Open Africa Foundation has called for concerted commitment towards minimising cost of governance, cutting extravagant spending especially at a time that Nigeria is bleeding and resolve to more productive steps to address poverty an in styin the land. Chairman of the foundation, Mr. Tunji Aworinde said this at the 8th annual conference organized by the foundation in collaboration with the forensic insight international and the summit leadership institute on “financial crime, cross border crime and governance integrity” that our nation’s problems are man made, and the solutions therefore lie in our hands.
He said “the problems we have in this country are man made, we have been poor managers of the resources God has given us, we have stolen the commonwealth, we have oil theft, contract inflation, outright theft of our resources by private individuals, we are been regarded as the poverty capital of the world, these are challenges and this narrative can only be changed if we collectively resolved to abide by the rules of law, eschew extravagant lifestyles at governmental and individual levels and improve production at all levels.
According to him, the 8th Annual Conference was predicated to the promotion of the rule of law in Nigeria in view of the newly elected APC administration, ” we had too long been ruled by too many misguided, morally and intellectually inept men and women, inhabiting the gravy and ivory tower of law making, our public servants; the politicians often contemptuous of the rule of law.
This impunity he said has brought untold hardship, pain, hunger and insecurity to the land. “This conference is saying that enough is enough, Nigeria belongs to all, let’s embrace peace, integrity, and prudent management of our resources as a nation, we should ask for extravagant lifestyles at governmental level or individually, let’s cut our coats to our sizes, invest in industrialization.
These crimes and other deviant behaviours such as bribery, corruption, abuse of political power, oil theft, terrorism and terrorism and terrorism financing, electoral fraud; and violence and others has impoverished Nigeria, threatened its existence, economy and the wellbeing of citizens, making the country unattractive for business and investment.
Also speaking the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Hon. Justice Husseini Baba Yusuf said the 2022 money laundering and financial act has made it more flexible and easier for financial institutions to be able to prosecute successfully such cases of Money laundering, “the act is a very beautiful and ambitious act and in few years we are going to see an improvement in the area of financial crime cases that will be prosecuted successfully”.
Speaking through his representative at the 8th annual conference of the open Africa foundation on financial crime, cross border crime and governance integrity, Hon. Justice Olukayode Adeniyi of the FCT High Court while responding to reasons on why anti graft agencies most times lose out on cases brought to the court said that as a judge, a judge is only decided on cases based on evidence presented before him and the law related to the evidence and from experiences the security agencies need to train their officers in their bit to investigate and prosecute cases.
He added that there should be synergy between those who investigate and those who prosecute cases so that and officer who is going to prosecute a case is already familiar with the case.
