Anti-Corruption War: I Don’t Mind Being The Tough Guy - Osinbajo

Yemi Osinbajo

Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has claimed that anti-graft war will reach all those involved in the corruption cases, adding that Muhammadu Buhari-led government will not spare any individual found guilty.

According to Vanguard, the politician made a statement when he spoke in Abuja on Wednesday, October 14, about reforms in public institutions in the course of the 21st National Economic Summit.
He stressed the necessity for the change to start from inside:

“There is always a sense that it is someone else that will effect this desired change. I think we must be one in deciding in this country that we want a change.”
Osinbajo lamented over non-stopping religions and ethnic interpretations of the ongoing anti-corruption battle launched by the government.

“If we pick up somebody here and want to try him, I know how many calls I will get from people in this room. I’ve had the experience in public service and I don’t mind being the tough guy. I’ve sacked people that needed to be sacked. So there are no sacred cows, the rules will be applied anyway.”
“I think that an important message which we have taken from this discussion, is that it is entirely possible to reform our public institutions, to turn our country around. I perfectly have no doubt in my mind about that.”

The politician noted that rules must be applied to every Nigerian unlike some might think:
“I find that everybody will like the rules to be applied so long as it will not apply to himself. We can’t apply the rules except we apply the rules to all of us; there should be no sacred cows.”

President Buhari, speaking at the opening ceremony of the Summit on Tuesday, blamed the Nigerian elite for “willing to collaborate in stealing the resources of the state”. He claimed it was exactly the elite that was hindering the anti-graft war.