Once a system is in place that punishes bad behaviour and enforces the consequence for misconduct, the people will behave well, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.
Speaking earlier today at the monthly meeting of the Presidential Enabling Business Council, PEBEC in Aso Rock, Prof. Osinbajo stated that “we are at a point when we feel obliged to do our very best” to improve in all the factors that will create an enabling environment for businesses in the country.
“We have to be committed to what we want to achieve. We must develop a system that punishes bad behaviour and reward good behaviour,” the Vice President said as the Council considered different options, and decisions that would be taken in the nation’s ports, on starting a business, construction permits, registering property, getting credit, trading across the borders and enforcement of contracts among others.
President Muhammadu Buhari had established the Council demonstrating the highest possible political will necessary to identify and implement the reforms that will improve the business environment in Nigeria, and thereby improve Nigeria’s ranking in the annual World Bank Doing Business global ranking.
Today’s meeting of the Council, with 9 cabinet ministers in attendance, included an interactive session with the World Bank team led by the Country Director, Rachid Benmessaoud, and other senior officials from the Washington DC head office of the global financial institution.
Continuing, the Vice President recalled how between 1999-2007, in Lagos State a reform of the judiciary ended the perception of corruption in that arm of government once the principle of enforcing consequences for bad behaviour was in place.
He said in 1999, lawyers in Lagos, in a survey, said there was corruption in the State judiciary by an overwhelming 89%, and yet no one was being sanctioned.
“So we decided to deal with the situation. In the first year we sacked 21 magistrates and 3 judges in the second year. By 2007 when we conducted the same survey, the result was o%,” Prof Osinbajo disclosed explaining further that lawyers surveyed responded that there was no corruption in the Lagos State judiciary.
“Nigerians, like any other will behave well, if we put in a system where people won’t get away with misconduct. We are the ones to do it,” he submitted.
Ministers at today’s meeting included Industry, Trade and Investment Minister Okey Enelamah, Attorney-General/Justice Minister Abubakar Malami, Budget and National Planning Minister Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun, Interior Minister Lt. Gen. (rtd) Abdulrahman Dambazau, Transport Minister Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, Power, Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola, Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed, and the Minister of State for Environment Ibrahim Usman Jibril.
Prof. Osinbajo also received a delegation from General Electric, GE, led by its Global CEO Jeff Immelt, and urged the company to speed up its infrastructural engagements in Nigeria.
One of such is the proposed concessioning deal of the East-West lines of the Nigeria Railways to General Electric-GE- for which the firm would be investing $2B into the Nigerian economy, the refurbishment of the single-gauge lane of the lines and the building/assembling of train coaches here in Nigeria.
Addressing the GE delegation, the Vice President noted that “it is important we move quickly this year and get things done, whatever it is that is required to make things move faster, let us know.”
In his own remarks Immelt agreed with the Acting President that 2017 is critical for the different GE projects in power, gas and transport infrastructure in Nigeria.
The Transport Minister Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, Power, Works & Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola and Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun were also in attendance at the meeting in the Presidential Villa.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Nigerian Fisheries Forum also met with the Vice President, urging the Buhari presidency to support the restoration of the fishing industry in the country. Prof. Osinbajo asked the Forum, led by its President Elder Philip Amiengheme, to develop a concise roadmap for the industry which the Federal Government can consider.
Is it true that there was an emergency meeting of Northern Governors and other top officials without Osinbajo?
ReplyDeleteIS this supposed to tell us why he was absent from the meeting?
Na kweshion I ask sha...
Rumour has it they had a meeting to source for vice president,incase bubu did not make it back.
DeleteIs the VP a governor? Or when southern govs meet do they invite the president? Guys it's regional politics. Well done VP, get the job done.
DeletePpl are taking this thing as child's play. I've said it before and i will say it again. There are whispers and northern govs are trembling because all is not well in aso villa o. The whisperings about bubu dey scratch ears. Ok ooo. Pesin dey holiday dey send letter go senate..for wya??? I dey siddon dey look. Osinbajo tifhten ur belt. ..work is truly coming ur way.
DeleteYes. The judiciary system doesn't work. That's why everyone gets away with everything. In Nigeria Everyone wants short cut and no one wants to follow procedures. And we always think it's normal. But when you live in other places for a while you will see that it's actually not normal. And those who follow due process are not 'smart' because the system doesn"t even value the ones that don't go that route. You see the truly hard working Nigerians unable to make ends meet. While the ones who bribe from primary school and steal are actually making a headway. It's sad.
ReplyDeleteON GE, I heard from the grapevine that they are selling their Tax department to PWC. Is it true? Hmmm... if it is PWC would downsize GE staff and use the opportunity to promote their own employees oh. They couldn't promote last year cos of recession. Hmmm..... I wait.
Yes. The judiciary system doesn't work. That's why everyone gets away with everything. In Nigeria Everyone wants short cut and no one wants to follow procedures. And we always think it's normal. But when you live in other places for a while you will see that it's actually not normal. And those who follow due process are not 'smart' because the system doesn"t even value the ones that don't go that route. You see the truly hard working Nigerians unable to make ends meet. While the ones who bribe from primary school and steal are actually making a headway. It's sad.
ReplyDeleteON GE, I heard from the grapevine that they are selling their Tax department to PWC. Is it true? Hmmm... if it is PWC would downsize GE staff and use the opportunity to promote their own employees oh. They couldn't promote last year cos of recession. Hmmm..... I wait.
The consequences for the bad behaviour must start with the VP himself. From creating the legitimised corruption tax collection structure that Bola Tinubu used to bleed and loot Lagos dry, to Osinbajo becoming an iPad purveyor to fleece npower. Nigerians are not blind, change will begin with jailing Fake Pastor Osinbajo the pharisee hypocrite
ReplyDeleteMy own now is why don't we have light, Osibanjo? Bubu has gone to enjoy light in faraway London and left us in perpetual darkness. Me too wan watch Channels oh.
ReplyDeleteOsinbajo is a corrupt hypocrite. Fake Pastor Vice President Osinbajo who is in charge of the economy operates and directs Nigeria's business landscape from the premise that every person and every business is corrupt but is corrupt himself. Osinbajo vice presides over a system that for instance requires a non-refundable application fee payment of over 1 million naira per item or product for NAFDAC approval, and approval process of over 2 years which may be eventually denied without any cause for denial being proferred. A government that profits from application fees without proper processes is a corrupt and fraudulent government, a government of vice. It is an unfortunate tragedy that Fake Pastor Vice President Osinbajo shamelessly acknowledges that he required USAID's support to tour Nigeria, a country he was appointed (if not even elected) to serve as Vice President. What he has not disclosed is how he and his Fake Pastoress wife Dolapo have cornered USAID's grants for small and medium agricultural enterprises and industries for women farmers producing Shea Butter, from which the are engaging in abuse of office, illicit diversion of public funds, and corrupt enrichment of themselves. Thieves.
ReplyDelete