‘Bring back corruption’ slogan orchestrated to rubbish anti-graft war – Osinbajo

…as organised labour calls for stiffer penalties against corrupt political, public office holders

The acting President, Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday condemned the trending campaigns on social media, calling for the old order of corruption to continue in view of hardships being faced by Nigerians.

Osinbajo expressed the concern during an interactive session with a joint delegation of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) who stayed peaceful protest to Presidential Villa and National Assembly.

“The social media campaign of ‘bring back corruption’ is an orchestrated one. Nobody that is suffering can say bring back corruption.

“Attempts by those who are being tried for corruption to delay trials is also part of the orchestrated campaign.

“If we don’t speak up against corrupt officials who make it look as if there is a witch hunt then we will not succeed in the fight. Government needs everybody to speak up.

“We have a serious battle in our hands and if we don’t win that battle this country will never get to the path of sustainable development,” he noted.

While noting that whipping out corruption goes beyond fulfilling campaign promises or immediate gains, Osinbajo lamented that religious institutions were also not immuned from endemic corruption, which has permeated the length and breadth of the country,

“Every time you fight corruption the way we are trying to fight corruption, there is a major fight back, because corruption in this country is wealthy, powerful, influential and it is in every aspect of our lives. It is in practically all institutions including religious institutions,” Osinbajo said.

While speaking on present administration’s intervention, Osinbajo stated that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has been quite efficient in managing limited resources at the disposal of government amidst economic recession.

“We commend you for taking this laudable campaign to the Villa on behalf of the Nigerian people. For a democratically elected government we must constantly report to the people and we must show that we are accountable to the people.

“That is why positions like yours have to be received properly and we must find ways to positive take action on the many demands that were raised.

“When we came on board, there were 22 states that were not paying salaries, some up to six or eight months, that was despite that oil prices were still high.

“President Buhari decided that salaries of workers across the states must be paid and that was what informed the first bailout. We were bailing out at a time we were losing 60 percent of our revenue on account of what was going on in the Niger Delta.

“We later did the second bail out, the third was the Paris Club refunds. These are sums of once owed to states and nobody has ever paid that sum of money.

“Management of resources is critical especially when those resources are as small as what we are witnessing today. We want to ensure that everyone is held to account. If resources were not efficiently managed we will not be able to do even the things we are doing now because we are operating at less than 60 percent of revenues as at 2015, today.

In his remarks, Wabba who presented 18 demands to the Presidency to aid its fight against corruption, stressed the need for government to implement policies where public officers will be made to declare their assets within a stipulated time frame, failure of which they will be made to forfeit it entirely.

Wabba also noted that the bottom-top approach to fighting corruption has proved to be ineffective over the years, noting that corruption should not be seen as a fight only by the institutional agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) among others.

“We cannot challenge corruption without us reviewing our personal roles and identify with the government in its quest to fight corruption,” he stated.