Nigeria to join UN/World Bank stolen assets recovery initiative
By
Dec 19, 2007, 09:42

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua announced on Thursday December 14 in Washington D.C., United States, that in furtherance of his Administration’s war against corruption, Nigeria is to subscribe to the joint United Nations and World Bank Stolen Assets Recovery (STAR) initiative.

Speaking at the United States Library of Congress at an event hosted by the American Chambers of Commerce and witnessed by prominent U.S. business people and public officials, President Yar’Adua said that he had already given directives for the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime and the World Bank to be formally informed of Nigeria’s accession to the STAR initiative.

The initiative was launched in September by the World Bank, in partnership with the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to help developing countries recover assets stolen by corrupt leaders and invest them in effective, people-oriented development programs.

In a press statement issued by the President’s Special Adviser, Communications, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, President Yar’Adua also identified the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as one of the main focal points of his Administration’s war against corruption.

“One of the areas we are going to clean now is the national oil company, the NNPC. In Nigeria, it has not been transparent, and it is one of the most difficult agencies of government to tackle because of the vested interest of very powerful people in the country.

“But we are determined, knowing that when you break that up, it will help bring other agencies and ministries in line. NNPC will operate like any other company in the private sector and source funds for its joint venture operations from the capital market.

“With such funds, investors would protect their money and ensure transparency. We will then deploy what we have saved from that to social sectors like education and health,” the President said.

Responding to questions, President Yar’Adua reaffirmed his Administration’s zero tolerance for corruption, but stressed that its campaign against corruption “goes hand in hand with the determination to ensure respect for the rule of law”.

“What I have done is to give the anti-corruption agencies like EFCC, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau, the full support of government and total independence to act on any case of corruption.

“The other thing that we are doing to fight corruption, apart from the work of these agencies, is trying to ensure that due process is followed in the conduct of official government business and from the President down to the lowest official, nobody can put himself above the law, everybody must act in strict compliance and conformity with the law establishing the functions of their office.

“This is an extremely difficult challenge, but we are following it and we are making sure that the opportunities to be corrupt are being checked. We are going to expand the horizon of the war against corruption beyond the activities of agencies like the EFCC and ICPC to the complete reformation of key institutions like the Nigerian Police Force.

“When we reform the police then we can get the judiciary to reform itself. Because I am insisting that the rule of law must be supreme, and that every judgment of the law court must be respected and obeyed.

“The challenge is that where you have a corrupt system you find that even the judiciary is affected, it is not excluded; the serious challenge that we will have is to get a corruption-free judiciary, because the rule of law can best be anchored on a corruption-free judiciary.

“We have given the anti-corruption agencies free hands to act and we encourage them that once they notice a corrupt court judgment, they should immediately appeal to a higher court so that the judgment can be vacated. By doing that they would have set precedence, such that this kind of action can never happen in the lower court again. Because if you say you don’t want to obey a court order because you believe it is corruptly procured, you are destroying a system and it doesn’t help your cause.

“So it is a long drawn process and a very hard battle; the important thing is that when you fight such battles, you succeed where the majority of the citizens are with you. On this fight, we will succeed because Nigerians want corruption stamped out of their system,” the President told his audience.

President YarAdua also met with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who praised his adherence to the rule of law while pledging the assistance of the US government to Nigeria in the area of electoral reforms, education, providing lasting solution to the Niger Delta problem and the fight against HIV/AIDS.

At the United States Congress where he was received by the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Relations, President Yar’Adua said that Nigeria’s stand on AFRICOM is that it should assist in training, equipping and providing other logistical support for an African Stand-By force to which countries within the continent will contribute troops.


© Copyright 2006 nigeriafirst.org