President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday vowed to strengthen his anti-corruption campaign, noting that his administration would not spare anyone found guilty of corrupt practices.
He also vowed to reinvigorate all anti-corruption agencies in the country such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission.
Buhari said this at the opening session of the 45th Annual Accountants Conference and 50th Anniversary celebration of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.
The conference with the theme “ICAN: Building on a legacy of service” is the single largest gathering of chartered accountants in the country.
The President in his address delivered by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastasia Nwaobia, stated that the lack of prudence, transparency and honesty in the management of public resources had left Nigerians in poverty.
He called on ICAN to assist his administration in reversing the trend by ensuring that the resources of government were duly accounted for with all sense of transparency.
He said, “We are at the threshold of history where we must collectively take the destiny of the nation in our hands. As Nigerians, no one can love Nigeria like you and I. On our part, we will continue to lead by example making efforts to live above board.
“As we strive to walk our talk, we will carry to its logical conclusions our initiative to overhaul the bureaucracy of the public sector in an effort to engender transparency and improve productivity in public governance.
“In addition, we will reinvigorate the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission such that the processes of accountability in public governance are reinforced.
“I assure you that persons found wanting will not be spared.”
He said with the huge number of resources at the country’s disposal, Nigerians had no business with poverty.
The President said his administration had commenced the process of rebuilding a better country for all through the enthronement of honesty in the management of public resources.
While admitting that the battle for the enthronement of the right values would be difficult, Buhari said his administration was committed to effecting a change in the nation’s value system.
Earlier, the President of ICAN, Mr. Samuel Deru, had said that the nation’s economy needed surgical and drastic reforms beyond what he described as “cosmetic privatisation of government companies.”
These reforms, he added, should begin with plugging of all revenue leakages, revisiting and redefining priorities, slashing of cost of governance, and investing more in capital goods.
Others are enforcing fiscal discipline and leveraging the country’s huge natural and human resource endowment to reposition its path to sustained growth and development.
He also called on the government to make the budget cycle a subject of legislation in order to enhance budgeting ethics and effective implementation processes.”
He said, “In spite of the current challenges, as a body, we are persuaded that integrity and public interest as cherished virtues, will continue to underlie good governance and economic prosperity.”(Punch)
