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| Muhammadu Buhari |
The able
president said this in his Goodwill message at the Conference of Catholic
Bishops of Nigeria earlier today in Port Harcourt. In a message delivered on
his behalf by the Vice President, Prof.
Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), the President declared that “corruption
in our country is so endemic that it constitutes a parallel system. It is the
primary reason for poor policy choices, waste and of course bare- faced theft
of public resources.”
While
further clarifying his administration’s commitment to the war against corruption,
the President said “our fight against corruption is not
just a moral battle for virtue and righteousness in our land, it is a fight for
the soul and substance of our nation.”
Giving an
insight into the way corruption destroys the nation, President Buhari told the
Second Plenary of the Conference that “it is the main
reason why a potentially prosperous country struggles to feed itself and
provide jobs for millions.”
In the same
way the President posited that “the hundreds of
thousands of deaths in the infant, maternal mortality statistics, the hundreds
of thousands of annual deaths from preventable diseases are traceable to the
greed and corruption of a few. This is why we must see it as an existential
threat, if we don’t kill it, it will kill us.”
On security,
the President disclosed that “we are on course to
militarily rout Boko Haram, and make them incapable of taking and holding any
territory,” adding that, suicide bombings in some parts of the North
East are the desperate acts of the terrorists to create a sense that they are
still in play.
He assured
that “with vigilance and good local intelligence we
will make those cowardly acts practically impossible.”
Briefing the
conference on the economy, the President disclosed that “we must change the paradigm of thinking about our economy and the
ultimate good of the majority. While we create an enabling environment for free
enterprise, we must reason, plan and budget with the understanding that almost
2/3 of our people are extremely poor, and must be helped first to survive and
then to fully participate in the economy of the nation.”
Consequently,
he continued, “we must create safety nets for the very
poor and vulnerable while ensuring that social spending is also a direct
investment in the economy. We must invest substantially in relevant education,
teacher training , and vocational and entrepreneurial training.”
The
President who had attended the First Plenary of this year’s Conference in
February as the presidential candidate of the APC, expressed a sense of honour
at the invitation, and delivered to the Conference, “warm
felicitations on behalf of the Government and people of our great nation
Nigeria.”
He praised
the Catholic Bishops noting that he has “always been
impressed with the social consciousness exhibited by the Catholic Bishop’s
Conference.”
The
President praised the Bishops’ Conference that their “bold
critical interventions at various crucial moments in our national journey have
helped to caution, admonish and ultimately stabilize the polity. This is as it
should be. This nation belongs to us all, leaders in every sector owe it to
this generation to contribute in building a good society.”
He concluded
by asking for daily prayers while promising that “for
us elected into government we have since set about the daunting tasks before
us, with vigour and commitment in the full assurance that by the grace of God
our country will become safe, secure, prosperous and virtuous.”
In his
speech, the President of the Conference, Most
Revd Igantius Kaigama, the Archbishop of Jos commended the Buhari
administration’s commitment to the fight against corruption and praised the
formation of a Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption. He also
prayed that God will give the citizens of Nigeria a new heart.
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