Petroleum sector, economy threatened by corruption – Osinbajo

 Yemi Osinbajo, SAN

THE Acting President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday, attributed the woes in the petroleum sector, and entire economy to corruption, insisting that it was ready to take the fight against corruption further in ensuring a safe business environment for investors. This came as he expressed confidence in the private sector led economy which he said is the key driver of any economy.

He made this known at a visit to the Total’s Egina Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) in LADOL Free Zone, Lagos.  According to him, “For us, it is not just about creating the right business environment but creating the right attitude. Part of the challenge of this is corruption and the graft that attends all of these kinds of activity.

“So far, the fight against corruption in Nigeria has been to check grand corruption, namely, just going to the treasury, taking the money and sharing them. We have been able to stop that because you will not find the president signing off or asking the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to move out large sums of money.  “Every Nigerian knows that President Buhari will not do such a thing, and because we have been able to stop that corruption, we are investing, despite earning 60 percent less revenue, almost five times more than the previous government on infrastructure.

“We have not even got to a point where we will be looking at public service and people doing all sorts of things, that is next phase and that phase is important. This country can only work if we are able to deal with corruption. When people put their financial interest over what will benefit the entire nation, we are never going to be able to make progress. A project like this is able to be held up just because somebody is not granting approval.”