NIGERIAN Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Walter Onnoghen, forcefully dissented on Thursday, on the issue of defilement in the country’s legal.
While the Acting President demanded that debasement had penetrated the textures of the general public, including the legal, the CJN solicited the official arm from government to demonstrate that defilement exists in the legal.
So also, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, PACAC, Prof. Itse Sagay, fingered the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, and the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, as cesspools of debasement, even as the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, said the battle against defilement ought not spin around one individual.
The quartet talked at the opening service of a two-day occasion, entitled National Dialog on Corruption, sorted out by the Office of the Vice President as a team with PACAC, held at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Talking at the occasion, Osinbajo said debasement had turned into a cankerworm which had eaten profound into the textures of the general public. As indicated by him, all sections of the general public, including the three arms of government, are casualties of the discomfort.
He said: “Corruption as we all seem to agree, is an existential threat to Nigeria both as a nation and as a viable economic entity. Clearly, there is no doubt whatsoever whether every one arm of government can excuse itself, every part or arm of the society can excuse itself. But the truth of the matter is that we all know that corruption in Nigeria is systemic.
“It doesn’t matter whether it is the executive arm of government, the judiciary or the legislature, every arm of government is involved in this systemic and life-threatening social anomaly called corruption.
“So, I think we should leave the finger pointing, because the finger pointing is unhelpful. What is important is that we recognise that there is a major problem here.
“What I’d like us to do if that is possible in the course of this dialogue, is to look at models that have worked elsewhere and to see whether these models are somewhat applicable here. To look at best practices.”
