Mr Osinbajo spoke on Tuesday at the 20th-anniversary
regional webinar organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other
offences Commission (ICPC).
His speech was titled, “Combating corruption and illicit
financial flows: New measures and strategies.” and was made available to
journalists by his spokesperson, Laolu Akande.
He noted that aside from the difficulties, many people will
also get frustrated for standing against corruption.
“The fight against corruption is nuanced and hydra-headed,
it is not going to get easier by the day; as a matter of fact, it will get more
difficult by the day and many will become discouraged in standing up against
corruption.”
“…Over the years, massive public resources and assets have
been directly stolen, diverted, deliberately misapplied to gratify corrupt
tendencies, stashed in foreign jurisdictions or mired in and susceptible to
pilferage by the inequitable and unjust international economic system that
continues to undermine the social and economic development aspirations of poor
countries, especially from Africa.”
“Without effectively combating corruption and IFFs (Illicit
Financial Flows) and promoting international cooperation for asset recovery and
asset return, Africa cannot achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 16
of the SDGs is devoted to corruption.”
“Our experience in Nigeria, as in other developing
countries, is that anonymous corporate ownership covers a multitude of sins,
including conflict of interests, corruption, tax evasion, money laundering, and
even terrorism financing.”
Mr Osinbajo, however, said the current administration had given anti-corruption agencies the will to operate independently in carrying out their activities without government interference.
He disclosed that to win the war against corruption, the
country “must protect, even more, whistle-blowers – persons who come forward
with information against corruption.”
“We must protect those who are ready to fight against
corruption and who are prepared to do so without necessarily disclosing their
identities and even those who are ready to disclose their identities.
“We must make corruption expensive for those who engage in
it and send the unequivocal message that corruption simply does not pay.
“It is the unenviable but noble task of the ICPC and other
anti-corruption agencies to make corruption unattractive to its disciples and
facilitate new approaches to stemming IFFS and promoting asset recovery and
return.”
“The thing that we must take note of is that corruption fights back. And it is fighting back and it has the resources to do so.”
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