Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has warned that Nigeria would be plunged into deep trouble if the present war against corruption was not won.
He said that corruption was fiercely waging reprisal attacks in the States, but assured the public that President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to sustaining the anti-corruption fight to ensure that the system was cleaned up and government business done the right way.
He also called for a re-orientation of the Nigerian people.
Speaking during a courtesy visit to him by the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers in the State House, Abuja on Tuesday, Osinbajo noted that Defence contracts of $15 billion for which many individuals were being prosecuted “is half of our country’s foreign reserves.”
The vice-president, according to a statement by his media aide, Mr. Laolu Akande, last night, said “if we are not able to sustain the fight against corruption, we will end up in a very, very bad way as a nation.
Akande said the Vice-president noted that the Defence contract of $15 billion which was frittered away by individuals “is half of our country’s foreign reserves.”
He also said Osinbajo made the remark while receiving members of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers at the State House, adding that the vice president observed that “we have seen it in so many different ways that at almost every state, corruption fights back and fights very fiercely.”
“We should be able to examine our priorities because for us corruption is not a moral issue, it is an existential issue. To a large extent, it will determine whether we will survive as a corporate whole because of the way people feel that when I get into an office I will go after the resources of the state, and I will go after it in the most vicious and the most reckless manner that is possible,” he was quoted as saying.
The statement further said the Vice President Osinbajo appealed to all and sundry to confront the menace of corruption irrespective of their backgrounds whether religious, political or academic.
The statement added that the leader of the group, Prof. Godwin Nwabueze Okeke, had earlier commended Osinbajo for making himself available for the group and offered him the task of declaring open the forthcoming 50th Conference of the association billed to take place in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in June