Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:

Osinbajo says $15b lost to dubious security equipment purchase

By Alifa Daniel and Sam Oluwalana
03 May 2016   |   4:05 am
"It was discovered a few days ago that the total amount of money lost just to corruption in part of...and provision of security equipment in the military is closer to $15 billion."
PHOTO: GOOGLE.COM/SEARCH

PHOTO: GOOGLE.COM/SEARCH

• Lists integrity, discipline, law, order as keys to Nigeria’s growth

From none other than the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo came confirmation yesterday that a mind-boggling $15 billion, more than half of the country’s foreign reserves, was creamed off in the last administration from security equipment spending.

Speaking in Ibadan, according to a statement from the Vice President’s office yesterday, the worried number two man said, “When you look at the sheer amount of money that have been embezzled, the sheer amount of money lost from these various cases of corruption, you will find that far too much has been lost.”

“It was discovered a few days ago that the total amount of money lost just to corruption in part of…and provision of security equipment in the military is closer to $15 billion.”

With the foreign reserves at about $27 billion, Prof Osinbajo, noted that the amount “is more than half of the current foreign reserves of the country.”

His comments yesterday confirmed reports in the public domain that the volume of money fraudulently spent on purchase of arms rose from $2.1 billion to $15 billion, but he was unequivocal at the book presentation of the Ibadan-based elite group, House of Lords, that the Buhari Presidency will keep on a sustained fight against corruption, adding that the country simply cannot sustain the shocking level of public sector corruption in particular.

The Buhari Presidency, he declared, is “trying to do is to ensure that there are consequences for corruption and we try to send a message that anyone who is found to have been corrupt would not only dislodge the property they have stolen but will also pay for it in terms of the sanctions of the law.”

He added, “I believe strongly that it is important to send a message that no public officer can steal the resources of this country and expect to escape. I hope the message would be loud and clear and it will inform behaviour in the future.”

According to him, it is not the growth and development of most societies was not in the resources they had but the values that guide them.

He cited the example of Singapore, which he noted was a “tiny, resource less island” which is richer than most of sub-Saharan Africa with its vast resources is values because hard work, integrity, innovation promoted by a committed elite.

Based therefore on the recent past of the country, the Vice President lamented that “to a large extent the ethical space has been vacated by the Nigerian elite. In its place are all manner of excuses and false justifications of bad behaviour. Today ethnicity and religion protect corruption and abuse of power. Mediocrity is encouraged by the subjection of merit to variations of quota systems. Quotas are not in themselves wrong, but must be the exceptions not the rule.”

He stated three principles that the Nigerian elites ought to accept and pursue to ensure nation’s growth and development:

The first is integrity-a rigorous maintenance of transparency, accountability in governance

The second: the discipline of implementation, which encapsulates planning, timeliness and precision.

0 Comments