Buhari misses NES24 plenary on corruption, rule of law

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday represented President Muhammadu Buhari, who was unavoidably absent at the opening of the 24th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) scheduled for October 22 to 23 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports President Buhari was expected to address the summit opening, and also immediately headline a plenary on corruption and rule of law, that was moderated by Prof. Ngaire Woods, Founding Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, and Professor of Global Economic Governance, University of Oxford.
Headlining the event on behalf of Buhari, Vice President Osinbajo said the government is doing so much to tackle grand corruption and systemic corruption; stating that since he became vice-president, he has seen how much impact corruption can have on a country, and its more than he ever imagined.
He also stated that one of government’s biggest frustrations in the fight against corruption is the speed of prosecution, which he said is slow, and many times constitutionally so.
He added that the two convictions of former executive governors secured by the federal government showed that the hand of justice may be slow, but it would eventually catch up.
He noted that reforms, including the criminal justice reform, have been helpful, but regretted FG cannot reform States judiciaries.
When asked by Ngaire Woods on who calls him before he sacks corrupt government officials, Osinbajo said he gets many calls from religious and political leaders.
“I would like to refer to the Nigerian elite, and it’s probably not fair to be that broad, but practically, every segment, because people who have access to you, they could be political leaders, religious leaders, business leaders, whoever has access to you.
“We have a system where people just feel like, ‘why don’t you just give this guy a break?’ Which again is part of the problem. You don’t get one call, you get several calls,” he stated.
TNG reports the Vice President sacked Lawal Daura, former director general of the Department of State Services (DSS). He was also involved in the suspension of Ayo Oke, former director general of National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Babachir Lawal, former secretary to the government of the federation (SGF).
Theme of NES24 is “Poverty to Prosperity: Making Governance and Institutions Work.