The Vice President emphasized that he and the President have been working together to get the right people for the tasks.
He said that the new tribe would consist of professionals, businessmen, politicians, religious leaders and all others who believe that a new Nigeria is possible.
“I have had several long discussions with President Buhari. The key issue always is finding the right persons for any task. A tough task indeed in a corrupted system.”
The Vice President spoke in Lagos on the theme “Change Agents in Nation-Building” at the annual dinner of the Apostles In The Market Place, AiMP, of which he is a member and where he was the keynote speaker. The event was attended by eminent Nigerians, including Dr. Christopher Kolade, Nigerian professionals and religious leaders.
Professor Osinbajo stressed the need for what he describes as “a new tribe” of Nigerians to fight and dismantle the corrupted systems in the nation’s private and public sectors.
“We need a new tribe of men and women of all faiths, tribes and ethnicities. Committed to a country run on high values of integrity, hard-work, justice and love for the country.”
Professor Osinbajo said that these will be a tribe of men and women who are prepared to make the sacrifices and self-constraints that are crucial to building a strong society; who are prepared to stick together, fight corruption side by side, and insist on justice even when our friends are at the receiving end.
The Vice President noted: “when you look at any list of alleged perpetrators of a heinous case of corruption, all tribes, ethnicities and religions are well represented. In other words, high level corruption knows no religion or ethnicity.”
Such perpetrators and conspirators he added: “are in governments, the legislature, the judiciary and the press. “They are united, they protect each other, they fight for each other and they are prepared to go down together. They are one tribe, indivisible regardless of diversity. It is this tribe that confuse the arguments for change in society.”
He said that the corrupted system is one where the norm is corrupt behaviour across all arms of formal systems of governance, adding that in such a system, the private sector is a strong collaborator.
“The fight against corruption is then a fight against the system.”
Professor Osinbajo said that such a corrupt system can hardly deliver public goods and asked “how many new roads has the Federal Government of Nigeria managed to build in 10 years? Where has the billions of dollars in the days of $100 oil gone?”
The Vice President said that the shocking thefts of funds meant to procure arms to defend the nation demonstrates the moral ambivalence that pervades our system, the system which he said, needed to be dismantled if the nation is to progress.
“Nigeria’s greatest battle is the one to bring integrity and accountability to public service and the private sector. This requires a new way of thinking, a new leadership corp, a new tribe. The challenge today for us all, friends and colleagues is to populate that new tribe.”
This was even as Dr. Kolade said that the change that Nigeria needs is that which starts “in us as individuals.”
He said that the new tribe the Vice President called for must be made up of Nigerians who accept and believe in a society where good things are the norm, and that such acceptance and belief is what qualifies people to belong to the new tribe.
Dr. Kolade said that the new tribe of Nigerians are those who want to tell the truth and who want the truth.
“I sometimes ask the lawyers in our country: do we have a court of law or a court of justice? If we could all say we are working for a court of justice and not a court of law, we will all be in the new tribe.”
He thanked the Vice President “for stimulating our thinking tonight with this idea. We should put ourselves in the humble position of those who want to learn. I have known for a long time that I cannot listen to the Vice President and not learn a new thing.” [myad]
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