites itself from being consumed from the chaos and the conflict that the corruption may cause. And more importantly if public officials and private sector persons generally observe a code of integrity, the society itself is saved from a breakdown of law and order.

Your excellency, the Senate President, Honorable Speaker, we have an opportunity today to begin an important national project and I wish to emphasize that this should not be a finger-pointing exercise. What is required is a consensus of reasonable men and women who realize that the current path will destroy us all, that such a consensus will produce a coalition of the like-minded from the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, united by a common cause and proposition namely; that this Republic will fall and consume us all if we do not put in place a practical plan to clean up our crucial public and private institutions.

Thank you all. [myad]

Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Zhou Pingjian has indictaed to President Muhammadu Buhari that hundreds of investors in his country are eager to come to Nigeria ad invest.

He stressed that he is being inundated with so many requests by investors from his country who have been ‘‘falling over one another” to explore business opportunities in Nigeria.

Zhou Pingjian spoke today, Tuesday, when he presented his Letter of Credence to President Buhari at the Presidential Villla, Abuja.

The Chinese Ambassador said the investors had been attracted by the ‘‘remarkable and audacious’’ change process that President Buhari’s administration implemented in safeguarding security, fighting corruption and restoring integrity and sanctity in all public sector transactions.

Receiving the Ambassador, President Buhari said that Nigeria is ready to receive prospective investors who have signified interests in Nigeria, from China.

Buhari said that his government is ready to provide counterpart funding for all agreements reached with China to fast- track ongoing efforts in closing infrastructure gaps, even as he commended the readiness of the Chinese public and private sectors to invest in Nigeria, especially in areas that directly improve the livelihood of Nigerians.

“We really appreciate the efforts of the Chinese government and its people in supporting Nigeria’s development by always seeking to improve our bilateral relations.

“We are also happy that China is working with Nigeria as partners in progress. We will work hard to always meet the counterpart funding for all the agreements reached during my visit to China in April, as we look forward to stronger ties.”

President Buhari said that the relationship between Nigerian and China had over the years bolstered the country’s economy through technology and skills transfer in areas like rail, road and energy constructions.

President Buhari also received Letters of Credence from the Ambassador of the Republic of Austria, Mr. Warner Senfter; Ambassador of the State of Israel, Mr. Guy Feldman and Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway, Mr. Jens-Petter Kjemprud. [myad]

An elder statesman, Chief Ayo Adebanjo has described corrupt judges now going through investigation across the country as one chance armed robbers

Adebanjo, who spoke on StandPoint, a political programme on Television Continental (TVC), in Lagos, insisted that the Department of the State Security (DSS) acted within its mandate by arresting the judges on alleged corruption charges.

Adebanjo said that cash-for-justice had long been the mainstay in the judiciary, adding: “from day one, I have said there are so many good judges in Nigeria and there are so many good lawyers in Nigeria. It is only small cliques that are corrupt and are corrupting the entire system.

“I never imagined this would happen in my life! As soon as they started having judges appointed into election petition tribunals, I saw the worst thing to have happened to Nigeria.
“On interlocutory injunctions, judges will take money from right, left and centre and at the end of the day, they will give it to the highest bidder.

“Now, I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt and nobody has challenged me, quite a number of our judges today are behaving like one-chance armed robbers because when they are appointed into these election tribunals, they collect as much as they can…

“Lawyers do not denigrate the judiciary, we want the best for it, but we are not having the best times at all. Remember, the military laid down a terrible onslaught against the judiciary.
“The process of appointments into the high bench has been fraught with a lot of terrible policy measures. It has always been a reward for loyalty and sympathy; either to a military administrator or the man at the centre. These judges never knew how to stand for the people or support the government of the day.

Also leader of a Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), Jiti Ogunye decried the grafts that have pervaded the judiciary, saying that the National Judicial Council (NJC) does not have the power to prosecute corrupt judges.

Ogunye said that since the NJC is not a law enforcement authority, the DSS stepped in, having acted on several petitions against some of the arrested judges.
“Some people that are saying the DSS’ actions are justified have been harassed by the same DSS in the past! They had no reason to say that what they did was justified. The DSS had harassed Falana in the past and this had nothing to do with ‘they said something yesterday…! You cannot trivialise it like that!

“I talk about the law…as at today, in this country and  challenge anybody to say anything to the contrary, the NJC’s principal responsibility is about the appointment of judges and the administrative regulation of their conduct. Whether what they did or didn’t do amounts to misconduct simplicity or gross misconduct and so, did they award the punishment ranging from warning, suspension to recommendation for removal from the bench which the executive would accept and here, I reference section 292 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), first part of the Third Schedule, paragraph 20-22, sections 153, 158 and 160 of the same Constitution. That is their responsibility.

“Because of the intelligence required and because of the secretive nature of that operation, carried out by a secret service; because we are talking here about the third arm of government, people forget that the Judiciary is not just the Judiciary. The judiciary is also an arm of government. It is also an arm of government…”
Igho Akinride of the CLO believes “corruption is everywhere, including the Presidency.”

Sources: TVC, The Sun. [myad]

Facts have emerged that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), arrested the wife of former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode,‎ Precious Chikwendu and  his eight months old baby,  Aragorn‎, in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state because she wanted to withdraw money from a flagged account.

It was gathered that ‎ Mr. Fani-Kayode’s wife attempted to withdraw money in Access Bank from an account which had been flagged by the commission long ago.

As with any such flagged account, anyone who tries to withdraw money from it will be invited for questioning by the commission.

It was gathered that upon arrival of Fani-Kayode’s wife to withdraw money from the flagged account, the bank quickly informed the commission.‎

However, in ‎ a message circulated by Fani-Kayode, he claimed that his wife travelled to Ado-Ekiti to see Governor Ayodele Fayose.

“They were on their way out of town when they went to Access Bank in Ado Ekiti to get some money.

“When they got there, my 8 month old son Aragorn and wife Precious Chikwendu were illegally detained, brutalised and put under arrest on the orders of the EFCC at a bank in Ado Ekiti.”

He said that his wife did no wrong and had never been invited by the anti-corruption agency. [myad]

There are indications that about 100 Chibok schoolgirls, abducted by Boko Haram insurgents in April 2014 may not want to return to their parents and the society even if they are freed.

A community leader, Mr. Pogu Bitrus, who has been involved in the negotiations to obtain the release of the girls, said today in Chibok that the girls are ashamed to return home because they were forced to marry the insurgents and have had their babies.

Pogu Bitrus, who serves as chairman of the Chibok Development Association (CDA), said that some of the 21 girsl who were recently released by the insurgents said that they were used as domestic workers and porters but were not sexually abused.

He said that some of the girls may be suffering from ‘Stockholm syndrome,’ where they identify with and feel affection for their captors

Mr Bitrus said the freed girls have told their parents they were separated into two groups early on in their captivity, when Boko Haram commanders gave them the choice of joining the extremists and embracing Islam, or becoming their slaves.

He said the 21 girls freed last week might have to be educated abroad because of the stigma they will face in Nigeria.

Bitrus said that the girls who were released last week have said six more died during their 30 months in captivity and that many of those who escaped two years ago were taunted as ‘Boko Haram wives’ by people in Chibok and had moved away.

Bitrus said: “we would prefer that they are taken away from the community and this country because the stigmatization is going to affect them for the rest of their lives. Even someone believed to have been abused by Boko Haram would be seen in a bad light.”

A total of 276 schoolgirls were taken from a school in Chibok by Boko Haram insurgents in 2014. [myad]

The Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), has called on the National Judicial Council (NJC) to stop judges that have so far been indicted of corruption from presiding over cases in courts until they are cleared of the allegation.

The Executive Secretary of the Committee, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, told newsmen in Abuja that Judges suspected of complicity in financial crimes should not preside over cases in court.

“The reason is because all over the world, if a Judge is appearing before another court on criminal charges, all cases before him should be shut.”

Also, Chairman of the Committee, Professor Itse Sagey said that a corrupt Judge is committing a crime against humanity, adding that those who have criticized the Department of State Services (DSS), have not looked at the implication of judicial corruption.

“Any judge who is corrupt is committing a crime against humanity. He destroys our confidence on the State; it encourages people to resort to self-help.

“There are some governors who did not win election, yet judges gave vent to that. If the judiciary is corrupt, it is the only body that has the power of life and death over Nigerians.

“We need the judiciary, we need an upright judiciary. If we don’t put the judiciary right, a judiciary with moral authority, then we have no government.”

He said that the moral authority of past Supreme Court judges had crashed, adding: “having fallen, ants can climb it. When a judge is corrupt he should be treated like one of us.” [myad]