The Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has observed that no arm of government or any segment of the Nigerian society can claim to be insulated from corruption whose only solution lies in best practices.

According to Ceoafrica, he made the observation while declaring open the “National dialogue on corruption,” organised by his office in collaboration with the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, at the Presidential Villa, yesterday.

Osinbajo noted that corruption is an existential threat to Nigeria as a nation and as a viable economic entity.

He said: “Clearly, there is no doubt whatsoever whether any 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.

“There’s no question at all. And it affects all segments of the society. It affects the religious; it affects agencies and civil society groups.

“There’s no one in our nation that can say they are not in one way or the other, not necessarily being complicit but at least under some influence or the other of some of the implications of 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”.

Osinbajo advised that that dialogue should therefore search for models around the world that could be applicable to the Nigerian situation in the war against graft.

“The truth of the matter is that there is nothing peculiar about the Nigerian citizen, or the Nigerian type. Corruption thrives where it is allowed to thrive and there are many societies that have found themselves in worse circumstances than Nigeria and have somehow managed to solve their problems,” he added.

He enumerated some steps to be taken to tackle the menace including how judicial officers should be appointed as well as an examination of their welfare, noting that any judge accused of any infraction must be investigated and prosecuted through the NJC to avoid political influence.

The Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay, in his remarks, accused the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Nigeria Customs Service of corruption.

He accused NDDC of financial recklessness at time that it is complaining of being broke while he said the Customs has continued to wallow in bribery and corruption.

He revealed despite not having enough money to execute development projects, the Commission acquired 70 cars at the cost of N560 million.

He said: “My dear friends, you will not believe that with all we are going through, the NDDC (Niger Delta Development Commission) which is the other name for uncompleted projects, has just bought over 70 cars.

“Of those, about eight of them are Super Lexus Jeeps costing 78 million naira each and about 10 are Land Cruisers costing 63 million naira each.

“This money was taken from funds for infrastructure, water, housing, hospitals, school, etc., without conscience; recklessly without a thought for the wretched people of the Niger Delta.  These huge sums where plundered from their allocations, from the Federal Government.

“The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr Nsima Ekere, has lamented the N1.2trillion debt burden facing the new management of the commission.

“To the MD, the over $40billion received by the region in the past 10 years was frittered away.

“He said the NDDC must now find a way around the huge debt owed by the past board while carrying out to free funds for urgent development projects and programmes.”

He narrated how Customs blatantly extorted money from importers especially at the Tin Can Island Port, Lagos, saying that nothing has changed since the advent of this administration.

He said: “Now we need to ask ourselves what the problem really is. We are definitely overwhelmed by the epidemic of kleptomania. But do we also have a collective psychiatric problem?’’

“Why should a person loot what he cannot spend in ten lifetimes thereby exposing the rest of the population to misery, hunger, poverty and wretchedness?”

Sagay blasted the recent anti-government protesters, calling them agents of the last administration.

He stated: “Let me briefly reflect on the recent public demonstration against the present administration, under the pretext of demonstrating against hardship brought up on us by the very mentors and sponsors of the so-called demonstrators.

“These groups consisting of rented characters, and those who have lost elections or whose federal appointments were not renewed went about pretending that they don’t know those responsible for our catastrophic impoverishment. These characters belong to two groups.

“Those who are agents of the looters; 2010 to 2015, and want to divert the attention of the ordinary Nigerians from the true culprits of our recession and misery, by transferring it to a hardworking, selfless administration which met sand rather than cash in our treasuries.

“The second group are the naïve, unthinking ones who cannot make the slightest connection between cause and effect. Is Buhari to conjour wealth from the air? Is he God who can say let there be funds, and there are funds? Why did the demonstrators of February 6 not start from Otuoke?

Have they forgotten that the Niger Delta Avengers have destroyed our oil producing capacity so much so that we were producing less than a million barrels a day at a period when the price had plunged from $110 per barrel, as it was in the Jonathan era, to just over $30.

So, why all this pretence about calling for good governance, (which is in fact what we have today) when they looked on with love and adoration, whilst the national wealth was being plundered away and shared by their sponsors and mentors in the previous government.  Why is it that Nigerians hate the truth?

“If we cannot even be honest enough to admit that the last government’s corruption, wastefulness and mis-governance are the cause of our present hardship, how can we join hands with the present government in salvaging our economy and promoting our social development?”

But in a response, the Country Officer and Head of Office Open Society Initiative for West Africa, Jude Ilo, said it was disrespectful to tag every Nigerian who disagrees with government as ignorant.

He said: “Let me as a Nigerian respond to Prof. Sagay, I think is a little bit disconcerting and tad disrespectful if we tag every Nigerian who disagrees with us as ignorant. People who took to the street did it because they believe in this country there is nothing that they said in that demonstration that was false.

“They said the economy is bad which is correct. They said that the Naira is doing badly which is correct. They said they are hungry which is correct. The right and the freedom of expression is fundamental predicate of democracy and we must allow citizens to voice their opinion even if we find it stupid.

“The practice of a signal narrative in a democracy is as destructive as dictatorship. And I want to end with the words of Francis Cardinal Arinze, he said, ‘no man is wrong all the time even a damaged clock is correct twice a day”.