Interview, Society

Osinbajo Laments

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo is in pains and he has cried out to Nigerians… “Whenever I want to sack a public official who has been found to be corrupt, I get many calls from religious and political leaders not to do so.”

“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”.

“The government is doing so much to tackle grand corruption and systemic corruption. Since I became vice-president, I have seen how much impact corruption can have on a country, it’s more than I ever imagined.”

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“It is very obvious that the systems in many of these countries, simply, are not in any hurry to return the money. Of course what the people will say is that there is a judicial system in those countries, anyway.”

“It is also obvious that in the same system, when monies related to terrorism or drugs were found, they were very quickly confiscated. As a matter fact, in the ‘90s when drug money was all over the place, we signed all manners of mutual legal assistance treaties, conventions of every kind and immediately after 9/11, terrorism financing and all of that was under close scrutiny.”

“As a matter of fact, it is, in my view, only by virtue of the fact that terrorism financing came into focus that the proceeds of corruption also came into focus. No one was prepared in the mid ‘90s, especially the OECD countries, none of them was prepared, at that time, to consider the proceeds of corruption as dirty money, which ought to be confiscated and returned to the country from where they came.”

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“There was a great deal of reluctance. And so we have to go through the legal system, go through the courts, engage the governments and all of that. No one is in a hurry to return the looted funds.”

“Recipient nations should see stolen funds for what they are. First of all, that it is a crime. Once you are able to prove, prima facie, that these are stolen funds, they should be repatriated to the countries from where they were stolen. There shouldn’t be any complicated process. I think often, we are caught up in arguments that are clearly not necessary, in this process.”

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“The second thing is to hold the banks to account. Many of the banks are regulated by various institutions in their countries. But many of these institutions don’t say a word, against the banks that receive stolen funds or proceeds of corruption. I think there should be sanctions against such banks by the institutions that regulate them.”