President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigerians have no business with poverty given the enormous resources the country has. To this end, he has promised to take appropriate measures to stamp out corruption and reposition Nigeria as a prosperous nation that can adequately cater for its citizens. The President, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastasia Nwaobia, made the assertion, yesterday, at the opening of the 45th Annual Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, in Abuja.
“As blessed as we are as a nation, Nigerians have no business being classified as poor. Yet, through the greed of some unpatriotic few, our commonwealth has been badly pillaged in the name of public service.
“Our ability as a nation to create wealth has increasingly been hampered by the lack of prudence, transparency and honesty in the management of public resources by some of those entrusted with the duty of governance at all levels in the past, so much that in the midst of plenty, Nigerians are now suffering great deprivation.
“This should not be allowed to continue. The project called Nigeria must be given our all. The nation ought and must leave the throes of poverty and underdevelop-ment because I believe we are naturally destined for greatness.’’
While calling for a collective effort in fighting the cankerworm, he expressed optimism of a glorious future, and urged Nigerians not to thrive on the illusion that the battle for enthronement of the right values will be easy as according to him, ‘corruption will certainly fight back’. But he said his administration is resolute in its desire to effect a change in the nation’s value system.
‘‘To achieve this, we must collectively resolve to build today for a blissful tomorrow. I am optimistic that the glorious dawn we all hope for will not be long in coming. But we are resolute in our commitment to effect change in our value system. We will give the battle our all to guarantee victory,’’ he said.
Buhari said he would lead by example by making effort to live above board, and promised to overhaul the bureaucracy of the public sector to further engender transparency and improve productivity in public governance.
Similarly, the President assured that his administration would strengthen the anti-corruption war by reinvigorating the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related, ICPC to reinforce accountability in public governance.