BIG STORIES IN THE NEWS: Corruption war is for the soul of Nigeria —Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has restated that the ongoing war against corruption is not just for virtue and righteousness, but also for the soul of the country.
This was as he said the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents no longer had the strength of occupying the North-East geo-political zone or any other part of the country.
The president made this known while speaking at the second plenary meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), held at the Catholic Pastoral Centre, Igwurita, near Port Harcourt, on Sunday.
The meeting was attended by Rivers State governor, Chief Nyesom Wike; Prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr Samuel Uche and the Archbishop of the Province of Niger Delta (Anglican Communion), Most Reverend Ignatius Kattey, among others.
Buhari, represented by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said “Our fight against corruption is not just a moral battle of virtue and righteousness in our land, but it is a fight for the soul and substance of our nation.
“Corruption in our country is endemic that it constitutes a parallel system. It is the primary reason for poor policies, wastages and bare-faced theft of public resources.
“It is the main reason why a potentially prosperous country struggle to feed itself and provide jobs for millions of its people.
“Hundreds of thousands of infant and maternal mortality statistics, hundreds of thousands of deaths from communicable diseases are traceable to the greed and corruption of a few,” he said.
President Buhari said two-third of Nigerians live in extreme poverty, saying the country must take paradigm thinking about the economy.
“We must reason, plan and budget with the understanding that two-third of Nigerians are poor. They must be helped, first to survive and, then, fully participate in the economy of the nation.
“Consequently, we must create tenets for the very poor and vulnerable, while ensuring that social spending also resurrects investments in the economy. We must invest substantially in relevant education; teachers training and vocational and entrepreneurial training.
“The country is today experiencing its worst economic situation in decades. A terrible combination of waste, corruption and severe down turn in all earnings have drastically reduced our esteemed resources,” he said.
Buhari, however, assured that the military was now using vigilance and local intelligence to make it impossible for fighters of Boko Haram to regroup in the North-East or any other part of the country.
“On security, we are on course to militarily rout Boko Haram and make them incapable of taking over any territory.
“Suicide bombings on some parts of the North-East are desperate acts of terrorists to create a sense that they are still in play. But, with vigilance and local intelligence, we will make these cowardly acts practically impossible.
“We must, however, now turn our attention to the enormous task of de-radicalisation and re-orientation of the young people who had been led to believe in the rhetoric of Boko Haram.
“Part of the task that we have is in deconstructing the hopeless socio-economic circumstances that made young men and women rebel against their own society when they cannot see a future for themselves,” he said.
Earlier in his opening address, President of CBCN, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, expressed hope that, with a new administration in power, Nigeria’s wasted opportunities must be recovered.
Kaigama, who is also the Archbishop of Jos, said, “As a Church, we continue to pray and preach that Nigerians should be altruistic and patriotic, rather than being selfish and narcissistic.
“The tendency to promote, defend, and protect narrow personal, regional and religious interests have been responsible for our unstable national journey of one step forward and many steps backward.”

“With the new administration in our nation, we have another window of opportunity and we hope we shall achieve the positive change that has become a national mantra. Our wasted opportunities must be recovered.” 

Source: Tribune Newspaper